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The man was spouting water out his mouth as he flailed around. Good God, did he not know how to swim? He definitely wasn’t a local, because everyone in Lake Bittersweet grew up knowing how to handle a plunge into the lake.
Jason jogged down the pier, stripping off his outer layer as he went. “Fire department, coming through,” he called so everyone would get out of his way.
“Help!” the man in the water screamed. “Someone help me! I’m drowning!”
“Dude! It’s not that deep! You’re not going to drown!” Kendra called to him.
“What the hell?” Jason murmured to Kendra as he ran up alongside her. Her eyes were wide and shining with mischief.
“You can practically touch the bottom here! He’s being ridiculous.”
“Help!!”
Jason stripped down to his t-shirt then he executed a smooth dive into the water, landing a safe distance from the splashing man overboard. Goddamn, it was cold. He gave himself a moment for his breath to catch up with the shock.
“Here! Over here, you moron!” the stranger yelled, as if Jason had missed the mark and was supposed to land directly on top of him.
“Don’t panic, I got you. I’m a firefighter. Stop moving your arms like that, you’re only making things worse.”
In a moment, Jason had him in a lifeguard’s hold and was frog-kicking toward the shoreline. The onlookers broke into applause as the two of them staggered onto the pebbly beach, where the man collapsed into a shivering heap. “Firefighter, you said?”
“Yeah, but around here we end up doing our fair share of water rescues too. You okay, man?”
“Looks like I’m alive.” He shuddered and wrung lake water from his tie. A tie. Who was this guy, anyway? He looked up at the audience lining the dock, and gave a resigned sigh. “Not a great first impression. Tell me something, firefighter. Who’s up there? Anyone important?”
Weird way to put it. Wasn’t everyone important? “Much of the town,” he told the drenched stranger. “It’s okay, no one’s going to hold it against you. You wouldn’t be the first to drink a little too much and end up in the lake.”
The man shook water from his hair. “Help me up, man. I need to say a thing or two to that bitch up there. She fucking knocked me overboard.”
“Oh yeah? How much have you had to drink? Should we check your blood alcohol level?”
“I’m sobered up now,” he growled. But his attempt to get to his feet went nowhere except back on his ass.
Jason put some steel in his voice. “I’ll help you stand up, but don’t go picking any fights. Just go back to wherever you’re staying and take a shower. That’s my advice.”
The man took a swing at him—he really got aggressive when he was drunk—but Jason caught his arm by the wrist. “You’d really better get a grip on yourself, dude. Around here, firefighters are frontline law enforcement. I can bring you in to the lockup if you keep acting like an idiot.”
“Are you threatening to arrest me?” he hissed. “You’re going to regret that when I’m your new boss.”
“What?”
“New fire chief. You’re looking at him.”
Jason watched him stagger upright, then lurch toward the terrace. At least he wasn’t going in Kendra’s direction anymore.
So they’d gone and hired someone without even giving Jason a chance to interview. Sharp disappointment shot through him as he slowly got to his feet. Now that it was off the table, he realized that he really, desperately, wanted the fire chief job.
What did that guy have that he didn’t?
Well, a silk tie, for one.
A gut full of lake water, for another.
“Jason!” Betty called his name as she clambered down from the terrace to the beach. “I saw everything, and I have some questions.”
Eight
Kendra had never seen Jason like this before. Usually he was so even-keeled. But now he was pacing across the dock, prickly energy pouring off him. It had taken an hour to break down the stage after the last performer wrapped up at ten. The concert had been wonderful, a smash success. Everyone in town had enjoyed themselves—except for a certain unwelcome stranger. And she knew for a fact that Betty Bannister had witnessed her triumph.
