mean you need me to let you win?”
When a ball came sailing toward him, Alex ducked inside the gray brick structure through the side door.
He traded his khaki pants and polo shirt for a hooded sweatshirt and loose-fitting warm-ups and jogged back outside to join the game. Already, several firefighters, including Fire Chief Nevins, were taking shots.
“Think fast.”
Alex shot his hands up to his face in time to catch the ball aimed at his head. “Thanks, man.”
“No problem,” Trent said.
On the court, Alex executed a perfect chest shot. “You see boys, nothin’ but net.” Going in for the rebound, he balanced the ball on his right hand, setting up for a shot with his left.
“How was your afternoon with the preacher’s daughter?” Trent asked just as Alex took the shot.
No net this time, the ball bounced off the backboard with a thud and then dropped into the grass. Alex turned back to him, drawing his eyebrows together. “What are you talking about? I don’t know any preacher’s daughter. I was just at a conference with Chelsea’s teacher.”
“You mean Miss Fraser? Miss Dinah Fraser?”
“Daughter of Reverend John Fraser,” Bill Nevins filled in the blank when Alex turned his perplexed expression on him.
Fraser, of course. He’d met Reverend Fraser of Chestnut Grove Community Church, a few times during last year’s Community holiday toy drive.
It was strange, though, that when he’d asked Dinah about her common surname, she hadn’t even mentioned her well-known father. She’d said only that there were a lot of Frasers around. What was that all about? It had been difficult enough for him to picture someone like Dinah as an elementary teacher, but a preacher’s daughter? That just didn’t seem possible.
“Puts a whole new spin on the lovely Miss Fraser, doesn’t it?” Trent said.
Cory, who hadn’t spoken up until then, snickered.
Alex wheeled on his coworkers. It didn’t matter that Trent had only voiced Alex’s thoughts. He didn’t feel like cutting his tactless friend a little slack the way he usually did. Today even the fact that he had a good heart might not keep Trent from landing on his backside.
“Have a death wish, Gillman?” Bill asked, before Alex had the chance. “Then I wouldn’t say another word about the lady.” He put enough emphasis on the last two words to show he meant business.
After a few strange glances among the other firefighters, the subject fell away, leaving only six guys and a round orange ball to fill the void. Alex jumped higher, dribbled faster and guarded more aggressively than he had in a long time. That Trent happened to get fouled a few extra times—in the pursuit of the game, of course—couldn’t be avoided.
Alex couldn’t explain his need to defend a woman he barely knew, but there it was. As much as he would like to believe he would rush to protect any woman’s honor, he wondered if he would be as forceful in every case.
When the game ended, all six men poured off the court, drenched and a little bruised. The chief looked more winded than most as he came up behind Alex and rested a hand on his shoulder.
“Some game, wasn’t it?” Alex said, resisting the urge to shake his boss’s hand off his shoulder. His arm was sore, and he was regretting his “enthusiasm” in the game.
Bill made an affirmative grunt and rubbed his elbow where he had battled tendonitis over the years. “There’s only one thing I can say, Donovan.”
“What’s that?”
“That must have been some conference with Miss Dinah Fraser.”
Chapter Three
Dinah startled in her seat as the fire alarm squawked in deafening, repetitive bursts. As if the alarm signaled the beginning of chaos rather than an announcement for safety, a clamor broke out in the classroom around her.
“Everyone, please be quiet,” she said in a loud stage whisper. “It’s probably only a fire drill.” At least she hoped it was, though she hadn’t received advance warning of a scheduled drill.
Dinah set aside the copy of The Secret Garden that she’d been reading to the class and grabbed her grade book. She would need that to check attendance once they reached their designated meeting place by the curb.
“Now let’s line up by the door. I want everyone to stay in line and be silent until we’re past the flagpole.”
At a lower level of chaos, her twenty-four students followed her down the corridor to the side entry. Just as she reached the flagpole, two fire engines and two smaller trucks that must have been for paramedics came roaring up the street toward the school, lights flashing and sirens blaring. When all four trucks stopped, two firefighters, dressed in full gear, including helmets, climbed down from one of the fire engines and entered the building through the front door.
Definitely not a drill. Dinah’s chest tightened, and as she glanced back to the children and then at the building behind them, she hoped her smile didn’t falter.
She switched from the front of the line to the rear so when they all turned an about-face, she could lead her students back into the classroom. It also put her between the children she adored and the building in the unlikely case this was a real fire.
All around them, other classes poured out of the building, some well controlled and others as chaotic as Dinah’s had been. Some classes had stopped to grab jackets, but most of the students were shivering and fidgeting to keep warm. High-pitched voices chatted about the supposed causes of a fire and the amount of time until recess.
Dinah scanned down the names in her grade book—from Austin Carlyle to Lily Polson to Kellan Stolz. As always she felt a twinge of nervousness until she’d made certain that all of her students stood with her on terra firma.
When her gaze fell to Chelsea White’s name, she looked back to the fire engines. Though all four trucks were still parked in front of the school, most of the firefighters remained inside them. Was Alex Donovan one of the men in the truck, or maybe one of those still in the building? Not that she really cared or anything. She was only curious, and he happened to be the only firefighter she knew in Chestnut Grove.
Still, her cheeks and neck warmed at the thought of him, an unfortunate reaction she’d experienced too frequently these last few days, even more problematic since she thought of him so often.
Dinah shrugged. No matter what she thought and even no matter that they’d made a connection of sorts in their first meeting, the handsome firefighter would probably lose interest the minute he discovered from which branch of the Fraser family tree she’d sprung.
The alarm stopped blaring as suddenly as it had started. Another false alarm. There had already been three since school started. Someone had probably pulled it again and was standing out here, just as cold and miserable as everyone else but now holding a secret, too.
For the next few minutes, they all stood shivering and waiting for the bell that would signal their permission to return to the building. Dinah was so focused
