Authors: Jessica Miller
“My name is Samantha Nate and I want to thank you for saving my life.”
~~~
How the woman had known it was him was something that Gabriel could guess pretty easily. One didn’t soon forget the first time they met a dragon no matter the circumstances. He was annoyed, but when he took her hand something happened. He felt something that he had not felt in years. He felt excitement. As he pulled his hands away, her eyes widened and he knew why. It was his warmth. Then she spoke.
“My name is Samantha Nate and I want to thank you for saving my life.”
He stood for nearly a full minute before he responded. “Not a problem Samantha. I was just doing my job is all.”
She looked a bit downhearted, but he could tell that she tried not to show it. “Well, thank you all the same. I know what you did was crazy. Running into a burning building like that to save one person. The EMT’s told me that no one other than you would have done something like that. I’d like to take you out for dinner to thank you if you’ll go.”
“No . . . ”
“He’d love to.” The Chief laid a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder as he spoke. “He’s been cooped up here for much too long. How’s tomorrow sound?”
“Good. It sounds good.” Samantha responded with a look of confusion. “Is eight o’clock okay?”
“Eight is just fine. We usually eat at about that time anyway. You’ll have to provide the car. He ain’t got one right now and I can’t have you two cruising around town in one of the trucks.”
“Alright. I’ll see you then.”
Gabriel was so shocked at what had just happened that Samantha was already gone before he could say anything. He spun on the Chief and fixed him with an icy stare.
“Why the hell did you do that?” His voice was angry, but the Chief didn’t seem perplexed at all. He knows that I would never hurt one of my squad, he thought.
“I did it because you were going to come up with some excuse about why you couldn’t go and break that poor woman’s heart. It took a lot of courage for her to come here. Most people don’t want to thank the people who save them. They just want to get on
with their life, but she took the time out of her day to track you down and offer you dinner. That ain’t something you should blow off.”
“I know that, but I don’t like . . . ”
“I know you don’t like people son.” The Chief looked him in the eyes. “But you can’t spend the rest of your life cooped up here in this fire house. You need to go out and live a little. I don’t know about yourself, but if I wasn’t married I would have jumped at the chance to take that girl out.”
“She is beautiful, isn’t she?” Gabriel responded before he realized what he was saying and afterward he stood with a puzzled look on his face.
Now why in the hell did I say that, he thought as the Chief turned and walked away with a smile on his face. He had an unsettled feeling that he knew exactly why he said it, but he didn’t think that he was ready for that. Not yet. Not so soon. He shook his head from side to side as he walked back to the weight bench. As he sat down, he stared at nothing and tried to clear his head.
~~~
Gabriel slept in the fire house the same as he had every night for the last six years, but it wasn’t a drunken induced sleep. In fact, he didn’t even go to the bar. When he woke the next morning, his head was surprisingly clear and he was nervous. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been nervous about something. Burning buildings didn’t even make him flinch, but a dinner date with a girl made him wake up in a cold sweat.
It’s anxiety, he tried to tell himself. He knew better, but it helped him get out of bed and get dressed. He made his way to the cafeteria and had breakfast with the guys. They all greeted him with nods as he sat down, but none of them spoke. After six years they knew by now that they would get nothing out of him other than grunts or an occasional shoulder shrug anyway.
After breakfast Gabriel puttered around the fire house for most of the day. He went on a few calls, but nothing serious. Around six o’clock he went to the locker room and took a much needed shower. As he showered, he thought about Samantha and how she made him feel. Unless he was saving them from a burning building just being around women made him nervous. Brent had been the one that was good with the ladies. This time seemed to be different though. She didn’t just make him nervous. She made him downright uncomfortable and took the words right out of his mouth. Over the years he and his brother had tried to learn as much as they could about themselves and their dragon ancestry. One thing that he remembered well was that there were very few females in the world that were compatible with a dragon shifter. These women were called dragon mothers by the shifter community and they were highly sought by many people. There were many races of shifters who would like to see the dragons unable to reproduce, so the dragon mothers were protected to the fullest extent by the dragon shifters. Deep in thought, he stepped out of the shower and placed a towel around his waist. Maybe she is a dragon mother, he thought. If she is it falls on me to watch over her and make sure she lives. He looked at himself in the mirror and grimaced. His face was covered with a long, unkept beard. That was something that he would never have allowed to happen if Brent had still been alive. The thought of Brent made him sad, but he shoved it down and grabbed his razor, a comb, and a pair of scissors from his locker.
Half an hour later he emerged from the locker room a whole new man. His beard was trimmed and cropped close to his face in a way that accented his features other than covered them. The Chief stood outside the door and when Gabriel walked out he gave a low whistle.
“Looking good son. Looking real good.”
“Thanks Chief.” He was embarrassed by the attention, but he tried not to let it show. “I thought I would try to look presentable for that woman’s sake.”
“Well, you certainly look it. What time is she picking you up again?”
“Eight o’clock sir. Why?”
“It’s five minutes after seven and she’s already here. That’s why.”
“Maybe she is going to cancel. She might have things to do.”
“I doubt it.” The Chief said with a smile.
“What is it? Why are you smiling?”
“Just go see for yourself.” As Gabriel walked away the Chief’s smile widened and he called out. “And Gabe. Take the night off. You’ve earned it.”
Gabriel started toward the front of the building, but the Chief stopped him.
“And Gabe.”
“What?” He spun around.
“You might want to change out of your robe before you go. Then again, you might make a hell of a fashion statement in it.”
“Damn.” Gabriel hurried into the locker room and shuffled through the clothes in his locker. They were the only clothes he owned in the world. He wasn’t sure what he should wear, so he finally settled on a dark button-up shirt and a pair of black jeans. He pulled on the only pair of civilian shoes he had, a scuffed pair of leather boots and rushed out of the locker room.
He slowed his pace as he neared the front of the building and stepped out in the garage where the fire trucks and ambulances were kept. He glanced around and saw Samantha. She stood by one of the ambulances with the Chief.
He has to have his nose in everything, Gabriel thought as he walked over.
The Chief saw him coming and excused himself. He gave Gabriel a wink as he walked past him and whispered for him to have a good time. Gabriel nodded, but he didn’t really hear what the Chief had said. His attention was focused entirely on Samantha.
She wore a light purple shirt that accentuated her large bosom in all the right ways and a pair of blue jeans that hugged her hips. Her hair was down and seemed to flow around her face. She had on very little if any makeup which made her even more beautiful to him. He disliked it when women covered themselves in makeup to try to hide their true selves. Without a thought, he walked up to her and held out a hand. When she placed her hand in his he raised it to his lips and gently kissed the back of it.
“You look very pretty.” He told her.
She blushed brightly and turned her face down. When she spoke, it was barely above a whisper. “Thank you. You look good yourself.”
“Did you have somewhere specific in mind?” He asked her as they walked toward her car.
“I thought we might go to Vincent’s House of Noodles unless you don’t like Italian food.”
“I love it.” Right then Gabriel knew that even if he hadn’t of liked Italian food he would have said yes just the same. There was something about this girl that changed him. He just wasn’t himself when she was around. In fact, when he was around her he felt better than he had in all the years since Brent had died.
She led him to a bright green compact with a sunroof and zero headroom he was sure. Although he had tried to avoid people as much as he could he hadn’t forgotten his manners. He hurried around to her side and opened her door for her. Once she was seated, he closed her door and made his way to the other side of the car. He got a glimpse of the firehouse as he rounded the car and saw that everybody was outside. He waved them off angrily and climbed into the car. He was right it had zero headroom and his tall, muscular frame was almost more than the tiny car could handle.
Samantha started up the car and pulled away from the firehouse. As they drove, he tried his best to make small talk, but it had been years since he had spoken to a woman that he wasn’t saving and he didn’t really know how to start.
“Do you work?” As soon as the words left his mouth he wished he would have just kept quiet until they reached the restaurant.
“I go to school actually. I’m getting my masters in creative writing.”
“Writing. I never could do that.”
“Well, I’ve loved to write since I was a little kid. It suits me.” She turned right at an intersection. “How long have you been working as a firefighter?”
“About twenty years.”
“Wow. What ever made you want to go into burning buildings?”
“It was my brother actually. He was the one who always wanted to be a firefighter, so when he joined up I did the same. We did everything together like that.”
“Is he still a firefighter?”
“He’s dead.” Gabriel’s words came out a little harsher than he would have liked, but he didn’t like talking about Brent and he wanted her to know that the subject was off limits.
“Oh. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. It was a long time ago.”
For some time after that they drove in silence. Great going, he scolded himself, you ruined the mood with your doom and gloom attitude like you always do. He racked his brain for something else to say, but he could find nothing. Never had he been so glad in his life as when they pulled up in front of the restaurant.
“We’re here.” Samantha said as she put the car in park and switched it off.
“So we are.” He looked out the window. “I’ve ate here before and the best I remember it was really good.”
“I hope so. I heard about this place from a friend and she said the spaghetti was to die for.”
“Then I know what I’m getting.”
A nervous laugh passed between them as they walked to the door. He opened it and the sounds from inside came flooding out, the clatter of plates, the chatter as people talked to one another, waiters called out orders, and a man played the violin in one corner. Gabriel held the door and let her pass through first. He followed, but not without some reluctance. It had been a long time since he had been anywhere other than the firehouse or the little dive bar a few blocks from there that he frequented nightly.
Samantha talked to the hostess and got them a table by the window and he was grateful for it. They ordered and sat in silence as they waited for their food. He once again racked his brain for something to say, but he couldn’t seem to think of anything other than how much he didn’t want to be at the restaurant. She was the one to break the silence between them.
“I have to ask something that you may not want to answer and if you don’t it’s okay.”
“What is it?” He instantly went on alert as he asked.
“How was it that you could carry me down five flights of stairs without a mask in the sheer heat of that burning building? I did some research and a man twice your size shouldn’t have been able to do that.”
He smiled wanly. “I work out a lot and I’m in good shape.”
“That might explain how you could carry me that far. I doubt it, but I might.” She leaned across the table and looked into his eyes. “But it doesn’t explain why the smoke didn’t ever make you cough or get to you. Inhaling that much smoke should have killed you, but you never even acknowledged that there was smoke.”
“I held my breath.” Oh crap, he thought, she’s not buying a single word I say. I bet next she asks me about my eyes. Why they’re like no other color of eyes that she has ever seen.
“I bet you did. So you carried me, a two hundred-pound woman, down five flights of stairs and you held your breath for the whole time all the while why you were in full firefighter gear that weighs like fifty pounds or more?”
“Yeah. That’s what happened.”
“You know I might be able to believe you if it wasn’t for your eyes.” She leaned back and took a drink of her soda.
Here it is, he thought, here comes the question. “What about my eyes?”