Small-Town Fireman

The Catch of a Lifetime

Karla Kennedy doesn’t belong in Gordon Falls. The aspiring restaurateur has far loftier goals than running her grandfather’s quaint coffee shop. The only person who seems to relate is handsome volunteer firefighter Dylan McDonald. Dylan understands dreams—he risked everything to start his fishing charter business. Now he needs Karla’s help to make it succeed. As they work together, Karla and Dylan quickly discover that while their timing may be bad, their chemistry is undeniable. Karla always thought of Gordon Falls as a layover on her way to a big-city career, but could it be where her heart truly belongs?

Gordon Falls: Hearts ablaze in a small town

“This’ll get your motor humming.” Karla slid a coffee mug in front of Dylan.

“Go on, try it.” Her eyes were wide and persuasive.

Dylan took a sizable gulp. “Wow,” he said after a long pause. “That is…really…”

He set the cup back down on the counter and pushed it back toward her, smiling.

“…awful.”

Karla laughed. “Wow, don’t hold back on my account, Captain McDonald.”

“Maybe leave this one off the Coffee Catch menu.”

“Coward!” she playfully called as she snatched back the full mug.

“Purist,” he corrected. And just because her pout was so disarming, he added, “but the Captain part? You can keep that. How about you just give me a regular coffee today.”

“Aye, aye, sir. One boring regular coffee, coming up.” With a mile-wide smirk, she scribbled on the check before placing it facedown in front of him. “On the house.”

Smiling, Dylan turned the check to face him. Kaptain Koffee was written in an artistic hand, with a little doodle of fish and bubbles running up the side so the “$0” was the last of the bubbles.

Karla Kennedy sure knew how to bait a hook.

ALLIE PLEITER

Enthusiastic but slightly untidy mother of two, RITA® Award finalist Allie Pleiter writes both fiction and nonfiction. An avid knitter and unreformed chocoholic, she spends her days writing books, drinking coffee and finding new ways to avoid housework. Allie grew up in Connecticut, holds a BS in speech from Northwestern University and spent fifteen years in the field of professional fund-raising. She lives with her husband, children and a Havanese dog named Bella in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois.

Small-Town Fireman

Allie Pleiter

www.millsandboon.co.uk

In their hearts humans plan their course,

but the Lord establishes their steps.

—Proverbs 16:9

To Les, who never made me bait a hook

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

About the Author

Title Page

Bible Verse

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Dear Reader

Discussion Questions

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

Coffee, doughnut. Coffee, doughnut. Coffee, Danish. Tea, toast. Exile.

Karla Kennedy ignored the ache of longing in her gut as she passed by the unused espresso machine to fill yet another basket of everyday coffee grounds for the ordinary brewer. Bringing an espresso machine to Gordon Falls—even the spectacular one Grandpa Karl had bought her as a graduation present—was an exercise in futility. Since her arrival last week, she’d only used the machine for one customer other than herself: a teenager who wouldn’t know a well-pulled latte from a diner milk shake. Everybody else seemed to find the drinks overpriced and unnecessary, preferring the regular brew in Karl’s clunky white mugs.

No one seemed willing to even try something new and refined—pure exile indeed for a foodie like herself. She might as well just give up and start subsisting on potato chips and Pop-Tarts.

A customer was here. All through culinary school, Karla knew she possessed the intuition Grandpa had told her about—the sixth sense that let her know a customer had come up to the counter needing something. “Shop eyes,” Grandpa called it. Sliding the basket of coffee grounds into its place for the hundredth time on the commercial coffee machine, Karla turned and forced the weariness out of her voice before asking, “What’ll it be?”

“Well, what do you recommend?” If his cobalt-blue eyes weren’t enough to startle her, his question did the rest.

She couldn’t help herself. “A trip back down the interstate toward civilization?” Feeling guilty, she amended to “Or the Tuesday special—coffee and...”

“Two doughnuts,” the guy finished for her. “Pretty popular, I see.”

“A Karl’s Koffee Klassic.” Some days Grandpa’s fondness for K-based alliteration was a bit hard to take. She wanted to love the hokey charm of this place as much as everyone else seemed to, but it just wasn’t coming.