“You don’t have to lie.” She leaned her head onto his shoulder. “It’s not going to be okay.”
Damn her. Ben felt bad for her. And it pissed him off that she’d gotten to him in a new way. Empathy.
“At least you’re okay. If you’d have been in there—”
“If I’d have been here, it wouldn’t have happened.” She trembled worse. “I forgot the space heater.”
That would do it. Her trembling further made Ben feel for her.
Ugh.
Ben slid his jacket off and wrapped it around her shoulders.
“Do you have insurance?”
“Yes.”
“Then it can all be replaced. All that matters is no one got hurt.”
She held onto him tighter.
“I hope the businesses next to mine don’t catch.” She took a deep breath. “They are so close together.”
She changed from hysterical to depressed.
“These boys are good. They’ll do everything they can to save them. It looks like they are getting control.”
“It’s all my fault. I can’t believe I forgot that fucking space heater. Stupid. So fucking stupid.” She hid her face in the crook of his neck.
“You’re not stupid.” He found his sympathetic tone. “It was an accident. Accidents happen to us all.”
“Have you ever accidentally burned down a building?”
No. “Not yet.”
“I’m just—” she sniffed. “I can’t believe this.”
She fully cried. She was progressing through the stages of grief at a rapid pace.
Ben played therapist once again. It would be more profitable to be a therapist than work as a trooper, maybe that was his calling.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized.
“Don’t be sorry.” Ben had held out on returning her embrace, but gave in. “I’m sorry it happened to you.”
“Me too.” She gasped for air between crying.
“It’s okay,” Ben said in a soothing voice. “It’s going to be alright.”
*****
Aubrey felt like it all was a dream. And prayed to wake up. But, she didn’t. It was real and the reality was, her business was gone. A complete loss. She was too embarrassed to look up at the stranger who held her close without complaint. He brought her comfort and security, two things she very much needed. The voice sounded familiar, but she didn’t care. It wasn’t a concern of hers at that moment. What mattered was the bakery and it was gone.
“Aubrey!” Jill yelled from a distance.
Aubrey raised her head from the strangers shoulder and looked for Jill. She was on the sidewalk behind a fire truck blocking the scene.
“Jill!” she yelled back. It was then she saw the Good Samaritan’s face. Only it wasn’t a Good Samaritan. “You?”
Aubrey’s eyes doubled in size and she gasped at the sight of him.
“You—” She let go of him and stepped back as though he was a leper. “Why? What—”
She couldn’t find the words to express her confusion. Why was he holding me? That was the question on her mind. Every time something went wrong, there he was.
She pried herself away from him, shoved his jacket into his chest, and jogged to the sidewalk into Jill’s arms.
“Hun, I’m sorry.” Jill stroked her hair. “I’m so sorry.”
“I guess I’m not going out with you tomorrow,” Aubrey tried for a joke.
“We’ll be wherever you are, doing whatever you want to do.”
Aubrey turned around and looked at the flames jumping from the roof. And then to Trooper Asshole.
“Come over to the house and you can cry with me.”
Jill wiped the tears from Aubrey’s face.
“We’ll bring a bottle of wine and the tissues.”
“You better bring more than one box of tissues.”
Jill smoothed her bangs from her face. “We’ll make it two bottles of wine too.”
Hours later Aubrey was released from the scene. Home. Bed. Stare at ceiling. Sleep was not in the cards.
*****
Ben stared at the ceiling above his bed. Why did he care? Toad was...Toad. He shouldn’t have her on his mind.
“Aghhhh, go to sleep.” Ben wiped his eyes. He couldn’t get her off his mind. It wasn’t because he was worried about her. He wasn’t. No way in hell was he worried about her. He was...too tired to sleep. That was it.
CHAPTER FOUR
Saturday. Aubrey didn’t want to get out of bed. If not for a training session with one of her patients in the early afternoon she wouldn’t have moved until Jill and Taylor were to come over. Even then she might not have budged.
RING RING
“Hello.”
“Aubee honey, you should have called!” Aubrey’s mother said very dramatically.
“I wasn’t going to wake you up, there’s nothing you could do.”
“How are you doing?”
“I’ve been better.”
“We’ll come up for the weekend.”
“I’ve got a lot going on Mom, you don’t need to come up here. There is nothing you guys can do.”
Her mom sighed.
KNOCK KNOCK
Aubrey jumped at the sound.
“I have to go Mom, someone is at the door.” Aubrey hung up.
“Aubrey,” Tom called out from her partially open door.
“Come on in, Tom.”
“I’m sorry to hear about your bakery.”
“Me too.” Aubrey picked up her riding boots.
“I know you had a lesson today so I figured I’d saddle them up for you before I left.”
Aubrey smiled sincerely. For a teenage boy, he was more responsible than most adult men.
“You’ve made my day.”
“I’ll be back Monday morning.”
“Thank you again.” She reached her hand out. “This is for next week in advance.”
“Thank you.” Tom let himself out.
Aubrey heard a vehicle pull into the drive. Her student arrived.
“Hiya Aubee,” the young girl called out.
“Hi Monica. How are you feeling today?”
“Today is a good day.”
“I’m glad.” Aubrey smiled brightly at her.
Monica was thirteen and her cancer was in remission. Patches of blond hair partially covered her pale white scalp. She was full of life despite her ghostlike appearance. Her parents stood at the fence.
“Hi Sam. Hi Tracey.” Aubrey waved as they walked inside the fence.
“Trixie is ready for you. Are you ready?” She looked at Monica.
“Of course. I’m always ready!”
“Well, let’s get you up and riding.”
The next hour Aubrey spent giving advanced lessons to Monica. She gave her lessons once a week so long as she felt up to it. It had been a long time since Monica had felt up to it. Monica had ridden for two years with Aubrey, battling two rounds of cancer treatments during that time. Monica was the definition of strength.
“Thank you for the lesson.”
“You’re welcome.”
They walked back to the fence together.
“Thanks as always.” Sam shook Aubrey’s hand.
“You don’t need to thank me.”
Tracey put her hand on Aubrey’s shoulder.
“Give me a call again when you are in town and want to ride,” Aubrey said.
“Thanks.” Sam smiled.
“Bye,” the three said in unison.
Before they reached their SUV, a robin egg colored car pulled into the drive.
“What the—” Aubrey looked up.
*****
As soon as Ben drove down her driveway second thoughts overtook him.
I shouldn’t be here.
Too late.
Three people stood next to Aubrey. And she clearly wasn’t happy to see him.
Shit.
Ben put the car in park and stepped out.
“You guys have a nice weeke
nd,” she said. The three got into their SUV.
“Can I help you?” Aubrey was anything but pleasant and walked toward the pasture away from him. He wouldn’t complain about the view from behind.
“How are you doing?” Ben asked. For some off reason, he worried about her to the point where he needed to check and make sure she was okay. It was a first and he tried to deny it, but there he was. In her driveway, pissing her off.
“Why are you here?” She stopped.
“Standard follow up to check up on a victim after a traumatic experience,” Ben lied. That was bullshit, though it sounded somewhat plausible for pulling it out of his ass.
“Ah hah. I’m fine. Follow up completed.” She continued on toward Gunny and Trixie.
“I also wanted to talk to you about the ticket I issued you yesterday.”
“If you came to lecture me Trooper, you better find your way off my property.”
“Miss Devlin, stop walking away from me for one minute.”
“What do you want?” Aubrey whipped around and put her hands on her hips.
“Do you have the ticket?”
She hesitated in answering.
“On my kitchen counter.”
“I’ll take it back.” Ben decided her business burning down was bad enough for one night. The ticket was inconsequential to him, but only added to her stress.
“What?”
“You had a bad enough day yesterday. I’ll take the ticket back if you promise to slow down.”
“I can’t promise that,” she said candidly. Ben was trying to do her a favor, but she still was standoffish.
“Promise me you’ll try.” Ben was far more patient than he would have been with her pre-fire.
Aubrey led the horses to the barn and into their respective stalls.
“Why are you doing this?”
“I already told you.”
“You hate me.” She undressed the horses.
Ben had loathed her, but somewhere along the way, the hate lifted. A strong dislike was still present, but not enough so that she was at the top of the shit list.
“I don’t hate you, I dislike you.” That was honest.
“You’ll take the ticket back?”
“That’s what I said.” Ben could only take the one he’d written her the night prior. The others he’d already submitted to the state. There was no going back. And he shouldn’t be taking tickets back to begin with. That’s not the way things worked.
Aubrey looked at him in disbelief. Ben couldn’t help himself, he smiled at her expression.
“I don’t want any favors from you.”
“It’s not a favor. I figured you’ve been punished enough, but if you want to keep it, fine by me.”
She walked toward the house and disappeared inside. A moment later she came back out with the envelope he’d given her in hand.
She passed it to him.
“Thank you,” she said. He could tell the words she’d spoken caused her physical pain to say.
“No problem.” Ben looked over at her horses. “So you give lessons?”
“Ah, I’d call it therapy.”
“Therapy?”
“I give lessons to some of the kids I work with.”
“What do you do for work?”
“I work at the children’s hospital, in the Pediatric Unit.”
“Are you a doctor?”
“A nurse.” She crossed her arms in front of her.
“Was that girl sick?”
“She’s in remission.”
“Cancer?”
“Why are you still here?” Aubrey asked.
Why am I cutting her a break? Ben thought to himself.
“Just being nice.”
“Nice,” Aubrey huffed and rolled her eyes.
“Nicer than you at this moment.” Ben turned and walked toward his car. She was less pleasant on this day than when he’d pulled her over, both times.
“Slow down,” he yelled and held the ticket up behind his back.
*****
Aubrey watched Trooper Asshole pull out of her yard perplexed. She was shocked he’d shown up at her door to “check on her”. More shocked that he’d taken one of the tickets back. Too bad it was the cheapest of the four. She’d gladly have given him the other three.
Off to town to inspect her smoldering dream and talk to the insurance adjuster coming from down state.
That went well. The adjuster made her feel like a fool. She was one, so it was an appropriate feeling. She was on the fence about rebuilding. Her heart and soul had been put into that bakery. A little piece of her heart died with it.
Sigh.
She kicked the rubble about. The only salvageable items were a few of the vintage Coca-Cola items that once adorned the walls. How they survived was a mystery. Aubrey loaded up a box of the salvaged items and packed them into her truck. The street looked barren without her little bakery, but at least the buildings surrounding hers were saved. She wouldn’t have been able to look at herself in the mirror had they not. It was bad enough to lose her own dream, let alone others.
Putting the truck into drive, she headed for home. Home was a one story gray sided ranch stick built with red shutters. Much like the bakery, she’d bought it cheap and renovated it to her tastes. It was country contemporary. It sat on one hundred acres of land with a large barn, the house located on relatively untraveled road. One would have to go out of their way to get there. Much like Asshole had to, to get there.
She pulled into her drive and Jill and Taylor were already there. The lights in her house were all on, music blared from the closed windows.
“You guys found the hide-a-key.” Aubrey closed the door behind her.
“Who needs a hide-a-key when you don’t lock your door.” Jill raised her head.
“I locked the door!”
“Maybe.” Taylor smiled.
Jill was Aubrey’s closest friend and confidant. They’d been inseparable as children and their bond followed them through adulthood. Jill was a looker. One of those girls who when she walked into a room every man craned their neck to get a look. Tall, blond, curves to die for. And she had a successful CEO as her fiancé. Jill lived the perfect life.
Taylor, well, she didn’t have the same luck. Taylor was a redhead, not much more than 5’0”, and was nearly as wide as she was tall. But, her personality was bigger than her physical appearance. She’d been married since she was a senior in high school and the two beat the odds. Twelve years of happy marriage.
“I see you two got a head start on the wine.”
“We were testing it to make sure it was safe to drink.” Taylor laughed.
“What’s the verdict?”
“Oh yeah, it’s safe.” Taylor passed her a glass full of wine. “To a better day tomorrow than yesterday.”
They raised glasses.
“And maybe to seeing that cute little trooper you were clinging to the other night.”
“Watch your tongue.” Aubrey downed her glass. “I have no want for that man. He’s an asshole.”
“Yet you were hugging him so closely I wasn’t sure where you ended and he started.”
“Stop it,” Aubrey said shortly.
“I think a cop would be good for her. Someone needs to keep her in line.” Taylor sat on a bar stool.
“Listen you—” Aubrey tried to get a word in edgewise.
“We’re just trying to help you,” Taylor said.
“I’ll do without the help. Trooper Asshole has already helped me enough with three tickets coming to more than five hundred dollars.”
Both Jill and Taylor broke out laughing.
“I guess that is one doomed relationship,” Taylor put her glass on the bar.
“There is no relationship.” Aubrey filled her glass. “My bakery burns down and what you two want to talk about is a man.”
Letters of Love (Green Division Series Book #3) Page 3