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Morgan shifted the packages under his arms and waited for her reply.
    Jude thought he looked tired from fighting the earlier fire and maybe a little world weary from all that he’d seen. She found his brooding sexiness a challenge. Could she make him smile?
    “Depends on what you want to do before we leave?” she teased.
    Dallas
stepped forward, running his knuckles across her cheek. “Honey, if we start anything, we sure aren’t going to stop having fun to go to some fancy-assed dance.”
    Jude was rewarded by a quick smile flitting across Morgan’s face. He nodded in agreement.
    Regardless of the fact they were freshly showered, a faint hint of smoke clung to them like the aura of a ghost. It reminded Jude of the risks they took daily to save lives. These men were real heroes, the everyday kind of heroes who got ignored too often. The kind of men her ex-husband, the lawyer, looked down upon. He ridiculed them for not having white-collar jobs.
    “In that case, I’ll be ready an hour early, and you can come over whenever you like. I’m looking forward to this.”
    Morgan leaned forward to brush his lips against hers. “We’ll pick you up…”
    Once again, like the morning’s interruption during her fashion show, the alarms started ringing next door.
    “Gotta go, babe.”
    The two men left at a run. So this is what I’m getting myself into, Jude thought. Will there always be an alarm during an inconvenient time? Yes, she told herself, imagining that was a way of life for most firefighter’s families.
    Jude watched them rush into the bay of the station, tossing the packages aside and undressing as they went. Peeled down to faded blue department T-shirts and their jeans, they stepped into the turnout gear. The outfits consisted of a boots-and-pants combo, heavy Nomex coats, and their helmets. In record time, they were in the truck pulling out of Station Three. This time it was Morgan who tossed her a wave as they rounded the corner on to
Main Street
.
    The brake lights of Ladder Six were still in sight when Jude’s cell phone rang. She fished it out of her pocket while locking the door. She turned her “ Open for Business” sign to “ Closed, please come back tomorrow .”
    Tracey’s hysterical voice screeched shrilly through the phone. “Jude, the nursing home’s on fire. Grandma’s inside…Grandma…Oh, God, Jude…”
    Jude felt her heart do a dizzy plummet to her feet. Their grandmother had raised them after their mother died of cancer in her late twenties. She was really the only mother either of them could remember. “Tracey, listen to me, don’t panic. Station Three is on its way. I’ll be there in a minute. Where are you?”
    Jude’s sister was beyond panicked. Her voice trembled so badly her words were nearly indistinguishable. “I’m across the street. They won’t let anyone near.”
    “Stay there,” Jude ordered. She grabbed her purse from beneath the counter, knocking over the partially full watering can. “I’m on my way.” Jude ignored the water dripping onto the tile floor. She would worry about that tomorrow. For now, she had to get to her sister and her grandmother. There must be something she could do to help, she thought, but her frightened mind couldn’t seem to focus.
      Running red lights and ignoring traffic signs, Jude made it to the nursing home in a record-breaking matter of minutes. There were no cops on the road to slow her progress. She knew that everyone available would be called to the nursing home fire.
    Jude maneuvered her Eclipse through narrow streets clogged with emergency equipment. Two blocks away from the nursing home, she found a parking space big enough to fit the compact car in, and she took it. If the car got towed, she would deal with it, but right now, she had to find Tracey. Her sister would be on the verge of a total breakdown by this point.
    Forgetting to lock the door, Jude ran the rest of the distance. She didn’t stop until she saw Tracey