Free The Fire Inside by Kathryn Shay Page B

right. I can’t object without reason.”
Jack chose his words carefully. “You all know I train in
firefighting every once in a while to give me insight into
firefighters who come to see me as a psychologist. I went upstate
to the RFD recruit class, and Tess was an instructor at their
academy. I went incognito, I might add, for two weeks. Her attitude
toward the kids was…unpleasant. She rarely complimented the good
things they did and got on them about their faults.”
    “ On them?” Mitch asked. “How?”
    “She was sarcastic if one couldn’t complete a
task. She often said there was a good chance that some of them
weren’t going to become firefighters. She criticized them for every
little infraction.” He scanned the group. “The kids need
encouragement when they fail, not blame, so they can improve. I
stand by that.”
    Olive sighed. “We criticize them, too, Jack,
and are stern.” She caught Tony Ramirez’s eye. “Well, except for
Mr. Nice Guy over there.”
    Tony grinned. “Remember what you told me when
we talked about that?”

    “Uh-huh. That the class needed the good guys
and the bad guys to instruct them. I was pleased you weren’t hard
ass but could appreciate the staff who demanded more.” She looked
at Haywood Jenkins. “You’re tough, right?”
    “More than I like to be. But it’s
necessary.”
    Jane Phillips sat forward. She glowed these
days, her brown eyes and hair reminding him of Tess’s looks. “Can I
say something?”
    Olive gave her a generous smile. “Of
course.”
    “I volunteered now because I’m closer in age
to the recruits than you all are. I appreciated guys like Tony when
I trained, but I also needed the toughness. One guy was super hard
on me because I was eighteen and female. I’ll tell you, I hated
him, but he made me a better firefighter because I was gonna make
it just to piss him off.”
    “Was he pissed off?” Mitch asked.
    “No, he was pleased. He even told me that at
graduation.”
    Noah turned to Jack. “What do you think?”
    God, this was hard. He did believe
Tess was too tough, but as the people in this room, the people he
admired, spoke, he knew he agreed with much of what they said, too.
That caused him to wonder if his personal relationship with Tess
was interfering with his professional judgment. He didn’t want her at his workplace because he couldn’t think straight when
she was around.
    “Jack?”
    “After hearing all this, I’m torn. I agree in
part with what you said. But I think you can be too tough on
recruits.”
    “Won’t your class help with that?” the chief
asked.
    Oh, man, he’d have to deal with the kids’
complaints about Tess directly. “I suppose.”
    “I say we interview her.” Olive looked at
Mitch.
    “There’s another issue,” Jack pointed out.
“What if this group decides she isn’t what we want after talking to
her? Can you deal with her on that, Mitch?”
    Mitch laughed. “She was fourteen when her
parents died and she came to live with us. I was more than a decade
older, and I had to deal with a lot of hard stuff with her. We have
a bond because of that. I don’t think it’ll break over this.
Besides, you’ll love her.”
    That’s what I’m afraid of , Jack
thought.
    “Jack, are you okay with this compromise?”
Noah wanted to know. “Since you’re torn anyway?”
    “Yeah, I am.”
    “Thanks, Doc.” Mitch’s tone had softened.
“For giving her a chance.”
    He just nodded. He felt out of his depth
here, which was something that almost never happened to him these
days. It was best to tread lightly.
    o0o
    The little juice bar sported four tables, and
a counter. The lights were bright, despite the gray day outdoors
and the mistiness of the air. She smiled over at Cory. “Thanks for
the support during my evaluation. I appreciated it.”
    “So, what do you think you’ll do now?”
    Shrugging a shoulder, she sighed. “Go back to
Rockland. Try to piece my career back together somehow, in