Hero in Her Heart

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Nolie rubbed Max’s head. “Max has already gone through obedience training. Haven’t you, Maxie?”

He gave her a wide doggy grin.

“So the obedience training is for me.” He said the obvious. She probably thought he needed a little obedience training.

A smile touched her face, softening it. The eyes he’d thought a pale, nondescript blue the day before had been turned to aqua by the sweater she had on.

“Not exactly. The training is for both of you. It’s to allow the two of you to get used to working together. More importantly, to let you bond with Max.”

He didn’t need to bond with the dog, because they weren’t going to be together that long. But now was probably not the time to say that. He ruffled the dog’s fur, and Max leaned against his knee.

“He’s a good-looking animal. Purebred?” He’d show interest, not agreement.

“Max is mostly yellow lab, but I wouldn’t venture a guess as to what the other part is. All my service dogs come from the humane society. They’re abandoned animals who need a chance to prove they can be useful.”

She said that with a passion he didn’t quite understand. There was a lot he didn’t understand about Nolie, come to think of it.

“So, once Max and I have bonded to your satisfaction, what comes next?” Supposing he had to stick around that long. “What’s your time frame?”

Worry lines creased her forehead. “We only have a month. Still, I’m usually working with children, and it should go faster with an adult. I’d suggest that this week and next week we do obedience work and then put in two weeks of intensive live-in training.”

“Live-in? Not in the cottage?”

He glanced toward the cottage she’d shown him the day before. White frame with black shutters like the house. It had rosebushes on either side of the black front door. A yellow rambler rose was already coming into bloom on a trellis over the walk. It looked like a kid’s playhouse.

“Yes, I know it’s small, but I’m sure you’ll do fine.” The brisk assurance in her voice said that this was non-negotiable. “You and the dog have to live together during the intensive training. That twenty-four-hour-a-day experience is crucial to the whole process.”

He got what she meant then, and he didn’t like it. “You mean you’re hoping I’ll have a seizure during that time, don’t you?”

“Not hoping, no.” Her brows furrowed, and she seemed to choose her words carefully. “I hope you never have another one. But if you do, that’s the test of whether Max will live up to my belief in him.”

“There’s no guarantee, in other words,” he said flatly. “This could all be useless.”

“It’s not useless. I can guarantee you that when we’ve finished training together, Max will do his job in protecting you should a seizure occur. The question is whether he’ll know the seizure is coming and warn you.”

Passion for her work filled her as she said the words, so strong he almost felt its heat. The face he’d thought plain was alive with enthusiasm. He wanted to tell her again that he wasn’t going to have another seizure, but she swept on.

“The foundation wanted scientific proof, and there isn’t any. But it happens. I’ve seen it happen. When the bond between dog and client is strong enough, the dog knows when a seizure is coming.”

He couldn’t help being moved by the strength of her conviction. No one could. He leaned toward her, his hand on her shoulder, feeling the passion that flooded through her for her cause.

Nolie wanted to be sure a bond formed between him and the dog, so that she could prove her theories to the foundation. He wanted to create a bond between himself and Nolie, so that he could get her on his side.

The trouble was that if he sat this close to her for another moment, he’d probably kiss her. What would that do to either of their plans?

Chapter Four

Nolie walked through the chrome-and-glass doors of the fire-department administrative offices the next morning, trying to concentrate on the mission that had brought her here. Unfortunately her wayward imagination kept transporting her back to those moments on the swing with Gabe.

She’d given away too much of herself to him. She didn’t do that with anyone except Claire, and that was only because she and Claire had found each other in a support group for abuse survivors.

The support group hadn’t wiped away the dark shadows of her past, but it had given her an amazing friend. She was constantly grateful for that.

Claire was safe. She could tell Claire anything and know that it would never be used against her. But Gabe—

Gabe was so intent on his passion to return to fire fighting that she didn’t think he’d stop at much to get there. Including using her, if he thought it would be to his advantage.

Had he seen, when she’d talked about the stray animals she trained, that she equated herself with those abandoned creatures? She had to find a way to keep her guard up with him, or he’d trample over her on his way back to the life he wanted.

And that wasn’t the most serious problem. If Gabe continued to deny his need, that might keep him from bonding with his service dog. All her work on the grant proposal could come to nothing.

She crossed the glossy tile floor to the elevators, searching the posted directory for the fire chief’s name. She had to get an unbiased opinion about Gabe, and she certainly couldn’t get that from his family.

The Flanagan family’s overflowing love would probably make them support him if he declared that the sky was pink with orange polka dots. She couldn’t imagine what that must be like—to have people love and support you that much.

She stepped into the elevator, confronting her image in its mirrored wall. She wore the navy blazer again. Claire kept threatening to burn it, but she never did. Maybe she understood that Nolie needed the anonymity the blazer represented.

Worthless, her aunt’s voice whispered in her memory.

Taking a breath, she concentrated on the blinking light that showed the floors. Whatever her aunt had believed, she wasn’t worthless. She was doing good work, and she’d do even more once she had the grant. So she wasn’t about to give up on Gabe Flanagan, no matter how much he’d like her to.

The elevator doors swished open, and she stepped into a long hallway, empty except for one person. Her stomach clenched. Brendan Flanagan. The Reverend Brendan Flanagan.

“Nolie, hi.” His smile held a tinge of surprise. “What brings you here?”

She rejected the impulse to lie to him. “I wanted to speak with Chief Donovan. Is his office on this floor?”

Brendan nodded toward a door. “It is, but he isn’t in right now. Can I help you?”

“I don’t think so.” Her grand plan seemed to be dissolving. “Maybe I can make an appointment to see him later.”

He hesitated, his eyebrows lifting in a question. “Is this about Gabe?”

He wouldn’t believe her if she said no. She nodded.

“Maybe I can help, unless it’s something official.” His smile was deprecating. “Even though I’m the department chaplain, they don’t really trust me with official business.”

He didn’t look much like a chaplain in his rumpled khakis and navy pullover. He might be another of the young firefighters she’d seen downstairs.

“I really need to talk with someone about Gabe.” She pushed her discomfort out of the way. This was too important to let her own hang-ups stop her. “Someone impartial.”

He considered for a moment, weighing her words gravely. “Well, I’m not completely impartial. Gabe is my cousin, as well as my friend. But I think I can be objective about him.” He smiled. “Unlike the rest of the Flanagans, I might add.”

She managed a small smile in return. “They are certainly…supportive, I guess you could say.”

“I’m not sure that’s what Gabe would say, but it’ll do.” He gestured toward the end of the hall. “There’s a break room here. I’ll get you a cup of coffee, and you can tell me what you need to know about my cousin.”

She didn’t want to spend any more time than she had to in his company, but Brendan seemed genuine enough. And the prize she had to win was worth facing a few dragons, wasn’t it?

“Thanks. I appreciate that.”

The few minutes it took to settle themselves at a small table in the empty lounge let her organize her thoughts. She wrapped her fingers around the cup Brendan handed her and tried to look at him without thinking of him as a minister.

It was easier than she’d have expected, probably because he didn’t look like any minister she’d ever met, not that she’d met that many. Brother Joshua had been enough for a lifetime.

“What can I tell you about Gabe?” Brendan pushed back the lock of dark hair that tumbled toward the rims of his glasses.

She reconsidered her view of him. With his serious, studious expression and his glasses, he looked more like a young professor than either a firefighter or a minister.

“I’m trying to find the best way to work with Gabe,” she said carefully. She had to keep in mind that this was Gabe’s cousin. “So far I’m finding that he’s—”

She stopped. Too attractive for his own good? Too appealing to be alone with? She didn’t want to go there.

“In complete denial,” Brendan said.

She gave him a look of surprised gratitude. “Yes, he is. I thought I was the only one who saw that.”

Brendan frowned down at the dark coffee in his cup. “Siobhan does, I think, but probably no one else in the family. As for the chief—well, I know he has a desk job lined up for Gabe, in the event he can’t go back on active duty.”

She turned that over in her mind, wondering. “Do you think Gabe would accept that?”

“Not for a minute.”

This time his answer didn’t surprise her.

“He’s certainly determined to get back to work. So much so that I’m afraid it’s influencing his attitude toward working with me.”

Brendan grinned. “You mean he’s so bullheaded that he can’t see anything but his own objective.”

“Something like that.”

“You have to understand.” He leaned across the table toward her, eyes intent. “Gabe’s a warrior. Always has been. An old-fashioned knight in shining armor rushing to rescue the helpless. That’s what being a firefighter means to him.”

The image warmed her. “You care a lot about him.”

“Like a brother. All Flanagans have fire fighting in the blood, but Gabe most of all.” His brows drew together. “The thing is, if Gabe can’t be a firefighter—” He stopped and shook his head, his eyes dark and serious. “If Gabe can’t be a firefighter, I don’t think he’ll know who he is.”

Brendan’s words were still ringing in Nolie’s ears as she set up an obstacle course on the lawn behind the house later in the afternoon. That conversation had gone a lot better than she’d expected, on several counts.

She’d gotten over her instinctive need to escape from him. She hadn’t even winced when he’d taken her hand and told her he’d be praying for her.

And he’d given her a glimmer of an idea. His description of Gabe as a knight rescuing the helpless had clicked into place. Of course that’s what he was—a modern-day knight. She just had to find a way of working his need to help and rescue into his training.

She tested the white picket gate she’d set up, making sure it was stable. Max nosed against it, as if remembering his lessons, then trotted off to join Lady in investigating an interesting smell under the willow tree. A bee buzzed lazily past her toward the old-fashioned lilac bush next to the back porch, and the lilac’s aroma perfumed the air.

A perfect spring day—meant for lazing in a hammock, not indulging in a case of the nerves over what she had to do. She heard one car pull into the lane, and then another, and took a deep, settling breath.