by Claire Adams
“It’s still Christmas day, and you know the rule, Punkin,” Blake said.
“Dad…” Nina warned. Blake stopped humming, but his smile remained.
At the house, Nina disappeared into her room before I could say anything I’d rehearsed in my head on the car ride home. I shrugged it off and waited on the couch for Blake to say goodnight to his daughter. When he appeared again, he was carrying a bottle of whiskey and two glasses.
“What on earth?” I said, laughing.
“I’ve got a liquor cabinet hidden in the back so that teenagers can’t find it,” he grinned, as he handed me a glass and poured a finger of amber liquid into it. “To Christmas.”
“To Christmas,” I said, with a wistful smile. “Thank you for making this not the worst holiday ever.”
“Your house burning down and your cat being in the hospital isn’t the worst Christmas ever?” Blake said, surprised.
“Not even close,” I replied grimly. “Thank you for sharing your family with me. They’re really lovely people.”
“I think they liked you, too,” he smiled, as he clinked his glass against mine and then raised it to his lips. We sat quietly staring at the tree lights as we let the warmth of the whiskey slide down our throats. It was Blake who broke the silence. “I’m not sure how to say this, but I want to see you again. I mean, not just because we had sex earlier.”
“Shhhh,” I said, casting a nervous glance towards Nina’s room.
“What? Oh, she’s not going to get worked up about it,” he said, waving his hand as if to dismiss the thought.
“Are you kidding me?” I replied, with a surprised look. “She’s pissed as hell that you brought her History teacher to the family holiday. If she thinks we’re sleeping together, she’s going to lose it.”
“She’s not going to lose it,” Blake said, shaking his head. “Well, maybe just a little. Fine, you can sleep in my room, and I’ll take the couch tonight…but it’s really such a pity.”
His warm brown eyes followed a path from my face down my body, and I felt the familiar tingling of nerve endings that had been woken from a long slumber.
“Don’t do that!” I whispered in a scolding tone. “You’re going to get us both in trouble!”
“I never thought I’d be sneaking around in my own home, hiding from my teenage daughter,” Blake whispered, as he bent to kiss me softly. When I returned the kiss, he whispered, “I always kind of thought it would be the other way around.”
Chapter Seventeen
Blake
The next morning, I woke up to the sound and smell of bacon frying and, for a moment, I panicked, thinking I was at the firehouse. I bolted up off the couch and was halfway to the bathroom when I realized where I was. I splashed some water on my face and rubbed the stubble that seemed to have appeared overnight. I looked tired as hell, but I felt oddly happy.
“Nina, what the hell are you—” I stopped short when I saw Emily standing at the stove with a towel thrown over one shoulder and her hair pulled up into a messy bun on top of her head. She was wearing the T-shirt and pair of sweats I’d given her. The shirt was knotted at her waist, and the pants were rolled down around her waist and cuffed around her ankles, and still, she swam in them. She turned toward me with a smile as she held out a cup of hot coffee.
“Good morning,” she said, as she turned back to the stove and continued frying bacon. I could see a plate of scrambled eggs sitting off to one side of the stove, and the light on in the oven gave me a preview of the huge stack of pancakes that sat warming on a plate.
“Wow, you really went all out, didn’t you?” I laughed, as I sipped from my cup.
“Well, after all you did for me yesterday, I thought this was the least I could do,” she said, turning to look at me.
“It wasn’t like it was that difficult,” I said softly, as I crossed the kitchen and quickly kissed her.
“Blake…” she warned, casting a glance toward the kitchen door.
“I know, I know,” I said, moving away. “I’m just saying…”
“I know what you’re saying,” she grinned. “And if we were alone, I’d be saying it, too.”
“Good, I’m glad I’m not alone,” I nodded.
“Alone where?” Nina said sleepily, rubbing her eyes as she tried to focus. “I smelled bacon.”
“Emily made breakfast for us,” I said, as I grabbed three plates from the cupboard and a handful of silverware from the drawer to set the table.
“There’s juice on the table or hot coffee in the pot,” Emily offered, as she pulled strips of crisp bacon out of the pan and then poured the grease into a soup can she’d found under the sink. “I thought we could eat and then, if you don’t mind, Blake, I want to go over to the house and see if there’s anything I can salvage before I pick up Howard.”
“You’re picking him up today?” I asked.
“They told me he was doing fine, and since I’m going to go stay at my friend Kendra’s house for a few weeks, I thought I’d get him acclimated as quickly as possible,” she said. I felt my stomach drop a little as the disappointment set in. I’d thought Emily would stay with me while she waited for the insurance to fork up the money she’d need to find a new place. I knew it was crazy, but after the wild roll in the hay yesterday, I had thought we might be on to something.
“Sure, no problem,” I nodded, without giving anything away. “We’ll go after breakfast. You want to come with us, Nina?”
One look from my teenage daughter told me the answer to that question, so I dropped it and tried to enjoy a quiet breakfast. The bacon was just the way I liked it, and Nina ate more than her fair share, laughing when I waged a fake protest over the last slice. Once we’d cleared the table and done the dishes, Emily and I headed over to the burned house to see what we could get out of it.
When we pulled up, I heard Emily inhale sharply. The house was a blackened shell of a building with the roof caved in and the outer walls scorched and bubbled by the heat. She covered her mouth with her hand and sat staring silently at it for a few minutes before she drew a deep breath and said, “Let’s go see what we can salvage.”
The living room and the bedroom had been almost completely destroyed, but the kitchen had managed to survive partially intact. We dug through the dust and dirt to find that Howard’s food and water bowl had miraculously made it through unscathed. His food had been stored in a bin in the closet and that, too, had survived. We gathered up a few things in trash bags, and I heard Emily sigh as she looked over the ruined remains of the living room.
“There’s nothing there worth trying to salvage,” she said, kicking a scorched couch cushion and sighing loudly again. I drove Emily to the clinic where she picked up Howard, who was only slightly disgruntled about having to have spent a night away from his person, but he quickly forgave Emily when she gathered him in her arms and held him to her chest. We stopped and picked up a few groceries and a litter box for Howard, and by the time we pulled up in front of Kendra’s house, he was purring contentedly as he pushed on Emily’s arm.
I unloaded the truck as Emily unlocked the door and turned on lights. I brought her meager belongings into the house and looked around. It was a clean but Spartan house.
“She’s out of town visiting her parents; I’m not sure when she’s coming back,” Emily said, without prompting. “I’ll just stay here until I get the insurance settled and find a new place to live.”
“Sounds good to me,” I nodded. “Meanwhile, I’d like to take you out on a real date. Maybe Wednesday?”
“I’d like that,” she smiled.
“Good, then I’ll pick you up at 7,” I said, as I kissed her and then turned to go.
“Thank you, Blake,” she said quietly. “It’s been a horrible couple of days, but you made it all much better.”
“I’m glad I could help,” I said, tipping my imaginary hat. “I’ll see you Wednesday.”
I stopped and picked up burgers for Nina and I before I retur
ned home. When I got there, she was frantically texting with someone obviously more important than I was, so I held up the bag containing dinner and said, “Might want to come and get it while it’s hot!”
Nina set her phone down and followed me into the kitchen as I divvied up the burgers and fries and she grabbed the condiments and napkins.
“So, what’s going on with you two?” she blurted out. “And don’t lie to me; there’s obviously something going on.”
“I wouldn’t dream of lying to you, darling daughter,” I said, imitating her dramatic way of answering me when I dug into her personal life.
“Dad!” she protested. “I’m serious! What’s going on with you and Ms. Fowler?”
“I want to date her,” I said plainly. “So, I’m going to take her out to dinner on Wednesday.”
“This is so gross,” Nina said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe you’re going to date my teacher!”
“Who else am I going to date, Nina?” I said. “And besides, you are the one who's been pushing me to get out there and mingle with the singles.”
“Yeah, but not my teachers,” she protested, before taking a huge bite of her burger.
“Then I can’t win,” I said exasperatedly. “I give up. You want me to call and cancel?”
“Nooooooo,” Nina said with a full mouth.
“Then what do you want me to do?”
“Just don’t be so obvious about it, Dad,” she grinned, as she grabbed fries off of my plate and popped them into her mouth. “Seriously. It’s gross.”
“Fine, I will conduct my business with all the secrecy of a CIA black-op,” I said solemnly.
“Oh God, don’t be so dramatic, Dad,” she said, rolling her eyes even more dramatically. “I’m just saying that you should keep it on the DL until you know if you two actually like each other or not.”
“The DL?”
“Oh my God, Dad! The DL is the down low! I’ve told you that a million times,” she exhaled exasperatedly. “What is wrong with you?”
“Dunno, maybe I’m in love,” I said, shrugging. “Or maybe I’m starving because my daughter is eating all of my food!”
Nina burst into giggles, and we spent the rest of our dinner hour laughing as we ate. As I got ready for bed later that night, I smiled as I realized that my date with Emily was the first thing I’d looked forward to in a long time.
Chapter Eighteen
Emily
I quickly settled in at KO’s. She might otherwise live a Spartan life, but KO had a bathroom that rivaled any spa in the state. I poured a glass of wine as the tub filled with hot water. I dropped in a bath bomb and watched it fizzle on the bottom of the tub before I climbed in and sunk down into the steaming water. I sighed as I leaned back and let the day’s events turn over in my mind.
In the span of only one day, I’d watched my house burn down, feared that I’d lose my feline companion, been rescued by Blake Gaston, had some amazing sex with him, and spent the day with his entire family. I reached over, grabbed the wine glass, and sipped the burgundy liquid as I tried to process it all. I quickly gave up and sank back, enjoying the combination of the wine and warm water.
After my bath, I dried off and pulled on a pair of KO’s sweats and a T-shirt that said, “Well-behaved women never make history, so fuck off.” I chuckled as I headed to the kitchen to make myself a sandwich and give Howard his medicine.
Howard was still unsettled after the fire and his stay at the hospital, and he spent a good deal of time sniffing everything in KO’s house. He came into the kitchen to see if I had food, but when he realized that it was time for another of his pills, he made a beeline for the couch. We’d been through this drill many times before, so I tucked the pill inside one of his favorite salmon treats and buried it in the hand holding my sandwich plate.
Howard smelled food and tentatively came closer to check it out. I smiled at him as I lifted the sandwich off the plate and took a big bite. He mewed softly and tapped my arm with his paw.
“Oh, you’re hungry, are you?” I asked, as I eyed him skeptically. Howard blinked twice and then nonchalantly looked away. I chuckled softly before I said, “Well, you’re not getting any of this sandwich, my fuzzy friend.”
Howard turned his glare back at me and shot me a dirty look before looking away again. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing.
“Okay, okay, you want a treat?” I asked. He looked at me as if to ask what the treat was. “I’ve got a salmon treat for you. Do you want it?”
Howard mewed loudly as he stood up and walked closer to me. He stood on my thigh with his paws pressing into my flesh as he mewed louder. I held out the treat. “Do you want this treat?” Howard strained his neck toward the salmon treat and mewed again. I held it close enough for him to have to work a little harder to get it, knowing from experience that doing this would cause him to gobble down the treat before he knew there was a pill hidden in it. It worked as I’d planned, and soon Howard was sitting next to me licking his paw and cleaning his ears.
“You’re such a pig sometimes,” I laughed. He stopped cleaning for a moment to give me a dirty look before hopping off the couch and continuing his exploration.
Once I’d eaten, and Howard understood that we were safe, we snuggled up together in the spare bedroom and slept soundly.
I woke up unsure of where I was to the sound of the phone ringing. When it stopped and then insistently started again, I got out of bed and went to answer it.
“Jesus H. Christ, Em!” KO shouted on the other end of the line. “I’ve been calling for a half hour! Why didn’t you pick up?”
“Maybe because I was dead asleep?” I yawned into the phone.
“I was worried as hell about you!” she scolded. “What did you do yesterday? Are you okay? How’s my boy?”
“We’re fine. Fat man has meds to take for the next few days, but he doesn’t seem to have suffered any major damage,” I said, as I took the phone into the kitchen and began making coffee.
“So, how was Christmas at the hot fireman’s house?” she asked excitedly.
“You mean besides the uncomfortable fact that one of my students was there and earlier in the day I’d slept with her dad?” I replied, as cheekily as I could.
“You had sex with the firefighter?” KO yelled. “Oh my God! Are you sure you don’t have a head injury?”
“I’m positive,” I laughed. “If I hadn’t slept with him, I’d have asked that same question.”
“Good point,” she replied. “So? How was it?”
“Hot as hell, my friend,” I said, recalling the feel of Blake’s body pressed against mine. “It was almost worth having my house burn down for it.”
“You’re really hardcore sometimes, Em,” KO said quietly. “You know that, don’t you?”
“I’m teasing, KO!” I laughed. “It was not worth having my house burn down, but it was an incredibly good consolation prize.”
“You going to see him again?” she asked.
“He’s taking me on a date on Wednesday,” I affirmed.
“You can totally have sex in my bed if you want to,” she offered. “Just change the sheets when you’re done.”
“KO, you’re so weird! I’m staying in the guest room; why would I want to have sex in your room?”
“I’ve got mood lighting in there!” she boasted. I laughed out loud as she went on to describe the various levels of lighting and how I could control them all with the remote she had stashed in the bedside drawer. We spent the next hour laughing and catching up on what Kendra had been doing while at home.
“When do you think you’ll come back?” I asked.
“I’m not sure, Em,” she said, hesitating. “Pop needs an extra set of hands to keep things going here, and my brother isn’t up to the task right now. I’m going to stay a while and see what happens.”
“What about your job?” I asked, as I tried to hide how lonely I was without my best friend, but I also knew that KO loved her fami
ly.
“Eh, they don’t need me to keep things going,” she scoffed. “The guys can pick up a shift or two and cover it for a while, and Arnie said that he’d keep the job open as long as he could.”
“I see,” I said softly.
“Hey, buck up buttercup,” KO urged. “This won’t be forever, and I’ll be back before you know it! Besides, it’s better for you to have the house to yourself right now so you can sneak off and have a roll in the hay with the fireman!”
“Oh God, KO!” I groaned, as I thought about my date with Blake. “I can’t do this!”
“Of course you can,” she said. “You go get yourself a blowout and a manicure, and maybe even a new outfit, then you seduce him and have your way with him. It’s easy!”
“You’re killing me, KO,” I laughed, as I considered her advice.
“Go do it,” she urged. “Don’t argue with me. I might not be there, but I’m still right!”
“Fine, I’ll do it,” I said, giving in. She told me to call her later in the week so she could live vicariously through me. I told her I would and then hung up.
I stared at the phone for a few minutes before I picked it up and dialed the salon and booked an appointment for Wednesday morning. Then I grabbed my purse and headed out to do some serious shopping.
Chapter Nineteen
Blake
After what felt like more than two days, date night finally arrived. I’d just finished picking out a tie to go with my shirt when Nina walked into the room and shook her head.
“Dad, no. Just…no,” she said, digging through my closet and pulling out a tie I hadn’t even known was there. “This one is way better. You won’t look so old in it.”
“Thank you, my incredibly young daughter,” I said dryly. I took the tie from her and began knotting it the way my father had taught me. It had been years since I’d worn a tie with anything, and it definitely wasn’t like riding a bike.