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KIM BALDWIN. “Ah. I see.” Not chagrined, Erin held the teeth up for inspection
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“Ah. I see.” Not chagrined, Erin held the teeth up for inspection.
“I thought the stew had a bit of a bite to it.”
They howled. Gable laughed so hard she had tears streaming down her face. Carl snorted lemonade out of his nose.
It took several seconds for the chief to regain enough composure to tell Erin, “Well done, lass. And by the way, it was sterilized. We’re not totally cruel.”
“I must admit I kind of freaked when they did it to me,” Gable told Erin as the rest of the crowd resumed eating. “We were having soup, and I didn’t F nd it until I was about half done. Thought I was gonna heave.”
“Me too,” one of the guys near them chimed in.
“Ah, but you forget I work at an elementary school,” Erin said. “You develop a pretty strong stomach when you take care of kindergarteners during f u season. And no one can touch a F fth grader when it comes to practical jokes.”
Gable had a hard time not staring at Erin throughout the meal. The woman was not only great looking, she was charming, and funny, and totally at ease in the room full of strangers. And Gable wasn’t the only one enchanted. Tim and several of the other single young men—and a couple of the married ones too—kept glancing in the newcomer’s direction.
When they were nearly done eating, Chief Thornton thanked everyone for coming and made a few announcements. “The duty roster is posted. In addition to the two regular training gigs we’ve got set up this month, I’d like to schedule several training sessions for Erin, if I can get some volunteers.”
The words were barely out of his mouth before a dozen hands shot up, Tim’s a fraction ahead of Gable’s.
“Great,” the chief said. “Let me know when you’re free and I’ll be in touch. Erin, you mentioned you’re pretty f exible until school starts back up, right?”
“Sure, Chief. I’m eager to get started. You can schedule me most any time. Whatever’s best for you and whomever I’m working with.”
“Excellent,” he answered. “You’ll do some of your training here, and next month you’ll get the classroom courses in Charlevoix that we talked about. Okay then, for the rest of you, a reminder that we’ve got the big Fourth of July picnic coming up, and we need all the help we
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can get. Pass the word. Any questions?”
There were a few more announcements and a recap of recent callouts. As the meeting F nally wound to a close, Carl turned to Gable and Erin. “Cards, ladies?”
“Can’t tonight,” Erin glanced at her watch. “I’d like to hit the grocery store before it closes.”
“I think I’ll pass too,” Gable said. “I have an important errand to run.”
“Aw, can’t it wait?” Carl whined, waving a deck of cards at her.
“Nope, sorry, Carl,” Gable replied.
“If you change your mind, we’ll be at Billy’s.” He scanned the room for other possibilities. “Good to meet you, Erin,” he said, moving away.
“You too, Carl.” Erin got to her feet and turned to Gable. “I wish we had more time to catch up, but I need to take a rain check. My cupboard is truly bare and I at least need to pick up coffee and cream or I’ll never survive tomorrow morning.”
Gable fell into step beside her as they joined the departing F reF ghters. “Do you mind if I stop by after you get home?”
Erin looked her way. “Tonight?”
“I’ll only stay a couple minutes.”
“Sure, all right,” Erin said. “Give me a half hour?”
“See you then.”
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FORCE OF NATURE
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