Introduction
This story comes from two sources.
First, Jess is the assistant superintendent of my Leavenworth Hotshot team from my first two Hotshot stories: Fire Light, Fire Bright and The Firelights of Christmas. It seemed to me that he was getting lonely what with his supervisor and his fellow assistant both finding true love in those previous stories.
Second, my sister once introduced me to a good friend of hers who was partnered with a top urban firefighter (both female). This was decades ago when women were still fighting for the legal right to even join a fire department; she was so good that she’d made captain in an atypically progressive department. Though they’ve been together for all this time, they’ve only recently gotten married—now that it’s legal.
I also met their three-
