Chapter Two
Grady Hart couldn’t rememberthe last time he celebrated his birthday—especially with his twin sister,Jenna.
He sat in front of a long dining table at his parents’ newly rebuilt home in the Sunset District of San Francisco. A year ago, an arsonist had burned their house to the ground, and they had lost all of their possessions, including photographs and videos of bygone birthdayparties.
A large sheet cake, with twenty-nine candles burning bright, sat on the table in front of Grady and Jenna with the slogan, “Our Twins, Twenty-NineForever.”
“For they’re jolly good people, for they’re jolly good people…” the large family sang as they wore party hats and blewnoisemakers.
“Get ready to blow when I count to three.” Cait, their oldest sister, aimed thecamera.
Jenna nudged Grady. “They’re betting we can’t blow out all thecandles.”
“Piece of cake for a smokejumper.” Grady gave his twin awink.
Obviously, they weren’t identical, being boy-girl twins, and their coloring and appearances were so opposite, it was hard to believe they were brother andsister.
Grady was dark, with dark-brown hair and eyes, and a year-round tan, thanks to his outdoor job, whereas Jenna was pale and blond. She was also a happy newlywed, unlike Grady, who was a no-commitment type ofguy.
Underneath the table, Jenna’s glutton of a hound dog, Harley, sang along with his baying voice, “Aaahhrrooh.”
He was obviously waiting for a piece of cake to accidentally drop onto the floor. Other family members also had pets, including a Dalmatian, a gray tabby cat, and two little lovebirds chirping in theircage.
The family segued to the birthday song, and Grady eyed the flaming candles. The heat from twenty-nine candles could melt the cake and ignite their parents’ houseanew.
“Don’t worry.” Jenna elbowed him. “Every man in here, except for Dale, is afirefighter.”
Dale was their baby brother and the current concern of his well-meaning parents. He hadn’t told anyone other than Grady that he’d dropped out of college, because he didn’t want to be pressured into fire-fightingschool.
Grady eyed the twenty-nine dancing candles. His thoughts flickered briefly to the cabin he’d once had in a remote location in the Sierra Nevada mountain range—and his precious Sasha, the bravest, smartest, and most loyal dog a man could everlove.
All of it had gone up in smoke while he was out fighting anotherfire.
Cait counted down. “Three, two, one, ready,blow!”
Grady inhaled deeply and whoosh, he blew along with Jenna, sometimes at cross purposes, with her blowing one way and he the other. Eventually, they pushed the flames into tiny whiffs of blacksmoke.
“Yay!” his family cheered, and his older brother, Connor, slapped his back. “You finally put out a fire thisyear.”
Grady closed his eyes briefly, beating back the image of the last forest fire he was in—the one where the wind whipped itself into a fire tornado, catching him and his jump partner off-guard.
He’d managed to land on the face of a rock, bruising his entire body, but his partner hadn’t been aslucky.
Grady shuddered when Cait tapped him and shouted, “Smile!”
Jenna hooked her arm around him and tilted her head toward his. “You’ve got this. Don’t let Connor upsetyou.”
“I’m not upset,” he grumbled. His older brother, now a fire chief of his own station, had always overshadowedhim.
“I said to smile, not talk.” Cait waved her hand. “We can’t cut the cake until we get pictures of youtwo.”
Grady pasted on a grin. His mother bent between them, kissing both the twins, followed by his father with his hands on their shoulders. Various combinations included a self-timed, wide-angled family photo with every pet on every arm, and in the center of all, Connor and Nadine’s three-month-old daughter, Amelia, the world’s prettiest and most adorablebaby.
The birds sang, the cat meowed, and the dogs barked up a storm, while Amelia cooed and babbled. His mother laughed, Cait yapped, and his fatherboomed.
“Did you make a wish?” Jenna whispered close tohim.
“I was too busy blowing to wish. How aboutyou?”
