by Emma Renshaw
“Ridge.”
“Chase.” He grasped my hand, giving it a firm shake before dropping it.
“Welcome to HVFD. Come on, I’ll show you around.”
There was still a good half hour before our shift officially started, but I usually tried to get here early to take advantage of the gym before roll call. That wouldn’t be happening today. As the rest of the team strolled in and the guys on the earlier shift left, I ushered Chase up the opposite staircase from the one the chief had gone up.
“Are you a transfer or new recruit?” I asked Chase as I took him from room to room.
“New recruit. I decided I needed a career change.”
I nodded. It happened more often than people thought. Not everyone went into the academy straight from high school like I did. Some explored other avenues before finding their way to a firehouse.
“Where are you from?”
“I’m from Oak Springs, so not too far from here.”
“Sanders.” I turned to find the guy who’d called my name. Theo raised his arm in the air and waved me over. “You have a visitor.”
I arched an eyebrow. “I’ll be right back.”
I strode toward Theo. It wasn’t often that I had a personal visitor. Many people from town stopped by with food to show us appreciation, but I wasn’t usually asked for by name. I thought over the past few week’s calls. There hadn’t been anything out of the ordinary.
I stopped in my tracks as the woman stepped out of Theo’s shadow. He raised his brows and clapped me on the shoulder as he left me standing across from the last person I would’ve expected to see here.
Elise.
My ex-fiancé.
“What are you doing here?”
When she broke off our engagement after I refused to quit my job and find a “better one,” she took off for the city. The life we were living here wasn’t enough for her; she’d always wanted more. I was never enough for her. She hated my job. Hated the fact that I loved small-town living. She didn’t like the days I came home dirty after work or had to cancel last minute because a call came in. She hated the weird hours and never understood that being a firefighter was more than my job. It was my life and who I was. It ran deep in my blood and made me the man I was.
Like I said, I wasn’t enough for her.
She tucked a piece of her tawny hair behind her ear. Her heels clicked against the concrete floor as she stepped forward into my space. She looked the same as she always had. Perfectly put together without a single strand of hair out of place. From my time with her, I knew the outfit she wore cost more than everything in my entire closet. And probably all my furniture too.
It wasn’t until after she left that I truly understood our lifestyles did not fit together.
“I’m back in town.” Her polished smile made my hackles start to rise. She wanted something.
“Welcome back.” I crossed my arms over my chest and scanned her from head to toe. Her smile brightened and turned a little seductive as she watched my perusal. “Still not sure why that has you stopping by my firehouse though.” Why would she come here of all places? Her family had left town shortly after she did, even after being here their whole lives..
The smile fell for a second before I picked it back up and slid it into place. She reached out, laying a manicured hand on my arm, and closed the last few inches of space between us. My attention snagged on her right hand, lying against my arm, and my brows shot up. The diamond engagement ring that I’d given her was on her finger. I’d spent more than I could afford to try to make her happy, but the moment after she said yes, she made me promise that I would upgrade it as soon as I could. I shook my head, shaking off the memories of my stupidity.
Her chest pressed against my arm, and she looked up at me with her head tilted and her hair spilling over one shoulder.
It was a look I recognized, and one that had gotten her what she wanted from me many times over. But I wasn’t that same naive twenty-something that could make a family with any pretty girl who was interested.
“I wanted to see you. I’ve missed you, and I’ve been thinking about a lot of things. Let’s catch up, Ridge. Take me out for coffee?”
“I’m working.”
The side of her nose twitched before she could completely hide the sneer. “Even better, you could take me to dinner.”
“I think everything we need to say to each other has already been said, Elise. Welcome back to town, but if you’ll excuse me, I have things to do.”
Her eyes clouded with tears. Damn it. I hated it when women cried, and she fucking knew it too. “Please.”
I licked my lips and nodded. “We can meet at the cafe for lunch on Thursday.”
She stood on her toes and kissed the edge of my jaw. Her familiar scent washed over me, and I waited for the reaction I’d once had to her, but I felt nothing. She was still beautiful. She’d always be beautiful, but she didn’t do anything for me anymore. “Thank you,” she whispered against my cheek.
“Bye, Elise.” My tone held no warmth, not even for the good memories we had together.
Her thumb wiped away the gloss that she left behind, and she smiled at me once more. “I always liked you clean shaven instead of scruffy. I loved when you’d kiss me right after you’d shaved.”
“If my mask could suction with facial hair, I wouldn’t shave.”
She shrugged as if it was neither here nor there, but a multitude of those tiny differences, the tiny ways she wanted me to change, were why we didn’t work. I walked away before watching her leave. She was the first person in my life who’d left and come back. I knew better than anyone, though, that people will always leave you behind.
I stormed into the kitchen searching for the rookie I was in charge of so I could drag him back down to the bays. I wanted to test his knowledge of the trucks and the equipment stored on them. When I finally found him, he followed me without question and we marched down the stairs.
“Ridge, you got another visitor.”
I scowled. If this visitor was anything like Elise, or if Elise was coming back for something else, I didn’t want any part of it. I rounded the rig and stomped toward the open bay door, slowing in my tracks. My day had just started looking up.
5
Zoe
I wasn’t sure how I’d been roped into delivering food to the fire station with Makenna and Delilah. The chances of running into Ridge were pretty high. I wasn’t sure I was ready for another face-off with him. He stirred too many things in me. Some of them were memories I’d rather forget. Some were feelings of guilt for leaving without saying goodbye. And, much to my chagrin, some were downright naughty.
“Do you always take food to the station?” I asked Delilah. I’d met her that morning when Makenna dragged me from my peaceful cabin and the stare-off I was having with my phone. My parents still hadn’t called. I’d arrived in Hawk Valley four days ago, and I’d been extending my stay at the inn one day at a time.
“I didn’t, but a few months ago, they were there when my house was burning down and during the crazy aftermath, so now I bombard them with food.”
I chuckled. I liked Delilah. I was glad Makenna had found a good friend in her. I wasn’t sure if Mak and I could ever go back to the friendship that we’d had, but I wanted to try. I wanted to atone for my mistakes and sins. The truth was she deserved a better friend than me. I could only hope that Delilah was better than me.
“Well, if it ain’t my favorite sweet treat,” a man yelled from the open bay. He stood in front of an imposing firetruck, gleaming under the rays of sunshine hitting the front bumper. A large grin was spread across his face as he took off his baseball cap and ran his fingers through the tousled locks.
“Gunner’s gonna use your head as a ball if you don’t stop flirting with his girl, Theo,” said another guy, rounding the truck and coming into view. He didn’t have the same grin on his face as Theo did, but as we got closer, I could see the crinkles beside his eyes giving away his
amusement. I hadn’t seen Foster since the night of the fire, and I was surprised to see him here. Last I’d heard he was headed to Baylor and following in his daddy’s footsteps to run the family company and eventually become mayor of Hawk Valley.
“What did you bring for me today?” Theo asked.
“It’s not just for you, Theo,” Delilah said. “Don’t think I didn’t hear from Adele that you didn’t save any food for her last time.”
“I’ll save some,” Theo promised, but the way he was eyeing the containers in Delilah’s hands, I wasn’t sure anyone else in this station would get even a taste.
“This is Theo and you remember Foster, right?” Mak pointed to each man as she said his name. I smiled and gave an awkward wave, looking past them to see if I would spot the man that had taken up residence in my mind after seeing him again for only a minute. Makenna and Delilah leaned in, hugging the guys. Theo took the food from Delilah’s arms.
“It’s been a long time, Zoe.” Foster stepped up to me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders, giving me a tight squeeze. My shoulders stiffened as images from the fire popped into my head. A slow breath rattled out of my lungs as I forced a smile onto my face. I stepped out of the hug and shook the painful memories from my mind. But the guilt clung to me like a cloak.
“This doesn’t look like the mayor’s office.” I smiled so Foster would know I was joking.
He rubbed a hand over his dark hair and chuckled darkly. “A lot changed after that night.”
I nodded, at a loss for anything else to say. He was right. A lot had changed that night. There were so many classmates I’d probably never see again, some I’d be pressed to even remember their names, but one thing I knew for sure—no one had walked away from that field unchanged.
“Ridge, you’ve got a visitor,” Theo shouted. I tensed and swung my head toward Theo. Delilah’s and Theo’s gazes turned to the stairway. I took a step backward to try to exit quietly before Ridge came down the stairs, but Makenna grabbed my arm and held me next to her.
“Where do you think you’re going? Ridge is coming. He’s the firefighter that helped you.”
Makenna didn’t know he’d visited me daily while I recovered in the hospital. She didn’t know that in those two weeks my dang heart had sprouted a massive crush in the midst of the chaos and destruction. She didn’t know that even though I’d known him for only two weeks, I thought about him often and wondered where life had taken him.
Ridge strode through a doorway, and his eyes immediately landed on mine. Neither of us looked away as he descended the stairs and came closer and closer. I heard Mak speaking, but her words were a lost jumble in my mind. The only thing I was processing was Ridge’s eyes on me and the slight tilt of his lips. The navy polo shirt that was stretched across his chest left nothing to the imagination as to what he was hiding under there.
My eyes slowly scanned his body, from his expansive chest; to his trim waist and muscular thighs, which sent my lower belly into a frenzy; all the way to his shiny work boots. My gaze popped back to his face, and I felt the heat of embarrassment rush to my cheeks when I caught his knowing look. His smile broadened. I sucked in a sharp breath and finally broke the connection, looking out of the bay. It’d been way too long since I’d been with someone. Between taking care of Georgia, as she declined rapidly during the past year, and still working at the nursing home, the last man to flirt with me had been Herman—an eighty-nine-year-old nursing home resident who’d charmed all the nurses and female patients in his wing on the day of his arrival.
Makenna’s arm fell from my shoulders, and I turned to look at her. All the color had drained from her features. I followed her gaze, spotting a man standing a few feet behind Ridge with the same stricken expression Makenna donned. I opened my mouth to say something to her, but she turned on her heel and walked out of the fire station. The man behind Ridge headed back upstairs.
“Is she okay?” Ridge inclined his head toward Makenna, who was pacing next to the car.
“I’m not sure. Who is that? I don’t recognize him from school or anything. Do they know each other?”
“He’s new to town, so I don’t know how they would. Mak would’ve mentioned if she knew someone was starting at the station. So, you’re still in town?”
I bit my lip and forced my gaze to meet his again. I nodded. “For now. My trip has been extended by at least a few days.”
“Want to—”
“I should really—”
We both spoke at the same time. He chuckled.
“I should really go check on Makenna.”
Ridge’s features tightened a bit as he nodded. “That’s probably a good idea.”
“It was good to see you, Ridge.”
“I hope I see you again before you leave. I never did get that goodbye.” He winked and smiled. I returned his smile even as I felt a little pang in my heart. I wasn’t sure if the points against me would ever stop adding up.
“I’m going to check on Mak,” I whispered to Delilah.
“I’ll be out right after I drop off the food in the kitchen.” She headed toward the stairs as I walked toward Makenna. Her hands were fisted in the roots of her long blond hair, and she was muttering to herself.
“Mak?”
She stopped pacing and faced me with splotchy cheeks, red-rimmed eyes, and a quivering lower lip. My mouth dropped open. There was so much pain etched into her features. “Mak?” I asked again, stepping forward with my arms wide open. A sob broke free from her chest as she hurled herself into my arms and I hugged her close. “What’s going on?” I whispered.
“That guy was my brother.”
I reared back and looked toward the fire station. “That was Wyatt? He looks so different.”
“No.” Makenna backed away, wiping the mascara from beneath her eyes. “His name is Chase Price. Turns out my dad had another family, a whole other family, out in Oak Ridge. He chose them over us. I haven’t seen my dad in a few years, and I never thought I’d meet my half brother or sister. What’s he doing here? This is my town.”
I hugged Makenna again, absorbing the news she’d just laid on me. I never would’ve imagined this would happen to her. Her family seemed perfect.
“Told you my life isn’t so charmed anymore,” she whispered.
I hugged her tighter. “You were always the best part of your life, and you’re still here and just as shiny as you’ve always been.”
“I missed you. I needed you when I found out. I’ve buried it for years, and now he’s here. My fucking brother. And you’re going to leave again.”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat, closing my eyes as I shook my head. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here.”
I hoped Gayle wasn’t lying when she said I could extend my stay as long as I wanted. It looked like my short trip to Hawk Valley has been extended indefinitely.
6
Ridge
“How’d it go with Elise?” Foster asked. I glanced at him. He was leaning against the wall we planned to knock down to open up the space between the kitchen and living room. I was transforming the area to an open-concept space and adding more windows along the outer wall to bring in the light this old place needed. I groaned and grabbed the sledgehammer from the ground, and I slammed it into the kitchen cabinets that needed to come down.
“That good, huh?”
“She’s back in town for good and wants to get back together like nothing happened. She’s fucking wearing the engagement ring that I gave her.”
After she’d left, I’d bought the house I was standing in. Elise didn’t want something I would have to fix up or something old. She wanted new, modern, and cookie-cutter. And preferably far outside the town limits of Hawk Valley. None of that was even close to something I wanted, so when she left, I bought this dump and the seventy-five acres it sat on. There were two houses on the property. This one was the smaller of the two, but the one I liked better for myself. The other was an old-style mansion co
mplete with turrets, three floors, and too many bedrooms. Eventually, I’d probably knock it down. Foster was helping me rebuild the inside of this house in our spare time.
We’d opened our side business, Halligan Construction, a few years ago. It had grown into steady work on our off days, doing anything from kitchen remodels to helping switch out light fixtures. Any day that we didn’t have a job, we were here working on my house. Slow and steady.
“Are you going to give her another shot?”
I took another hack at the cabinets. I glanced over my shoulder at Foster, still leaning against the wall, and pointed toward the countertops. “You could start ripping those out, ya know?”
He shrugged. “And you could answer my question.”
“No. She made her choice when she left. We never should’ve happened anyway.”
“I never liked her.”
“Says the guy who agreed to be my best man after I proposed to her.”
“I agreed to be your best man and stand by your side, supporting you, even if I thought you were making a huge mistake. There’s a reason she came crawling back. If I were you, I’d find out what it is before she tries to sink her claws into you while your head is turned.”
My phone vibrated in my pocket. I dropped the sledgehammer to the ground, cracking the tile I needed to remove, and plucked my phone from my pocket, glancing at the screen. “I gotta take this,” I called over my shoulder as I walked through the front door and down the steps of the front porch into the expansive yard.
Weeds and tall grass came up to mid-calf. I didn’t have any neighbors close by, so I only mowed the lawn occasionally. “Hello?” I answered as my gut twisted.
“It’s Bobby Wright.”
I rolled my eyes. I knew who it was, he was in my contacts and we spoke at least once a week, but every time he announced that it was him. “I know. What have you found?”
“I followed a lead I thought was promising, but it turned out not to be her.”