An Ember To Bear (Fire Bear Shifters 5) Read online

  Her grand plans came to a screeching halt when Mr. Stewart laughed in her face.

  “You? Adopt a child? You must be joking,” he’d said.

  Mindy had been taken aback by his reaction. She’d tried to present him with evidence that a single woman could raise a child on her own. She’d pored over research articles and found case studies of orphans who had been adopted by single parents and led successful lives. But Mr. Stewart had refused to listen. He had continued to insist that a single parent, especially a single woman, couldn’t provide a child with the stability that he or she needed.

  Mindy pulled into the parking lot of the orphanage and smoothed the fabric of her dress as she stepped out of the car. She grabbed the folder of information she had prepared, and flipped through it quickly to make sure it contained everything she needed. She had compiled evidence of her responsibility, putting in records of everything in her life that she thought might possibly indicate stability. She had copies of her nursing school transcripts—straight As! She’d made copies of her tax returns for the last three years, showing that she had the income to support a child. She brought her annual reviews from work, so Mr. Stewart could see the glowing reviews she received from her managers. She had her bank statements, to show that she managed her accounts responsibly and had money in savings. She’d printed out numerous articles she’d read on child development, to prove that she would take the happiness and health of her young charge seriously. She had brought along every document she could think of that might convince Mr. Stewart to let her adopt one of those precious children.

  Mindy took a deep breath, held her head up high, and marched into the orphanage. The building was an old elementary school that had been converted into a children’s home, and it was clean and bright, if a bit sterile. Shoe cubbies neatly lined the entryway, and the floor and walls were spotless. Mr. Stewart treated the children with kindness and respect, but he did run a tight ship. With twenty-seven kids of varying ages running around, Mindy couldn’t fault him for that. Things could get out of control easily if he let them.

  As she walked down the hallway, her black kitten heels clicked on the hard floor, and tiny heads started poking out of the doorways to inspect the noise.

  “Miss Mindy, Miss Mindy!” a chorus of little voices started cheering. Within moments, Mindy was surrounded by tiny arms, all jostling to get the closest spot next to their beloved friend.

  “I lost a tooth!” six-year-old Emma proudly proclaimed, smiling widely to show off the gap in her mouth.

  “You did, indeed,” Mindy said, inspecting Emma’s smile. “What a big girl you are. You’re growing up too quickly!”

  Emma’s little chest puffed in pride at being called a big girl, and she continued to smile with her teeth showing, so that everyone could see just what a big girl she really was.

  “Miss Mindy, we got a new toy for the playground this week. It’s a big green sambox!” four-year-old Drew said, tugging on Mindy’s arm with excitement.

  “A sambox?” Mindy asked, unsure of what Drew was referring to.

  “He means a sandbox,” twelve-year-old Anna interrupted, rolling her eyes in that particularly impatient way that all twelve-year-old girls seem to have mastered.

  “Oh! A sandbox. How fun,” Mindy said.

  Drew beamed. “It’s my new favorite toy,” he said. “I wuv the sambox.”

  “Sandbox,” Anna corrected again, letting out a long sigh. Drew just smiled up at her and nodded.

  “Sambox.”

  Mr. Stewart, hearing the commotion, stuck his head out from his office at the end of the long hallway. He glanced at his watch disapprovingly, and Mindy resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She was maybe two minutes late. Maybe.

  “Alright, my little lovebugs, I need to talk to Mr. Stewart for a few minutes. I’ll be back to play with you in a little bit,” Mindy said.

  “Aw, but I wanna play now,” Emma said, sticking her lower lip out in a little pout. Mindy squeezed her shoulder.

  “I know. But I have to talk to him first. We can play soon, and I promise we’ll have lots of fun. We can even do another tea party with your bears,” Mindy said.

  Emma started jumping up and down in excitement, and ran off down the hallway screaming, “Tea party, tea party, tea party!”

  Mindy cringed, expecting Mr. Stewart to yell at Emma to stop running and use an inside voice, but he had already disappeared back into his office. She quickly scurried after him.

  “Shut the door, Mindy,” he said, barely looking up from a document on his desk that he was reviewing.

  Mindy shut the door, and then took a seat in one of the stiff, faux leather chairs that stood across from Mr. Stewart’s desk. She waited patiently for him to finish reading, although she was sure he was only making her wait to make some sort of point about how busy he was and how inconvenienced he had been by her tardiness. After several long, awkward minutes, he finally looked up.

  “So, how can I help you?” he asked.

  Mindy straightened her back and smiled brightly. “Well, I think you might have an idea of why I wanted to meet with you today. As you know, I’m very interested in adopting one of the children in your orphanage.”

  “And, as you know,” Mr. Stewart interrupted, “I don’t believe a single, working woman can provide the stability needed for a child. Who would take care of the child? How will you provide for the financial needs of the child? And who will be a father figure?”

  Mindy bit her bottom lip to keep her angry words at bay. She believed there was a special place in hell for people like Mr. Stewart, who so clearly looked down on working women. But that was his problem. She wasn’t here to argue with him. She was here to lay down some cold hard facts.

  “I can provide plenty of stability,” Mindy said, and started pulling out her tax returns and bank documents. As you can see, I have a steady job with an income that makes me capable of supporting two people. And I live near one of the best elementary schools in Red Valley, which also boasts a top notch after school care program. The child would be well taken care of even on the days I have to work. As for a father figure, I know plenty of men who are fond of children and could provide a good male role model. I work closely with doctors and male nurses, and I know there are several good male teachers at the school near my house.”

  Mindy paused for a moment, and then added, “I also know a firefighter.”

  That last comment stretched into white lie territory. She did technically know a firefighter—but he was a smokejumper whom she hoped to never see again. Mr. Stewart didn’t need to know that, though.

  Mr. Stewart frowned, and started flipping through Mindy’s financial information.

  “You’ve only got ten thousand dollars in your savings account,” he said.

  Mindy frowned. She thought ten thousand dollars and no debt was a pretty good cushion. How much did Mr. Stewart expect her to have? She had worked her ass off, scrimping and saving, to build up that nice little rainy day fund.

  “I can survive several months on ten grand,” Mindy pointed out. “My job is very secure, but even if I were to be laid off for some reason, I should be able to find another job quickly. There’s a shortage of good nurses around here.”

  Mr. Stewart frowned, and leaned back in his seat. “I tell you what, Mindy. I know you really want to adopt. And you’ve obviously worked hard to build a good life for yourself and learn as much about children as you can. If you get that savings account up to fifty thousand, then I’ll let you adopt.”

  Mindy coughed in disbelief. “Fifty thousand dollars? That will take me years to save!”

  “Then I suggest you start now,” Mr. Stewart said with a smirk. “Was there anything else I could help you with?”

  Mindy was seething on the inside, but she forced herself to remain calm. She gathered up her papers and stuffed them back into her folder in a disorganized clump, then left Mr. Stewart’s office. She shut his door behind her and leaned against the wall of the hallway,
taking deep breaths to calm herself. He knew that getting fifty thousand dollars in a savings account would be next to impossible for her. It had taken her three years of incredibly frugal living to scrape together the ten thousand she had now.

  She should just give up on this agency and find a new orphanage. There were plenty of places in California where the directors would be more open minded, and would actually be excited to place a child in a loving, stable home. Why had she decided to volunteer at the one place where the director was a total prick? She squeezed her eyes shut and tilted her head up toward the ceiling, slapping the palm of her empty hand against the cold wall behind her. This had been a waste of time. She would find somewhere else to go.

  Just as quickly as she made that decision, she changed her mind. Or, rather, a tiny four-year-old boy with an adorably freckled face changed her mind. When she felt a tiny hand grasping hers, she looked down and saw Drew’s hopeful face looking up at her.

  “Miss Mindy? Can you play in the sambox now?” he asked.

  Mindy’s heart broke a little as she looked down at his innocent face. “Yes, sweet pea. I can play in the sandbox now.”

  She let Drew lead her out to the backyard, and they were joined along the way by Emma, who held three stuffed bears and a plastic teacup in her arms.

  “Teddy wants a tea party in the sandbox,” Emma explained.

  Mindy smiled and took one of the bears from Emma. “Then Teddy should have a tea party in the sandbox. Come on.”

  Mindy didn’t often dwell on negative feelings, but she felt hatred for Mr. Stewart bubbling up in her chest. He didn’t deserve to be in charge of these sweet children if he was going to deny them a forever home based on his own stupid prejudices. But she would prove to him that his prejudices were misplaced. She didn’t know how, but she would find a way to get together the money Mr. Stewart required.

  These kids deserved someone going to bat for them, and fighting for them. Mindy was ready to fight.

  Chapter Six

  When Mindy finally arrived home that night, her body had reached a state of complete exhaustion. All she wanted to do was collapse into bed, even though it wasn’t even ten o’clock yet. But her mind wouldn’t stop racing. She kept running over figures in her head, trying to figure out where she could scrimp or save even more to build up her nest egg even quicker. She tried to guess what her future raises or bonuses might be, but even when she estimated on the high side, she was coming up short. As she went over numbers in her head, one thing became clear—if she wanted to grow her savings account to fifty thousand dollars within the next decade, she was going to need to bring in some extra income on the side.

  Mindy sat on her couch in her dark townhome, and started running a string of Google searches on her smartphone: “make extra money,” “ways to bring in extra income,” “grow savings faster.” Her mind started spinning with all of the options the internet was throwing at her.

  She closed her eyes, and tried to just focus on breathing for a moment. There had to be a way to make this work, and she wouldn’t give up until she found it. She would sort through her options, until she found the one that worked.

  A few moments later, her phone beeped loudly, telling her that she had a text message. Her eyes flew open, and she looked down at the caller ID. To her surprise, she saw the name Bailey Webb displayed on the screen. Bailey had been a patient of hers at the hospital after a recent hotel fire in Red Valley. Bailey had been in Red Valley for a work trip, and didn’t know anyone. Since all of Bailey’s things had burned up in the fire, Mindy had loaned her a hundred dollars to help her out. Bailey hadn’t even had an ID to get back home to Washington D.C., where she was from. Bailey had seemed grateful, but Mindy hadn’t heard from Bailey since the day she left the hospital. Mindy had begun to think that she might never see the loaned money again, but she had decided to just consider it a good deed. Bailey had been through a lot, and paying Mindy back was probably not the top thing on her mind. Mindy let it go, and hoped that the good karma she had sown would eventually come back to her.

  But now, Bailey had texted Mindy to tell her that she was still in Red Valley, and was planning to stay in the area indefinitely. She wanted to know if Mindy was free to meet for coffee the next morning so that she could pay back the money she had borrowed. The next day happened to be Mindy’s day off from the hospital, so she texted Bailey back to accept her invitation. In some small way, she took it as a sign from the universe that everything was going to be okay. Here was a hundred dollars that she had considered lost. It was the first hundred of the extra forty thousand that she needed. It wasn’t much, but it was a start—and it was just the hint of encouragement that Mindy needed.

  The next day, Mindy met Bailey bright and early at The Sweet Crust.

  “Hey, Mindy,” Bailey said, stretching her arms out to give her a hug. “It’s so good to see you. Thanks for coming out to meet me.”

  “Are you kidding?” Mindy answered. “I wouldn’t miss a chance for coffee and pie at The Sweet Crust. I love this place.”

  “Me too,” Bailey said with a mischievous smile. “Especially now that I’m dating one of the owner’s friends.”

  “Wait what? You’re dating someone?” Mindy asked with a grin. “That didn’t take long. Although, I can’t say I’m surprised with someone as beautiful as you. Now I see why you’re staying in Red Valley! Who’s the lucky guy?”

  “Actually, you’ve met him. He’s the firefighter who saved me from the burning hotel, and then brought me pie when I was in the hospital. His name is Trevor.”

  “No way! That guy?” Mindy asked. Mindy had actually discovered The Sweet Crust pie shop because of the pie Trevor had delivered to the hospital while Bailey was staying there.

  Bailey blushed, and looked down at her coffee. “Yeah, that guy. It’s a little crazy, but actually, a lot has changed for me in the week or two since I met you. I quit my job, even before I knew I was going to be dating Trevor. Nearly dying in a fire made me realize that I was wasting my life on something that I didn’t even care about. Then Trevor and I started dating, and we really hit it off. I decided to stay here, and open a jewelry business. I saw a bunch of vendors at a farmers’ market in San Francisco selling handmade jewelry. Selling jewelry is something I’ve always wanted to try, but never had the courage to do. But I took a leap of faith, and I’ve already got a booth reserved at the farmers market next week. I’ve been busy all week making jewelry to sell at the booth. I also set up an online shop, and orders have been flooding in through there. I’m amazed at how quickly it’s taken off, but it just confirms for me that I made the right decision in following my heart and staying here. My biggest problem right now is figuring out how to keep up with all of the orders. I think I need to hire an assistant.”

  “I’m so happy for you, Bailey,” Mindy said. “It sounds like you’ve used a bad situation as a chance to really turn your life around.”

  Bailey nodded. “Yeah, it was a little rough getting everything sorted out, but it was worth it. I decided to sell most of my stuff back in D.C., and only have the most important things shipped to me. I don’t have a ton of storage space where I’m living right now, so it was a good chance to get my life in order. And, in the middle of all this chaos, one of the things that slipped to the back burner was paying you back. I’m really sorry about that,” Bailey said, as she reached for her purse that was hanging on the back of her chair. She pulled out her wallet and fished out a crisp hundred dollar bill, then slid the money across the table to Mindy.

  “Thank you so much for loaning me the money, even though I was pretty much a complete stranger,” Bailey said. “It made a huge difference for me in those first few days.”

  “It was nothing,” Mindy said. “It’s not even that much money, and you seemed like a genuinely nice person who really needed help. I’m sure you would’ve done the same for me if the roles had been reversed.”

  “I’d like to think so,” Bailey said. “Although, you n
ever know how you’ll react in the situation until you’re in it. The way you reacted shows how much character you have.”

  “Well, I’m so glad I had the chance to meet you, and I’m so glad to hear that you’ll be staying around here,” Mindy said. “I don’t have that many girlfriends, since working at the hospital makes it hard to have time to get out and meet people. I would be more than happy to make grabbing coffee and pie at The Sweet Crust a regular thing.”

  Bailey laughed. “You won’t get any resistance from me if you want to set up a regular coffee and pie date.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Mindy said. “Now, tell me about your new boy toy. I can’t believe you’re dating a firefighter. And, if I remember correctly, that guy who dropped off the pie for you was one of the hottest firefighters I’ve ever seen.” As soon as Mindy said the words, she involuntarily thought that she’d seen some sexy firemen in her day, but none of them could compare to the way Zach looked. Mindy felt a little horrified that she had even let that thought cross her mind. All she really knew about Zach was that he was a smokejumper and a really obnoxious drunk. She definitely shouldn’t be daydreaming about him. Mindy furrowed her brow and frowned, but Bailey didn’t seem to notice as she kept talking about her new romance with Trevor.

  “Yeah, you know what the funny thing is, though? He’s not a normal firefighter like the ones that work at the station. He was volunteering at the station when the hotel fire broke out, but he’s actually a smokejumper. Basically, he fights wildfires by parachuting out of the plane to the front lines of the fire. It sounds crazy, and scary, but he seems to love it. He even convinced me to go skydiving with him, which I have to admit was the experience of a lifetime. I was terrified, but I’m glad I did it and got a small taste of what he does. His job is pretty badass, but I know I’m going to worry about him this summer when the wildfire season starts and he’s jumping out of planes all the time.”