Free Home Fires by Kathleen Irene Paterka Page A

smile. “I was born and raised in the city of Detroit. And I’ll tell you something, Miss Rose Gallagher. If I’d been lucky enough to call James Bay my hometown, I never would have left.”
    “What made you move here?” Rose ignored the slight dig about her residence preferences, but the irony of the situation wasn’t lost on her. She’d grown up in James Bay and left for the city… while he’d grown up in the city, only to eventually head north.
    Mike’s gaze was back out across the horizon. “I always wanted to live up north. When the opportunity came, I grabbed it. It’s not often a job opens up around here for a fireman.”
    His story made sense. James Bay was hardly a metropolis by anyone’s definition. There couldn’t be more than two or three full-time men on the fire department. The other little towns surrounding them were the same. There would be few, if any, opportunities for a fireman to have a successful and lucrative career, monetarily or otherwise.
    “What did you do in the city? Were you a fireman?”
    “I put in ten years on the department before I moved north.” Mike pulled his gaze from the water’s edge and turned to face her. “My dad has an insurance business, but from the time I was a little kid, I wanted to be a fireman like my Uncle Steve. He retired after forty years with the Detroit Fire Department. I grew up listening to his fire stories. He died a few years ago, but he died a happy man. He spent his life doing exactly what he wanted—fighting fires. He loved it. Every minute of it.”
    Mike’s words struck a responsive chord deep in Rose’s heart. Her father had been like that. Consumed by his passion for teaching, for making every second count. He’d taught her to be the same. Setting things right for others in the pursuit of justice had totally consumed her back in the days before she’d joined the firm. Those days, she’d still been naive enough to believe she could make a difference. Things had changed somewhere along the line. She’d lost that edge, that passion for living, and it felt like there was no going back. Her world was filled with mandatory court deadlines and complicated legal briefs. Her voicemail backed up with clients clamoring for immediate attention. Her in-box overflowed with terse memos from the firm. The demands were constant. Higher billings. More receivables. Reductions in overhead.
    Her stomach gave a sickening lurch. Was that really what she wanted for the rest of her life?
    Mike’s face was a quizzical question mark.
    “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?” Rose felt the flush high on her cheeks. Lost in her own little world, she hadn’t been listening. She hated it when people did that to her.
    “What about you?” he repeated. “You’re pretty much a mystery lady.”
    How could she not answer? Yet, how could she? Mike had been honest and open with her. He was a public servant who earned a public paycheck, while her annual salary was probably double, if not triple, his own. Deliberately, Rose decided to keep her career out of the conversation. Why spoil things between them? She was having too much fun for that to happen, though sooner or later, it probably would. Money eventually always figured into the picture, especially when men and their egos were involved.
    “There isn’t much to tell. I grew up in James Bay and now I live downstate.” She threw him a fast smile. “End of story.”
    “Come on, there’s got to be more than that.”
    She shook her head lightly. “Not really. My life is pretty uncomplicated.” An understatement, if there ever was one. Dull and predictable, consumed with paperwork, with no time to herself. Queen of the microwave dinner brigade… if she remembered to eat, that is. She would probably end up suffocated someday under a stack of legal briefs. Death by deposition.
    But it didn’t have to be that way. She could take Andy up on his offer and make the move to Washington D.C. Her days would be spent in