“Hard to celebrate when you’re hurting.” The same fire that had injured Gil Hamilton had done a number on firefighter Frankie, as well. “Still, at least you won’t have to invest in pregnancy tests.” Sebastian tried not to laugh. Ezzie Salazar had an uncanny knack for identifying pregnant women, even before they knew they were expecting themselves. “Look, do you have some time to talk? Monty’s out on a charter and I really need to get this out with someone who’ll understand.”
Frankie stopped gathering up the hose and hooked it over her shoulder. “Let me guess.” She smirked. “You talked to Brooke again.”
“Just now.” He scrubbed the towel over his shirt. “It didn’t go as I expected.”
“Color me every kind of surprised. It’s been less than a week and already she’s got things in this town all topsy-turvy.” Frankie stuck two fingers in her mouth and gave a sharp whistle. The cat howled and dived off the truck, then zoomed back into the firehouse. “Well, that’s good to know. Should have tried that sooner. Hey, Oz!”
Ozzy Lakeman, former sheriff’s deputy and most recent recruit to the BHFD, emerged from the garage portion of the firehouse. “You bellowed?”
Sebastian still had a difficult time reconciling this Ozzy with the one he’d known most of his life. The transformation over the past year was remarkable—from overweight sheriff’s deputy to toned firefighter. It wasn’t just the weight loss, however. Being given new opportunities to help the community had ignited a kind of internal fire that continued to burn bright.
“Can you finish cleaning up?” Frankie asked. “Sebastian here needs some confab time.”
“No problem.” Ozzy caught the towel Sebastian threw at him. “You doing okay?” he asked as Sebastian passed. “I heard about Brooke Ardell being back.”
Sebastian imagined everyone in town had heard by now. “I’m fine, Oz, thanks.”
“Mandy, too?”
“Mandy, too.” Sebastian patted the man’s shoulder and ducked inside the spacious firehouse. Having spent a good amount of time within these walls, he had no trouble navigating through the garage, the office and the living area, where he found Frankie brewing coffee. She passed the first cup to him, replaced the pod and hit Brew again. “Thanks.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t have anything stronger here. New tequila bottle at home, though. You need it, you let me know.”
“Noted.” Sebastian took a seat at the worn table and reached for the ever-present plate of cookies situated in the center. Oatmeal chocolate-chip today. His stomach growled and accepted the treat happily. Man, Frankie was really lucking out in the future-mother-in-law department.
“So what’d Brooke do now?” Frankie curled one leg under her as she sat across from him.
“You don’t make this easier by dumping on her from the get-go, you know.” Sebastian didn’t need warrior Frankie at the moment. He needed his friend—Brooke’s friend.
“Yeah, I do know.” She eyed a cookie but seemed to reject the idea. “Sometimes it’s just easier to be mad at her. You should try it sometime.”
“I did. Just now.” And the memory of what he’d said did not sit well with him at all. “I let her have it with both barrels, and not over what you might think.”
He could see in Frankie’s blazing green eyes the urge to utter a sarcastic reply, but she pinched her lips together, then drank her coffee instead. “Why don’t you tell me what happened.”
He did. From his meeting up with Gil straight through to his giving Brooke his unexpected ultimatum. Thinking of how shocked she had looked had the cookie he’d just eaten sitting like lead in his stomach.
Frankie’s nonresponse left him wondering if even by her tough standards, he’d gone too far. “I didn’t mean it to come out quite so harshly,” he admitted. “If I’m being honest, hearing about the accident scared me. All these years, I figured there would come a time she’d come back, or at least a time when Mandy would ask about her and I’d be forced to track Brooke down, to give her the chance to see her daughter again.” A cold, clammy fear he couldn’t quite shake slicked his skin. “I never once thought that chance might not come because something happened to her. How could her mother not have told me?”
“Because you’ve always been Candice Ardell’s competition.” Frankie drank more coffee, plucked a cookie off the plate and broke it in half. “It does take a pretty cold person not to tell you Brooke almost died, especially given your history. And this new information takes the wind out of my resentment sails,” she admitted. “I always thought her parents were...jerks. I honestly believed—heck, I assumed she’d have broken free from them long before now.”
“You call what she did breaking free?” This was the part that staggered him. That disappointed him. He’d always believed Brooke was better than she thought she was—more capable. Smarter. “She sneaked out of her house like a kid, Frankie.”
“You do strange things when you’re scared,” Frankie countered. “Sounds to me like that accident might have shaken something loose inside of her. It also explains why she looks like her own ghost. The Brooke we knew never would have driven across the country like she did. That’s...progress.”
“Okay, this is not the way I expected our conversation to go.” Sebastian rested his elbows on the table and dropped his head into his hands. “You’re supposed to agree with me.”
“You’re not the only one who’s surprised.” Frankie shrugged. “Look, we both know what happened when she left completely stank for everyone.”
“You included,” Sebastian agreed with her.
“If this was some other kid that we knew about who was so worried about making a wrong move that he or she spent most of every waking moment doing whatever their crummy parents ordered them to, what would we do about that kid?”
“You know what we did,” Sebastian said, thinking immediately of Kyle Knight, who, not so long ago, had been the town’s lead juvenile delinquent. It had taken the new sheriff, Luke Saxon, and Matt, one of his future deputies, to press Kyle to deal with the issues he had with his biological parents, rather than giving up and hoping the problems would fix themselves. “People stepped up and helped him find a better way.”
“No one’s done that for Brooke,” Frankie said. “Not me. Not you. And how could we when we were kids ourselves? We showed her the way, then expected her to take the step herself. A step she wasn’t capable of taking. One that was maybe unfair of us to think she could take. Until now. Until after she almost died. Wow.” Frankie swallowed hard and pressed a fist against her sternum. “That might be a bit of guilt backing up. What if, okay, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but what if Brooke’s still that scared kid, trapped, but finally trying to break away. She came here, to us. And we can help her this time. Because we’re the only other family she’s ever known. Oh, man.” She dropped her head back and sighed. “What a time for me to have an epiphany.”
Sebastian drank his coffee and tried to ignore the tears he saw in Frankie’s eyes. “We’ve really let her down, haven’t we? You with your beachside warning and me with my ultimatum.”
“At least you can be excused,” Frankie said, finally. “You have Mandy to consider. And honestly? You presented a good point. It’s possible she’s not in the right frame of mind to talk to Mandy, but I’m thinking maybe that shouldn’t matter. Mandy’s a great kid, Sebastian. She’s compassionate, caring and smart. You’ve put them each in the right place to reach out to one another. Let’s give it a while and see what shakes loose. I do have a question for you, though.”
“Only one?” Sebastian needed to find the humor in this somehow.
“Where’s this going? You and Brooke—you thinking maybe you’ll get back together?”
He’d be lying if he said the thought hadn’t crossed his mind, but he’d ignored it. “I don’t know what I’m thinking right now other than sorting out what’s best for Mandy.”
“Uh-uh.” Frankie finished her coffee, shook a finger at him and got to her feet. “You don’t get to hide behind your kid. Mandy can take care of herself, and if she can’t, she will let you or me or Monty know. I’m asking about you, Sebastian. You. Your heart. Your feelings for her. Where is this going?”
He didn’t know. And frankly, he didn’t want to know. “That’s something I can’t answer right now.”
“All right. So. We wait and see what happens next.”
“Right.” He reached for another cookie and bit into the tasty treat. The question was...what did happen next?
CHAPTER SEVEN
“FOR THE LIFE of me I can’t remember where I put them,” Holly said as she smacked her hand on the counter, making Brooke jump. “I swear, since I had the twins my brain doesn’t work right.”
“What can’t you find?” Brooke asked as she slipped a new order on the turnstile and tried to avoid Ursula’s skeptical glare. She’d been working there nearly a week and Ursula still eyed her as if she was going to take off with the silverware. Or just plain take off.
“I ordered new monogrammed aprons for the diner,” Holly said. “Nothing fancy, but they have this cute row of embroidered monarch butterflies along the hem and beneath the pocket.”
“Did you check upstairs?” Ursula called.
“Upstairs.” Holly snapped her fingers. “I bet that’s it.”
“Upstairs?” Brooke made quick work of putting on a fresh pot of coffee and straightening up behind the counter. Paige had been right—Brooke had found her rhythm, especially during the slower hours. She liked the morning shift best, but filled in whenever Holly needed her.
Holly pulled open a drawer and dug for a set of keys. “Yeah, it’s a space I use for storage sometimes. I’ll be back in a minute. Oh, wait.” She frowned. “I forgot Luke called. He can’t pick up Simon from school. And I need to get the twins from Calliope’s.” She wiped a hand down her cheek. “She’s been watching them up at Duskywing Farm when I’m in a bind, but pretty soon I’m going to have to start paying her. I really need there to be three of me.”
“I’ll do it.” Brooke held out her hand, recalling the town’s one-woman farmer’s market, and Calliope’s aversion to shoes and preference for wearing tiny bells in her long red braids. “I don’t mean pick up your kids, but I can find the box. I’ll just leave it in the kitchen for when you get back.”
“You’re off for the day,” Holly reminded her and glanced up at the clock, which read three o’clock. “In fact, you were off an hour ago. What are you still doing here?”
“Where else am I going to go?” BethAnn had been right that she’d rarely be home. And if there was one thing Brooke had come to realize, it was that she didn’t like being alone in the huge house. Too much time to think.
“Twyla’s not on until four,” Holly reminded her.
“So I’ll stay until four.” The opportunity to finally do something that would help Holly, other than serving and busing tables, had her bouncing on her aching feet. “We’re in the lull.” The after-lunch and before-dinner hours were known as breathing time in the diner. “If I get in over my head, I’ll call Twyla to come in early. Or Kevin.”
“Are you sure?” Holly eyed her carefully. “I’d only be a call away.”
“Ursula will be here.” Brooke raised her voice to make certain the cook heard her. “She knows this place better than anyone. If I have any problems, I know who to go to.”
Holly shifted her gaze to Ursula. Brooke, out of eyesight, could only imagine the expression on the still distrustful cook’s heavily lined face.
“It’s finding a box, Holly.” Brooke tried a different tactic. “I can handle that. Go get Simon and the babies. The diner will still be standing when you get back.”
“Okay.” Holly nodded and handed her the keys. “I won’t be long.”
“Don’t rush.” An unfamiliar pressure tightened Brooke’s lungs. Responsibility, however light, was still responsibility. The fact that her new boss had faith she could handle the diner on her own, even for a short time, boosted her spirits, which had been sagging since her conversation with Sebastian the other day at the beach.
She waited until Holly had grabbed her bag and jacket and headed out to her car, then glanced back at Ursula, who gave her a sharp nod of approval.
“I’ll be quick,” Brooke assured her and hurried out the door, around the side of the building and down the narrow alley between shops. The weathered white staircase led to a bright red door with three small cutout windows just above the peephole. Brooke tried two keys before she got the right one, then unlocked the bolt and pushed open the door. “Oh. Wow. This is so cute.”
She’d expected a storage room, but this was a darling little apartment. Amid the collection of boxes and diner supplies sat a well-used teal-colored sofa and a clean, but slightly scarred, walnut coffee table. A square table with matching chairs was situated under the window beside the front door, and as she weaved her way through the boxes, she found a galley kitchen with surprisingly up-to-date appliances.
Around the corner and down a short hall was where the solitary bedroom was, along with the bathroom and a linen closet. What a fun place. Pushing herself back on task, she quickly checked the various boxes, moving them about and restacking them until she found the one Holly needed. She hauled it into her arms and headed for the door, even as she envisioned pops of color she’d add to the apartment with curtains and throw rugs. Or knickknacks that could lend some charm to the sparse bookcase.
Box hefted onto her shoulder, she slammed the door behind her with a bit more force than necessary.
“Thought maybe you got lost up there,” Ursula said from her perch on a stool when Brooke carried the box into the kitchen.
“Sorry. Took me a while to sort through everything. Um.” Brooke hesitated and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “Ursula? When was the last time anyone lived up there?”
“It’s been a while. Paige and Charlie lived there for a bit when they first came to town. Then Kendall Davidson, but she moved to the lighthouse as soon as she could to work on the restoration. I think the place was one of those things that fell off Holly’s radar once she was pregnant with the twins. Why?”
“I just wondered, is all.” Her carefree tone had her kicking herself. Why couldn’t she just say what she wanted?
The door jingled and Brooke had the excuse she needed to return to the dining room. She looked down and smoothed her apron, double-checked to make sure she still had her tablet and pen.
“Welcome to the Butterfly Diner. Would you like...?” Brooke glanced up and found Mandy standing just inside the front door. “Oh. Hello.” She tried hard not to stumble as her heart thudded. Mandy was pretty, far prettier than Brooke had ever been, with neatly tamed blond waves trailing down her back against the hot pink of her T-shirt. Brooke didn’t have to guess if Mandy lived a very active life; she looked healthy, right down to her slightly round cheeks and the lively blue eyes that, despite Brooke’s expectations, seemed friendly. “I mean, hi.” She shoved her hands into her pockets to stop them from shaking.
What did she say to her? What did she do? How did she...? All these questions weren’t doing her any good. She needed to be strong, to stand up for herself and what she wanted. She needed to be someone her daughter wanted to see, not tried to avoid. “Hello, Mandy.”
“Hi.” It was the same pleasant greeting Mandy had offered Brooke in the bookstore, but this time the solitary word carried a hint of curiosity. Her daughter glanced around to the few customers, who had gone eerily quiet. “I wanted to, um...” Mandy took a step toward her. Brooke’s heart leaped. “I need to place a lunch order for tomorrow for pickup.”
“Oh, sure.” What had she been expecting? For her daughter to launch herself into her arms and make the last fifteen years melt away? “Yeah, I can help you with th
at. Just...have a seat.” She motioned to the empty counter, then had to dart out of the way as Ursula came steaming out of the kitchen. “Did I do something wrong?” she asked the cook as she passed by.
Ursula silenced her with a look, then slapped her wooden spoon on the counter, making both Mandy and Brooke jump. “Mind your own business, you lot,” she told the patrons, who had turned their attention on Brooke. “Ain’t you ever seen a mother and daughter talk? Don’t make me come out here again.” She gave Mandy a quick nod before returning to the kitchen.
The customers’ conversations picked back up again even as Brooke’s hands trembled when she pulled out her order pad. “Sorry,” she whispered, hating the surrender in her voice. “Sorry, I know I should be handling this better. It’s just...” She blinked back tears as her throat tightened. “It’s just you’re even more beautiful than I imagined.”
Mandy’s gaze softened. “You look like you do in the pictures we have.”
“Do I?” Brooke smoothed a hand down her short hair. “I feel a couple of centuries older. Does your father know you’re here?”
“No. I figured I’d stop in on my way to the animal clinic. I help with the boarders and strays sometimes. You know, cleaning out cages, taking the cats and dogs for walks, playing with them.”
“Do you want to be a vet?”
“Maybe.” Mandy scrunched her nose. “I used to, but now I’m more into marine biology and oceanography.”
Brooke smiled. Her daughter had dreams. Wonderful, beautiful, expansive dreams with nothing standing in her way. “I’m sure you’ll be great at whatever you decide.”
“Thanks. I’m still working through my options.” Mandy glanced at her watch. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have a lot of time. I hate being late.”
“Oh, sure. Yeah, of course.” Hands a bit steadier now, Brooke picked up her pen. “What would you like to order?”
A Match Made Perfect--A Clean Romance Page 10