Read Online Everyday Hero: The Volunteers - a Darling Bay Short Story by Lila Ashe - Free Book Online Page B

latte.
    This was not how he’d pictured his day going.
    She licked her lips, and for a second, Noah imagined himself doing the same thing. Get a grip .
    Ruby said, “Thanks. That’s good. And now I’ve decided that I’m done doing embarrassing things. For the whole rest of the day, I’m going to be classy. I’m totally not going to run anyone over and then make them buy their own coffee and then drink it for them.”
    “Good to know.”
    “So, what do you do?” Ruby nodded toward his Darling Bay Fire shirt. “You’re with the fire department?”
    “Volunteer.”
    “What do volunteers do? I mean, in comparison to the paid ones?”
    “We do most of the same things they do until they get on scene to take over.”
    “So if that guy—” she pointed to a man who looked old enough to have fought in the Civil War “—just suddenly dropped, you would do CPR on him?”
    “Why not?”
    “Mouth to mouth?”
    “Sure. I’ve been single a while.”
    Ruby gave another one of those laughs that made him want to lean closer to her. If she were only on the bench next to him instead of inside a cupcake car.
    She went on, “What do you do when you’re not giving CPR on unsuspecting citizens for free?”
    “I’m a plumber.” Noah straightened. It had taken him a long time to figure out how to be proud of what he did for a living. It might be a gross job sometimes, but it was a necessary one. He’d worked with his dad until he died, and Noah had taken over the family business.
    He’d learned, though, to keep an eye on anyone he told what he did. A flinch, and they weren’t going to be friends.
    Ruby didn’t flinch. In fact, her radiant expression got even brighter.
    “You’re kidding! That’s amazing!”
    Was she pulling his leg? “Really?” The fact that he excavated through the problems of septic tanks was an interesting thing to her?
    “My dad was a plumber. When I was a kid I was super into working with him. I still have a thing about hardware stores, and I can tell an aerator wrench from a cartridge removal wrench in the dark.”
    Noah laughed in delight.
    She continued, “And I have very strong opinions about six-step faucet seat wrenches. You should ask me sometime.”
    Ask her? He wanted to ask this woman every single thing. He wanted to know her favorite color and her favorite song and her middle name and the way she sounded when she was mad. And more than anything, he wanted to know when she was happy so he could keep her that way.
    “I’m sorry, what was it that you said you did?”
    “Oh,” she said, blowing a breath upward so that an errant blond strand moved out of her eye. “I used to be a nanny.”
    “Used to be?”
    “I’m … taking a little time off. For another endeavor.”
    “A woman of mystery.”
    She glanced sideways at him playfully, and Noah felt himself fall further. “Every girl has a secret.”
    Then her face paled. “Oh,” she said. “Oh, no. Not now . Oh, no.”
    ***
    It couldn’t happen this way. It just couldn’t. Not in front of this guy, this sweet man with the intelligent eyes and a mouth so sexy and warm-looking that it was almost all she could think about.
    But the feeling she was having … Okay it had moved beyond a mere feeling.
    Her water had broken.
    Inside the cupcake.
    Josie was going to kill her if she shorted the wiring out in this thing.
    “Oh, no,” she said again.
    Noah leaned toward her. “What? What is it?”
    “I can’t tell you.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because.”
    He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “There’s something wrong and I want to help.”
    “No. You really can’t.”
    “Try me.”
    A contraction gripped her then, and she suddenly realized that yes, she could tell the difference between a real one and a Braxton-Hicks. She groaned and closed her eyes as tightly as she could. One, two, three … How could she be in so much pain, so fast? Was this normal? Everything disappeared for a moment, long moments, as she