TONY: Slow Burn (Raging Fire Book 1) by Kallypso Masters (the false prince TXT) 📕

was talking about all the beauty surrounding us.” She swept her arm in a wide swath to encompass the landscape of the North and South Maroon peaks and the pristine lake before them.

“All that pales in comparison to my view.”

She shook her head, knowing she wasn’t going to sway him from this romantic train of thought. “You’re sure in a good mood today. Quiet shift?”

“Actually, I got some good news about something I’d been working on since we returned from the islands.”

“What’s that?” She picked up a grape and waited for him to tell her the news.

Tony’s eyes lit up. “I got the go-ahead to start a dive team.”

“Tony, that’s wonderful!”

“I’m hoping to eventually expand it into a full water-rescue squad in a couple of years but don’t want to bite off more than I can chew. But a dive team of volunteers won’t be too expensive, which is good since I don’t have any funding lined up yet.”

She felt his gaze boring down at the grape in her hand. “What?”

“I’ve never seen anyone eat a grape that way,” he answered.

Carm looked down and smiled self-consciously. She’d been peeling the grape before eating it. “Sorry. It’s something Gino used to do. I wasn’t even aware that I was doing it.”

“It’s nice that you have so many good memories of your brother.”

Carm didn’t want to talk about Gino, so she simply nodded. “I’m so glad you met up with those guys from the rescue-diving class.”

He picked up the conversation. “Yeah. If you hadn’t invited me to join you on Turks and Caicos, I’d have spent the week moping over missing a few shifts at work. I never would have come up with an idea like this on my own.”

“Oh, I firmly believe that if it’s meant to be, the universe will put you on the right path. Look what happened when you accepted my invitation.” She didn’t spell out whether she referred to the diving aspects or the relationship ones. Let him draw his own conclusions.

Admittedly, her reasons for asking him to join her on her island holiday hadn’t been quite so noble as helping him find peace of mind and a new purpose in life. Still, she never could have imagined how quickly the spark would ignite between them.

Not that he’d made much of an effort to see her these past two weeks. His sporadic phone calls had been the only thing that kept her from thinking it had been more than a vacation fling. Obviously, now she could see he’d just been busy making up lost shifts and pushing his new idea to his officers. But she had to admit that she’d wondered, even though Carm understood that kind of drive. With her busy season at the resort looming on the horizon, she wouldn’t have time to see him, either, during the late fall and winter months.

Tony didn’t say anything more about it, turning his attention to eating and staring out over the lake at the distant mountains tucked into the notch created by the closer ones. They ate in silence for a few minutes.

Always the planner, she eventually asked, “What are your next steps for making this happen?”

“Finding firefighters and others to join my team, starting their basic diving training, and getting them certified. I have a few folks in mind already, but who knows who might be interested? Unfortunately, we don’t have any financial backing from the department, so that might hamper things a little.”

“Have you thought about doing some public relations campaigns, not just to find more team members, but to get the community behind you?”

“I just planned on posting messages and talking it up in the county, but it would be great to collect funds to help pay for equipment. Unfortunately, PR is not my expertise.”

Carm knew a bit about marketing but didn’t want to butt in until she knew more. “Who’s on board already?”

“I’ve got the fire chief on my side, minus the funding part.” He told her his deputy chief of operations would be the person who would have to sign off on fundraisers and Carm made a note of that.”

“Who in Aspen Corners has deep pockets?” She couldn’t help herself; she so wanted this to succeed for Tony’s sake.

“Nobody who runs in my circles,” Tony said with a laugh. “I’m not even sure there’s anyone who can spare the amount of money we’d need, but Mama’s offered to talk to some people at her church. Maybe they can hold some fundraisers. We’ll be too busy to stand in front of local stores on our days off to collect donations. Within a year or two, maybe we’ll have the funds we need with the community’s support.”

A year or two? Tony needed this to happen now. Would his enthusiasm remain as high if he didn’t see results right away? “It’ll take that long?”

“Realistically, yeah. I’m hoping no longer, though. If my volunteer team can demonstrate its worth, maybe we’ll eventually get the county behind us financially. It’ll take me months if not years to get my divers certified.”

“Good thing you guys are used to training without reimbursement.”

He snorted. “Yeah. But making that financial commitment will show me who wants this badly enough to give up their time and money to be a part of it.”

Tony’s passion and dedication were obvious, but without equipment and a boat of some type, the dive team wouldn’t get off the ground.

Maybe she could help in that regard.

“I guess most of your diving time will be connected to the team.” She’d hoped they’d be able to dive together at least once before the weather turned.

“Yeah, I’ve already booked the dive instructor through October. Then we’ll play it by ear.”

She’d known finding time together would be difficult given their jobs and geographic distance. He hadn’t invited her to his apartment yet, but maybe she could go to Aspen Corners over the coming months, whenever she could get away. He shouldn’t always be the one to travel to her place.

Finding time