Christmas in July Read online

  Christmas in July

  Bearpaw Ridge Firefighters Book 9.5

  By Ophelia Sexton

  Published by Philtata Press

  Text copyright 2019 by Ophelia Sexton. All rights reserved.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or distributed to other people. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Author's Note

  This story was born last autumn, when my home state of California was ravaged by immensely destructive wildfires for the second year in a row. Although my own town escaped lightly, with just a few grass fires, two cities to the north of me, Santa Rosa and Paradise, suffered devastating losses.

  In both cases, when CalFire and local fire departments were overwhelmed and exhausted by the gargantuan scale of these wildfires, other firefighters came to their aid from all over the United States, western Canada, Mexico, and even Australia.

  Without their help, even more homes and lives would have been lost in those dark days, when the air was so thick with smoke that everyone living within hundreds of miles of the fires had to wear masks just to leave their homes and run errands or go to work.

  The second impetus for this story arrived last December, in the form of an unexpected Christmas gift sent by one of my Australian Facebook friends, Sam Wilson. It was an Australian firefighters charity calendar, very similar in concept to the one I described in Smoke. It currently adorns the wall of my home office and serves as a source of constant inspiration.

  Thank you, Sam! (And yes, as promised, I did name the hero of this story after you…)

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 – Tent City

  Chapter 2 – The Shifter from Down Under

  Chapter 3 - Thunderstruck

  Chapter 4 – Not Quite a Damsel in Distress

  Chapter 5 – Lost and Found

  Chapter 6 – First Date

  Chapter 7 – Possum

  Chapter 8 – Too Hot to Handle

  Chapter 9 – Guilt Trip

  Chapter 10 – Cold Feet

  Chapter 11 – Heartbroken

  Chapter 12 – Goodbye, Hello

  Books by Ophelia Sexton

  Chapter 1

  Tent City

  "I don't think we made enough sandwiches. Or brought enough coffee," Annabeth Jones Swanson said, frowning, as her assistant Hannah Swanson maneuvered Cinnamon + Sugar's big tan-and-pink catering van into the Lemhi County Fairgrounds' parking lot.

  Hannah's eyes widened as she saw that an entire city had sprouted in the lot practically overnight.

  Orderly rows of tents, interspersed with long trailers that served as showers and first aid stations, faced rank upon rank of parked fire engines. Hannah spotted license plates from twenty US states, as well as the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta.

  Above the fairgrounds, the sun burned orange in a dull brown sky. The air smelled of smoke, and the sharp ridges and peaks of the mountains on either side of the valley had disappeared behind a thick, choking haze.

  After one of the driest Junes on record, Bearpaw Ridge and its neighboring communities now lay in the path of a huge and destructive firestorm. Firefighters from all over North America had converged here in an effort to save the town.

  This wasn't the first time that fire had visited the vast national forests and BLM lands that surrounded Bearpaw Ridge. Wildfires were part of the natural ecology of the western ranges…though rarely with this breadth and intensity.

  And whenever the town's all-volunteer fire department was called into action, Hannah and her boss Annabeth leaped into action to support the firefighters with hot coffee, cold drinks, hearty soups and sandwiches, and of course, Annabeth's famous pastries.

  "I think we're going to be making a few more runs out here today," Hannah agreed, as she slowly drove past a row of parked fire engines.

  She passed a ladder truck from the Alameda County Fire Department in California, then a tanker from Nashville, Tennessee, before Annabeth pointed excitedly at a group of grimy, tired-looking men and women dressed in firefighter gear. "There! I see Dane and the others!"

  Hannah pulled up and parked as Annabeth scrambled out of the van.

  One of the firefighters, tall and broad-shouldered in his heavy coat and turnouts, strode forward to meet them. His helmet was labeled "Chief."

  He caught Annabeth up in his arms, and gave her a hearty kiss. Her wedding ring gleamed in the strange orange sunlight as she wound her arms around the fire chief's neck and enthusiastically returned the kiss.

  "Hiya Dane!" Hannah greeted her cousin when he had released Annabeth from his embrace.

  She looked past him and saw her other friends and relatives from the all-volunteer Bearpaw Ridge Fire Department. She waved at her cousins Mark, Tyler, and Ash, and her friend Michael Jacobsen.

  All of them looked tired and dirty from long hours spent in hard labor.

  Her older sister Kayla, her face smeared with soot and dust under her helmet, walked over to give Hannah a hug.

  "Hannah-banana, please tell me you brought some Diet Cokes," she begged, using Hannah's childhood nickname.

  "A whole cooler full," Hannah assured her.

  She looked around the group, trying to decide what to unload first from the bounty in the back of the van, and saw that the Bearpaw Ridge firefighters had been joined by a group of strangers.

  Kayla saw her looking and grinned. "We made some new friends today. A group of firefighters came all the way from Queensland, Australia to help out! They said they have a mutual aid agreement with our state."

  She waved at a tall man who was chatting with Mark. "Hey, Sam, do you want to meet my little sister Hannah?" she called.

  The tall man's face brightened and he smiled broadly as he came over.

  As he neared them, Hannah saw that he was about her age, with close-cropped, sun-streaked light brown hair, an attractively stubbled face, and bright blue eyes. He had shed his coat and wore a red t-shirt printed with "Queensland Fire and Rescue Services" stretched over his broad-shoulders and heavily muscled chest.

  "G'day!" he greeted her with a wide smile. "I heard a rumor that you might be bringing us tea."

  "Sure, we've got iced t—" Hannah began.

  "He doesn't mean tea-the-beverage, he means supper," Kayla interrupted.

  "Well, we've got that, too," Hannah assured him.

  "Right-o," Sam replied, extending his hand. "I'm Sam Wilson. How're ya going?"

  "Hannah Swanson." She shook his big, callused hand and felt a jolt like an electric shock travel up her arm.

  His blue eyes widened, as if he'd just felt the same shock.

  Then the breeze shifted, carrying his scent to her despite the choking pall of smoke.

  He's a bear shifter, just like me!

  Chapter 2

  The Shifter from Down Under

  They stared at each other in wordless recognition, their hands still clasped.

  After a few moments, Kayla cleared her throat.

  "Hannah, do you need some help unloading the van?" she asked pointedly, though her hazel eyes sparkled with mischief.

  "Uh," Hannah said. She felt dazed. Van? What van?

  Sam was still holding her hand, and she liked the feeling of his strong fingers around hers.

  "I'll help," he volunteered, and released her.

  Hannah immediately regretted the loss of contact, but forced herself to focus on the reason she and Annabeth had come here. "Thanks!"

  She opened the van's back doors, which were painted with Cinnamon + Sugar's trademark pink curlicue font logo, and began pulling out big trays of sandwiches covered with plastic wrap.

  She handed the first two trays to Sam, and
saw Annabeth approaching, tailed by a group of firefighters.

  For the next few minutes, Annabeth and Hannah handed off trays of sandwiches, fruit, cookies, and portable coolers filled with chilled bottles of water and cans of soda to eager hands.

  The weary firefighters placed them on nearby picnic tables, then began helping themselves to the bounty.

  The last items to come out of the van were the huge Airpots of coffee.

  "Let me give you a hand with those," said a pleasantly deep voice from behind her, flavored with an Aussie accent.

  Hannah's shifter strength meant that she didn't really need any help…but it was nice of Sam to offer. "Thanks. That's really sweet of you."

  He smiled at her, and she felt a rush of warmth kindle in her chest. "No worries," he said, cheerfully. "It's the least I can do in return for all this tucker."

  As he stepped close to take the bulky Airpot from her arms, he murmured, "You smell really good. Like cinnamon and vanilla."

  Her heart began pounding at his proximity. "Uh, thank you?"

  She fought the temptation to go up tiptoes, and bury her nose in the curve where his neck met his shoulder, and chase his intriguing masculine scent underneath the layers of smoke and sweat.

  "I feel like I've been smelling nothing but smoke all day," he added, his tone apologetic.

  Hannah kept sneaking glances at him as she set up the coffee station and opened the coolers filled with drinks.

  Then things got busy as she and Annabeth handed out food and drinks to the hungry, weary firefighters crowding around them.

  Over the next few minutes, she overheard that things were very challenging on the fire lines, due to the gusty winds driving the fire in unpredictable directions.

  The Bearpaw Ridge firefighters and their Australian counterparts had spent most of the day clearing brush and digging firebreaks in an attempt to keep the advancing flames from devouring homes on the town's far-flung fringes.

  When only crumbs remained on the trays, most of the firefighters began heading towards the bathroom trailers to grab hot showers before collapsing on their cots.

  At dawn, the hard, dirty, dangerous work would begin anew.

  Sam approached as Hannah and Annabeth were gathering up the trays.

  He cast a sideways glance at Dane, who was bending to lift one of the large coolers, then asked in a low voice. "So, me and my mates were wondering if you were planning to return tomorrow?"

  Hannah smiled at him. "We'll be coming here every day until the fires are under control."

  The young Australian firefighter brightened. "Can we trade mobile numbers? I was hoping that might you text me when you're headed out this way?"

  A thrill ran though Hannah at his words. He was so nice…and so good-looking, even under a layer of sooty stubble.

  "Ask her if she'll bring more of those apple turnovers!" shouted one of the other Aussies.

  Annabeth dimpled and tucked a stray lock of her strawberry-blonde hair under her turquoise-colored chef's cap. "Absolutely. I'll make a double batch for tomorrow. Anything else I can bring you?"

  The air was immediately filled with shouts and suggestions. Annabeth's peanut butter cookies were requested by multiple voices, as were the roast beef sandwiches, made with grass-fed beef from the Swanson family's Grizzly Creek Ranch.

  Hannah just finished entering her number in Sam's cellphone when he handed her phone back with a wicked grin. "I've got a request: ask your boss to bring you back here tomorrow."

  Hannah couldn't help smiling back. She'd sworn off dating after some major disappointments, but Sam was yummy-looking. And sweet.

  "Only if you promise you'll be here," she told him, smiling.

  Chapter 3

  Thunderstruck

  She's the one, Sam Wilson's bear rumbled silently. She's meant to be ours.

  Feeling thunderstruck, he watched the tan-and-pink bakery van drive away in a cloud of dust.

  He'd grown up on his family's farm on the outskirts of a small town in the Darling Downs area of Queensland. There'd been many times when he felt like a freak because the Wilsons were the only shifters in the area.

  When he had joined Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, he'd never dreamed that he'd get the opportunity to travel all the way to America, much less to a place where shifters seemed to outnumber the Ordinaries.

  Despite the long hours of hard labor so far, Sam had been relishing the experience of working side-by-side with Dane Swanson and his crew. For the first time in his life, he didn't have to watch his every move for fear of betraying his shifter strength and enhanced senses.

  Since he'd arrived a couple of days ago, Sam had been working shoulder-to-shoulder with bear shifters, wolf shifters, and several different kinds of cat shifters—cougar, jaguar, lynx, and something else that he couldn't identify.

  "So, it looks like you two really hit it off," Kayla Swanson said with a sunny smile as she came to stand next to him.

  Sam felt his face heat. "She isn't involved with anyone, is she?" Please say no…

  To his relief, Kayla shook her head. "Nope. All she does is work at Annabeth's bakery and go home. I keep telling her that she needs to get out there and live a little."

  "She's single? Beauty!" breathed Sam. It was the best news he'd heard all day.

  He weighed his mobile phone in his hand. She gave me her number. That means she's interested in getting to know me, right?

  Before coming here, he'd never met any other bear shifters outside of his family. And especially not any female bear shifters.

  If the Swanson girls were any indication, he'd been missing out. Kayla was attractive in a tomboyish way, but Hannah was downright luscious, with curves that made him ache to pull her in close and run his hands all over her. Her mouth looked just as soft and curving as the rest of her, and he just knew that kissing her would feel amazing…hot and sweet and wet.

  He swallowed hard at the vivid fantasy, and felt his cock spring to throbbing life despite his aching muscles and bone-deep tiredness. Thank God for these super-thick bunker pants, or I'd definitely be embarrassing myself right about now!

  "Awesome," said Kayla, sounding satisfied. "I'll put in a good word for you." She scrutinized him with a crooked grin. "You wouldn't happen to have any older—and single—brothers, would you?"

  Sam shook his head. "Sorry, mate." '

  "Aw, just my luck." Kayla shook her head ruefully, and marched off in the direction of the women's shower trailer.

  Later, after he'd had a chance to wash off a day's worth of sweat and soot, he prepared to bunk down in the tent he shared with three other mates from QFES.

  He opened a paperback thriller, but found that he couldn't stop thinking about Hannah Swanson, with her warm hazel eyes and her intoxicating perfume of cinnamon, vanilla, sugar, and sweet female musk. He found himself looking at his mobile, and debating whether he'd be coming on too strong if he texted her so soon.

  In the end, he couldn't help himself. He put his book aside, sat up on his cot, and felt his heart pounding as he began typing.

  Oi, H. Can't wait to see you tomorrow.

  He was frowning down at his phone, thinking that he sounded like a right galah, when his phone buzzed with Hannah's reply.

  Looking forward to seeing you, too.

  Sam breathed a sigh of relief, especially when he saw a cute budgie emoji appended to the end of her message. It was waving a miniature Australian flag.

  Can you bring more of those choc chip biccies in the arvo?

  Her reply came almost instantly. Biccies? You mean cookies? What's an arvo? I'm not sure I have one of those.

  Sam chuckled, which earned him inquisitive looks from his mates.

  Arvo = afternoon, he typed.

  Right. I'll see you in tomorrow arvo, then, she replied, and appended a smiley face emoji. Stay safe out there.

  "Hey, Sammo, you textin' that pretty Yank baker?" asked Ian from his cot. He'd just finished a Skype chat with his fianc�
�e, and he tucked away his tablet with a sigh.

  Sam grinned.

  Ian whistled approvingly. "Good on ya!"

  Chapter 4

  Not Quite a Damsel in Distress

  Hannah couldn't deny that she had butterflies in her stomach when she and Annabeth returned to the fairgrounds the next afternoon.