The Firefighter's Vow. Amie Denman

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       CHAPTER ONE

      THE WIDE WHITE beach of Cape Pursuit, Virginia, stretched as far as Laura Wheeler could see as she shaded her eyes with one hand. The first day of June had already lured summer visitors with hot sun and a just right ocean breeze promised a fresh new start to the season. Hundreds of people dotted the beach under umbrellas or on colorful beach towels, alternately dipping into the salt water and drying off in the heat.

      Most people came to Cape Pursuit looking for fun and relaxation, but Laura had come for something else.

      She took an assessing glance at the tall freshly-painted lifeguard chairs within her view and, satisfied that everything was under control, turned and walked across the soft sand to the Pursuit of Fun beach shack, which served as both the command center of the public beach and also a snack bar and surfboard rental.

      “It’s hot,” the girl behind the service window said. “And we’ve already rented out half the surfboards.”

      “Those are both excellent problems to have,” Laura said, smiling.

      The girl, Rebecca, laughed. “Plus, I have this terrible view of the beach and ocean and I have to spend all summer here and get paid for it.”

      Laura nodded sympathetically, her smile becoming lighter. “When you’re a famous singer someday, you can pour all this suffering into a song.”

      Rebecca held a pen as if it were a microphone and belted out a line about killing time at a beach shack in the sun. They both laughed.

      “While you’re waiting for your record contract and your throngs of adoring fans to come along, I’ll set up a few fans of the electric cooling kind,” Laura said. She entered the beach hut through a side door and found two big box fans. She plugged them in, then pointed one of them toward Rebecca and the other out the door to draw heat out of the small building. Growing up in a house with no air-conditioning and spending a summer working for a food vendor that traveled to all the county fairs in her home state of Indiana, Laura knew a few tricks for staying cool in the summer heat.

      “Do you think I can make it as a singer?” Rebecca asked.

      Laura leaned both elbows on the counter next to the teenager. “I think you can do absolutely anything you want to do,” she said. “You just have to believe in yourself and never give up.”

      “That’s what my choir teacher said,” Rebecca commented. “But it sounds like something printed on one of those motivational wall calendars with pictures of sunrises and stuff.”

      “I СКАЧАТЬ