New Beginnings (The Girl and The Fireman Book 1)

by Amy Allen

  Giving her back a light rub, he stepped away pulled out his phone and brought up his dad’s number. When he heard, “Everything okay, Rob?” he shook his head. Remembering the motion couldn’t be seen, he said, “No. Ki’s place is destroyed. She’s … unhurt since she was probably on her way home from work when it happened, and Baal and Ash are fine. The boys were in the main house with me, Craig, and Joshua.”

  Andrew Tai’igi was normally a very calm man, except when it came to his children, and especially his daughter. He suddenly let out a string of words in Haitian that if his mother heard them, it wouldn’t matter how old he was, he probably wouldn’t be sitting for at least a week. “Jeremy?”

  “Can’t prove it at the moment, but I’d say yeah.”

  “Did you and Joshua try to put it out yourselves or did you call it in?”

  “Called it in. But then the three of us, with Joshua’s brother Eric and brother-in-law John, did what we could to keep it under control until the guys on duty arrived.”

  “Ok. Let your fire investigator take a look, hopefully in the morning, and then call Jack. Let him know that as soon as any investigation is done, I want him to start rebuilding. But wait until tomorrow to call Jack. He can’t do anything about it tonight. If Ki asks, mom and I will replace everything she lost. Don’t worry about calling anyone else, except Jack. We’ll call your grandparents tomorrow. We’ll be home as soon as we can. If I didn’t need to get this taken care of, we’d be catching the next flight home.”

  “Yeah, I know, Dad. But I knew you’d want to know right away.”

  “You’re right, and I’m glad you called me as soon as you could. If she needs clothes or anything for tonight or the next few days, until we get home, you, Craig, or someone will have to take her shopping. You can wait to tell her in the morning if you want, but I’m calling the Luau in the morning to tell them she won’t be in for a few days. She’ll think she can work, but she won’t be in any shape to this week.”

  “Better you than me for her to be pissed at.”

  Andrew couldn’t help but chuckle at his son’s words. “True.” Remembering something Rob said, Andrew suddenly asked, “You said she’s unhurt, but you also paused before you said it. Is something wrong?”

  “I don’t know at the moment. But I have the same feeling I did when she came out of her change seven years ago. Like something is off but I can’t quite tell what it is yet. At the moment I’d give anything to have her gift of visions.” Feeling a tap on his shoulder, Rob turned around. Seeing the deputy chief he smiled and held up a finger. “Gotta go, Dad. Give Mom our love. When I have more info on what’s going on, I’ll let you know.”

  “Sounds good. Mom and I love you both too. Give your sister a kiss from us. Night.”

  “Night.” Since the phone went dead from his dad ending the call, Rob put it in his pocket. Giving the semblance of a smile to the deputy chief, he said, “Sorry sir. I needed to let our dad know right away.”

  “It’s fine Rob. The fire is out. You boys did a great job getting it contained as much as possible. I already put in a request for Hank Bennet to come out since Joshua made a comment when I was just talking to him, that this wasn’t an accident.”

  Rob shook his head. “No, it wasn’t. My sister, who lived there, wasn’t home from work yet and the three of us were in the main house watching TV when we heard an explosion. My sister had a table lamp in the living room on a timer so it would come on just after sunset. I don’t think that would have shorted out to cause the fire.”

  “Do you know who did this?”

  “I have my suspicions, sir, but, since we didn’t see it happen, I can’t prove anything.”

  The deputy chief only nodded. “Well, as soon as Bennet gives the okay, you can start cleaning it up and see if anything is salvageable. Do you want me to take you off the schedule for Wednesday and Thursday because of a family emergency?”

  Rob nodded in regards to waiting for the fire investigator to say it was okay for them to start cleaning up. At the deputy chief’s question, Rob shook his head. “No, but thank you for the thought, sir.” Feeling tired and older than his 35 years, Rob walked back to where Eric, John, Craig, Joshua, and Lana now sat, waiting. He noticed that Brandi had also joined them and smiled when she handed him a beer. “Mahalo. Needed this.” He noticed Lana had a beer but didn’t say anything figuring she needed it too. He also noticed Lana still sitting on Joshua’s lap, but she seemed a little more relaxed. He wasn’t sure if it was the beer or … he didn’t want to think about any other reason it could be right then. He took a long swig of the beer before turning toward his sister. “I talked to Dad.”

  Lana had been watching Rob even though she was still sitting on Joshua’s lap, resting her head against Joshua’s chest. She suddenly realized Joshua had referred to Brandi as Andi again, when mentioning where Lana’s wolves were. She found it endearing that he shortened his sister’s name to Andi an, although she didn’t know why the thought crossed her mind right then, she decided she would ask him about it as soon as she could. Focusing on the present and seeing the look on Rob’s face made her turn so she was facing Rob. “And?”

  “And … you’re off work the rest of the week. Dad is calling tomorrow morning to let them know.” He could see her start to protest so he said, “Not my decision, it’s his, so take it up with him later, but I do agree with him. Hank Bennet, the fire investigator, will hopefully be here tomorrow to look around, start any investigation.”

  Her eyes went from their normal silver blue to looking stormy. “Why? We know who did it?”

  Rob shook his head. “You know better than that, Ki. Right at the moment, we have no proof.”

  She was working hard at not crying again. And she was angry, and even though it wasn’t with anyone here, it came out some when she said, “Fuck proof. That bastard scares the hell out of me and I’m tired of this.” She suddenly stood up and walked away. She really wanted to hit something at the moment but since the person she wanted to hit was nowhere around, she threw the beer bottle at the house.

  Seeing Joshua start to get up, Rob shook his head. With hearing the bottle hit the house he realized what was wrong. “Damn, I should have known that was the problem.”

  Brandi looked at her brothers and husband, hoping one of them would translate what Rob and Lana said. After watching Eric’s hands as he signed the conversation to her, and nodding to Eric when he asked if she was blocking all sounds, she asked, “What problem?”

  Having forgotten Brand needed to be able to read lips, he made sure he was looking at her when he said, “Why she seemed off. Yeah, she was worried about Baal and Ash, but it was more than that. I just couldn’t put my finger on it until now. She’s angry, but she has no outlet right now. Normally if she’s angry at this hour, she’d play her violin as either a violin or as a fiddle, or wanna go on a night dive since it’s too late to swim, surf or go for a run. I don’t think we took her board off my truck, so that got saved even though it’s too late to use it. Her laptop, violin and dive equipment, on the other hand, were all destroyed with this. So she is at a loss for working through her anger.”

  Joshua suddenly smiled and got up. Going to where Lana was he quietly asked, “Wanna go diving?”

  She had been cleaning up the mess of the bottle. Hearing movement behind her, she thought it was her brother until she heard the quietly spoken words. Turning, she gave what she hoped was a smile. “If I had any equipment or anything to wear, sure.”

  “I’ve got extra tanks and an extra regulator and vest. We can go get anything else you need.”

  Lana did smile this time. “In that case, I’d love to. But I hope you aren’t planning on paying for anything else I need.”

  Rob had wondered what Joshua had been up to so got up and followed him. Hearing the question, he smiled but stayed quiet wondering what Lana would say. Until her last comment, he’d just stayed out of the way. He trusted Joshua, but he also knew, even with Joshua appearing
to be genuinely interested in Lana, Joshua only dated a woman a few times before he ended it and moved on to the next. Rob was still hoping his sister wasn’t just another in a long line. Stepping up to them, he said, “Actually, it’ll be Dad paying. I was just about to tell you. He said to pick up whatever you would need to get you through until they get home.”

  Lana looked over at Joshua with a grin then back at her brother, raising an eyebrow at Rob. “Spying?”

  Before Rob had the chance to answer, Joshua started laughing and said, “I think he’s just protecting you from me. Making sure I don’t take advantage of you … yet.”

  Lana rolled her eyes. “But what if …” She surprised herself not only at having the thought but that the words had actually come out of her mouth. But part of her wished her brother hadn’t followed Joshua. Glancing over at Joshua, she noticed the grin on his face as well as the grin Rob was trying his best to suppress.

  Rob pulled out his phone and looked at the time. “Anyway. Walmart is closed so we can’t go get you anything tonight. I’m sure we can come up with something for you to dive in, though.”

  Joshua thought about it for a minute. “Andi may have a suit you can borrow for now.”

  Walking to him, Lana smiled, feeling her anger abating some. “Well, let’s find out then.” Suddenly wanting to know, Lana looked up at Joshua and asked, “Why do you call her Andi?”

  Joshua suddenly grinned. He knew he couldn’t tell Lana his true age of 460 years old, but neither could he tell her that he was nine years younger than his triplet siblings. Since he looked relatively close in age to Brandi and Eric, he told her, “Mike, Eric, and Andi are two years older than I am. When I was little I had a hard time with the b and r of her name so it came out as Andi. Unless I’m mentioning her to others, that’s what I’ve always called her. Though I know she hasn’t in front of you two and Craig yet, she, in turn, has always called me Joshie.”

  Lana smiled, liking the reason behind his shortening of Brandi’s name. She then nodded to him, happy that he told her and that she now knew the reason why.

  Seeing Rob, Joshua, and Lana finally return, Brandi asked, “Everything okay?”

  Lana nodded then asked, “Do you happen to have a swimsuit I could borrow?”

  Brandi thought about what she’d brought with her to Maui from Oahu. Slowly nodding, she replied, “Yeah. I think so. Let’s walk over and take a look.”

  “Thanks.” Lana looked back at Joshua and Rob. “Who’s picking me up next door?”

  “We both will, in my truck,” Joshua said. “We’ll have to stop by my place so I can change and get what we need, but that won’t take long.”

  “Ok. See you guys in a few.”

  Watching the girls start to walk away John called out, hoping she’d remove her blocks to be able to “hear” him, “Dee.” When Brandi turned to look at him, he held up the truck keys. “I know you’re only going next door, but it’s safer to drive over.” John had no doubt the girls would be safe since he knew just how well Brandi could fight, but because Brandi couldn’t hear he knew driving would be safer.

  Brandi walked back to grab the keys from him. “You and Eric gonna come back with Josh?” At his nod, she gave her husband a kiss then moved to Lana to show her which truck.

  As Brandi and Lana left, Rob thought of something. “I’ll be right back. I think I know where there’s a mask, as well as fins, she can use.” Rob headed into the house and into the garage.

  Craig followed Rob inside. Leaning against the door to the garage, he said, “We don’t need to go with Ki and Joshua. She’ll be fine and she’ll be safe with him. From what I’m seeing, there is attraction on both sides. She just isn’t sure about those feelings. I don’t think he’ll treat her as just another conquest and she won’t let anything happen that she doesn’t want to happen. Also, it wasn’t just her being angry and not having an outlet for it that was the problem. This fire destroyed more in her than just her change had. You and I both know it wasn’t just her physical body that died seven years ago. And Jeremy just killed another piece tonight.”

  As Craig talked, Rob listened while going through his mom’s dive gear. Finding what he wanted, he stood. Nodding to Craig, he replied, “I know. For then and now. I just don’t know how to fix it. I don’t know how to give her back what’s been lost.”

  Craig shook his head. “She needs to find that one guy that will love and accept her despite everything Jeremy put her through. Which means we can’t fix it and neither can your parents. As for Joshua, maybe he can and maybe he can’t. Only time will tell. But we need to show that we trust them together alone. We need to remember that she’s an adult who knows how to say ‘no’ if she doesn’t like or want something.”

  “I know and I’m trying. You’re even more protective of her, yet you seem to be able to accept those facts easier than I am. And I know Joshua won’t use her like that. Because he and I are good friends, I don’t think he’d take a second look at her if he wasn’t actually more than just interested in her. I do trust them and you’re right, neither of us needs to go. Though I have this feeling she’ll want to help on any investigation into the fire.” Rob shook his head. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea or not.”

  “It can be good and it can be bad. Let’s wait until she actually asks and gives her reasons why she wants to before either encouraging or discouraging it.”

  Rob only nodded as he passed Craig and headed toward the front door.

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  As they waited for Rob and Craig to return, Eric looked at his brother. “There is something different for you with Lana. What is it?”

  Joshua shook his head. “Yeah, I think you’re right, but I don’t know what it is. I’m more interested in her than I have been in anyone else. I actually want to get to know her more, and spend time with her.”

  “How was the Luau?”

  “It was awesome. She’s an excellent artist, as good as Andi. And like Andi, she does it more from memory. She did a great one for me while we were there. The dancing was also fantastic. She looks like she’s been doing it for years.”

  Eric smiled. It seemed his brother was actually smitten with a woman. But, only time would tell if it would be more or not. He hoped for Joshua’s sake, and Lana’s, that it would be more. He also hoped that, if Joshua decided to tell Lana who, or more like what, he really was, Lana would understand and not freak out. Having another thought come to him, Eric asked, “Have you tried to read her mind since you met her?” When Joshua shook his head, Eric continued with, “Bree can probably explain it better since she’s come across it, I believe, but you should probably try. From what I thought I heard Bree say, though I can’t remember who she was talking to, if you can’t read the mind of the person you are with, are interested in, that person is considered your true mate. I think there is something else with it, but I can’t remember what.”

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  Rob grinned as he showed the fins, mask, and snorkel to Joshua, John, and Eric. “Found them.” Handing them to Joshua, he added, “If she asks, I grabbed them out of mom’s gear. You two go have a good time. You don’t need me hanging around.” Pulling a set of keys out of his pocket, Rob pulled one off. Handing it to Joshua, he said, “Take this for her. Just in case her key to the main house was in her ‘ohana not on her main ring.”

  Taking the equipment as well as Rob’s house key, Joshua replied, “Thanks. I’ll give these to her and let her know for the key. I’ll have her home in a couple of hours.” He was actually glad Rob had changed his mind about going. Joshua had been out a few weeks ago looking for a new, quiet, place to dive and had come across Maliko Bay and thought it looked promising. He’d done some beach diving there since, even if there wasn’t much beach, and liked it. They’d have to be careful at this hour but at least it wasn’t far. He had also heard about Molokini Island for diving but sinc
e he didn’t have access to a boat right then, he decided diving there could wait until both daytime and for when he could borrow one. He preferred to dive a place for the first time during the day.

  Joshua waved goodbye to Rob and Craig as he, John, and Eric left to go next door so Joshua could drop his brother and brother-in-law off and pick up Lana before they headed out. Though this wasn’t an official date, he was looking forward to getting in the water with her and seeing what kind of a diver she was.

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  Brandi and Lana pulled into Eric’s yard and parked in front of the ‘ohana Brandi and John were staying in. Getting out of the truck, Lana smiled as she was greeted by two wolves. Seeing Brandi come around the truck, Lana’s smiled widened as she asked, “Who are these two beautiful babies”?

  Brandi grinned as she rested her hand on the head of one of them. “This is Hercules, and that’s Ares. I’ve had them both for years. They are protective – as much as my brothers, my husband, and one of my very best friends. We haven’t dealt with a fire, but, until a couple years or so ago, I had my own tormentor. Because of that person, I can’t hear.”

  Lana followed Brandi to the door, still petting Ares. “Really? You don’t act as though you can’t hear. I saw you watching people’s lips as they talked, but I just took that to mean you didn’t want to miss what was being said.”

  Opening the door, Brandi turned back to Lana and smiled. “I learned many years ago, from my grandfather, another way to hear people, besides reading lips and using sign language. Voices have a distortion to me, if I hear the voice at all. Most times it’s just a buzz in my ears.” Smiling at the younger woman, Brandi added, “If you need to pick up anything before your folks get home, let me know. I’ll go with you.” Seeing a very tall man step out of the hallway, Brandi grinned. “Hi, Jim. Sorry that we suddenly left. The triplets still asleep? This is Lana. It was her ‘ohana that was burning. She’s borrowing a suit so she and Joshie can go diving.” Turning to Lana, she then said, “Lana, this is Jim. He’s my oldest best friend.”