Fahrenheit (14 page)

Mitch put out his online story within twenty minutes of being back at the office. Fortunately there wasn’t any loss of life. The wife had been taken to the hospital in the first ambulance, the one that left before they arrived on the scene themselves, and the sister was actually sitting inside the ambulance where she had taken the picture of Adam with the kid. Fortunately all they had lost was material possessions that, while devastating, could at least be replaced on some level. Human life was never replaceable.

“You like my photo selection?” He wiggled his eyebrows. He picked three of her photos. The lead photo was that of the house when it was still standing. The flames that had engulfed it were shining brightly and the picture really captivated the destruction of the blaze. The second two pictures were that of the crowd, and the men working.

She was thrilled with his selection because it meant he wasn’t going to focus on Adam. At least she thought he wasn’t. He had the print version ready to go just before deadline, and this time, his photo selection wasn’t that of just the fire. He picked the lead photo to be the one of Adam running with the kid in his arms. She understood. If she were telling the story with her own art exhibit then she would have picked that one too. But the other three photos he chose were all of Adam. One was Adam kneeling in front of the child, and the other—and she was sure she was going to catch trouble for this, was the one where Adam looked right into the lens and she snapped the photo anyway. She was just so amazed by him that she couldn’t resist shooting him. What she should have thought about was that she was shooting on company time, which meant the photos were their photos to do what they pleased, with and Mitch, despite her protest, believed those were the best photos to use for “his” story.

She sighed. At least Adam was working forty-eight hours which meant he would have time to cool off before he saw her. She was sure, just like the last photo, this was going to cause some trouble for him. She had to give him warning, a heads up as it may be, because it wasn’t right for him to get blindsided with the morning presses.

She made a mental note to call him later. Or maybe she would just email him. She had a copy of all the photos for herself so she could email him the three that were going to be used. Email was so much better than by phone because it would give him time to be angry before actually having to confront her about his anger. Yes, email, she agreed, would be the best. Of course if he didn’t get the email then her attempt to warn him would be futile.

She sighed in desperation. She was really going to have to learn how not to tell some stories. She just lost control when shooting and she shot what she saw, the best way she could. If this were any other man she wouldn’t care what he thought. She would take the shots and lead with the same photos Mitch was leading with. The problem was this wasn’t just any other man. She already knew the last photo caused trouble for his station and these might cause more. She felt guilty about it.

“Toughen up,” Mitch patted her on her shoulder. “These are great pictures. Prize winning pictures—and they’ll go great with my prize winning story.” He grinned big. “Well, the bigger story,” he laughed. “This house fire might not matter much. The investigation is going to take a while, but I have assurance from a friend that we’ll be the first to know on the progress.

“A friend, huh?”

“Well, maybe not a friend. Actually, we’re getting preferential treatment because of the mayor. His office called in and ordered we be given preferential treatment on every fire related story.” He slapped his hands together and rubbed them feverishly. “We are on our way, Eve.” He knelt before her on one knee.

“What are you doing?” She felt the apprehension rising in her own body.

“Eve,” he placed his hands on her outer thighs.”

“Mitch?”

“I need to know, when I head back to New York. When I go back to the big times full-time, that you’ll be there, by my side. You and me—a team, connected in every way.”

She nearly knocked over the trash can as she pushed the rolling computer chair back just enough to give her some space. “Are you crazy?!” She half whispered, half screamed.

“No. I want you there. We’re a great team. My stories, your pictures. I’m not staying down here forever, Eve. This is my last year. This story is going to put me back on top.” He shrugged. “Not this story, but the arsonist…you know…I’m going back to the world I belong in and I’d like to take you with me. You deserve more than this.”

She didn’t understand. Mitch still wrote stories for the
Times
, and other big papers. Why did he feel as if he needed this one story to get back there? He could go knocking on their doors this second and they would welcome him with open arms.

But it wasn’t just his desire to leave Palm Coast that had her questioning things. He had said they would be connected in “every way,” and she didn’t understand that. Her mind had started to form all sorts of crazy thoughts. Maybe she had those crazy thoughts because of his position on bended knee. A man didn’t just get on bended knee for any old reason—did he?

“Think about it. You, me, a great story. You crave it as much as I do Eve. I know you do because we’re connected.”

“I don’t know,” she shook her head.

“Are you telling me you want to stay here in this small southern town? Palm Coast, Ormond Beach…please,” he snorted. “This paper is doing well, but it’s not worthy of your talents, Eve. Don’t waste your life away with getting stuck here. If you do, you’ll never get out.”

“I just…”she hadn’t thought of staying in Palm Coast forever—or even Florida for that matter, but she hadn’t really given much thought to when she would be leaving. Mitch made it sound as if the ship was going to be sailing by the end of the year and she could either be on it and reach bigger destinations, or she could stay on dry land and go nowhere. “I’ll think about it.” She agreed because she really did want to go to different places with her career. She loved the job they did in Egypt, most of it anyway. She loved the thrill of the story and she wanted that adventure again.
Beyond Flagler
allowed for some adventurous stories, but she would be kidding herself if she thought she would ever go as far with this paper as she could go if she worked for something like the
Times
. But was it what she really wanted? That’s the part she wasn’t sure about. That was the part she needed to figure out. Just how much did she want to be at the top of the photojournalistic ladder? Just where exactly did she see herself going with this career? Once she knew her end goal maybe she would be ready to pursue it. She had been seriously considering Discovery or National Geographic. With her photography skills she could easily do some wildlife nature shots, or even some serious news story shots for either company.

Her thoughts went back to Adam. She had been worried about him, worried for him. That house had been like an inferno and he was inside of it. Sure, he had made it out alive—barely in time. She thought about what might have happened and she felt her chest tighten with fear. She would never ask him to give up his job. It wouldn’t be right. It wouldn’t be fair. But seeing him today made her realize he was a lot like her brother Thomas. She realized he, just like Thomas, would put his own life in any type of dangerous place just to do the right thing. She always knew firefighters worked without putting themselves first, but knowing it and seeing it were two different things. For a brief moment she thought back to Thomas, lying in that hospital bed, trying to recover, trying to survive. She thought of the pain she felt then and she wondered if she was truly strong enough to face that pain again. But how could she not? Even if she and Adam weren’t dating, weren’t involved, if something happened to him it would still hurt her just as deeply as it would now.

Well shoot, she thought, how on earth had she ended up falling for a guy with a suicide career? She shook her head. Love wasn’t biased, that’s how.
Love?
There was no way this was love. It was too soon. Love didn’t happen that fast. Did it? Now she was in trouble. Before Adam showed up at her door she knew exactly what she was doing and where she was going—almost exactly. Love was never in the cards, at least not right now, but he had put it there. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, what she felt went beyond lust and infatuation. What she felt was strong, frightening, and alarming. It was alarming because it felt so natural, as if he were the only man she would ever have those feelings for. It wasn’t just sexual desire; although she did have that, it was him, the man, the friend, the potential lover, the potential husband.

She refrained from slapping hand to forehead. Now she really was in trouble. She had just introduced the
H
word. Adam had tilted her world off balance. Good, bad or indifferent, things would never be the same for her again. She thought about which sibling would be best to give her some much needed advice. Her choices were Alyssa or Thomas. She didn’t have to think long on that one. She would call Thomas because she saw mirrored in him the feelings she had now. Whether he was ready to act on his feelings right now or not, she was sure he was thinking of being married to Thena. She could see the love in his eyes every time he looked at her. She just needed to think of the best way to broach the conversation with him. Thomas may be level headed in most things, but she was still his little sister, and maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t the conversation they should have with each other. But, he was her big brother, and if she couldn’t get his advice as a man because she was afraid of the big brother in him surfacing, then maybe they were all right to think of her as a kid. She was a woman and she needed to woman-up and be one. She needed advice, and she was going to ask for it—later, she thought. Right now she needed to focus on work. She had some big decisions to make here and she couldn’t risk distraction right now.

Eve rotated her schedule between working and trying to get things situated in her new home. There was still so much she needed to do that she was kind of glad Adam was planning to work straight through the next few days. “Work-a-holic,” she shrugged. She couldn’t say much. She worked all types of hours too.

She wasn’t expecting Adam to show up at her home that evening, and she certainly wasn’t expecting him to show up angry. He hadn’t even waited for an invitation in. He just barged in like he owned the place.

“Again! Seriously, Eve. Are the two of you trying to put me in the doghouse or what?”

“I don’t pick the pictures that are used with Mitch’s stories. I just take them.” She raised her voice to match Adam’s.

“If you’d stop taking pictures of me he wouldn’t be able to use them.”

“Are you kidding me? This is my job, and I’m not going to stop doing my job just to appease you.”

He was livid. Maybe his anger wasn’t with her, but it was because of her. The guys at work took it with a grain of salt. Of course they loved teasing him about it, but it was all good natured teasing. The problem was the mayor, who was now browbeating the chief with it, and that meant now the chief was becoming a problem. “I’m not asking you to stop doing your job. I’m just saying you can stop taking pictures of me.”

“I don’t tell you how to do your job. Don’t tell me how to do mine.” She snapped at him as she moved closer he could feel the heat from her anger.

“Take a picture of somebody else,” he yelled. “Just stop taking them of me.”

“Then stop saving lives!” She was so close to him now that he could feel her rage literally oozing out of her body. “I take the pictures that matter, that count. And while you might not like it, your saving that little boy’s life was the story that mattered. If you don’t want your picture in the paper then stop doing things that will get it there. Stop running into burning buildings. Stop helping put out wildfires. Stop saving lives, Adam. Because the only way you’re going to avoid getting your picture in the paper is if you stop doing those things.” She tacked her hands to her hips. “So stop doing it. Stop saving lives.”

He looked in her eyes. Something in her determination, in her kick butt and take names attitude, had him going hard as stone. Jeeze this woman could turn him on even when they were arguing. He laughed and shook his head. “What are we arguing about?” Thinking about his current state of arousal, about those plump, luscious looking lips just waiting for him to devour them, had his mind completely off course.

She laughed. “You know, I don’t know. But I think you were mad at me for doing my job.”

He laughed again. “Ah hell,” he reached out, although as close as she was standing to him he didn’t have to reach far, and he pulled her into a tight embrace. “I’m sure that couldn’t have been it.” He stroked a hand up and down her spine. “I’m sorry I yelled, Eve.”

“I’m sorry too. I guess we had that one coming, huh?”

“Pent up energy,” he agreed. “You didn’t deserve that.”

“It’s okay,” she pulled away just enough to look in his eyes. “Look, the next time the mayor pitches a fit just tell him if he wants his picture in the paper then all he needs to do is get out on the front line of one of these fires and his picture will one hundred percent for sure be there.” She smiled at him. He couldn’t help but smile as well. The mayor on the front line was the biggest joke of the year.

“And how do you think he’ll take that?”

She shrugged. “I just come up with the ideas. It’s your responsibility to figure out how they work.” Her lips turned upward into a smile that had him wanting to taste her lips even more than he had before. Since that night, their first date, they hadn’t shared a kiss, and even that night the kiss was chaste compared to what he was feeling for her. Well tonight he wasn’t going to hold back. He wanted to devour her mouth, needed it more than he needed the air he was breathing, and he planned to do it, hard, fast, slow, explorative…all of it.