Free It's a Wonderful Fireman: A Bachelor Firemen Novella (The Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel) by Jennifer Bernard Page A

gazed around the little circle of firefighters, none of whom worked at Station 1 anymore. Matt had joined the Los Angeles Fire Department so he could be with his wife, a former model and now-famous photographer. Thor had moved to Alaska with Maribel, where they were raising Maribel’s son Pete and baby twins. He ran a volunteer fire department in a small town up there.
    Psycho lived in Nevada now and flew around the country fighting wildfires. Roman, who passionately loved to cook, had left the fire service completely and opened his own restaurant. Now he left the firefighting to his wife, Sabina. Ryan had opened a firefighter academy that focused on recruiting and training troubled young people.
    And yet here they all were, spending Christmas Eve Eve at a fire scene. Worried about someone they either didn’t work with anymore, or never had worked with, since Mulligan was fairly new.
    “What about your families? Shouldn’t you be home with them?” Her throat closed up against a swell of emotion.
    “Maribel took Pete and the twins to the station so Pete could play with Stan,” Thor told her gently. Thor, she remembered now, had first brought Stan to the station. Stan’s owner had abandoned him, and Pete had been sneaking food to the dog. When they’d all left for Alaska, it had nearly broken Pete’s heart.
    “Rachel says that Stan senses something’s going on. He’s been whining and anxious.” Psycho gave a grim smile. “Kind of like the rest of us.”
    “Luke’s out with Carly,” said Roman. “As for the rest of my family, they’re all right here.” Even though he gestured toward the Yogurtland, where Sabina was battling the blaze, he clearly meant to include the other firefighters.
    Everyone nodded in agreement.
    “There’s no way Katie would let me sit home while a brother firefighter is down,” said Ryan firmly. “Even guys from the other shifts came in. Jeb Stone’s talking to the news media. He got all that special training from Nita, and now they’re talking about making him a public information officer.”
    Jeb’s wife, Nita, was a high-powered press secretary, but Jeb was so photogenic, with his tiger-striped eyes, that the media probably loved him. In fact, she saw Ella Joy from Channel Six News holding a microphone to his face.
    “I still can’t believe you’re all here.”
    “It’s Mulligan,” Roman said again, as if that explained everything. “A lot of us might not even be alive if not for him.”
    “Yup,” said Matt. “Don’t you remember what happened on his first day at the station? Firehouse legend by now.”
    “His first day.” Lizzie frowned. “I think I was away then. Right, I went on a trip to Mexico with some friends. When I got back, it was as if Mulligan had always been here. He didn’t even seem like a new guy. No one teased him or played pranks on him or anything.”
    “That’s because of what happened on his first day,” Ryan explained. “I heard about it afterward, but I wasn’t there. Who saw it? Matt, were you still around?”
    He shook his head. “Got the lowdown from you.”
    “Fred never told you about it, Lizzie?” Psycho sounded incredulous.
    “Does the story make Mulligan look good?”
    “Hell, yes.” The firefighters all chimed in on that one.
    “Then Fred wouldn’t have shared it with me. He kept ordering me to stay away from Mulligan. I think he kept telling Mulligan the same thing.”
    “That’s affirmative,” said Roman drily. “I used to see them at Lucio’s. Fred would lecture Mulligan on all the ways he was going to dismantle him if he hurt you.”
    Lizzie sniffed. When this was all over, she was going to have a talk with her overly protective big brother. Of course, if Fred got Mulligan out alive, nothing else would matter. “I think it’s time someone told me the story. It’s the least you guys can do.”
    “What story?” Captain Brody had joined them, and was busy shaking hands all around. He’d been captain for