The Switch

by Heather Justesen

  She felt her heart pick up speed. “I’m sure it will. And what about the girls?”

  “Sunday dinners are for everyone.” He set one hand on her shoulder, and teased the side of her neck with his index finger. “We’ll arrange a date for the two of us later.”

  Tia felt a shiver of excitement race across her skin as he leaned closer. It hadn’t been a date—but much of the day had a somewhat date-like quality to it. He rarely left her side, ushering her around, making sure she met everyone. Still, he might kiss her.

  His eyes said he wanted to kiss her, but instead of leaning down to take her mouth, he brushed his lips across her forehead. “You’re exhausted. Go home and try to rest for a while. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  She wished he hadn’t restrained himself, even as she was glad he was taking things slow. “Six o’clock?”

  “That’ll be perfect.”

  Seventeen

  “Okay, try this one.” Danny fed Tia something off the Thai platter sitting between them. He smiled as her eyes popped, either because she liked the taste, or it was burning her from the inside out. He hadn’t been to this restaurant since Laura died—a shame, he thought as a smile spread over Tia’s face. How was it she’d never eaten Thai before?

  Her mouth was still full, but she covered it with her hand. “Oh, wow, this is so hot! But delicious.” She chewed the food some more and swallowed. “What’s it called?”

  “No idea. We’ll have to ask the waiter when he comes by again.” A couple dates a week were all he’d been able to talk her into, including the Sunday night dinner with the girls. Every minute he spent with Tia, though, convince him more that she was special—really special. He’d dated plenty of women, but none of them made him feel like she did.

  He picked up some crispy noodle shrimp and ate it himself, then shared a bit with her. Tia was so warm and fun, she was open to new experiences and had this zest for food that fascinated him. “So do you think you’ll be adding some of their dishes to your lineup next year?”

  “Definitely. I may bump one into line before New Year’s, in fact. I’ll have to do some research.”

  Ah, an opening of sorts. “Speaking of research. How’s it coming?” He’d been dying to ask, but hadn’t wanted her to feel like he was grilling her by bringing it up earlier.

  She shrugged one shoulder, playing with the red chicken curry on her plate. “It’s moving right along. I think I’ve identified all of the families, though I’m still not sure about the Lowells. I’ll have to do a little more digging on that one. But it can wait a few weeks. My days are filling up fast.”

  “I bet. I hope some of those blocks of time are reserved for me.” The table where they sat was small, cozy, and tucked into a private booth. It was easy to pick up her hand and bring it to his mouth. He pressed a kiss to the inside of her fingers, and then to catch her reaction, to her palm. He saw the blush rise to her cheeks and had to smile. Yes, there was something very special about this woman. The fact such a simple gesture could bring on a blush only made him like her more.

  “A few Sunday dinners at least,” she teased.

  “And more, I hope.”

  “And more.” She popped another crispy wonton into her mouth.

  “Good.” Her response filled him with relief.

  “Well, isn’t this cute?” The voice came from the doorway to their booth and was edged with ice.

  Danny looked up to see Carrie standing beside the table. He wanted to groan at the sight of his ex-girlfriend, but forced himself to keep a pleasant smile instead, even as he dreaded the encounter. “I’m sure you find it nauseating. Let me introduce my date. Carrie, this is Tia Riverton. Tia, Carrie Lockley.”

  “We used to date—before I gave up on ever becoming a priority in his life.” Carrie leaned over the table, her shoulder-length brown hair coming between him and her as she spoke to Tia. “Take it from me—his priorities are his dead non-girlfriend, his work, and somewhere around twelfth or thirteenth place, he’ll squeeze you in. He’s not the marrying kind.”

  Tia’s brows lifted and she gave Carrie a bland smile. “Since I’m not expecting a marriage proposal anytime soon, I guess we’ll be fine.”

  Danny didn’t have time to decide if Tia honestly didn’t think the relationship was going anywhere, or if she was just spectacular at the cool-cucumber attitude. They were a long way off from making a commitment, but he definitely felt more for her than anyone else he’d dated. He only glanced her way before turning his attention back to his ex-girlfriend. “It was nice to see you again, Carrie.”

  “Spare me.” She turned on her five-inch stilettos and walked off.

  “She’s bound to twist an ankle in those things,” Tia said as she lifted her drink for a sip.

  Danny didn’t know where to begin his apologies. Experience with other women indicated said apologies would be manifold, and he was better off starting out right away. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it. She’s an ex-girlfriend who obviously had issues about your friendship with Laura.” A smile teased Tia’s mouth. “It’s perfectly understandable. What girlfriend wouldn’t wonder about their boyfriend’s relationship with another woman? Carrie strikes me as the kind who wouldn’t like to share.”

  He took Tia’s hand in his. She really wasn’t going to make him pay for the almost-scene? Carrie would have had a fit in her place. “You nailed it. The relationship with Carrie was a mistake for both of us—we weren’t really suited for each other.”

  She nodded and took another bite of dinner. The conversation was closed when she switched to another subject, but Danny couldn’t help but wonder if the encounter would come up again.

  * * *

  As Danny walked Tia to her front door a couple of hours later, she wondered when she’d last had such a great date. It had been too long, that was for sure. She held his hand as they sauntered up the sidewalk. After the incredible meal, he’d taken her to a magic show, which had been light and fun and so different from what she’d expected when he’d asked her out.

  She wondered if she would ever get a handle on the real Danny.

  They walked in and Tia paid her babysitter, then sent the neighbor girl home to sleep. As the front door closed, she turned back to Danny. “I had a great evening.”

  He stepped close enough that he could easily reach out and tangle her curly red hair in his fingers. “I’m glad. It was fun watching you have a great evening.”

  “I don’t think I’ll ever figure you out.” She shivered slightly as the backs of his finger brushed her cheek and chin in his casual, yet deliberate way. His cologne seemed to swirl in the air around them, musky and familiar.

  A smile spread across his mouth as it lowered toward hers and his voice grew husky. “Good. When you figure me out, things might start to get boring.”

  Tia tilted her chin up to him, leaning in as he covered her lips. She felt his arm come around her back even as she threaded hers around his neck and moved closer. She’d missed kissing, missed the closeness and taste and touch. When he tilted his head to improve the angle, she followed suit as his mouth moved across hers tenderly. Her chest flooded with warmth and a sweet ache. She felt him tug lightly on her hair and tilted her head back even more for a long moment before she made herself pull away. He let her go. When she opened her eyes, she found him already watching her.

  “Go out with me Saturday,” he asked.

  “The girls.”

  He stepped back, releasing her, but caught her hand. His voice returned to normal. “We’ll all go somewhere. We’ll catch the latest Christmas flick at the theater and grab some burgers or something. Then we can see Christmas lights around town, make the girls smile.”

  “It sounds great.” She was already looking forward to it. “I thought you meant for us to go alone.”

  His familiar, teasing grin appeared. “And then we’ll put the girls to bed and stay up talking or arguing over a board game. Or something.” He brushed his thumb ove
r her bottom lip.

  Her stomach quivered at the look in his clear blue eyes. “That sounds pretty wonderful.”

  “Good.” He leaned down and brushed his lips over hers one more time, lingering for a few seconds until her mind blurred at the edges. “I better go,” he said when he finally pulled away. “I have to be at the station early tomorrow. I’m on for forty-eight.”

  She was both disappointed to have him go, and a little relieved. This was progressing faster than she’d expected and she needed to step back and rearrange her vision of the world. Tia had three days to get her bearings and adjust, because she didn’t think this was a road she was going to take a detour off of anytime soon.

  As she watched his car pull out of the drive a few minutes later, she couldn’t wait for Saturday.

  Eighteen

  Danny hung his fire turnouts back on their hook and headed for the shower. It wasn’t going to be a very merry Christmas for the family whose home had just burned out. Three crews had been working on it for the past two hours. The brick façade might be salvageable, he thought, but the rest of it was a bust. Why was it fires seemed to multiply during the holidays?

  He loved being a firefighter even more than his paramedic shifts. He loved to watch the flames roar, to hold the hose as water rushed through it, onto the blaze. There was magic in fire, in the way it moved across floors and walls, eating everything in its path. It was a force stronger than man, unpredictable in many ways, dangerous, fascinating. He often thought he’d like to be trained to identify and track arson, but he wasn’t done with his paramedic skills, yet. He figured there was plenty of time, he wasn’t even thirty.

  The water beating down from the shower head was refreshing, left him feeling human again, softening the exhaustion of carrying around all his gear for hours—those oxygen tanks were heavy after a while. He dressed and trudged back to the kitchen to grab some food and a sports drink. Fluid replacement was one of the most important things the firemen had to remember. Dehydration was nobody’s friend and in the heat of the fire with all of his gear on, it was a serious threat.

  Finished with lunch, he decided to do a supply check on the rig he’d be using the next day. He was halfway through when James bellowed at him. “Hey, Danny, where are you?”

  A moment later he stepped out of the back of the ambulance, clipboard in hand. “Yeah, what’s up?” His eyes slid from his coworker to another man he didn’t recognize and back to James.

  “This dude’s lookin’ for ya.” James wandered off.

  Danny returned his attention to the dark-haired man. “What can I do for you?” He studied the stranger, trying to figure out what he was doing there.

  “I hear you know Laura Dunaway really well.”

  Danny drew into himself a little, wary. What did this joker want? “Yeah. We grew up together.”

  “My name is Gavin McFadden.” He stuck his hands in his pockets, obviously uneasy. “Is there somewhere we can sit?”

  Danny’s radar went off, telling him there was something wrong. His wariness increased, though he wasn’t sure why. “I need to finish this inventory. Just tell me what you want.”

  Gavin paused for a moment, as if considering his words. “Do you have a sister named Janie?”

  Suspicion joined Danny’s other emotions. How could this guy know? And why did he care? If he was a friend of Janie’s he should have just said it. And how did he know Laura anyway? The name Gavin wasn’t familiar. Was he a reporter? One or two had tried contacting him after the accident, but Danny had ignored the phone. What would be the news angle now? “Yeah.”

  Gavin looked extremely uncomfortable, but he looked at Danny straight on. “There’s really no way to say this, so I’m just gonna come out with it.” He paused to take a fortifying breath. “Laura’s alive. There was a mistake. She’s had amnesia.”

  Hope followed by wrenching pain assaulted him and it was all Danny could do not to strike out at the jerk when the memory of Laura lying in the coffin popped into his mind. “Do you think this is a funny joke?” Danny’s eyes narrowed as he wondered who sent the man to mess with him. “Get out of here.”

  He shook his head. “She’s alive. You buried the wrong person.”

  “I saw her body, buddy. Do you really think I wouldn’t know her? No matter how badly she was hurt, it’s not like I wouldn’t know my best friend.” But he remembered all of the damage to her face and wondered if he would have recognized her without the mortician’s artistic license. It was easy to dismiss, though, so he took a menacing step toward Gavin. “Get out.”

  Gavin moved back but didn’t act as though he intended to leave. “Look, Danny, she’s alive, and she needs to go home to her parents’ house. You’ve known her for years; you’ll know who should break the news to her parents. I can take her there myself, but I need some information first.”

  Danny stepped closer, hurt and anger pouring through him. “You leave those poor people alone. Don’t you think they’ve been through enough? Do you have any clue how it’s torn us all apart losing her?” He was able to contain the hitch of pain that nearly stopped his speech, but just barely.

  Though his eyes showed his nervousness at Danny’s aggressive movements, Gavin stood his ground, keeping his hands loose at his sides. “Since my friend—my brother—just found out that you buried his sister months ago and Laura isn’t Adrianna, then yeah, I have an idea.”

  That made Danny pause. The dude was serious? “You actually believe this woman is Laura? You said she had amnesia. Did she suddenly remember everything?”

  Gavin shook his head. “She had an appendectomy this morning. Adrianna already had an appendectomy years ago. It’s not her. I poked around a little and realized she had to be Laura.”

  Danny’s brows winged up. “That was your first clue?” He still wasn’t sure he believed, but he wanted it to be true so badly he couldn’t walk away. Hope burgeoned in his chest and he fought to keep it under control.

  Gavin gritted his teeth. “Look, she said she used to come to your place for a gingerbread house eating contest every year. You would make screaming noises for the gingerbread men when you ate them. I think she would have insisted on doing a gingerbread house this year except Megan’s too busy and Laura’s frankly dangerous with an oven.”

  Danny stopped and stared at Gavin as his questions dissolved. It took him a minute to reign in his emotions enough to talk. Then he chuckled without mirth. “You actually let her into the kitchen?”

  An answering smile was all he needed.

  * * *

  It took seven calls and begging major favors for Danny to get the rest of his shift covered, along with his next one so he could spend time in Junction City for a few days with Laura and his family. He was glad his apartment was on the way to the hospital, since he still had to pack a bag.

  Back on the road, he grabbed his cell phone and called Tia. She would be on her way to pick up Samantha from school by now. Luckily she answered on the second ring. “Hey, Tia.”

  “Hi, Danny. I heard about the house fire. Did your crew respond to it?”

  “Yeah, it was pretty bad. The poor family lost everything.” His mind was only half on the conversation, while the rest of his brain tried to figure out how to tell her what was going on.

  “How heart breaking.”

  “Yeah, it can be.” That was entirely true, though he’d leave off the part about how much he loved fires—no need to freak her out. He switched his mind back to the purpose of the call.

  Tia spoke first, “Samantha’s so excited about our plans tomorrow. She’s hardly talked about anything else.”

  Danny bit back a groan. He hated letting people down. Tia would understand, but would Samantha? “Yeah, that’s why I’m calling, actually. I have a problem.”

  Three seconds passed like rings of a gong before she responded. “What kind of problem? Did you pull another shift at work?”

  He gripped the steering wheel harder. “No. I guess problem isn’
t the right word. Complication is more like it. You’re not driving are you?” He didn’t want her to cause an accident when he told her about Laura.

  “No, I’m parked outside of the school, waiting for Samantha.” Her voice was wary.

  “Good.” His gut felt tight, a ball of tension growing. “You remember me telling you how Laura and I had been friends since we were kids?”

  “Of course.”

  “Well, this guy came to talk to me today. He said Laura isn’t dead. Apparently there’s been a mix-up and she’s alive and been living in Paola, but she’s in the hospital now after getting her appendix out, and she needs a ride home to her parents.” He knew he wasn’t explaining it well. He didn’t know what to think about any of it, so how could he explain it?

  “She let you all think she was dead this whole time? That doesn’t sound like something a best friend would do. Come on, Danny, maybe the man was pulling your leg.”

  “I keep thinking that, but he was so certain. He said she has amnesia. She really hasn’t known who she was until now.” When he said it out loud, it sounded even more lame than it had when Gavin had told him.

  “Do you think it’s true?” Skepticism filled her voice.

  He found himself nodding, even though she couldn’t see him. “I think it might be. He told me something she’s said about us growing up that only a few people know. And as for the amnesia, you’re right that there’s no way she would leave me and her parents thinking she was dead if she knew who she was. No way. So if it is her, then it has to be true.” He wondered if he was rambling, but wasn’t sure if he cared much at this point. He needed to get some of his thoughts out in the open. “I don’t know. What if it isn’t her? What if we get there and find out it’s someone else? Her death has been haunting me, and now I find out she’s not dead after all?”

  “Are you okay?” Tia’s voice was now pure comfort and concern.