“Sorry,” Kyle said as he stopped at the car. “I didn’t want her to walk out and hear me talking about her brother.”
Bryan nodded and waited for Kyle to continue.
“Patrick was the star of the family.” He kept his voice low. “The poster boy for the All-American kid. Great at sports, excellent student, good guy. Never in any trouble. Everyone loved him, knew him by name. We were fourteen, about to start high school in the fall.”
Kyle leaned against his cruiser, arms crossed over his chest, staring out at the ocean. “We were out there. Not that exact spot, but at the beach, goofing around just like any other day. Jumping waves, you know. I’m still not sure what happened to this day, honestly. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been over it in my head.”
He turned his face from the water, and Bryan saw pain in his eyes. “A wave knocked him down. I mean, slammed into him. Slammed him right into the sand. The doctors said it hit him at just the right angle at just the right moment. His spine snapped up near his neck. Made him a quadriplegic. He can understand what people say, but he can’t communicate. Trapped in his own body.”
Bryan sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh, wow. And you were there? I can’t imagine how I’d feel about that.” He couldn’t imagine how Elise felt either, but he could understand some. She may not have actually lost a sibling, but he could see the emotions being the same.
“It was. I thought he was dead when he washed up. And then, when I heard what happened…when you’re a kid, you can’t grasp something so huge. To hear some people talk, he might as well be dead.”
“People can be that way, yeah.”
“That was the only other time I’ve seen Elise that shaken up.” Kyle sighed. “I didn’t see her much after that. Everything centered around Patrick and what was best for him. Her parents, their lives revolved around her brother. His therapy, nurses, and progress. They moved him to Florida for better care sometime while Elise was away at school.”
Bryan made a note of this, tucking it away to think over sometime later. What would it have been like for her to know her parents packed up and moved away while she was in another city? When she couldn’t be part of it? What would it feel like to have parents throw themselves into caring for her brother? It would have been easy for them to force her into the background, making her feel invisible.
“So she doesn’t strike you as the type to make enemies, then?” It came out like a question, but it was rhetorical.
“Not even a little bit.” Kyle shook his head. “I can’t understand it. Unless it was some sort of prank gone wrong. Vandalism. That could be it. We’ll know more once the report comes in, but there’s always the chance the vandal was trying to cover their tracks and the explosion wasn’t the ultimate goal.”
Bryan’s brow furrowed. “Something interesting that keeps coming back to me. The house blew, yeah, but not sky-high. Not in pieces, the way it would have if the entire house had been filled with gas. Right? It would’ve taken the homes on either side if that was the case.”
“You’re probably right, though you’d know more about that than I would,” Kyle replied.
“The house was still mostly in one piece.” Bryan crossed his arms over his chest. “Burned out, but there. The gas couldn’t have been on long enough for Elise to have left it that way for hours. People would’ve smelled it coming from the house as they walked past. There’s no such thing as a completely sealed-off structure when there are doors and windows involved.”
Nodding, Kyle seemed to digest what Bryan was saying. “And that area gets plenty of foot traffic. Someone would’ve smelled it if it had been on for that long.”
Bryan flicked his gaze to Kyle. “What if whoever did this knew she was out of the house and wasn’t trying to kill her? What if they were only trying to send a message?”
“Like what? Again, she doesn’t have enemies.”
“That she knows of. She keeps her head down and minds her business. That’s nice for her but doesn’t explain how other people feel. Maybe they wanted to shut her down. They might’ve been hoping to destroy her equipment too.”
Taking a deep breath, Kyle shook his head and let it out slowly. “We have more digging to do.”
“I don’t mean to step on your toes.” Bryan waited while Kyle slid behind the wheel and closed the door. “I’m not trying to—”
“I understand.” Kyle smiled, reaching through the open window to shake his hand. “You want to help her. She needs it. Especially if there’s someone out there who wants her out of the equation for one reason or another.”
Bryan wished he wasn’t thinking that someone would hurt her, because now he felt even more protective of her. He liked Elise. Given the opportunity and if the timing was different, if he was different, he’d be thinking about asking her out. As it stood, he just needed to help her find the creep who burned her house down, and soon. Then she could get on with her life, and he could do the same.
Chapter 11
Chewing her thumb, Elise kept her gaze on Kyle, who was no doubt telling Bryan all about Patrick. Unless, of course, there was a chance she was just being paranoid. Long ago, she’d learned she wasn’t the center of anyone’s universe.
But considering the way Bryan threw glances at the house, she had a feeling her suspicions weren’t off. A girl didn’t spend the majority of her life involved in her hometown’s greatest tragedy without knowing what it meant when people held whispered conversations nearby.
It wasn’t like Bryan was never going to find out. Honestly, it was a wonder he hadn’t already known. It was only a matter of time anyway. He’d want to know more about the woman sharing his house. One lone shared dinner wasn’t going to cut it now. So long as he didn’t decide he’d made a mistake or that she was too much trouble.
For a second, her chest tightened painfully at the mere idea of him thinking she was more trouble than she was worth. Which was unfair to him, wasn’t it? He was only doing this—letting her stay with him, helping her feel safe—not because of any feelings he had for her, but because he was a nice guy and nice guys did things like that.
Bryan waited a few minutes after Kyle drove away before coming back inside. In an effort to hide that she’d been spying, she busied herself with the dishes. She couldn’t stand around wringing her hands, wondering, when she was busy scraping eggs off the pan Bryan had used.
When he entered the house, she struggled to keep a casual tone in her voice. “What did Kyle have to say about me?” she asked with a wide smile, contrasting his perfect features bunched together in a frown.
“We weren’t talking about you.”
She rolled her eyes, tilting her head to the side. “Come on. I don’t even know you all that well, but I know lying is beneath you. Tell me the truth. What was he saying? Was he talking about Patrick?”
His frown deepened. “I wasn’t trying to dig for information.”
“I didn’t think you were—honestly.” She added the last word when Bryan lifted an eyebrow. “Kyle’s one of the people who feel sorry for me whenever he sees me. We can’t have a conversation without the specter of my brother hanging over us like a cloud. Don’t get me wrong. I love Patrick, and I know how close they were. I’m just saying it’s never far from his awareness when we’re together.”
“What makes you so sure?”
She tapped the side of her head. “Call it a sixth sense people develop over the years.”
“I’m sorry to hear about what happened. Truly.” He leaned against the counter, picking up a towel and half-heartedly wiping a plate she handed over.
“Thanks. It was one of those freak things, you know? A reminder of how everything can change in an instant.” She stopped in the middle of rinsing a bowl, shaking her head and chuckling at herself. “Wow. You’d think having my house go up in flames wouldn’t come as such a huge surprise, wouldn’t you? Since I should be prepared for the unexpected.”
A faint smile lifted Bryan’s lips as he finished
the plate and moved on to the bowl she’d rinsed. Like he understood how she felt. “I don’t think anyone is ever prepared, no matter how much they tell themselves they will be.”
“I guess you’ve seen enough people in the middle of tragedy to know,” she murmured, making him wince. “I hope I’m not talking out of turn.”
“You’re not. And yes, I’ve seen plenty of dazed people whose lives were cruising along on a set path until that one single moment everything changed. A match wasn’t completely out when someone tossed it into the trash. Someone fell asleep with a lit cigarette or while a candle burned. The lint trap on the dryer wasn’t cleaned. It happens all the time.”
He lowered the bowl and towel with a heavy sigh. “A guy got drunk with friends and decided it was a good idea to get behind the wheel. He veered into oncoming traffic and struck a car carrying a young married couple who had a little boy, and they died.”
For one brief, sickening moment, Elise thought he might be talking about himself, and she wondered how that might affect how she felt about him. So far, he’d been nothing but great. Would a stupid mistake change that? She liked to think she was open-minded enough to know people weren’t perfect, but drunk driving? She wasn’t so sure she could be that forgiving.
“Wh—who was it?” she whispered with her heart in her throat, the dishes seeming unimportant now.
He didn’t lift his gaze from the counter. “My sister, Hannah, and her husband. They died that night. I was at the firehouse, playing poker with the guys, coming up on the end of a thirty-six-hour shift on a Friday night. I was looking forward to having the whole weekend off, which hadn’t happened in ages. We were supposed to go to our mom’s for dinner on Sunday night. It’s funny, the things you remember. Everything was one way…then it was another. Just like that.”
The snapping of his fingers shook her from the thoughts rattling around in her head. So he did understand, at least a little.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, which was as much as she trusted herself to say without crying outright. It wasn’t often she met anyone who understood and didn’t try to fix her.
Shrugging, he lifted his head. “My sister, Holly, is raising my nephew, Jack. He’s a great kid.”
That bit of information didn’t surprise Elise. If Holly was anything like Bryan, she was probably someone Elise would get along with really well.
So far, he was a good man and, in her eyes, growing better the more she got to know him. She hated that he’d been through that kind of loss. If anything, she wished she could take it from him. The thought jarred her. That hearty wind she’d felt the day before, fanning the flame, was turning into a tornado. If she wasn’t careful, she’d fall for him. At the moment, she wasn’t sure she wanted to be safe anymore.
Chapter 12
Walking down the beach with Elise, Bryan kept his focus on Smokey. He’d dropped an emotional bomb on her. It was the last thing he should’ve done, but it had just poured out of him before he saw it coming. She’d been standing there, talking about Patrick, and the next thing he knew, he was telling her about Hannah.
“I didn’t mean to drop all of that at your feet.” After all the heavy talk back at the house, they both needed a chance to clear their heads. Smokey ran ahead, fetching the stick Elise had thrown for him to chase.
She hugged herself and shook her head. “You didn’t drop it. I could’ve let the whole Kyle thing go, but I didn’t. Call it the result of years of never mentioning the elephant in the room.” She shivered from the breeze coming off the ocean. He wished he’d worn a jacket or sweatshirt over his tee, if only to have something to offer her.
Reaching down to take the stick from Smokey, he asked, “What do you mean?”
Elise scratched Smokey behind the ear before patting his head with a wide smile. The dog just about melted with happiness. “Patrick is always the elephant in the room. Not as much now as when the accident first happened. No matter where I went, people were thinking about him, wondering if he was okay and if my parents were okay after spending all their energy taking care of him. He was always there, even if people didn’t want to bring him up. I could see it in their eyes, in the way it looked like they were trying to put on a brave face.”
She came to a stop, turning to face the water. “What was the point of them being polite and asking me how I was doing when I knew that wasn’t the real question? They were never thinking of me. It was always him. Even my parents. Always thinking about him. Worrying. Planning for him.”
He stood next to her, the incoming tide swirling around their bare feet. Neither of them said a word for a long while as Smokey played in the surf. Out of the three of them, he seemed the most content to enjoy the day.
She toed the sand and sighed. “I’m a horrible, selfish person for thinking any of that, especially when my brother has had to deal with so much worse. He’ll never live a normal life.” Tears pooled in her eyes. “None of it was his fault, and I don’t blame him. I love him and miss him, miss hearing his voice. And the community—and my parents—were just worried about him.” She paused, looking out over the water. “I just felt lost in the shuffle. My identity disappeared in his shadow.”
“I think anyone in your shoes would have the same thoughts and feelings.”
Turning to him, she rubbed her arms. “I sure feel terrible. You’re the only person I’ve ever admitted any of this to. Lucky you.”
It had to be lonely, bottling those feelings up and keeping them to herself. He had no idea what it would have been like to be a kid and go through it, knowing her brother was the only person anyone was thinking about. It had to be tough.
He wrapped his arms around and pulled her flush against him. The second he did, she buried her face in his shoulder and took a deep breath. It didn’t take any effort to picture himself standing on the beach every day, holding her for as long as she’d let him.
It rocked him back a little until he reasoned with himself. She was hurting and needed comfort. Of course, she’d respond to him. Not only was she dealing with her home going up in flames, but it was clear she still struggled with her brother’s accident. He understood that. Sometimes, when he went to dial Hannah’s number to tell her something, it brought back the pain of losing her.
“I’m sorry,” she said, the words muffled against his shoulder. “I keep putting you in this position.”
“I’d let you know if I minded.” He chuckled.
Leaning back, she kept her arms tucked against his chest. “I haven’t felt safe telling anyone that stuff.” The words had barely left her lips before she stepped away from him. “I’ve never been able to stand weak people, which makes this a very awkward situation for me.”
Weakness? “I don’t think that makes anyone weak. It takes a lot of strength to admit things when you’re not sure how the other person will take it.”
Shaking her head, she smiled. “You’re only saying that because you’re a nice person.”
“What’s so bad about being nice?” He nudged her with his elbow.
She tried to hide a laugh but failed. “I don’t know. I’m all twisted up inside. Nothing makes sense.”
“Which is completely normal. Your world’s been turned upside down. Of course you feel twisted up. Who wouldn’t? I’d be more worried if you weren’t.”
Elise raised an eyebrow. “You’re not messed up. You’re just about the only thing that makes sense—which doesn’t make sense at all.”
“My house didn’t just burn down.”
She rolled her eyes. “Really?”
Her life wasn’t the only one mixed up with everything spinning out of control. Elise walking into his world had his whole view of life in a whirlwind. He was just better at hiding it. If he’d just lost his home, he wouldn’t be dealing with it half as well as she was.
“I know what you mean.” He laughed. “Not much is making sense in my world either.”
Moving to Baker Beach was meant to get him away from anyone or anything
that made him want more than what he had—a career that he loved and a simple life. It was supposed to take away any distractions or desires for more. But meeting Elise, and now her living with him, was messing with his head, making him wonder “what if” when nothing about him had changed.
Her eyebrows knitted together. “What’s that mean? Are you okay? I mean, if you need me to go and give you your space—”
“No. You’re fine.” She was too quick to take the blame for things that weren’t her fault. “I shouldn’t have said anything, but I guess you aren’t the only one needing a little head-clearing. I hope I don’t make you regret staying with me.”
In one swift move, she stood on her tiptoes, brushing her lips against his cheek. To him, it seemed unplanned, but it left him breathless and resisting the temptation to take her in his arms and kiss her.
This is never going to work. There isn’t a woman in the world who could put up with this—or with you. He could hear every word just as clearly as he had when they were first fired at him just a few nights before what was supposed to be his wedding.
And just like that, the temptation was gone. What was he thinking, letting himself even entertain the thought of caring for someone? He wasn’t cut out for that life. Elise would get tired of him, just like Courtney had. He wasn’t sure he could handle that sort of heartbreak again, or the betrayal.
Plus, getting involved with Elise when she was in the middle of a crisis would be taking advantage of her, and he wasn’t that kind of guy. She needed a place to stay and someone to lean on. That was all.
“We’d better get back,” he said, putting distance between them. “You have pictures to edit, and I promised to make dinner. My grandmom’s sauce cooks for hours, so I better get started.”
Blinking, she quickly nodded her head. “Uh, right. I do need to look through those pictures.”
Firefighter's Rescue (Bakers Beach: First Responders Book 1) Page 5