Strike a Match

by Fiona Riley

  “Oh, wow. She saw you interacting with little kids while all firefighter-y? Nice work, Sash.” Samantha patted her on the shoulder. “That explains date number two.”

  Sasha feigned offense. “Are you saying I couldn’t have snagged a second date night without adorable children learning how to prevent forest fires?”

  Samantha gave her a knowing smile. “I’m saying that Abby isn’t just like every other girl—she takes a little more finesse to figure out. Clearly, you’re on the right path. Tell me about date number two.”

  Sasha was glad Samantha seemed to think she was on to something with Abby. “We had a private glassblowing session last week at a studio I frequent from time to time.”

  “That sounds—”

  “Hot,” Sasha interjected. “It was. Five alarm hot. For sure.”

  Samantha’s perfect teeth were on display when she smiled this time. “That’s excellent news.” She seemed to consider something for a moment before adding, “You and Abby are a great physical match—that won’t be an issue for you. Can I make a suggestion?”

  “I’m all ears.” Sasha wanted to hear this. When the notorious Miss Match offered to give you dating advice, you listened.

  “Don’t lose sight of what brought you to my office originally. You have had lots of great—let’s call them moments—with plenty of women, but you told me you wanted something more than that. Something that mirrored your parents’ relationship. You wanted a life partner. Don’t let yourself forget the importance of that. Abby may very well be that person, but you may have to do the work outside of the bedroom, too.”

  Sasha let this statement sink in. Samantha had a way about her that kept these sorts of conversations from feeling preachy. It didn’t offend Sasha that Samantha reminded her of their first few meetings—if anything, it made her feel very secure in her choices. Samantha seemed to have her best interests in mind, even when Sasha lost track along the way. “Thank you, I appreciate that insight.”

  “I’m here to help. Let me know if I can do anything else for you, but I’m glad it’s working out.” Samantha gave her a hug. “Keep me posted—I want all the juicy details. All of them.”

  “Will do.” Sasha watched Samantha leave and thought back to where she’d been fifteen months ago, taking a dare with the hopes of maybe finding a perfect match in the process. She wondered if she and Abby would burn too bright and fizzle out before what they had became something more. She hoped—for once—that this fire would continue to burn for a very long time.

  Her phone rang—her mother. She checked the time and decided she could squeeze in a quick call before she had to team back up with Burger for the second half of their day.

  “Hey, Ma. What’s up?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Abby’s hand hurt from all the signatures she’d signed today. It seemed like every meeting required her to sign off on or approve some ungodly amount of spending—her brain felt like mush. She should have known when she looked at the calendar that today would be her quarterly review day for the foundation. But truthfully, her mind had been elsewhere for the past week.

  Talking to Sasha this morning before work had done nothing to help organize her thoughts. If anything, she was more distracted than usual. Her phone vibrated on the table, and she reached for it just as Evelyn walked in with a new stack of forms for her to sign. The phone would have to wait.

  “All right, Ms. Rossmore, here are the last of the grant approvals for this year. Color coded and organized, just like you like them.” Evelyn had been with her family’s foundation for the past fifteen years. She made sure everything was organized, on time, and brand representative of the Davenport name.

  “You’re too good to me, Evelyn.” She took the stack and separated them. Evelyn had outlined each document with flags for Abby’s signature, so she could skim the content. These forms were nothing new—only the recipients of the grants and the amounts changed over time. The process was long and arduous, but Abby’s involvement was—thankfully—minimal. The board decided whose applications were accepted, and all she needed to do was make sure the money was there to allocate. And sign off on them, of course.

  Abby flipped through the stack and made sure her initials were on all the necessary lines before she handed them back to Evelyn with a sigh. “It’s a pleasure doing business with you, Evelyn.”

  “I’ll make sure copies make it into this quarter’s files. They will be up on the cloud tonight.” Evelyn filed them into a neat folder and stowed them into her leather attaché case.

  “That little briefcase makes you look like a secret agent, Evelyn, darling.” Abby’s mother entered the room with a broad grin. “My two favorite ladies. How are you today?”

  Evelyn gave Abby a confused glance. “Very well, Mrs. Davenport.”

  “Edie. It’s Edie. It’s been Edie since you started here, Secret Agent Evelyn.” She put her hand on Evelyn’s shoulder and asked, “How long has it been now?”

  “Fifteen years,” Abby replied from her seat at the conference room table.

  “Ah, my math genius strikes again.” Edie settled into the seat across from her. “How’d it go today? Everything in order? Grant day is my favorite day of the quarter.”

  As much as her mother loved the expensive and beautiful things that she surrounded herself with, Abby had to admit she gave away as much as she spent. Her mother’s selflessness was what had driven her to get into the nonprofit accounting business to begin with. It was nice to be able to share the wealth, so to speak. If she was being honest, grant day was one of her favorite days as well.

  “A great new crop of applicants this quarter, Mrs., er, Edie.” Evelyn pushed the glasses up her nose and read the summary sheet that she attached to every batch of quarterly forms. She had been a bookkeeper in a past life and that was an invaluable asset to Abby, particularly for days like these. Evelyn never missed a single form, staple, or tittle. You could set your watch by her.

  “That’s great news. So I assume all the community outreach we’ve done of late is working, then?” She directed her question to no one in particular.

  “I’d assume so. The board attached a brief note stating as much, but I missed the meeting last week so I’d have to check the minutes for details.” Abby handed the pen to Evelyn and she excused herself, leaving Abby and her mother alone in the high-rise conference room.

  “Oh? You never miss a board meeting. Everything okay?”

  Her mother inspected her manicure as she spoke. Abby hoped she would be too preoccupied to notice her shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

  “Uh. No. I mean, yes. Everything is fine, I just had a…” Abby wasn’t quite sure she was ready to open this Pandora’s box with her mother. The truth was she’d missed the board meeting because Sasha had invited her to the school safety thing. She couldn’t remember ever having skipped a board meeting before. There seemed to be a lot of those—firsts—these days.

  Her mother’s attention was directed at her now. “A what?”

  Abby looked everywhere but her mother’s face. “A date.”

  Edie leaned forward. “A date. With whom? Wait.” She clapped her hands excitedly. “It’s that dashing Sasha woman, isn’t it?”

  Abby sighed. There was no use avoiding the inevitable. She found Edie’s blue eyes looking at her expectantly and she replied, “Yes.”

  Her mother squealed with excitement. “Oh, goody. Tell me all about it. How has it been going? When can I meet her?”

  “Whoa, Mom. Pump the brakes.” Abby’s hands were up in alarm. “Let’s not smother the woman with your expectations of a daughter-in-law and babies.”

  Edie gave her a look. “Don’t be so obtuse, Abigail. I can have grandbabies without a daughter-in-law.” She winked and cackled that carefree laugh that Abby loved so very much.

  “This is true. And yet, unlikely.” Abby stretched in her seat and reached for her phone, long forgotten on the tabletop. “We have a date toni—shit.” The words were bar
ely out of her lips before the frown had settled there. Sasha had texted her. Something had come up and she had to reschedule.

  “What?”

  “Well, we had plans. But those don’t appear to be happening now.” The disappointment was real. Dammit.

  “Oh, honey. I’m sorry.” She knew her mother was being sincere, and that was comforting. Sort of.

  “Me, too.” She had been telling herself all day that Sasha would be the light at the end of the tunnel of this very long week. This very long month. Sasha had been on her mind a lot since their glassblowing date—she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t itching to be under her again.

  “Come over for dinner tonight. We’re having duck.”

  “Who’s we?” Her mother didn’t often speak in plural. The last thing she wanted to do after being stood up for a sexy date with her lady fireman was spend the night with her mother and her bridge partners gossiping about the country club biddies.

  “Luke is coming by. I’d like to formally introduce you. You’ll like him.”

  Scratch that. Having dinner with her mother and her new boyfriend was a thousand times worse than the Brookline Bridge Babes. “I don’t know, Mom.”

  “Abby, come on. You said yourself that your plans have changed. There’s no reason to mope at home when you can socialize with your favorite mother and her new friend, Luke.”

  “You’re my only mother, Mother,” Abby pointed out and already knew she wasn’t getting out of this.

  “All the more reason to humor me and have dinner with us. I’ll make sure to limit the number of baby photos of you that I show him to five. I think five is completely fair.” She nodded to herself as though it were already agreed upon.

  “No baby photos or no deal.”

  “One.” She looked determined.

  “Zero, or I’m eating cold lo mein at home with a Lifetime movie on.”

  “Oh Lord. That’s just depressing, Abby.” Her mother looked scandalized. “Fine. No baby photos. Just promise me you won’t show up in sweatpants nursing a half-eaten box of bonbons.”

  “No promises.”

  *****

  Luke was completely and totally charming. And it was clear her mother genuinely liked him. She wasn’t laughing at his jokes or humoring him in any way with her patented fake laugh—she was one hundred percent interested in what he had to say.

  Abby had to admit that she was, too. He was handsome and very much old-school in his chivalrous ways. He was a great conversationalist and regaled them with stories of his experience as a firefighter and a chief. Everything was going well until he started talking about his current firehouse—Engine 28.

  “Twenty-eight?” Abby rarely spoke with her mouth full, but her surprise negated her charm school training.

  Luke nodded. “Yes, for about five years now.”

  Edie gave her a curious look. “Isn’t that where Sasha works?”

  It was Luke’s turn to look surprised. “You know Sasha?”

  Abby tried not to choke when she swallowed. Why hadn’t she made the correlation before that they worked at the same station? She thought back to the night of the auction—there were many different houses represented between firemen, EMTs, and the like. They were from all over the New England area. What were the chances that Sasha and Luke were from the same house? Evidently, pretty good.

  “Abby and Sasha are dating.” Edie’s timing couldn’t be worse.

  “Dating?” Luke looked between them before he asked, “Wait. I thought you looked familiar. Didn’t you bid on Sasha at the auction?”

  Abby felt like she was being backed into a corner. She said nothing.

  Luke directed his question to Edie. “Why didn’t you tell me that Abby was your daughter that night? I never would have made the connection otherwise.”

  Edie shrugged. “I guess it didn’t seem pertinent. Plus, Abby didn’t want Sasha to know we were related.”

  “Why?” Luke asked. Abby had to remind herself why, because this was getting unnecessarily messy.

  “Because my mother, as you may have noticed, is a Davenport. And I’d like very much to find a partner in life outside of the shadow of my name.” Abby wondered if she sounded like she was trying to convince herself of that. Because the more she got to know Sasha and the closer they got, the more she questioned her initial motives. Why so many walls?

  Luke put down his fork and wiped his mouth, seemingly in contemplation. After a moment he asked, “Sasha has no idea that Edie is your mother, does she?”

  “No.” That same guilt from before came rushing back up.

  Edie huffed and rolled her eyes. “She’s bound to find out eventually. I mean, Abby, you’re dating the woman.”

  “I wouldn’t say that…” They hadn’t discussed what was happening between them. Just that it was happening and happening faster than Abby had expected. “We’re not—, well, I’m not sure what we’re doing.”

  Luke’s brow furrowed. “Sasha’s a great kid. She’s hardworking and she’s extremely dedicated to her family. It hasn’t been easy for her with her parents and their needs. Don’t get me wrong, I give Sasha a hard time from time to time, but it’s because she’s so great—I think of her like a daughter.” He frowned. “She deserves better than to be lied to. You should tell her the truth—it wouldn’t change anything. If she likes you, then she likes you for you.”

  Ouch. That hurt. The last person Abby thought she’d be getting a lecture from was her mother’s new boyfriend, yet it felt like a necessary slap in the face all the same. Luke’s affection for Sasha was clear and so was his statement. She deserved better.

  “I’ll tell her. I will.” Abby felt properly chastised. His comments about Sasha and her devotion to her family seemed specific. She wanted to ask what he meant by that.

  Luke nodded. “How’s she doing anyway? I know she called out for the rest of her shifts this week because her father’s in the hospital again.” His face was somber when he turned to Edie. “It sounded serious. That kid’s had a tough go of it with her father.”

  “Oh, dear.” Edie’s hand was on her heart and Abby felt like she’d been kicked in the stomach. “Why didn’t you mention that earlier, Abby? We should send flowers…”

  “I didn’t know.” Abby hated the shame associated with that statement. She had no idea about Sasha’s family or her father’s illness. Why hadn’t Sasha mentioned it before? Is that why their date had to be canceled? Abby felt awful for being disappointed that their plans fell through. What if Sasha was going through a major personal crisis and Abby was just worried about getting laid the whole time? “I’m an idiot.”

  Luke and her mother gave her confused looks.

  She stood from the table and folded her napkin as she excused herself. “Listen, dinner’s been great. Thanks for having me. Luke, you seem like a great guy, I can see why my mother is crazy about you. I have to head out, but thanks again.”

  Edie began to protest but Abby stopped her. “Mom, I love you. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  She grabbed her jacket and slipped out the front door into the night, more confused and lost than she had ever been.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The beeps of the monitors and whooshing sound of the ventilator had begun to sound like some haunting symphonic lullaby. Sasha looked at the clock on the other side of the hospital room and sighed. There had been no change in forty-eight hours.

  She leaned back in her chair and balanced her heels on the end of her father’s hospital bed. She was going to be alone for a bit—her mother had gone home to check on the house and do some laundry. Sasha was sure she was also cooking her father’s favorite meals for when he woke up. If he woke up. Sasha felt nauseous just thinking about the possibility of him not waking up. It was unbelievable how quickly things had changed. Just two days ago she was in a training session, teasing Burger and chatting with Samantha at the firehouse when her mother called to tell her that her father had to be rushed to the emergency room—he was c
oughing up blood and looked pale. She’d rushed out of the station and met them at the hospital. Aside from a trip or two home to shower, she’d been there ever since.

  Her pocket vibrated; it was a text from Abby. She smiled, grateful for the distraction.

  How are you?

  Sasha drafted a whole text and deleted it, deciding to text only Okay instead. But she wasn’t okay. She was scared.

  Uh-oh. Deleted text bubbles. This is serious. I’m coming over. Where are you?

  Sasha laughed. Abby had reached out to her the night Sasha had to cancel their plans. She filled her in on what was happening, sort of. She didn’t know anything at the time, but she knew she had to be here for her parents. Abby had been checking in regularly since then. It was nice to not feel like she was doing this alone.

  At the hospital, hanging with Dad

  There was a pause before Abby wrote back.

  What can I bring? Clothes? Food? All the rum? ;)

  Sasha appreciated the winky face and the offer of copious amounts of alcohol. Her stomach grumbled in response.

  I’m starving. Donations of food are being accepted.

  Abby’s reply was immediate.

  On it. What hospital are you at? What room?

  Sasha texted her back the location and room number and let out a heavy sigh. She felt exhausted, like even breathing was difficult. She looked back at her father and wondered if he felt the same way. The tubes coming out of his nose and mouth looked uncomfortable, but they were keeping him alive all the same. She wondered if he would want this, to be kept alive by machines. They had avoided end-of-life planning for the longest time, but now that seemed like a foolish oversight.

  She closed her eyes and tried to calm the panic that was bubbling up inside her.

  “Sasha?” She felt a hand on her forearm. She blinked her eyes open. It was darker out. She must have fallen asleep in the chair. Abby was kneeling in front of her, her expression tender. “Hey there.”