Emery was peering over the top of her glasses which were attached to one of those fancy chains around her neck. She wore a perfectly pressed navy skirt that finished just below her knee and sensible black leather shoes with a low heel. Her navy blazer covered her silk cream blouse that was buttoned to her neck. But it was the tightly wound bun on her head that made me think Emery Jones belonged in a library behind the counter scolding kids for talking louder than a whisper.
“Of course, Mrs. Jones. Please come in,” I invited with a wave while Ava cooed. Adjusting her in my arms, I tried to keep her weight from my sore arm. It was fine and I was using it again, I still wasn’t going to push my luck though. I’d spent enough days in the stupid sling.
“It’s Ms. Jones. And thank you,” she corrected before stepping over the threshold and coming inside.
This wasn’t going well.
Forty minutes later, we were sitting on the couch sipping tea. She’d walked through the house, not saying a whole lot but murmuring and making notes on her clipboard. A clipboard I would’ve paid money to sneak a peek at.
“There’s just a few final details I need to confirm,” Emery stated as Ava started to wail.
Picking her up, I realized very quickly what the issue was. Her diaper had leaked all over the back of her pretty pink dress. “Do you mind if I clean her up quickly?”
I didn’t have a choice. Ava would always come first. Always. Even if it wasn’t on Emery’s carefully scripted plot.
“Please go ahead. I’ll wait here,” she replied, and I hurried out of the room, holding Ava at arm’s distance.
While I got Ava cleaned up, something that required a quick change of everything, I talked to her like she could understand me. “You had to do that this morning, didn’t you, pretty girl.” Ava just smiled at me like I was the funniest thing in her world. Once she was dressed into a yellow dress with a white cardigan we headed back out to where Emery was waiting.
“Sorry about that.”
“No worries. We can’t schedule that sort of thing.”
“No, we can’t,” I confirmed, taking my seat on the sofa and holding Ava on my knee like a shield from whatever was coming.
“If you’re right to recommence…”
“Absolutely.”
“Okay. There’re just some things I need to confirm. I understand you own this home?”
“Yes. It was my Grandma’s home. She left it to me a few years ago when she passed.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Emery replied automatically, without emotion.
“Thank you.”
“It says here that you own your own business too?”
“Yes. I own the florist shop on Main Street.”
“And it does well?”
“Yes. We’re the only florist in Sunnyville, so we have the monopoly on weddings, funerals and school dances.” I smiled, desperate to lighten the mood.
“It says here you’re single.”
I winced. Even though it was true, hearing it being said so bluntly stung. “That’s correct,” I confirmed, swallowing down the lump in my throat.
“Hmm,” she murmured, scribbling something on her damn clipboard, rubbing salt into the wound. “Do you have a support network?”
“I have an incredible support network. My best friend Sarah, she works at the hospital and has been amazing. She’s a mother to two young children and been a wealth of information.”
“Anyone else?”
“Sage and Linda are both incredibly supportive and have made it abundantly clear that they’re only a phone call away.”
Flipping through her notes, the silence that hung in the air was suffocating me. “It says here Sage is your employee. Is that correct?”
“Well… ah… yes.”
“And Linda? There’s no mention of Linda in your application. Where does she fit?”
“Linda Higgins is an amazing woman. She’s my friend Zach’s mother. She’s a retired bank teller who’s recently moved from Kellyville. Linda has been helping as Ava’s nanny when I’m working. She adores Ava and treats her like her own grandchild.”
“And Zach? Who’s he?”
I’d been hoping to avoid this. “Zach is actually the fire fighter who…” I looked down at Ava. She couldn’t hear this. Even if she was too young to understand, I never wanted her to hear this. “…Who found her. He stayed with her in the hospital until I was called. He’s deeply fond of her.”
“Just her?” Emery’s eyebrow quirked, and I knew exactly what she was insinuating, and the last thing I needed was for my relationship with Zach to be a deciding factor here.
“Zach and I are friends, obviously. He’s amazing with Ava and I truly believe he loves her. I’d never stand in his way from getting to know her.”
Behind me, my phone rang on the counter.
“Do you need to get that?”
“No, no. It’s fine. Voicemail will get it.”
I don’t know if she was satisfied with my answers about the people in my life, but she moved along.
My phone fell silent but only for a breath before ringing again. After the fourth ring, I apologized and got up to answer it. Whoever it was, was obviously desperate to get a hold of me.
Picking it up, I answered, trying to keep the frustrations out of my voice. “Hello?”
“Lily! Where have you been? I’ve been calling.”
“I am in the middle of something, Sarah. What do you need?”
“You need to get to the shop straight away. There’s been an accident.”
35
ZACH
“Incoming!” I heard yelled out before the bathroom door was pushed open and I dropped my hands to cover my junk, shampoo dribbling down my forehead into my eyes.
“What the fuck, Maddy? Get out! I’m fucking naked!”
“Well obviously, dumbass! I didn’t think you showered in your clothes.”
“Then get out!”
Why the hell was my sister standing in the bathroom door when I was in the shower? We hadn’t shared a bathroom since I was six, and I wasn’t interested in starting now. I was all for saving the environment, but communal showering to save water was a few steps too far for me.
“Calm your tits. It’s not like I want to see that cocktail wiener you’re so fond of,” Maddy replied, still staring at her phone while I tried to snake an arm out of the shower and grab a towel to cover myself.
“Maddy! What do you want?”
“Oh yeah. So, Jake just called…”
“Don’t care. I just woke up from back-to-back night shifts. Someone else’s problem. I’ve got plans,” I cut her off quickly. I didn’t want to know. Today I was sorting shit out with Lily. The world might fall down around me, but that was someone else’s problem. Today getting my girls back was all that mattered.
“If you’d let me finish…”
I knotted the towel around my waist and stepped out onto the mat. Running a hand through my hair, I wasn’t surprised that it was still full of suds. The sooner I could kick Maddy out of the bathroom, the sooner I could finish showering.
“Hurry up then,” I grumbled, folding my arms across my chest.
“There’s been an accident.” I went to reply, but Maddy’s next words stole my breath. “At Lily’s store.”
“What?”
“He’s been blowing up your phone for ten minutes. When he couldn’t get you, he called me.”
“Is Lily…” I couldn’t even get the words out. If I didn’t say them then they wouldn’t be true.
“I don’t know. Jake just asked me to let you know. He thought you’d want to know.” I was already pushing past her out of the bathroom, all thoughts of hot water forgotten. I walked into my bedroom dropped my towel and pulled on the first thing I found. A pair of khaki shorts and navy t-shirt. I didn’t know if they were dirty or clean and frankly, I didn’t give a fuck.
I grabbed my keys and was out the door within a minute.
“Wait up! I’m coming too,” Maddy called
out as she jogged toward the truck still doing up her too-short shorts.
As soon as Maddy was in the front seat, I told her to call Samuels. “See if he can tell you what’s going on.”
Backing out of the drive, she pulled her phone away from her ear. “He’s not answering.”
“Fuck!”
“It’ll be fine, Zach,” Maddy offered weakly. We both knew she didn’t know that. She couldn’t know that. I appreciated her saying it all the same.
“Why’s Samuels got your number anyway?” I asked, turning the corner.
“We’re friends. We talk.” Maddy shrugged like it was nothing. It wasn’t nothing. If Maddy was crushing on someone, this is how she acted. It was when she wasn’t serious, she bounced around, throwing it in my face.
“Hmm. We’ll talk about that later. We’re here.”
I drove too fast but I didn’t care. Turning the corner into Main street, I couldn’t see the florist or any sign of Lily. The rig was there and a couple of cop cars blocking the street, not to mention the busy-body onlookers filling the sidewalks.
Parking illegally out the front of the butcher, I jumped out of the truck and ran towards the florist. I didn’t know what I was expecting but it certainly wasn’t what I found. And from the look of the people standing around, no one else was either. Besides, it’s not something you see every day.
“What the hell?” I pushed past the people gathered on the street and walked straight into Grady who was standing back talking to the paramedics.
“Whoa! You can’t go in there, Higgins,” he told me, nudging me backwards a step or two.
“Fuck off, Malone. Lily’s in there.”
“We don’t know how stable it is. We can’t just run in there. You know the drill.”
“Fuck the drill. There’s a bloody car hanging out the front window of the shop. If Lily’s in there, I’m going in to get her. So, get the hell out of my way.”
Someone tapped me on the shoulder, and I spun around to see Chief standing there. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him on scene, so I knew this one was important.
“Higgins.”
“Chief.”
“I hear you think you’re going in?”
“Lily’s—”
He pointed over my shoulder. “Right over there.”
I spun around so fast I almost tripped over my own feet. I had to wait until Samuels’ big boof head moved out of my way but then there she was. Clinging to Ava, wrapped in her arms, her mouth gaping open and her eyes wide.
Ignoring the directions of the crew, I took long strides towards her, not letting go of the breath I was holding until I was standing right in front of her.
“You’re okay,” I exhaled, feeling my shoulders sag under the weight of relief.
“My store…”
“Can be fixed,” I finished for her. “Are you hurt? Ava?”
“We-we’re fine.”
Lily’s glance flicked from Maddy to me and back again, but she didn’t say a word. Instead, she burrowed her head against my shoulder but only for a second.
“Lily… I’ve got to…”
“Go! Go! I’ll be fine. We’re fine.”
“I’ll be back… and then we’ll—”
“Zach, go!”
I didn’t want to leave them. Technically I wasn’t on shift and I wasn’t even supposed to be here, but there was no way I was going anywhere. Not until everyone was accounted for. Safe and sound. Bending down, I quickly dropped a kiss on Ava’s head before taking Lily’s lips. She tasted like her favorite cherry Chapstick. I couldn’t wait until I could have more. It’d been too long.
“Zach, go! I’ll stay with them,” Maddy offered, moving towards Lily and Ava.
“Higgins!” Someone yelled my name, and I spun around to see Samuels waving at me.
“Thanks, Maddy. Stay here. I’ll be back.”
Jumping over an upended trashcan, I headed over to where Samuels was. A moment later Chief, Grady and a few of the others on scene joined us.
The bright red beetle with its front half buried through the shop window wasn’t as bad as it looked. There was a lot of glass and a fair bit of damage, the door was blocked, and the brick work was keeping the driver in the car, but overall, the building wasn’t going to fall down so that was a plus.
“Mom and Sage?” I asked, pulling my phone from my pocket to see if I’d missed a call from her. Annoyed there was nothing, I dialed her number and somehow, over all the noise I heard her unmistakable ringtone. She was the only person I knew who actually liked the sound of the old-school telephone.
“We haven’t heard.”
“She’s in there.”
“If she is, we’ll get her out. Safely, Zach.”
“I’m helping.”
“No, you’re not,” Chief stated.
“Unless you plan on having me arrested, I’m helping.” I issued the ultimatum defiantly.
Chief huffed, unimpressed. I’m sure I hadn’t heard the end of this but for now, he was going to let me get on with it. “At least put a decent pair of shoes on. There’s glass everywhere.”
Taking that as his approval to get to work, I asked about the plan. Twenty minutes later and we were helping the driver from the car. A driver I recognized despite the smell of booze on her breath and the cut on her forehead.
Helping Phoebe down from the wreckage, she was lifted onto a stretcher and wheeled over to the awaiting ambulance, police escorting her with every step. I knew she was drunk; it wasn’t going to take a test to prove that; the fact she could barely slur her own name was a dead giveaway, but I had this sinking feeling there was more to the story. Phoebe could’ve crashed her car into any tree or store front or anything else on Main street, yet it was Lily’s florist where she’d jumped the gutter and ended up going through the front window.
Now, onto more pressing and more important matters.
“Mom?” I called out over the hood of the car into the darkened shop.
36
LILY
I watched Zach spring into action, and it was sexy as hell. Seeing him stand up to his boss, take control, consumed by the need to help. If anyone ever questioned why people went into these sorts of jobs, it is because they never for a second saw it as a job. It was a lifestyle. It was who they were. They weren’t the sort of people who could sit on the sidelines watching someone struggle or in pain, they needed to be in there, on the front line helping. And Zach was one of them.
“He’s amazing, isn’t he?” I whispered to Ava while she fidgeted in my arms. I was probably holding her a little too tight but after everything that had happened already today, there was no way I was loosening my grip.
“I’ve never seen him in action before,” said the blonde I’d seen in his arms the other day, the one who’d caused the white-hot jealousy to consume me as she watched on with awe.
“He’s pretty awesome,” I confirmed.
“I wouldn’t say awesome,” she smiled, “but he’s good at what he does. I’m Maddy by the way. Zach’s little sister and his favorite pain in his ass.”
Shifting Ava in my arms, I reached out and shook her hand. His sister? How had I managed to get it so wrong? I was an idiot. An idiot who’d wasted too much time. Before I had a chance to fall too deep into my own pity party, a murmur went through the crowd behind us.
“Is that?”
“It can’t be.”
“It is.”
Turning back to face the disaster that was the front of Daisy’s Flora, I saw Zach helping Phoebe clamber out of the wreckage. She was the one who’d done this. She was the one who’d driven her car straight through my front window.
“Phoebe?” Maddy gasped under her breath.
“You know her?” I asked, unable to keep the surprise from my voice.
“Kinda. Not really. I mean, I ran into her a couple of times at the bar. But I wouldn’t say I know her.”
“She works at the bakery down the street. She’s had a crush
on Zach for years. I think it’s pretty much fizzled now…”
“It hasn’t.”
“Excuse me?”
“It hasn’t. When she found out I was Zach’s sister, it was almost like she wanted to be my best friend. She asked so many questions about him and our family.”
My stomach lurched. My throat went dry. Looking over at the drama unfolding, I watched as Phoebe was helped onto a stretcher by the awaiting paramedics. From where I was standing, I could see the trickle of blood across her forehead and hoped she was okay. I mean, I was pissed as all hell at her for destroying my store, but it didn’t mean I wanted to see her hurt. I wasn’t that heartless. “What’d you tell her?”
“That I didn’t know. Honestly, Zach and I haven’t really been close. I mean, I’ve talked to him more in the last week than I have in the last two years, so I’m not really in a position to know what his hopes and dreams are.”
“Oh.”
I hated that disappointment fluttered through me. Stupidly, I’d been hoping that I was part of what he wanted. Me and Ava. At least, that’s what he’d led me to believe. But I guess the blame wasn’t all on him. I’d ghosted him since I’d seen him with Maddy and gotten the story completely wrong. It was probably my fault.
“I might not have lied to Phoebe, but that didn’t mean I told her the full truth either.”
“You didn’t?”
“Hell no! I don’t know that chick from a bar of soap. I wasn’t about to give her all my brother’s secrets.”
“Makes sense.”
“But I will tell you something…”
“You don’t know me either.”
“You’re right. I don’t. But honestly… I’m sick of hearing your name come out of my whiny brother’s mouth. You and that adorable little munchkin.”
“He mentions us?” My heart swelled and I found myself standing a little taller.
“Nah.”
“Oh.”
“He doesn’t mention you. More like he doesn’t shut up about you two.”
“Wow.”
“Not expecting that, huh?”
“Honestly, no.”
Fallen: An Everyday Heroes World Novel (The Everyday Heroes World) Page 21