Hero in Her Heart. Marta Perry

and she’d do even more once she had the grant. So she wasn’t about to give up on Gabe Flanagan, no matter how much he’d like her to.

      The elevator doors swished open, and she stepped into a long hallway, empty except for one person. Her stomach clenched. Brendan Flanagan. The Reverend Brendan Flanagan.

      “Nolie, hi.” His smile held a tinge of surprise. “What brings you here?”

      She rejected the impulse to lie to him. “I wanted to speak with Chief Donovan. Is his office on this floor?”

      Brendan nodded toward a door. “It is, but he isn’t in right now. Can I help you?”

      “I don’t think so.” Her grand plan seemed to be dissolving. “Maybe I can make an appointment to see him later.”

      He hesitated, his eyebrows lifting in a question. “Is this about Gabe?”

      He wouldn’t believe her if she said no. She nodded.

      “Maybe I can help, unless it’s something official.” His smile was deprecating. “Even though I’m the department chaplain, they don’t really trust me with official business.”

      He didn’t look much like a chaplain in his rumpled khakis and navy pullover. He might be another of the young firefighters she’d seen downstairs.

      “I really need to talk with someone about Gabe.” She pushed her discomfort out of the way. This was too important to let her own hang-ups stop her. “Someone impartial.”

      He considered for a moment, weighing her words gravely. “Well, I’m not completely impartial. Gabe is my cousin, as well as my friend. But I think I can be objective about him.” He smiled. “Unlike the rest of the Flanagans, I might add.”

      She managed a small smile in return. “They are certainly…supportive, I guess you could say.”

      “I’m not sure that’s what Gabe would say, but it’ll do.” He gestured toward the end of the hall. “There’s a break room here. I’ll get you a cup of coffee, and you can tell me what you need to know about my cousin.”

      She didn’t want to spend any more time than she had to in his company, but Brendan seemed genuine enough. And the prize she had to win was worth facing a few dragons, wasn’t it?

      “Thanks. I appreciate that.”

      The few minutes it took to settle themselves at a small table in the empty lounge let her organize her thoughts. She wrapped her fingers around the cup Brendan handed her and tried to look at him without thinking of him as a minister.

      It was easier than she’d have expected, probably because he didn’t look like any minister she’d ever met, not that she’d met that many. Brother Joshua had been enough for a lifetime.

      “What can I tell you about Gabe?” Brendan pushed back the lock of dark hair that tumbled toward the rims of his glasses.

      She reconsidered her view of him. With his serious, studious expression and his glasses, he looked more like a young professor than either a firefighter or a minister.

      “I’m trying to find the best way to work with Gabe,” she said carefully. She had to keep in mind that this was Gabe’s cousin. “So far I’m finding that he’s—”

      She stopped. Too attractive for his own good? Too appealing to be alone with? She didn’t want to go there.

      “In complete denial,” Brendan said.

      She gave him a look of surprised gratitude. “Yes, he is. I thought I was the only one who saw that.”

      Brendan frowned down at the dark coffee in his cup. “Siobhan does, I think, but probably no one else in the family. As for the chief—well, I know he has a desk job lined up for Gabe, in the event he can’t go back on active duty.”

      She turned that over in her mind, wondering. “Do you think Gabe would accept that?”

      “Not for a minute.”

      This time his answer didn’t surprise her.

      “He’s certainly determined to get back to work. So much so that I’m afraid it’s influencing his attitude toward working with me.”

      Brendan grinned. “You mean he’s so bullheaded that he can’t see anything but his own objective.”

      “Something like that.”

      “You have to understand.” He leaned across the table toward her, eyes intent. “Gabe’s a warrior. Always has been. An old-fashioned knight in shining armor rushing to rescue the helpless. That’s what being a firefighter means to him.”

      The image warmed her. “You care a lot about him.”

      “Like a brother. All Flanagans have fire fighting in the blood, but Gabe most of all.” His brows drew together. “The thing is, if Gabe can’t be a firefighter—” He stopped and shook his head, his eyes dark and serious. “If Gabe can’t be a firefighter, I don’t think he’ll know who he is.”

      Brendan’s words were still ringing in Nolie’s ears as she set up an obstacle course on the lawn behind the house later in the afternoon. That conversation had gone a lot better than she’d expected, on several counts.

      She’d gotten over her instinctive need to escape from him. She hadn’t even winced when he’d taken her hand and told her he’d be praying for her.

      And he’d given her a glimmer of an idea. His description of Gabe as a knight rescuing the helpless had clicked into place. Of course that’s what he was—a modern-day knight. She just had to find a way of working his need to help and rescue into his training.

      She tested the white picket gate she’d set up, making sure it was stable. Max nosed against it, as if remembering his lessons, then trotted off to join Lady in investigating an interesting smell under the willow tree. A bee buzzed lazily past her toward the old-fashioned lilac bush next to the back porch, and the lilac’s aroma perfumed the air.

      A perfect spring day—meant for lazing in a hammock, not indulging in a case of the nerves over what she had to do. She heard one car pull into the lane, and then another, and took a deep, settling breath.