Burning Love

by Brooks, Scarlett

  “Did you have some girl at the station?” Cole asked sounding impressed.

  “Come on Kalen, we all know. I mean you even admitted it to me after your talk with Archer.”

  “She isn’t just some girl,” I said slightly under my breath.

  “So you are saying I should get some earplugs for the station then?”

  “I’ll try and keep her quiet next time I have her around,” I said with a laugh.

  “So who’s the chick?” Cole asked.

  “Her name is Willow. She was in town for some party.”

  “Ah, so she isn’t from around here. That’s nice man. You have an easy exit strategy for her when she leaves.”

  “Or if she doesn’t,” Levi added knowingly.

  I looked down at my steak and shrugged my shoulders. I pretended to focus on eating while I let Cole and Levi chat. Until Cole brought it up, I hadn’t really thought about where things were going with Willow. Hell, I never really thought about where things were going with any girl. But for some reason, with Willow it was different. After finding out she had an interview I should have called her. To see how it went. But she hadn’t told me about it, Levi had. So maybe she wanted to keep it to herself. Or maybe she didn’t get the job. I shook my head trying to get through the thoughts racing through my head. Either way, the ball was in her court. She had to make a decision of what she wanted to do, without my influence. And then if she stayed, we’d have to wrangle the elephant in the room.

  The truth about me.

  About the Mortimer’s.

  Eleven

  Willow

  “I can't believe you're going back already,” Victoria said, looking at little sadder than I expected.

  “Why? I was only supposed to stay for the week. I have to go home and get Gus and pack my stuff. I still have to find a place to live! What the hell was I thinking?” This was all becoming real, and with the realness came the stress. Holy shit, I was moving to Evans Mill.

  “You were thinking that Hudson Holdings gave you an offer that you couldn't turn down. You're going to be making more money here than you were in Denver! That's insane. And I told you that you could live here for as long as you need to. You can’t expect your entire life to change in a week!”

  “You're right,” I sighed. “I know you're right. But my life really has changed in a week. I mean I got a new job, I decided to move here to Evans Mill, and then there's Kalen.”

  “Yeah speaking of him, have you told him that you accepted the job? I mean you have to be back here in like less than two weeks.”

  “No, I haven't said anything to him. I mean I just accepted the job this morning. And I knew I'd be leaving today. I figured I'd call him when I get back to Denver and tell him I'm coming back in a couple of weeks and see where it goes from there. But I definitely want to tell him I'm staying in person. I just...I just don't think I can tell him on the phone. What if he says he doesn't want me to stay? Or he gets weird? I want his honest opinion. I need to see his face when I tell him.”

  She nodded, continuing to throw some stuff in boxes. She had offered me the guest bedroom for as long as I needed and was packing up some extra clothes that she had stashed in there. There wasn't much, and I wouldn't need to my furniture with me, so I'd been calling storage units all morning to try to find something between Fairfield and Evans Mill so that when I finally did buy a house I could move all my stuff in without traveling back to Denver.

  “ok, I guess that makes sense, but if he freaks out a little bit, you have to kind of just accept it.”

  “Do you think he's going to freak out? Like I'm trapping him?”

  She shook her head, “No. I don't think it has anything to do with entrapment, I think it has more to do with you guys not really knowing a lot about each other yet. But I'm sure you'll figure stuff out, and it'll be great. I'm just so excited you're moving here! I think this is exactly what you needed.”

  “Yeah, I do too.”

  * * *

  I decided to not say goodbye. I figured that a quick text to Kalen letting him know that I was returning would be sufficient. I also knew that if I saw him again I probably wouldn't be able to keep my clothes on. And if this was going to be something more than a one-week fling, then I wanted to set it up for that.

  Hey, I've gone back to Denver for a little while, but I'll be back in a couple of weeks. Maybe when I get back we could get together again?

  I waited anxiously for his response.

  He quickly typed back.

  I wish you would have told me you were leaving, I would have liked to see you before you left.

  I know. I would have liked to see you too. But I really had to get back, there's a lot for me to handle.

  Is everything ok?

  Yeah it's fine, actually, it's great. But there are just some things that I needed to do. And when I get back we'll have tons of time to spend together.

  Are you staying?

  I didn't know how to answer that. I really wanted to see his face when I told him about the job.

  I settled with, That's to be determined. That was true enough. If I hated the job I wasn't going to stay, unless he asked me to. I didn't know what I would do if he asked me to stay. But a big part of me wanted him to.

  I spent the next few days packing my apartment and giving up my lease. Kalen and I continued to text the entire time. He even called me and we talked about a medical emergency he had just dealt with. His work was so much more exciting than mine. Surprisingly my job took it pretty well that I wasn't returning. I had cleaned out my office and worked one more week moving accounts to other financial planners and then I was headed back to Evans Mill.

  Everything seemed to be falling into place. And finally, just a week and a half later I packed up Gus and myself in my car and said goodbye to Denver.

  It was time to say hello to Evans Mill, permanently.

  Twelve

  Willow

  “You don't have as much stuff as I anticipated,” Victoria said as she folded some of my clothes and put them in the dresser in her guest room.

  “Well I mean I put a lot in storage. I knew I wouldn't really need it here in the apartment. And I promise Victoria I won't be here long. I plan on starting to look for a house pretty soon. Or at least an apartment of my own. I know that you haven't had a roommate in a while and that you certainly didn't sign up for a cat, so I'll find a place, I promise.”

  She flopped down on the guest bed, which at least looked like mine because I brought my comforter with me. “Don't even worry about it! It's going to be like having a sleepover every night. At least for the first few weeks. And then it will just feel like this is the way it's always been. I kind of missed you when you went back to Denver.”

  I laughed, “Did you really? Or did you just miss having someone around 24/7 to do all of your little menial tasks?”

  She tossed a pillow my way. “ok I'm over the bananas thing. But I'm definitely not over Chinese takeout so if you have a problem with that you’re going to have to cook for yourself.”

  I pulled out a skirt and jacket from a box and before hanging it I asked her, “Is this too professional for around here?”

  Victoria made a face. “It kind of looks like you're going to a funeral. I mean it's so black. What about a dress for the first day? You can still wear the blazer with it, but put in a pop of color.”

  “Fair enough.” I continued to search through my new closet and I pulled out a purple form-fitting dress with a v-neck that I could throw the jacket on top of.

  “Better?” I held it up for her approval.

  “Yes, way better. It's spring, you can't be wearing black all the time around here. I'm sure that's what you wore Denver, but you're going to need to freshen up your wardrobe a little bit for the small-town life.”

  “That sounds great. I'm tired of wearing black all the time with black heels and my dark hair. I'm ready for a change.”

  “In more ways than one, it seems.”

&nb
sp; “Yeah I guess so, but I'm ready. You were right Victoria, this is exactly what I needed. I just felt like I was in such a rut, and I didn't even realize it until I came here and had a breath of fresh air, literally.”

  “What about Kalen? Have you spoken to him since you got back?”

  “Yes and no. We texted a lot while I was gone and we called each other a few times but we didn't set any formal plans. I kind of want to get the job started before I really explore what's going on with Kalen. I mean I hope something is really going on. I really like him Victoria.”

  She stood up and picked up a few boxes, “Yeah you're in pretty deep. But just remember that he's still a bit of a mystery, and don't let that scare you off.”

  She took the boxes and stalked off after her cryptic message. But I couldn't focus on Victoria's strange vibes right now, I was starting work tomorrow, and I wanted to tell Kalen about it today.

  As soon as I saw Kalen standing in front of Mia's, the little Italian place he had suggested, I knew in my gut that I had made the right decision. He had his back to me, but the outline of his perfectly shaped figure made my heart explode. He was exactly what I needed. And everything that I never would have found in Denver. The perfect gentleman, my knight in shining armor, he was everything I wanted. I called out to him and he turned, locking eyes with me. I fell into his arms easily and he picked me up and spun me around.

  “So you're staying?”

  “Yeah, permanently.”

  He set me down, “I can't tell you how good that makes me feel Willow. I was worried that our little fling was only going to be for that week. But now here you are, in Evans Mill.”

  “Yeah, the new girl in town.” I laughed.

  “I still say the new girl in town is the prettiest. Let's get something to eat, I want to hear all about this new job.”

  We walked into the restaurant, and he held the door for me as usual. The place smelled amazing. He wasn't kidding when he said the pasta and drinks were better at this restaurant than the pizza place. You could just feel the good food vibes in the air. And all the patrons looked extremely happy with their meals. An older Italian woman approached us almost as soon as we entered.

  “Kalen! So happy you're here. And you brought a lady friend. Your meal is on me, order whatever you want.”

  “Francesa you don't have to do that,” Kalen argued with her.

  “Yes, yes. You saved my restaurant. You good man. And she is pretty,” she added winking at him.

  “Fine, we'll accept.”

  “Fantastico!”

  “Do you know her or something?” I asked as we moved through the restaurant following the small Italian woman.

  “Yeah, since I was a kid. And recently we helped with that restaurant fire, remember? It was closed last time we passed by here.”

  “Oh yeah,” but honestly I'd forgotten. So much had happened in just the past couple weeks that detail had slipped by me.

  He pulled out the chair for me and I sat down picking up the menu, but as soon as he sat down the questions started.

  “So tell me about this job! What are you going to be doing? Where is it?”

  “It's in Fairfield. I'll be working with a real estate company and their financial holdings. It's definitely still not as exciting as what you do for a living, but the salary was right. And they seemed happy to have the help. Apparently, they've been looking for a while. I start tomorrow. It all seems like it's happened so fast, but sometimes that's just the way it works I guess.”

  “I guess I'm not surprised to find out that there's not a lot of financial planners hanging out in Evans Mill looking for a job. What did you say the company was?”

  A waitress delivered water to our table and he picked it up to take a sip.

  “Hudson Holdings? Do you know it?”

  He immediately started to choke on his water. He coughed for a solid thirty seconds before he could take a breath, gasping for air. People around us stared, and I realized for a moment I didn’t know how to do CPR if it was necessary.

  “Are you ok?” I asked, starting to panic. I got up and began to move towards him when he found his voice.

  “Did you say Hudson Holdings? The office in Fairfield?”

  “Yeah, why? Is something wrong?”

  He just stared blankly at me. “No. Nothing's wrong,” he finally said in a cool tone. I sat back down as he brushed me off.

  “Are you sure? Because you're acting really weird.”

  “Yeah it's nothing, let's just order.” He picked up his menu and practically hid behind it. I couldn't figure out what had changed but the rest of our lunch was quiet and awkward. When we left the restaurant he gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and said he had to get to the fire station for a meeting. But he hadn't mentioned it throughout the entire lunch. What was going on with him? Why was Hudson Holdings such a problem? I guessed I would find out when I got there.

  Thirteen

  Willow

  The next day I was sitting at my brand new desk with a beautiful view of the mountains. Not only did I have my own office, but it had floor-to-ceiling windows. Another very modern building for a small town, but it really fit the clientele. I'd watched people walk in and out all day, all in their business suits, all looking extremely professional and focused. I was glad though that Victoria had talked me into the purple dress, everyone here was wearing a splash of color, even the men on their ties. So as much as it was a serious atmosphere, I could still tell that it was a little bit more laid-back than Denver.

  I was still acclimating myself with the system when Mr. Hudson himself came in to give me a project.

  “I know this probably all seems pretty fast, but we really need an extra set of eyes on some of these legal documents for our partner.”

  “You mean the silent partner you referenced in my interview?” This was a huge responsibility and I knew it. Anytime working for one of the bosses directly meant that they trusted you. And considering I was so new, I needed to earn that trust and show them that I was serious about this job. I had felt kind of strange about the company ever since Kalen had such a weird reaction at lunch yesterday, but I hadn't had a chance to talk to Victoria about it and instead, I just decided to put on my big-girl panties and get the job done. Regardless of how he felt about the company.

  “Yes, there are some discrepancies with how he wants his own personal finances taken care of. The issue is that they have two sons and while they always believed that they were going to divvy out their money equally, the one child has disavowed the family name.”

  Ouch, that didn’t sound good.

  “Any insight you can give in to where he should instead invest some of those funds would be much appreciated. I know this probably seems like a huge responsibility but because you're coming directly from Denver and there's a lot of investment availability there, we thought you might be the woman for the job.”

  “I won't let you down. I look forward to working on it.”

  He smiled at me and then walked away, I took a couple of sips of my coffee and then the file showed up in the system. Things worked quickly around here, which I liked.

  As soon as I started to scan the document my eyes grew wide. The silent partners last name was Mortimer. Just like Kalen Mortimer. Shit. I continued to read through the documents, the family had wanted to split the financial holdings in half, to Kalen and Archer. It appeared that Archer was Kalen's younger brother, who he had barely mentioned to me, if at all. There was a file about Kalen going to jail, and family betrayal. It was all just so much drama. I couldn't even keep my professionalism, I was disgusted by the way that the lawyers had written up the paperwork, completely acting as though Kalen was some terrible delinquent and that his brother Archer was the shining example of the Mortimer family. Why hadn't Kalen told me any of this? I could have handled it. I could have helped him even. Why didn't he trust me?

  I decided to write a fairly terse letter back to the lawyer that was handling the Mortimer’s financial
institution. I said that I knew Kalen personally and that he was none of the things that they had outlined in this paperwork. However I still did my job, I made some strong suggestions of where to invest the extra funds and I made sure that they were the best possible investments I could give them. Opportunities that would turn these funds into even more money. Maybe at the end of the day, they would decide to do some good with it. And that's when I realized that maybe that's why Kalen had become a firefighter. He was a millionaire, literally, and he turned his back on all that money to do good for the community? Was it just because he was a good man? Or was there more to it? I didn't know. This whole time I'd been so concerned with telling him that I was moving here when he was hiding an even bigger secret.

  I needed to talk to him, but I also needed some time. I needed to make sure that even though I knew this about him, I still felt the same way I did before. Because right now, I didn't know.

  * * *

  By the time I got home instead of giving myself some space from the Kalen situation, I had just stewed in it all day. I felt like I needed to do something, so when Victoria walked in the door after a particularly long shift I decided to question her.

  “Did you know about Kalen?”

  She stopped in the doorway looking a little more scared than I would have liked.

  “What do you mean? What do you want to know about Kalen?”

  “Oh, I don't know Kalen Mortimer, of the apparently very wealthy Mortimer family. Who owns like ninety percent of this town? You didn't think that that would be important to tell me?” I was fuming now, next level mental breakdown.

  “That's not fair,” she said as she set down her bag and closed the door so Gus couldn't escape. “If he didn't tell you, it wasn't my place to tell you. I know that there's a lot of crap with him and his family. I mean when that all went down five years ago, everybody knew about it. That's why Annabelle was so weird that day she was here and she told us she was pregnant. There's a lot of drama there and a lot of bad blood. I just didn't want to see you get hurt if you got involved. But I also know that Kalen is a really decent guy and I didn't want to scare you off because of his family's Issues.”