“Maybe.” Charlie handed her a bag of onions and a knife. “If you do the onions.”

She beamed. “I'll chop.” She sat down on a stool at the counter. “How's your wife, Charlie?”

“Putting up with me.” He grinned. “That's all you can ask after twenty-five years.” He put dredged pieces of beef in the hot pan. “Edna told me to give you hell about asking her to take care of Sam while you were on vacation. She and the kids are in love with the mutt. Though how she can like a dumb dog like that Lab of yours is beyond me.”

“Everyone loves Sam. Not every dog is an Einstein.” She picked up another onion. “And you like him too. He's very lovable.”

“But everyone thinks he's Einstein.” Charlie shook his head in amazement as he glanced at Sam snoozing in the corner of the kitchen. “How he can be so smart on a job in the field and so dumb in every other aspect of life boggles the mind.”

“He has a good nose. He has a good heart. You can't expect him to have a good brain too.”

“All I can say is that it's good you're the other half of this arson investigating team or Sam would be chasing butterflies in the ashes.”

She couldn't deny it so she changed the subject. “I'm going to drive down to Macon to visit my brother, Jason, this weekend. Do you suppose Edna would be willing to take Sam again? You know how carsick he gets.”

He nodded. “He threw up all over my new Suburban. And the kids blamed me for yelling at him.” He shrugged. “Sure, drop him over. He's no trouble. All he does is sleep and eat and chew on everything in sight. Including my best pair of golf shoes.”

“I paid for them.” She smiled. “Thanks, Charlie. Jason's wife, Laura, is pregnant, and I really wanted to go down and see her before the baby is born. She won't have time for me then.”

“I imagine she'd make time. You're not too bad to have around.”

“Thanks . . . I think.”

“And I know how boring those last months of pregnancy can be. Edna nearly drove me crazy when she was carrying Kim. Of course, she was over forty and had a right to be a little crabby.”

“Laura's thirty-eight, and she's too happy she finally got pregnant to be bad-tempered. But she's definitely nesting.” She smiled. “Besides, Edna wasn't really crabby. She was . . . temperamental.”

“You didn't have to live with her.” He chuckled. “Believe me, she was crabby. Edna's not used to having to sit around with her feet up.”

“Well, Laura is definitely not sitting around. Jason said she was building a gazebo in the backyard. So it's okay?”

“Of course it's okay.” His smile faded. “You need to get out and see people. What the hell are you doing spending your day off back here at Number Ten playing cards with a bunch of guys?”

“I like playing cards, and I couldn't be happier with anyone than I am with you. Even though you are all sore losers.” She put the onions in the pan with the melted butter to sauté and started cleaning the mushrooms. “And you'd all become stodgy and boring if I didn't keep you on your toes.”

“Well, you certainly do that.” He glanced down at the beef. “But you need to put on a pretty dress and go out and whoop it up. Haven't you got any friends, dammit?”

“I have a few college pals I see now and then, but I'm too busy to keep in touch. Besides, I like being with you guys. I don't need anyone else.” She shook her head. “Stop frowning. It's the truth. I'm lucky. It's not as if I sit around my house and brood. I go to plays and baseball games and movies. Hell, you and Edna went to a movie with me last week. People who like their jobs tend to socialize with coworkers. What's different about me?”

“You ought to have someone to take care of you.”

“Chauvinist.”

“I am not. Everyone should have someone. Edna takes care of me. I take care of her. We both take care of the kids. It's the way life should be.”

She smiled. “You bet it should. But sometimes life doesn't cooperate. After Aunt Marguerite died I found out I was something of a loner. Not that I wasn't before. She did her best, but she wasn't the warmest person in the world. The closest I've ever really come to a real family was when I was here at Number Ten.” She made a face at him. “So stop trying to kick me out.”

“Well, if you feel that way, do something about it. We miss you. I think you miss us. Why the devil don't you give up that job and come back to where you belong? You had the makings of a great firefighter, Kerry.”

“That's not what you said on that first day I came here.”

“I had a right to be skeptical. How was I to know you weren't some women's lib fanatic who might get one of us killed to prove a point? You didn't look like you could carry a miniature poodle out of a burning building.”

“And you found out that I'm stronger than I look. It's all in knowing the technique. I knew I had to pull my weight and I did it.”

“Yes, you did. That's why I'm telling you to come back where you belong.”

“I'm better off where I am.”

He sighed. “With that dumb dog. I hear the department wouldn't even accept him until he found evidence in the Wadsworth fire.”

“They didn't understand his potential. I got him from the pound and he had problems adjusting to discipline.”

“Butterflies.”

She nodded. “He gets distracted.” She reached for another mushroom. “But I can focus him on the—”

The alarm bell was blaring.

“Duty calls.” Charlie turned off the burner and strode out of the kitchen. “See you, Kerry.”

She followed him out of the kitchen and watched them hurry into their gear. “I'll finish the stroganoff. It'll be ready when you get back.”

“The hell you will,” Paul said. “I remember your cooking. We'll wait for Charlie.”

“You're not so good yourself,” Kerry said. “Okay, I'll let you starve. Sam and I were going to go to the children's ward at Grady's later, but I might as well go now. I can't do—” She was talking to air. The guys had left the room, and a moment later she heard the fire truck roaring out of the station and down the street.

Jesus, the room felt empty.

And, Jesus, she wished she were on that fire truck with them, every nerve and muscle alive and geared to the job ahead.

Stop wishing for something that was out of reach. She'd made her decision and it was a good one. She'd have ended up a basket case if she hadn't distanced herself after Smitty died. She was still too close, but she could survive.

“Come on, Sam,” she called into the kitchen. “Let's go visit the kids.”

Sam didn't come.

She went back into the kitchen and found him with his nose under the cabinet trying to scrounge a piece of beef Charlie had dropped on the floor.

“Sam.”

He looked up with his head pressed sidewise on the floor. He looked perfectly ridiculous.

She shook her head as she chuckled. “A little dignity, please. Come on, let's go.”

He didn't move.

She got a piece of meat from the frying pan and tossed it to him. He lunged upward and caught it. Then he trotted toward her with a doggy smile on his face.

She stooped and leashed him.

“I thought you weren't supposed to give arson dogs treats anytime except when they came up with a scent.”

She glanced up warily to see Dave Bellings, the tech repairman, standing in the doorway. He'd been a fireman before he injured his leg and was forced to take disability. Now he was a skilled computer technician focusing on the equipment here and at other firehouses in the county. “You're not supposed to give them extra treats. But Sam's different.” And she'd almost been busted. She was lucky it had only been Dave. “It works for him.”

“You can't argue with success.” Dave patted Sam's black silky head as he went past him to the coffee dispenser. “He deserves a little pampering.”

“Where's the fire?”

“Standard Tire warehouse on the south side. Three-alarm.”