Shelter for Morgan (San Antonio First Responders #11)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

MORGAN

Morgan Rafferty pulled her little Kia into the parking lot of the fire station and smiled at the building. It was everything a fire house should be: stately, strong, and inspiring.

And the man that was walking in front of the building was a Fire Chief if she'd ever seen one.

Okay, he kind of reminded her of the Chief from Chicago Fire in the way he carried himself. Broad shoulders and an air of confidence and competence.

Yeah, this was the place.

Reaching out to grab up her purse, she pulled it off of the pile of stuff on the passenger seat and stepped out of the Kia with a smile.

Morgan looked up at the sky and grinned. It went on forever and ever.

"Hello!"

She turned around and saw a man approaching her. He wore glasses and had a pleasant expression on his face.

"Hey!" She waved at him and slung her bag over her shoulder. "I'm looking for Palmer."

He tilted his head to the side and looked at her. "I'm sorry, who?"

Morgan licked at her lips, nervous. "Uh. Palmer Butler? He's a firefighter here at Station Seven."

By the look on the man's face, he didn't know who she was talking about.

Her heart pounded in her chest, her instinct was to open her purse and call her brother, but instead, she bit into her bottom lip as she tried to remember that nickname thing that Jacob told her to use.

"Umm... I think he's called Rhett?"

"Rhett?" The other man pushed his glasses up on his nose and grinned at her. "Yeah! Rhett Butler! He's not on this shift. He's off today."

"Oh!" She felt relief flood through her body, but she also felt like a complete idiot. "I'm sorry, I forgot that firefighters are on a twenty-four-hour thing."

He shrugged. "Are you a friend?"

"Old... Old friend."

He leaned back, confused. "You're not that old."

She sighed. "Some days I feel like I'm ancient."

He laughed softly. "I think I've felt that before. These days I'm just enjoying life." He gestured toward the open bay doors. "Do you want to come in out of the sun? You can sit down and call him if you'd like."

She turned back to look at her car and felt the ache in her backside from the hours and hours of driving she'd done.

The soda in the cup holder had gone flat an hour ago and she really, really wanted to walk a bit before thinking of getting back into her car.

"You know," she turned back to look at the man, "I think I'll take you up on that offer."

She walked toward him and shook the hand that he offered. "I'm Morgan Rafferty."

"I'm Sawyer McClay. You can call me Squirrel."

He started walking back toward the station house and she followed, walking easily next to him. "Squirrel, that's a cool name."

He chuckled. "I think so."

They were almost under the frame of the ceiling high opening when she turned to look at him. "Do you know that when squirrels land, they actually look like superheroes?"

He looked at her with a curious expression on his face. "What? Really?"

She nodded. "I've watched this whole set of videos about a guy who makes obstacle course for squirrels in his backyard. It's awesome entertainment and those furry little guys are so adorable and smart. If you want, I'll find the name of the channel and give it to you. They show them landing from a leap or a fall and they have this way of looking down at the ground and then they lock their focus and land like superheroes. It's a lot of fun."

He pushed open an inner door and waved her through. "It sounds like it. I'd love the name of the channel."

"Absolutely," she grinned. "I'll find it on my phone before I leave."

The florescent lighting was almost a welcome change from the super bright Texas sun.

And the air conditioning? AWESOME.

"Would you like some water?"

"That would be lovely! Thank you." She reached into her purse for her wallet, but Squirrel looked at her with a strange expression on his face. "Are you looking for your phone?"

She pointed at the table beside her where she'd already put her phone down. "No, it's right there."

He closed the refrigerator door and nodded. "Yeah. I was just wondering why you were digging in your bag."

Morgan took out her wallet and held it up. "I just didn't know how much the water was."

Squirrel shook his head. "You can have it. No need to pay us."

She hesitated. "Everything costs money. I don't want to be a bad guest."

"Ah," he nodded and set the water bottle down on the table. "Here at Station Seven, if you're thirsty, we have water. If you're hungry-"

One of the other firefighters in the room looked up from the newspaper and smiled at her. "You might have to fight to the death."

Squirrel rolled his eyes. "Ha ha. Funny, Taco."

"What's this I hear about fighting to the death?"

Morgan turned her head and saw the man she thought was the Fire Chief outside the station. He looked at the man that Squirrel called Taco and then at Squirrel before he turned back to look at her.

"Don't worry. It only happens on every other Saturday, when I'm not at the fire house. Hello," he stretched out his hand to shake hers. "I'm Ethan Blaise, Fire Chief of Station Seven. And that means I've become pretty adept at putting up with these guys, but you're new, so I apologize."

She smiled and waved off his apology. "They're great. I'm the one who should apologize. I came to the fire house looking for Palmer, but Squirrel said he's not on this shift. I've been driving for a few days, and I think I might have lost track of what day I'm on."

Taco folded his newspaper and set it down on the table. "Where did you drive from?"

"I came from Center City. I took a bit of a scenic drive and stopped along the way at a few historical sites on the way down." She saw the curious expression on Taco's face. "I'm here to fill in as a history teacher at Shilling High School."

The Chief nodded. "That's just a few miles from here. When do you start?"

She grinned, but her smile felt a little tight. "I'm starting on Monday, so I don't think I know how many days that is from now if Palmer's not on this shift."

"Three days," Squirrel provided as he sat down on the arm of a nearby sofa. "You have a few days to relax."

"Oh, no relaxing now that I'm here in town. I need to get my lesson plans ready and do an orientation at the school early on Monday morning. The school year waits for no one."

"Except snow."

Morgan looked at Taco and nodded.

The Chief looked at them both. "It only snows here in San Antonio about every ten years or so, so you shouldn't have to worry about that for another two or three years."

She shrugged. "Right now I'm just filling in. The Department of Education said they didn't have anyone qualified to teach the history and civics track that the other teacher was doing, so I jumped in my Camobile and drove down."

"Camobile?"

She grinned at Taco's confusion, but it was Squirrel who answered him. "I saw it outside. It's a Kia with a cool camo pattern painted on it."

Morgan grinned. "It's all hand done by yours truly. It certainly keeps my car easy to find in parking lots."

"I'd like to see that." The Chief stood and gave the room a once-over before he looked at her. "You're welcome to stay here as long as you need. Is Rhett coming to pick you up here?"

She tapped a fingernail on her phone screen. "I'm going to give him a call and hopefully he won't think I'm a total idiot for coming on the wrong day."

She saw a look that passed between Taco and Squirrel as the Chief spoke to her. "Don't worry. Rhett's a good guy."

After he left the room, she turned to look at Squirrel, first. "Okay. What was that look for?"

Squirrel put his bottle of water up to his lips and looked over at Taco.

She turned to Taco as well. "Answer, please?"

Taco shrank back a little in his chair. "Yikes. You are a high school teacher, aren't you?" He caught Squirrel's eye. "It's scary."

Squirrel nodded.

Taco exhaled softly and looked at her. "I'm not telling you anything you don't know, since you know him..."

She circled her finger in the air trying to move him along.

"Well, he's not the most personable guy we know."

Squirrel nodded in agreement, still nursing his bottle of water.

"He has a habit, of you know..." Taco's words drifted off.

"I know... What?"

He shrugged. "Resting Rhett face."

If her thoughts were a vinyl record, she would have heard the screech of the needle sliding over the grooves. "Resting Rhett face?"

Squirrel reached his hand back and scratched at the back of his neck, leaving it to Taco to explain.

"It's like, forgive my words, Resting," he barely whispered the next word, "Bitch," then spoke with his normal tone, "Face, but it's Rhett. So it's-"

"Resting Rhett Face," she repeated. "Ah..."

"It's not a criticism," Squirrel leaned on the table and met her eyes head on. "We all think he's a great firefighter and a totally stand-up guy."

"Awesome EMT," Taco confirmed with a nod.

"Yeah," Squirrel tacked on his own affirmation. "He's great, but he's not a smiley guy. That's not a bad thing. It's just-"

"Rhett."

She shrugged. "Okay. That doesn't sound like him but the last time I saw him was years ago. He worked in Center City with my brother."

"Oh?" Squirrel grinned at her. "Is your brother a firefighter?"

She winced a little, unsure of how deep the competition was between the first responders in San Antonio. "My brother's a Detective with the Center City Police Department."

The two men exchanged a look, but it was a little more lighthearted than she'd expected. "Well, even though we are a fire house," Squirrel started.

"I guess we're okay helping the sister of a... Detective," Taco huffed out a breath, "even though it's like helping-"

"The enemy," Squirrel had a little sob in his voice before he looked back up at her. "But I'm afraid I'm going to have to charge you for that water."

Morgan sat in the chair and sighed. "You guys... a regular Laurel and Hardy."

"Laurel and Hardy?" Squirrel gave her a wink. "Who are they?"

He got up from his seat but froze when the speakers came to life announcing a call.

Squirrel gave her a look. "Feel free to stay here, we've got to take this call."

"Okay."

As Taco ran past her, she called out to them. "Be safe!"

Taco waved at her as he pushed through the doors. "Thanks!"

She picked up her phone and called her brother.

He picked up on the first ring.

"Hey, Morg. What's up?"

"I just got into San Antonio, so I thought I'd give you a call."

"Like you promised," he chuckled. "So what did Palmer say when he saw you?"

"Well, he hasn't seen me yet, but seriously, Jacob? He probably saw me once or twice at some city events. I doubt he'd recognize me at a glance."

"Well," he mimicked her, "I don't know. You're a pretty memorable person, Morgana Rafferty."

"You're my brother. Of course you'd say that, but seriously, I must have had my wires crossed, I-" She cut herself off and started again before he could start in. "Don't say it."

"Say what?"

She rolled her eyes.

"I came to the station and he's not working today. Can you give me the address again?"

She could hear him thinking on the other end of the phone.

"I know I have it in the text messages you sent me, but you've sent me... what? A thousand texts since I left Center City. Don't make me scroll on and on... and on-"

Her phone pinged with an incoming message.

She moved the phone away from her ear and looked at it.

Smiling, she brought the phone back to her ear. "That was fast."

"I had to do it quickly before you said, 'on and on and on' a thousand times."

She laughed at his pained voice. "You better toughen up before you have kids, brother of mine."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. If repeating a few words sets you off, just wait until you have kids. You'll be climbing the walls."

"Yeah, well. I have some time before that event becomes a possibility, so I'm not worried."

She shook her head knowing he couldn't see her, but then again, she would have done it if he was sitting right there with her. She knew her brother used his shield as a shield. He was always telling her that he was married to the job and that he'd be a great uncle when she decided to settle down and have children.

"I hear you thinking, Morgana."

"Really?"

He sighed. "Morgan-"

"That's right," she cut him off. "Seriously though, I'm just thinking that you should ask that woman out."

"That woman," he paused, "not exactly a good description, Sister."

"I'm a teacher not a police detective. I don't have to describe people to a T." She heard him grumbling under his breath. "But you know who I'm talking about. Goodness knows you talk about her all the time."

"Morgan-"

"You talk about her like she's Catherine Chandler and Wonder Woman all rolled into one."

"Catherine Chandler, Morgan? You've been binge watching old TV shows again, haven't you?"

"They're not old, Jacob! They're classic and I like to listen to them while I'm working. It keeps me focused."

"Focused?" He laughed. "You'll have to explain that to me one day."

"Next time we're in the same place for more than a minute, okay?"

"Okay," Jacob sighed. "I'm glad to know that you're there safe. Give Palmer a call so he knows to expect you."

"Sure. Okay." She would do no such thing. She was already so nervous to see him again, she didn't want him to brace for impact. "I'll talk to you later, brother!"

"Be safe, sister!"

"Will do, if you do."

"Always."

And that's when they ended the call.

Morgan lowered her phone down to the table and looked at the address. She copied and pasted it into the MAPS app and took a drink of water. When it was done mapping out her directions, she looked at it and let out a slow exhale.

She meant it when she said that she didn't think that Palmer would remember her. Even when they were face-to-face, he'd never really paid much attention to her. Of course, she'd been a barely legal high school tag along of her brother's. Palmer was already working for the fire department in Center City and studying to become an EMT even though he was just three years older than she was.

She'd thought that he hung the moon.

It didn't hurt that her brother was raising her and doing the dad thing, being strict and a hard ass.

She'd started watching Chicago Fire when Palmer had moved to San Antonio and her heart had been shattered into a thousand pieces. But that was years ago, and she was in her mid-twenties now. Gone were the layers of padding and her braces, which Jacob's family medical insurance paid for. Her hair had lightened a little bit, too. How? She didn't know. She lived in a city with big ass buildings everywhere. She was surprised that the sun actually got on her skin during the day.

How was Palmer Butler going to recognize her when he probably didn't even remember meeting her before?

Blowing out a breath, she finished her water and went to find a bathroom before she got back on the road.

There was no need to put off the face-to-face meeting with Palmer any longer.

It would be better to see his blank look sooner rather than later.

Her heart had already been broken years ago.

Now, it was just going to be a bit of a disappointment.

She could handle that.

After all, she wasn't here in San Antonio to fall in love. She was in San Antonio for a job.

Her first real teaching job. Once she got that under her belt, she'd move on and forget all about Palmer Butler. He might be hot enough to make her stupid for years and years, but she didn’t want a daily reminder of what she wanted and knew she’d never be able to have.