On Fire: A Steamy Older Man Younger Woman Romance

by Mia Madison

  “This one's different,” I say.

  “Really? Can I expect a 'Save the Date' card in the mail any moment now?”

  “Very funny.”

  “What is she like?”

  “I think you'd like her. She's smart, funny, nearer your age than mine.”

  “What? You're cradle snatching now?”

  “Nope, she's all grown up, all woman. I checked.”

  “Oh you,” she slaps my arm. “Bring her to meet me soon and just be careful she doesn't wear you out.”

  I laugh. “She makes me come alive if anything.”

  I expect Sadie to make some joke but she doesn't. She looks thoughtful. I kiss her cheek then grab the kite and fasten Sam into the back of the car. I'm looking forward to going to the beach just a little too much for it just to be because I'm giving my sister a break and Sam a treat.

  *

  Anna's eyes light up when she answers her door.

  “Your chariot awaits, ma'am.”

  She comes out and locks her door. She's back in her normal clothes—jeans and a thick sweater but she still looks good to me.

  “Are you Uncle Rory's wife?” Sam asks when Anna gets into the car.

  “No, just his friend.”

  “A good friend,” I say, looking at Anna. Our eyes meet and she smiles next to me in the front seat. And I beam back at her. Fuck! I need to get a grip on myself because I am seriously losing my shit.

  “Tom's daddy has a friend too,” Sam says. “Tom only sees them on Saturdays but she doesn't live with his daddy either. Tom says they do kissing and stuff. Gross!”

  “Yes, I can't see how anyone can enjoy that,” Anna says and winks at me.

  *

  There's a brisk breeze on the beach blowing up the waves but it's great for the kite. We run and laugh so hard and fall over in a heap in the sand, Sam giggling on top of us in a tangle of kite string.

  I can just imagine me and Anna in a few years with kids of our own. And now I really am losing it. All that schmaltzy stuff—relationships, families, love whatever—is designed to pull you in and mess up your life. I can't deny what's happening here. I need to cool it. But then how can I, when Anna is looking at me like she feels it too?

  CHAPTER 21

  Anna

  Rory drops Sam off and then takes me home.

  “Sorry, I've got to go, babe. I swapped a few shifts to move into the house and look after Sam. I won't always be working all the time.”

  “No problem. I get it. Fires to put out, people and cats to rescue, and all that.”

  “Just before I go...”

  I think he's going to say something, then he doesn't. He takes me in his arms and I feel his strength all over again, and he kisses me so deeply I melt against him. So much for walking away before I get hurt! I don’t have it in me to do that.

  He looks at me for a moment as if he can't make out what's happening here either and then he kisses me again and gets out of the car to open my door. He helps me out like I'm a fragile princess or something. I think I like it. Who knew? I'm anything but fragile. I pull out tree roots, lay patios and put up fences for a living!

  I kiss him and whisper a few words in his ear that I'm pretty sure will make him smile. And then I run inside otherwise I might do something very un-princess-like at the front door of my place and the neighbors, who lean towards the older side of sixty, might not recover.

  *

  While Rory is at work, I'm going to start on his front garden and surprise him when he gets back from the station. It's better than mooning about thinking about him like some lovesick teenager and getting nothing done. Even the couple of hours or so I'll have before it gets dark will make a difference.

  Gran is at home so I go and see her first. She wants to know my news.

  I tell her what I can. That I went out with her neighbor, Rory. That he's not married. That the child she saw is his nephew. But there is plenty I do not tell her. She'd probably be amused, but some things you don't share with your grandmother.

  “So, you're in love and not telling me everything,” she says. “I'm pleased there's an 'everything' not to tell me.”

  “In love? I've only known him a week.”

  “I can see it in your face,” she says. “Don't tell me you're not.”

  I shrug my shoulders. “I'm in infatuation if anything. Who knows whether there's anything more there. I hardly know him. Who knows what he'll turn out to be like?”

  “There is that, but I fell for your grandpa overnight, so it can happen. My friend Betty was after him too, so I didn't play hard to get. If you really like Rory, don't let him slip away by being standoffish.”

  I think I wasn't hard enough to get, but it's no use telling her that. “Thanks, Gran. I'll catch you later. I'm just going to work on his garden. The bed at the front needs cutting back.”

  I start chopping down and shaping the shrubs, thinking about what Gran said. Do I love Rory? Maybe I do, just a bit. It's all happened so fast but I never felt like this with anyone else. I can't help smiling when I think of him, of how he held me so tight, his kisses, how he made me come over and over with his tongue, on his cock, on the bed, in the shower, in the forest. No, I can't share any of that with Gran. Nothing at all.

  An Audi pulls up next to my van. And a woman gets out. She must be in her thirties, attractive, honey blond hair. Classic clothes, not frumpy, good quality as if she was going for an appointment at the bank. I stop clipping the shrub I'm working on for a moment and she comes over.

  “Is this Rory Clark's house?” she asks.

  “Yes, but he's not home. I'm just working on his garden.” What does she want?

  “Do me a favor and don't tell him I stopped by. I want to surprise him.”

  “I won't see him. He's working. How do you know him?” I can't help wanting to know what this woman, this attractive woman, wants. And I have a feeling I'm not going to like the answer.

  “What's it to you?” She looks at me. “Oh, I see, it's like that, is it? Well, I wouldn't go there, if I were you.”

  My heart thuds. I don't like the sound of this. “What do you mean?”

  “Take it from me. He's the last person you want to fall for. Not if you want it to last. He's a charmer, I'll give you that. Just don't rely on him for anything.”

  She pulls a picture from her purse. A girl and a boy grin at the camera—twins, maybe two or three years old. “It's taken me ages to track him down. The man has no sense of responsibility. He never wanted kids but you'd think once he had some, he'd have bothered to show his face.”

  CHAPTER 22

  Rory

  I might not know much about plants, but I know a weed when I see one, and there's a pot planted with weeds and stinging nettles on my front doorstep when I get back from my busy shift. Whoa there! What kind of crazy is this? I've had enough crazy to last a lifetime. Who would leave me something like that?

  I can't believe Anna would do it. But a message in plants? Who else? There's only one way to find out. I call her as soon as I get through the front door.

  “What's with the weeds on my doorstep? Did you leave them there?” I'm hoping she says no.

  “I did.”

  “Why on earth?”

  “You don't know? Well, I'll just leave you to figure it out then, will I? Because it's about time you put some thought into what you do and don’t do.”

  “What I do and don’t do? What do you mean?”

  “Sleeping with women, letting them deal with the mess you leave behind. That’s what you do, isn’t it?”

  “What? What mess did I leave you with?” She’s not making any sense.

  “Not me. You’re not getting to mess up my life. Let’s just say, I had my eyes opened by someone from your past before you got the chance.”

  “My past? What? Anna, this is cra...”

  But she cuts me off. “Crazy! Don't you fucking dare call me crazy!” The line goes dead.

  Fuck! What was she talking about
? What I do and don’t do? I try to think of anything I did to upset her. Last I saw her, she was kissing me goodbye and whispering in my ear that she was looking forward to our next playtime. I wasn't pushing her about it. If anything, I was trying to give her time to think it through. So why the weeds? What brought this on?

  And then my blood runs cold. Anna said my past. That woman can't have found me. Not again. Natalie!

  Has she been to my house? Has Anna seen her? I call Anna again but she doesn't answer. She switched off her phone. I go to her house but she's not there. I drive around frantically looking for her, but she could be anywhere. I pace my house, calling her over and over. No reply.

  I'm exhausted and I need to get up for work in a few hours. Eventually, I nod off on the couch. As soon as I wake, I call her again. She doesn't answer. And then I text her:

  I need to talk to you. What happened to make you ignore my calls?

  Still no answer.

  I want to call her again from work. But too late, the sirens are going off and we're jumping into action the moment I get there.

  It's a false alarm at a hotel. One of the guests smoking set off the alarms. That happens a lot despite the no smoking signs everywhere.

  We just get back to the station when there's another emergency, suspected arson. That's probably kids, bored and getting up to no good in the long dark evenings. It's a garden shed that's been set on fire this time. It may not seem like much of a big deal but what looks like a simple wooden structure can be dangerous. These things are usually full of chemicals and some of them can be poisonous or explosive and the proximity to a house is no joke. A shed could set a whole house alight if not tackled soon enough.

  We're scrambling into our protective gear when Brendan tells me where the fire is. The house next door to mine! Anna's grandmother's house! It's too hot on the heels of trouble with Anna to be a coincidence. What the fuck is going on?

  When we get near the house, I see Anna's grandmother outside in the street being comforted by a few of our neighbors. I tell everyone that it might be dangerous, to stand well back while we deal with the blaze. I ask Anna's gran what was in the shed. She doesn't know. She doesn't go there much. Her husband did the gardening before Anna started to do it.

  It doesn't take the fire crew long to deal with the flames and luckily the fire is well away from the house. No real harm has been done and the only damage is to the shed itself. Once the fire is out, I let everyone know it's safe again. No doubt, the fire investigation squad will want to look into what happened. The police are there already, but our work is over for now.

  Anna's grandmother is a little shaken up but she says her granddaughter is on her way. I ask her to tell Anna I'll stop by to see her next morning as soon as my shift is over for the night. Whether she will talk to me or not, I don't know.

  CHAPTER 23

  Anna

  When Rory appears at my house, I don't know whether to shut the door in his face or listen to his excuses, but I guess, we need to get this over with. I let him into the hall because I don't want the neighbors listening to this, but he's not getting any further into my house. No way in hell.

  He can tell me his lies right here and fuck right off. Somehow, I have to pretend not to care what a lying cheating irresponsible bastard he is and then never see him again.

  I wasn't supposed to care about anyone like this ever again after Gavin. But I do care. More fool me! And it's worse this time even though I've only known Rory for a few days and I should have known he wasn't to be trusted.

  “I gather you met Natalie,” he says. He doesn't even seem ashamed about the lies he's about to tell me.

  “Yes. If that's the name of the woman who came by your house yesterday.”

  “I can't believe she came looking for me again.”

  “Maybe you shouldn't be hiding then. At some point, you have to face up to your responsibilities.”

  “But I'm not responsible for her.”

  “If not for her. For her twins. And yours.”

  “I thought all this shit was over. She likes to think we had babies. But I never laid a finger on her.”

  “You expect me to believe that?” He must have done something to make that woman think he was the father.

  “Maybe you won’t believe right away, but please hear me out.” He sighs.

  If he’s going to lie to me, I don’t want to listen, but I want to know what he’s going to say so I don’t stop him.

  “I was part of a crew that rescued Natalie and her friends from a fire about four or five years ago,” he says, glancing at me as if to make sure I’m listening. “It was a New Year's Eve party that got out of hand. A lot of them were drunk. And the curtains caught alight, we think from a stray cigarette. By the time anyone at the party realized, the place was up in flames. We got everyone out. That should have been the end of it. But Natalie latched onto me as the one who rescued her and started following me around.”

  “You mean like a stalker?” I'm trying to picture the woman. She didn't look like a stalker but do stalkers have a big sign on their forehead? I guess not. In any case, it doesn't mean the children aren't his. When’s he going to tell me about them?

  “I bumped into her one night about a week after that fire,” he says, and I can tell he’s thinking back to that night. “I was having a beer with the guys after work. I didn't recognize her, but she recognized me and said hello. I didn't realize she was following me at first, but she'd appear whenever I went out with the guys after that. It happened too often to be a coincidence. The other guys used to rib me about her all the time. I talked to her sometimes because she kept trying to make conversation. I never asked her out, though. She’s not my type and there was just something desperate about her, though I didn't think she was crazy at that point.”

  “Didn't you report her?”

  “I would have felt silly if I had. She wasn’t threatening me. It was just a bit irritating. I was sorry to hurt her feelings but it didn't make me want to date her.”

  I could imagine, being the kind of guy he is, he would want to be the one to do the chasing.

  “After a while, she seemed to get the message and stopped turning up everywhere I went,” he says.

  “Then why is she saying those kids are yours?”

  “I’m coming to that. I honestly thought that was the end of it. And then she did something crazy to make me notice her. She set her own house on fire.”

  “Oh, jeez, she didn't?” I can't believe anyone would do that to attract the attention of a firefighter, even him. This is starting to feel like an elaborate tale he's concocted to make himself seem less guilty. She just seemed like a normal woman. “How do you know she did it deliberately? No one would do that.”

  “I'm still not a hundred-percent sure, but instinct tells me she did. She said she fell asleep and knocked a candle over, but the fire had hardly taken when we got there. It was as if she called and waited to hear the sirens in the distance before she knocked the thing over to start the blaze. Of course, just my luck, I was the one who got to her first. After I rescued her from that fire, there was no stopping her craziness.”

  “Never mind what crazy thing she did, did you sleep with her?” I'm not sure I even want to know. This is too much to take in. Is he trying to pull the wool over my eyes?

  “No, I didn't sleep with her.”

  “But I saw the picture. Those babies are real. There's nothing fictional about them. Why would she say they were yours if they aren’t? You just left her to cope.” So much for him making a good dad. I suppose it's different when he has Sam for a few hours and then can just give him back. It's not a lifelong commitment. What is it with men and commitment?

  “I thought you knew me enough to know that's the last thing I'd do. I told you about my father, Anna. How I couldn't be like him. How could you think I'd do that?”

  And I know then looking at his face, I've hurt him, and I'm sorry. But he goes on with his story anyway.

 
; “I knew those twins weren't mine because I never slept with her. Like I said, I've never even dated her. After they were born a few months after the fire, she started saying they were mine to anyone who would listen. She told people we were getting married. I called her out on it and insisted on blood tests.”

  His eyes are pleading with me to believe him. “She broke down and said that they were as much mine as hers because I rescued her when she was pregnant with them. I saved all their lives, so, according to her, the twins belong to me whoever their biological father is. She forgets that there's a whole team involved in a rescue. I just happened to be the one who carried her out of a fire. Twice, for my sins.”

  It’s hard to imagine anyone being that delusional. I try to picture the woman again. “She didn't seem crazy when I talked to her.”

  “I thought the same at first. But once I suspected she had set her own place on fire, I knew she needed help. What pregnant woman puts their unborn baby at risk, two unborn babies in her case, to attract a guy to rescue her? I couldn't just sweep that under the carpet. And I thought she got help after I reported what was going on because that was over two years ago. I haven't seen her since then. You can ask my sister, the guys at work. They all know about it.”

  He sounds so sincere, his voice breaking as he tells me what went on, I can’t help but believe him. “I’m sorry I thought the worst when she told me the kids were yours.”

  “I really thought I’d seen the last of her until you mentioned someone from my past. I wouldn't be surprised if she set the shed on fire as a kind of message she was back on my case. If I'd had a shed, I guess it would have been mine up in flames. I was lucky, she didn't torch my house.”

  “I should have asked you about it, and not just left you those weeds, but the woman was so convincing. And I've only known you a week. I’m sorry.” I touch his arm and he pulls me to him and gives me a hug. His arms feel good again around me.

  “Fuck! Anna, I thought I’d lost you. I'm not hiding anything from you. What you see is what you get.”