by R. T. Wolfe
"My cumulative files are finished, Mrs. Seward. Here are my report cards ready to be mailed." Brie handed her favorite school secretary her stack of envelopes, fastened together with a rubber band.
Mrs. Seward set them on her desk next to the other matching stacks. "Take care of yourself, Brianna. See you next year."
Brie offered her warmest smile on her way to say goodbye to Dr. Tyman. "I'm taking off. You've got my home numbers if you have any questions on the math curriculum alignment. Call me anytime. Have a nice summer."
The interim principal smiled and nodded. "Be careful."
Brie returned the gesture in mutual understanding before leaving Bloom. She drove her truck thinking about her students. A few would move over the summer, but most would return in the fall. Some would be in Susie's class. Brie tried to shake off the knee-jerk thought that Susie could be responsible. She decided this might make her crazy yet.
She forced herself to focus on the full bloom of summer as she drove. The new growth was both literal and metaphorical for Brie. She'd let a maniac run her life for nearly seven years, but now she was determined to move forward. She was in love with both the man and his children.
As she neared her neighborhood, she glanced at the trees lining the long drives. The leaves were dark green and full-size now. Red buds and marigold trees had finished blooming, and the hostas and Shasta daisies had flowered in their place.
Brie could see the smoke from someone's grill and wished her sense of smell would come back to her. As she rounded the corner into her neighborhood, she realized it was too much smoke for a grill and decided on a fire pit. Instinctively, a sensation woke up at the back of her neck. Uncomfortable. It was too early in the evening for a fire pit. The smoke thickened and when she saw the flash of the sirens, the uncomfortable feeling changed to mind-numbing fear.
She took the corners too fast, and when she turned onto her cul-de-sac, the relief was a mixed feeling. Her house was intact, yet a fire truck was parked between her house and her next door neighbor's.
Her brows became tighter and tighter as she reached her driveway and discovered the fire crew was behind her home. She opened the door of her pickup before she came to a complete stop, threw it into park and rushed out.
Recognizing the chief in conversation with a younger firefighter, Brie interrupted, "How many? When was the call? Why wasn't I notified?"
The chief's shoulders fell forward. "Just a brush fire. Mr. Reed talked me into holding off until we had it contained, seeing as you were at your last day and all. McKinney agreed."
She stormed around to the back before the chief was done with his lame excuses. Brush fire? Her yard was scorched a charcoal black in a neat line spreading from one end to the other. Arson brush fire was more like it. The stupid idiot didn't take into account the dry season they'd had or the brisk wind blowing away from her house. If they were trying to burn her house down, they should have checked the weather. Idiot.
The blaze traveled through the field as the men sprayed hoses and dug trenches to stop the spread. She noticed Brian and Rob in the mix of firemen before she noticed Nathan. He was covered in soot and soil, heading toward her with a shovel in his hand.
She picked up a spare shovel and walked toward him. It felt heavy in her trembling hands.
"Go on in, baby. You don't need to see this." Nathan reached for her shovel.
"No," she snapped automatically as she rotated her shoulders around him. "It was meant for me." Her voice cracked.
Nathan stepped in her path and pulled the shovel out of her already sweating hand. "Go. In. The. House. Macey's been going crazy. This won't help anything." He pointed his free hand toward her frantically barking dog in the window.
She hadn't heard Macey before he mentioned her. "Get out of my way, Reed. I'm going to do my part." She was yelling now. Several of the firefighters turned half of their attention to watch.
Nathan looked at her pale skin and her hands as they shook, then threw down his shovel. It clanked on top of hers before he took her by the shoulders, turning her backside to the flames. "You'll do as you're told for one damned time in your life and get your ass inside."
He caught a glimpse of Brian and Rob over her shoulder, exchanging dollar bills.
"Don't talk to me like a child. You told the chief not to call me. How dare you? And get out of my way."
"If you don't get the hell inside, I swear I'm going to carry you in and lock you in your room. Go take care of Macey and stay there until we're done here."
Brian and Rob casually covered their faces with their hands to cover their laughter.
Brie stared at him, breathing heavily for a solid minute before spinning around and walking inside.
Rob grinned as he stuffed the money inside his fire pants and into the pockets of his jeans, then went back to shoveling dirt to form a trench. Brian stared at the two of them long and hard before getting back to work.
* * *
Nathan was hot and dirty and tired. They worked until the last of the plants and grasses finished smoldering. He answered questions and described what he saw when he first noticed the flames, which was fucking nothing. Looking over the field at the charred land, he tried not to think what would have happened if the wind were blowing in the other direction, or if Brie had been home.
The person responsible was long gone, no doubt, leaving others to clean up after her as usual. Coward, he thought. When the last police car and fire truck left, he made his way right through the creek and up the hill to his house. He walked in mindlessly and headed for the shower.
He stood with the hot spray running over his face. Defeated and angry, he couldn't go on like this—or watch Brie go on like this, waiting for the next assault. He dried off, determined to get Dave's ass back over here, so the two of them could make a new plan of action.
Wrapping the towel around his waist, he decided on a beer first as he walked out of his bathroom to find Brie standing in his room. With the muscles in his jaw flaring, he purposely ignored her on his way to the built-in drawers in his closet.
"Nathan."
"I'm not ready for this talk, Brie."
He came out of his closet with clean clothes in his arms.
She was still there, still in her work slacks and blouse.
"I give you all the damned space you want. Now it's my turn. Go away."
She looked down at the towel wrapped around his waist and smiled. "There's a bit of a contradiction there."
"You don't want me like this, Brianna," he said through his teeth.
She bit her bottom lip and took a step forward.
He tossed his clothes on the floor and grabbed the mass of her hair. Wrapping it once around his hand, he pulled her head back and smashed his mouth to hers. He took his free hand and tucked his fingers around the top of the opening to her blouse. With one downward sweep, he tore open the front, sending buttons bouncing over the hardwood floor.
He pulled her shirt down over her shoulders enough to lock her arms to her sides before backing her up to the nearest wall. He stood for the longest time pressing their foreheads together, his eyes squeezed tightly shut. He let go of the torn shirt and pressed his lips to hers while using both hands to grab her face, her shoulders.
The feel of her was like a drug. He couldn't get enough. Never get close enough. Her hands were everywhere, pliant and giving.
Burying his face in the smell of her hair, he pulled open her slacks and dropped them to her feet, grabbing at flesh on the way back up to her face. His breathing raced with hers as their bodies slicked together.
He pulled back and looked at her. She moved her head to the side with her eyes closed, lost in heat.
"Look at me."
She swayed and purred —
"Look at me," he said louder.
He used his hand to gather her wrists together and pull her arms over her head. His glare was determined and focused. As the two of them looked at each other in understanding, he ran a hand d
own to her.
Her legs gave at his touch, as she let out an unleashed cry, releasing violently.
Her legs started slipping as her weight pulled down on her uplifted arms. Her eyes rolled around inside her closed lids as she gasped and cried out. He tightened his hold.
Brie felt dizzy and weak. She couldn't feel her legs. "Nathan, Nathan wait. Give me a minute."
He didn't give her time to recover this time.
He let go of her wrists and used his free hand to wrap around her, holding her up against the wall. "No. Again."
She let her weight fall on his arm, dug her nails into the muscles in his back and let go. The rough hands on her face, the bold blue of his eyes that saw through her. He looked tortured and conflicted. She felt his hands grasping frantically down her neck, grabbing her and traveling around to her backside. He lifted her and stared as they joined.
Moving furiously, he stuck his forehead back to hers. He grabbed onto the back of her thighs, repositioned her legs and sunk deeper.
She felt bruises coming on the backs of her legs and floated in the thrill of his intense need for this. For her. "I love you," she choked out as they went over together, standing in the bright light of the evening sun before slowly sliding to the cold, hard floor.
She lay on top of him with her dead legs still wrapped around him, slowly feeling their breath return to normal. She felt his hand lace up her mass of hair and stop his fingertips at the fresh scar at the back of her head. His chest rose quickly, then fell slowly.
"Brianna—"
"If you dare apologize for any of that, I'll find some energy somewhere and kick your ass," she mumbled into his bare chest.
"I told you to leave."
"I didn't listen."
"I don't know what to do."
She knew what he meant, but she didn't know how to soothe him.
"I feel helpless. How have you lived like this for so many years?"
"You get used to it."
He stroked her hair from the top of her head to the middle of her back as they came back to the present.
"I may not be able to move until morning," she said. The doorbell rang followed by the dogs barking. "Or not. I don't think I can walk yet."
He slipped out from under her. "I've got it." Pulling on his jeans, Nathan meandered downstairs toward the front door.
Brie heard the knocking change to an impatient pounding before Nathan could have reached the foyer. She willed herself to stand and started to dress, contemplating what to do about a shirt. She picked something from his closet and heard the visitor's voice begin to rise. Was it Dave? She went into the hallway with bare feet, buttoning one of Nathan's white cotton dress shirts.
She caught the tail end of their conversation. "... found the frigging gas can in the backseat of Finley's car. Just sitting there in fucking plain sight. They've got her in interrogation. I'm on my way, but you wouldn't answer your damned phone, so I stopped by."
Brie stood at the end of the upstairs hallway around the corner and out of sight. She leaned her back against the wall, staring mindlessly while tears fell uncontrollably over her face. There was a part of her that was scared to accept the idea that this could be over. If it was a mistake, the devastation would be too much to bear. She sunk slowly to the floor as her mind raced through images of Sandy in prison. Living in her parents' house without fear of running the dogs or simply answering the phone. She thought of Nathan and what this meant for them. The relief of wondering if the one of the boys would ever be in any kind of danger.
He came back to her as she sobbed quietly on his floor. He slid down the wall next to her and silently wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She curled up like a child and melted into him. He held her until she cried herself out.
* * *
Early morning sunlight slanted through Nathan's bedroom window, waking Brie. His fisted hand rested in the middle of her chest as he breathed deeply. The moment felt unreal.
They'd said Sandy was in custody, ranting, raving and denying everything. Her fingerprints were on a lighter found in the char from the field. Her shoes had pieces of wildflowers and grasses stuck in the treads.
Slipping her foot between the calves of Nathan's legs, she wrapped her hand around his and tried to pull him closer. She lay there for a very long time trying to file away the past seven years and look ahead to her future. She had friends and family that were there for her and loved her. And she had Nathan and his family. She took a cleansing breath, climbed out of bed and put her robe on over her pajamas. She snapped her fingers quietly at the sleeping dogs on the floor. They followed her downstairs, and she let them out the kitchen doors before she ground coffee beans.
As the coffee brewed, she dressed and went for the first run with the dogs since her attack. The morning was warm and humid and perfect. She probably went farther than she should have on her first trial run, but her legs yearned for the action, so she took an extra winding path and even dipped through her cul-de-sac.
Macey was confused when they passed their house without stopping but ran obediently at her left side. She cruised past the Melbournes' just as the front door opened. She went to raise a hand in greeting to Lucy, who was in her pajamas getting her morning paper, when she noticed Clifford standing behind her. Almost tripping over her feet, she tried to pretend like she hadn't seen them and ran on, laughing hysterically to herself.
She could faintly smell bacon and coffee when she returned. She stood for a few moments taking in the hint of lost scents and watching her lover as he leaned against his granite kitchen counter in his sexy boxers with his steaming mug in one hand and paper in the other.
"I'm going to get use out of your whirlpool this morning." She stuck a piece of bacon between her teeth as she poured a cup.
They didn't speak of Sandy or the fire as they made love in the bubbling water. Nathan knew there would be time and need for that soon enough. Instead, they went for a walk through the dewy grass and discussed his plans for the porch. He would put the boys to work gathering stones from the creek to use in the base of the posts. Sentimental pieces.
But when they wandered around to the back, the smell of wet soot and the sea of black on Brie's side of the creek were too much to ignore.
"Nature feeds on fire," she said. "It's a biological process. Many plants will thrive from the ashes. Some won't come back."
They looked over the lake and the creek. There were two Great Blue Herons walking stealthily through the reeds of grasses. He walked with her along to the end of his property. Brie stopped in front of the pond. "Told you."
He stood by one of the new white oak trees and looked over to see what she was talking about.
She bent down and gingerly picked up something small. "See? Frogs." She set it back by the pond and stood up as he pulled her into him.
He took her face in his hands. "Marry me, Brianna."
Chapter 31
Brie's face contorted into a bumbled and confused mess. Nathan thought it odd that with all her brains and education, all she mustered was, "Huh?"
One side of his mouth lifted as he gripped the sides of her face. "Baby, I want you to be mine. I want you forever. Marry me."
"Jeez." She pushed away from him, using his chest for purchase. "Are you crazy?" She started to pace in a short path back and forth in front of him.
The side of his mouth lifted a little farther, and he leaned back against the oak, sticking his thumbs in his front pockets. He loved watching her think.
Brie pressed the palms of her hands on her temples and paced in the grass. "Why would you do this? Everything is perfect." Her hands moved to the backs of her hips. "I can't breathe."
Nathan decided to kick back and crossed a leg over his ankle while she cycled through this.
"Nathan, I don't do relationships well. Have you been listening? Marriage? What about the houses? Have you thought about the houses? What about the kids? Have you thought about Duncan and Andy?"
"Yup."
<
br /> She stopped and looked at him. Her face softened.
He knew the look in her eyes, knew everything about her. He stepped one foot back as an anchor. She ran at him and flew into his arms, wrapping her legs around him, and showered his face with kisses.
"I'll do it. Oh, my gosh, I'll do it." She held onto him. "How did I ever find someone so perfect for me? What can I ever possibly give you that you don't already have?"
He slid her to the ground and took her face in his hands. "A little girl."
* * *
"Our anniversary is coming up, Brianna."
A figure stood in the shadows between the houses, snapping high-speed photos. "I guess that will make seven of them now."
She took a close-up of Brie wrapping her leg around Nathan's calf. "Don't the lovebirds look so sweet? Do you have no frigging modesty?" She clenched her fingernails into the palms of her hands as the camera hung from her neck.
"Of course you don't. You're a slut. A bitch. A backstabbing thief. You'll pay dearly. You'll pay with what is closest to you." She tilted her head with her eyes half open. "Do you really think I would be so stupid? So sloppy as to set that amateur gas-can fire? I have my own little professional at the snap of my fingers."
She clicked a few more shots before slinking away down the street.
* * *
Nathan sat in Dave's office for a celebration, except he didn't feel much like celebrating. He listened as Dave cheered.
"She's the victim. She's lost her job. She's been innocently out looking for employment. She's been set up. Yada, yada, yada." Dave took a drink of hot coffee. "She's 'fessed up to the brush fire and to Brie's tires, even said she got in the garage through an unlocked door that she carefully locked before she left. It's only a matter of time before we get the rest out of her. We're taking it slow. Everything by the books. No mishaps. She'll go away for a very long time."
Nathan nodded. "Yeah, you're right."
"Then why don't you look as excited as I'm thinking you should be?"