Firefighter Christmas Complete Series Box Set (A Firefighter Holiday Romance Love Story)

by Nella Tyler

  I added a few more items to my basket as I wandered around, already starting to feel better about life in general. Maybe when I got home I’d fill my bathtub, toss in one of the bath bombs, and soak for an hour or two while I listened to music. I’d exfoliate from head to toe and put a treatment in my hair, and then I would use one of my new shower gels, and give my feet a thorough scrub, and get out and slather myself with lotion afterwards. I’d sleep like the dead, and have enough energy and patience to deal with my parents’ questions for an entire day once more.

  I waited in line for the register and thought about some of the couples-minded items that Lush sold as the people in front of me inched forward. I’d always wanted to try their massage bars, but I hadn’t had anyone to use them on—or to use them on me. It was a small loss, I told myself as my turn at the register finally came up. I left the store before anything else could tempt me, and headed into the cold once more. I decided that I’d find somewhere good to grab dinner, and I’d maybe hit a couple of other stores while I was out, maybe pick up some pantry things just for the sake of making the trip less than completely gluttonous, and then I’d go home and just spend the rest of the night pampering myself.

  I wondered how Patrick’s Christmas with Landon and their family had gone. I’d been wondering off and on since I’d admitted I was seeing Patrick to my family—but I hadn’t been able to find the courage to call or text him to ask. If he didn’t answer me, I wouldn’t know whether it was because he was simply busy or because he honestly didn’t want to talk to me—and I didn’t want to stress myself out even more. I hoped that at least when I saw Landon again in a few days, at his next session, I’d be able to ask him about the kite I’d gotten for him, and find out whether he’d liked it. I hoped that Patrick would come in with his son, and stop playing games.

  As I was making my way back to my car, I remembered that I still had the big family New Years party ahead of me; now that I had told my family that I was seeing someone, they would expect me to show up with a date for the event. For a moment my heart sunk; I didn’t even know if Patrick wanted to see me at all again—and having to explain the fact that he wasn’t there to my parents would be more than a little bit awkward and annoying. But then I thought about it; if I didn’t have a date for New Year’s Eve, then I didn’t think that he would.

  I had to give him some credit; in spite of the fact that things had gotten strained between us, he had made an effort to see me again a few days before. Even if it had just been dinner and shopping, it had been nice to spend time with him. I thought about how it had felt when Patrick had kissed me next to my car; that at least had been just as good as it had ever been.

  As I looked for my car, I spotted the café where Patrick and I had gone on our first date and smiled to myself. It was packed—as I would expect on the day after Christmas—and it was easy for me to remember how nervous I’d been at the beginning of the date, and how much I’d wanted to see more of him by the time the date was over and we made out at my car.

  I stopped dead in my tracks when I realized that I could see Patrick in the café; he was sitting close to one of the windows, and my heart started beating faster. It’s a sign. You should call him. I shifted my shopping bags around and reached into my purse, smiling to myself. I had been thinking about how much better it would be to have Patrick with me at my parents’ annual party, and here was the perfect opportunity to invite him. If I played my cards right, I might even be able to run into the café and have a quick cup of coffee with him, and talk about where our relationship was. I was feeling brave and happy—and I looked up again to make sure that he wasn’t getting up to leave before I made my call.

  Instead of seeing him leaving though, I noticed that he wasn’t sitting alone. There was a woman at the table with him, and as I watched, Patrick laughed at something she said, reaching out to tousle her hair. All of the warmth in my body, all the happiness at spotting him at random in the big city right when I most wanted to try to make things better with him, evaporated. Well that explains why he’s been so weird, I thought as my eyes began to sting. I started walking away from the curb, back towards where I remembered parking my car, with my phone still in my hand. The last thing I wanted to do then was go into the café and talk to Patrick about anything.

  But I have never been a coward. I’d seen what had come between us: another woman, and though I hadn’t been able to make out much of her face, she was beautiful. Gritting my teeth, I decided that it was time to say something to Patrick after all. I pulled his contact information up again and instead of tapping the icon to call him, I opened up a new text message to him. I was going to give you a call—I’d seen that you were at the café we went to. But I’ve noticed that you’re seeing someone else. I wish you would have just told me. My fingers tapped on the screen, and I blessed the fact that I had gloves that would let me use my phone without having to freeze my fingers. I was going to invite you to come with me to my parents’ New Year’s Eve party, but obviously you’ve probably got other plans. It was nice to meet you, Patrick. I took a deep breath, debating whether to say anything else, and decided that that was more than enough. I tapped send, stuffed my phone into my pocket, and hurried to my car.

  Chapter Ten

  Patrick

  “I cannot tell you how glad I am that you agreed to get coffee with me,” Jessica said for the third time since we’d left her house. As soon as I’d arrived to drop Landon off, I’d understood why she’d been so desperate to get out; the kids were in rare form, playing some make-believe game with their father, and I knew Landon would jump right in as soon as he could—which would be great for getting him to go to bed on time. The kids had all gotten spoiled by their grandparents that year, each of them getting a pile of noisy, stimulating toys, and I had said a little prayer of thanksgiving to myself that I only had one kid to contend with when it came to rambunctious playing.

  “I needed to get out as much as you did,” I pointed out. “Besides, with all the Christmas craziness we didn’t really get much chance to catch up on things.”

  “You’re damn right about that!” Jessica gave me a little smirk. “Like the fact that you’re seeing someone new. I had to get that from Landon.” I laughed. It had gotten out that I was seeing someone—Landon had mentioned Mack, but since he knew next to nothing about the relationship, I’d kept my mouth as shut as possible about it around the family, especially since I didn’t know how serious it could still, reasonably, become.

  “Yeah, well, he made a bet that I wouldn’t find him a new mom by New Year’s Day,” I said. “I had to make at least a token effort to prove him wrong.” I took a sip of my coffee, thinking of the pretty physical therapist and how much I’d wanted to make things right with her but didn’t seem to have any notion of how to go about doing that.

  “That’s a pretty crazy idea,” Jess told me, raising an eyebrow. “So what’s she like?” I took a breath and tried to think of just how I could describe Mack to my sister.

  “She’s beautiful,” I said, first. “She’s really dedicated to her work—that’s how we met, actually. She’s Landon’s physical therapist. She’s smart, too. And funny.” I smiled, remembering some of the jokes that Mack had made—almost all of them appropriate for all ages, and somehow so corny that they were funnier than they would have been had anyone else told them.

  “She’s good at her work,” Jessica said. “Landon isn’t even limping.”

  “He’s got a ways to go still,” I pointed out, “ but he’s making really good progress.”

  “You like her,” Jessica said, making it not quite a question.

  “I do,” I told her. “I just—I don’t know if we’re on the same page.”

  “What do you mean?” Jessica frowned. “Is she like, against premarital sex or something?”

  “No, nothing like that—and you really need to get a sex life of your own,” I replied. “I just don’t know how she feels about kids.”

  “Obviousl
y she likes them or she wouldn’t be in the line of work she’s in,” Jessica told me matter-of-factly. “And that kite she got Landon is precious.”

  “I just don’t know if she’d be interested in being an almost-parent to Landon.”

  Jessica chuckled. “Brother-dear, you’ve known the woman for less than a month. The fact that you enjoy being around her, and Landon likes her, is enough for right now, don’t you think? You’ve gotten too wrapped up in this bet with Landon.”

  “Well, sister-dear,” I said, making a face at her, “I have to think about him. You know that. God forbid you lost your husband someday—with your kids still young—you’d want to know as soon as you could, dating someone, whether they’d work out with your kids, wouldn’t you?”

  “Well she works with Landon a few times a week, right?” I nodded. “And Landon likes her. After a month that’s kind of an amazing thing.”

  “She is good with him,” I admitted. “Better in some respects even than I am.” I grinned wryly. “Landon actually listens to her.”

  “Kids always listen to relative strangers more than they do their parents; it’s a fact of life.” Jess shrugged.

  “I might have already screwed things up,” I said with a sigh. “I canceled on her for a date—I told her I had a last-minute business dinner, but really it was because of some things she’d said while we were out together.”

  “What did she say that would make you cancel on a date?”

  “It’s dumb,” I said, shaking my head. “She said that she wasn’t sure that she’d ever get married or have kids—not that she didn’t want them, just that she’d sort of given up on the idea.”

  “You idiot! Of course she said that!” Jessica shook her head at me. “One, no woman wants to look like she’s rushing a relationship. It’s a sure-fire way to scare a guy off. Those are the kinds of things you start talking about six months in, usually.”

  “Yeah, but if we’re going to get serious, I have to at least know that she’s going to be okay with sometimes watching Landon, spending lots of time with him,” I countered. “And I can’t have her—or anyone—just waltzing in and out of Landon’s life. It’s why I haven’t really dated all this time. If it’s just going to be a fling, I need to know as soon as possible.”

  “You’re using Landon as an excuse to sabotage your relationship with this girl and that isn’t cool,” Jess told me flatly. “If you weren’t ready to date someone, you shouldn’t have asked her out on a second, third, or fourth date. You should have just said that it was really nice to see her socially, and left it at that.”

  “But I wanted to get to know her better.”

  “Well, the second thing I was going to say is that it’s possible that she has given up on getting married and having kids. There’s probably a lot of guys out there who can’t handle a woman who’s dedicated to her career, and from what you’ve said about her it doesn’t sound like she’s exactly been mauling the mattress the last few years.”

  “Sometimes you’re pretty crude Jess,” I said, grinning in spite of myself.

  “I’ve had four kids, Pat. Any shame I might have ever had evaporated the first time I saw my infant son diddling himself.” I choked on a sip of coffee and had to take a moment to recover.

  “You can go on now,” I said, swatting my chest a few more times and shaking my head.

  “Anyway,” Jess said, shrugging. “Just because she’s given up on something like that happening doesn’t mean she doesn’t still want it, it just means she isn’t going into a relationship with any expectation of it. If you want to get married and have another kid, that’s something you should—I don’t know—tell her.” Jess grinned at me.

  “You’re right,” I said. “If I can convince her to ever see me again after the way the last date went, I’ll talk to her about it.”

  “Good boy,” Jessica said, reaching out and patting me on the head. I groaned and countered by reaching over the table to tousle her short hair.

  “I’m your older brother! Show some respect!” We both laughed. “It’s enough that I’ve admitted you’re right about something.”

  “Well I do happen to know a bit more about women than you, considering that I am one,” Jessica said, giving me a self-satisfied smile.

  “I will concede that you know more about being a woman than I ever will,” I said. “God, I’m glad I left the house.”

  Just then, my phone vibrated in my pocket. For just a second I felt a stab of panic, thinking that it was Jessica’s husband, calling to tell me that something had happened to one of the kids—maybe even Landon. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone as quickly as possible, telling myself that it could just as easily be my parents or one of my friends. Instead, the name that flashed on the screen was Mack’s.

  “Speak of the devil,” I said, as the notification showed a text message pending.

  “She texted you? That’s a good sign! Maybe you didn’t completely fuck this up after all.” I rolled my eyes and unlocked my screen, tapping the messages icon to open up the text.

  I had expected—seeing that it was Mack messaging me—that the message would be something like, “Hope you had a good Christmas” or asking me how Landon had liked the kite she’d bought him—maybe, at best, an idea for a date. Instead, as I read the message she had sent, I stared at my phone in confusion. Another woman? What?

  “What did she say?” I glanced at my sister, completely stunned by the message that Mack had sent me. “That doesn’t look like a ‘hey baby, drop by my place’ message.”

  “It definitely isn’t one of those,” I said. I read it out loud to Jessica and for a moment her expression looked the same way I’m sure that mine did: complete confusion.

  Then it all clicked in my head. Mackenzie had been wandering around the area—we weren’t far from her apartment—and had seen me in the café. And then she had seen Jessica. “Oh god, I’m an idiot—of course,” I said out loud, shaking my head.

  “What? Are you seeing someone else I don’t know about?”

  “No—no, she saw you. Just now.” I laughed, shaking my head again. “God. She thinks I’m cheating on her with my own sister.”

  “Oh god!” Jessica laughed with me. “Oh man—Pat—you have to tell her she’s wrong. I haven’t seen you this worked up about someone since Joanne. You can’t let her think you’re seeing some side-girl and that’s why things got weird.”

  “Yeah, definitely,” I said. I looked over the text message again, amazed that Mack could think that I was seeing someone else, that I wouldn’t have told her, or just broken things off with her. Part of me felt insulted that she thought I would cheat, but another part was relieved that she cared enough to be upset in the first place. I re-read the text message and caught the part where she mentioned that she had wanted to invite me to her parents’ party for New Year’s Eve. I smiled to myself, hoping that I could salvage the situation well enough to get another chance to make things right with Mack.

  PART FOUR

  Chapter One

  Mackenzie

  After I sent the text message to Patrick confronting him about seeing another woman, I put my phone in my pocket and hurried down the street towards where my car waited. I wasn’t sure whether I felt more angry or hurt—and with each step, the two emotions flip-flopped inside of me. Why would he do this to me? Who does he think he is? Was I reading him wrong the whole time? How many other women is he seeing? I can’t believe that I actually thought he might be looking for someone serious! I shook my head, feeling the sting in my eyes that told me that if I didn’t get to my car soon I was going to just start crying.

  I started when my phone vibrated in my pocket and thought about ignoring it. It could be Mom or Dad. Or someone from the clinic, needing emergency coverage. I took the phone out of my pocket, hoping for something to distract me from my angry-sad thoughts about Patrick and what a fool I’d been to think about him at all; but of course it was him. Patrick’s name flashed on the sc
reen as it vibrated again, and I almost threw my phone down onto the sidewalk.

  “Screw you, asshole,” I muttered at the phone, my finger hovering over the “decline call” icon. If he wanted to explain himself, he could leave me a voicemail and maybe—maybe—I would listen to it later. I caught someone looking at me funny as they walked past and took a deep breath as my phone buzzed a third time. I could just let it roll over into voicemail, like a calm person. Or I could answer it and see what Patrick had to say for himself. It was another woman, but was it a significant other woman? I didn’t know whether I could trust Patrick to tell me the truth, but as my phone buzzed for the last time curiosity won out over my anger and sadness and I tapped “accept”.

  “Mack? I was worried you were going to let me go to voicemail,” Patrick said, as soon as the call connected.

  “I was pretty much going to do just that,” I told him, continuing to walk towards my car. “I decided I wanted to hear what you had to say.”

  “I appreciate it,” Patrick said. I could hear the noise going on in the café around him on the other end of the line. “I wish you could have come to Christmas at my family’s place; you would have met my sister.”

  “Okay,” I said, frowning as I tried to understand why that was relevant to what I’d said to him.

  “But since you saw me out—and since you texted me—you can meet her now.” I stopped in my tracks, startled.

  “Meet her now?” I edged away from the flow of traffic, trying to understand.

  “The woman you saw me with is my sister,” Patrick told me. “She’s technically another woman, but she’s not one I’d ever cheat on you with, if I ever wanted to cheat in the first place.” I frowned and bit my bottom lip, trying to decide whether or not to believe Patrick. It was a convenient excuse; but just because it was convenient didn’t mean that it was a lie.

  “I don’t know,” I said, worrying my bottom lip for another moment.