Read The Night Belongs to Fireman for Free Online Page B

you’ll get it . He clicked over to the other call.
    â€œWell, hello, hero.” His little sister, Lizzie, greeted him. “Did you know that you’re all over the news?”
    â€œYeah, I’m starting to figure that out. Please don’t tell me they showed that girl ditching me.” Just what he needed: the most humiliating rescue operation in San Gabriel history. The hero fireman dumped by his rescuee. He remembered Ella Joy’s threat. You’ll pay for that, Stud . She certainly had the ammunition for it.
    â€œWhat are you talking about? All I know is that my friends are calling me and asking for your number.”
    Um . . . what? Fred frowned, wincing as the skin of his nose pulled tight.
    He rubbed his forehead, wondering if that blow to his nose had knocked him into the Twilight Zone. “I’d better check this out. I’ll call you back, Lizzie.”
    He got up and returned to the kitchen, where he’d left the newspaper on the kitchen island. The boys barely looked up from their voracious consumption of raisin bran as he shook open the paper.
    â€œDude,” said Tremaine, impressed. “Is that you?”
    The full-color photo splashed across the front page showed Fred striding toward the camera, smiling at the blond girl, Cindy, as he carried her away from the mangled limousine. Her arms were around his neck. Since he didn’t have his proper gear, his whole face was visible, including his smile. The headline read: “Hero in Action.” The caption read: “Local firefighter saves bride after a freak crane accident.”
    At least the picture didn’t show him getting punched out by Rachel. But why was the newspaper making such a big deal out of the extraction? He wouldn’t mind being called a hero if he’d done something heroic. But he was just doing his job. And in the photo, he was just walking, really. Walking while carrying a pretty girl. Not exactly hard work.
    â€œIt wasn’t all me,” he told the boys. “Mulligan was there, and then the whole crew showed up. It wasn’t just me.”
    â€œYou’re the one carrying the girl,” pointed out Jackson. “Nice moves.”
    â€œIt wasn’t a move. It’s my job.”
    â€œYou must like your job. Look at you smiling. I can see your teeth. You ought to floss more.”
    â€œHey, maybe you’re on TV!” Tremaine jumped up and ran to grab the remote from the coffee table. He clicked it at the flat-screen on the wall, then punched around the channels until he found one showing the local news.
    Channel Six’s Ella Joy filled the screen. Despite his vow to avoid the news, Fred drew close to see what she had to say.
    She was introducing a story about the accident, with a huge graphic trumpeting the “Miracle on Main.” With a sense of the inevitable, Fred lifted his head to watch. Ella had made her threat, and now she was going to deliver on it. He braced himself for a shot of a wild-haired girl in a silvery dress punching him in the face. Cue the embarrassing public humiliation of Fred Breen, Bachelor Fireman.
    But that’s not what came next. Instead, they ran a shot of him crouched next to the limo. As the camera rolled, he extracted the first girl from the limo, handed her over to the paramedics, then stuck his head back in the limo.
    Nothing spectacular, but the way they shot and edited the footage, it looked as if he was single-handedly saving the day.
    â€œWe’ve gotten used to the heroics of our favorite fire department,” recited Ella Joy dramatically. “But yesterday, the Bachelor Firemen outdid themselves. With a bride’s life at stake, Firefighter Fred Breen, one of the few remaining single Bachelor Firemen, put his own safety on the line to rescue not only Cindy Barstow, but her three bridesmaids. One by one, he pulled them to safety. One by one, he delivered them into the hands of paramedics. One by one, he