It obviously wasn’t Darren, otherwise I doubted that the greeting would have been as warm.
Maddie took the person’s hand and led them inside her house. The porch light shut off but the other lights in her home remained on.
Lowering the binoculars, I rubbed a hand down my face.
It was possible that Maddie had a guy friend, one from the department or one that she just knew. One that she hadn’t dated in the last five years. Possible.
But the way that beautiful woman’s face had lit up on seeing that friend begged the question as to why she'd never mentioned him. Were they close? Had they known each other for a while? Or was this her new flame?
I started the car and put on my seatbelt. “I need a drink.”
“It’s nothing. I’m sure they’re just friends.”
Driving up the street, we were nearly to her place, when the lights went off in the living room.
Noah whistled as I let out a string of cuss words that I would have been embarrassed to repeat in front of any other human being.
We continued driving until I was ready to stop. Noah’s silence let me fume and stew. Which wasn’t a good thing as my mind went places that I never wanted to picture Madison in.
Pulling up in front of a local bar that I’d been to a couple of times in the last two weeks, we exited the car. I winced as the cooler wind hit me in the face. It wasn’t cold yet in Nolan Creek. Winter was still a couple of months away. But the nights were getting chilly, and I welcomed the bite of the crisp night air.
“Why don’t you just call her?” Noah asked as he fell in step with me.
“And say what? Hey Maddie, I just saw a guy go into your house and you turned off all the lights. Everything okay in there?”
“No. Call her and tell her that you’re a dumbass, and that you made some mistakes. And that if it’s not too late maybe you can talk.”
I eyed him as we reached the door to the bar. “Is that what you did with Lindsay?”
He gave me a reproachful look and stepped inside the bar. “I’ve got to make a call.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I responded, barely glancing at him. My face felt about as numb as the rest of me as I looked around.
The place had a few familiar faces, patrons I’d met previously. The same bartender as last time, and a couple of old men sitting at a table near the window.
Noah’s retreating back was near the bathrooms. I assumed he was probably calling Brock. Like my life had to be reported.
I sat down at the bar and ordered a double shot of whiskey before ordering a beer. If I was going to get hammered, might as well do it the old-fashioned way, by mixing my alcohol.
I downed my whiskey without tasting much of it, ordered another and started in on my beer. The T.V. behind the bar was broadcasting a football game. Several conversations drifted around me. I didn’t hear any of it.
My thoughts were on Maddie. Her hair as it fell in waves against my chest. The look on her face when she drifted to sleep after our first time together.
If she was any other woman, I would call it a day and go home to sleep. Peacefully. Thanking my lucky stars that I didn’t do something stupid like ask her to marry me.
But she wasn’t just another woman, and I had full intention of doing just that when she got over being mad. Maybe even while she was still mad. Just walk in to her little shop and propose. I bought the ring a week ago, thinking that when she came back or called or texted, I would spring it on her. The right way. Date, possible flowers, make-up sex, ring.
I numbly watched the football game and hoped the alcohol would kick in soon.
As I downed the other glass of whiskey, someone sat down beside me. My eyes didn’t move from the television.
The bartender didn’t greet whoever it was, and just slid a beer toward them.
“Hear you’re planning on a bender tonight,” a familiar deep voice said.
My eyes slid over and saw the smiling face of Bill Crawford as he took a drink. Over his shoulder, I saw Noah had sat down at the end of the bar and was playing with something on his phone. Asshole.
“Yeah. Planning on it, Chief. Last party before I drive to Denver for the academy.”
His eyes swung to the television and winced as a football player took an extremely bad tackle.
“I wondered if you would still want to if she didn’t come around.”
“Nothing to do with Maddie, Bill. I’ll be a firefighter one way or another. I was just hoping it would be with her standing in my corner.”
“Hmm,” was his only response.
“I fucked up.”
“Heard that.”
My eyes narrowed. “What else did you hear?”
He glanced over at me briefly. “Enough.”
Great. If he knew “enough” as he had said, I was probably on his shit list too.
Fuck it. If the entire Crawford family wanted to burn me at the stake, then I was there for the burning. Light the matches.
“I was going to ask her to marry me. Have the ring at home. I’m not an asshole, I’m just not a patient guy.”
He nodded beside me. “Heard that too.”
“Fuck, Bill, what haven’t you heard?” I snapped. “She’s at her damn house with some guy right now. I can go over there like I want to and bust the door down, kick someone’s ass. I’m here drinking instead. I wanted to marry her. I just fucked up, went about it the wrong way.”
He chuckled. “You went about it the right way, son. Just not the way that makes her feel comfortable. Not the way I wanted to hear about either. But you shook my daughter’s stubborn attitude and woke her up.”
“Apparently.”
“Now don’t assume anything. Maddie’s a good woman. Think it through. This is the same type of stuff we ask recruits to think about. High stress situation, you hate it, don’t want to deal with it, but we ask you to break it down and tackle it. You’ve done this before. Has she dated in five years?”
“No. Not that I know of,” I answered and took another drink of my beer.
“I heard she went out with Dean a couple of times in the past. Idiot guy at city planning. Nothing serious, in fact I heard she faked the flu to get out of it.”
I gave Bill startled look. How the hell did he know shit like that?
“Okay.”
“So technically she hasn’t dated unless you want to include that. And up until about a month ago, I hear she was still a virgin. Not something I wanted to know.”
I flinched. Fuck, here it comes.
“Although, when you have a little girl one day, if you’re lucky enough to find out she’s a virgin into her mid-twenties, it’ll feel like a double-edged sword. Proud that you have a daughter that saved herself for someone special, and then disappointment when she turns away from the one man that was worthy of it.”
My gut clenched. Coming from Bill that was high praise. Much of it I doubt I even deserved. The one man that was worthy of it. Had I been worthy?
“Bill—”
He held up a hand. “Son, I know you’re a man. I am too. And we think a little differently. I don’t need to know any more than I already do. My point is, that whatever you saw tonight, or think you saw, ask yourself if it makes sense. Whatever you’re thinking. Is it in her character to start bed hopping?”
“No,” I mumbled.
“Nope. So, rest assured that everything will work out the way it’s meant to. In the meantime, keep your head in the game and get through the academy. I have it on good authority that we’re going to be looking for eight guys in a couple of months for the department. All those courses you breezed through—”
“I wouldn’t say breezed—”
“You passed them all with a higher grade point average than most.”
“How do you know—”
“I just do. We’re going to be hiring and you have a leg up with those extra courses under your belt. It’s a good path to promotion. If my daughter is going to marry someone, then it better be someo
ne who can fill my boots someday.”
“Yes, sir,” I answered.
He slapped me on the back. Which I didn’t feel much with the alcohol kicking in. I ordered a water.
Bill eyed me as I drank half the glass. “I suggest some good food and exercise for the next two days. You’re gonna need it. It’ll be fourteen weeks of study and physical training along with tests. Forty to forty-eight hours a week. Wake up, eat, piss and go to it. Some of the hardest stuff you’ll do. But it’s also some of the most rewarding. You’re set up in housing?”
“Yeah, thanks for arranging that.”
He shrugged. “Wasn’t hard. A friend of mine got on with that department and knew of a couple of places to stay since you couldn’t commute.”
Smirking, I looked at him. “Why do I get the feeling that you have friends everywhere, Chief?”
Giving me a wide smile in response, he said, “When you get to be my age, you have a lot of friends that you’ve met along the way. They all become brothers in a way when you’re on the department. They have to be. Why not reach out to them? Besides, they should be thanking me. I’m sending them the best candidate they’ll ever see. Right?”
“Yes, sir,” I responded with a chuckle. His faith in me was humbling, but it also spurred a desire to prove him right.
“There’s a bonus to this.”
“What’s that?” I asked, looking over at him.
“You won’t be back until just before the holidays.”
“Yeah.”
“It’ll give Maddie plenty of time to calm down. If she’s still mad by then, we’ll think of something.”
Coughing on my water, I wondered how long the woman could honestly be mad at me. Surely not that long.
I looked over his shoulder at Noah, who had more than likely, been listening to most of the exchange. Fucker.
He glanced up from his phone and gave me a smirk. There was no doubt in mind whatsoever that he’d called Bill. He and Brock had always had my back, and I needed exactly what I got tonight.
They were both a pain in the ass, but I loved my brothers. And according to Bill, and every other fireman I had ever talked to, I was about to get a lot more of them.
Chapter Seventeen
~Madison~
The sound of a hammer battering next door to the shop jerked me out of my nice, quiet morning thoughts. I wondered exactly how long it was going to be before they were finished with construction.
It’d been more than two months of the same routine. Wake up, go to the shop, see Rachel on occasion when she wasn’t darting in and out of the shop next door. I had to remind myself daily that this was a good thing for her, although it was starting to wear on my nerves. I was happy that she was ecstatic over her new venture. In fact, I was deeply proud of her. Even if it did involve Owen and his brothers.
Two months prior, I had been sulking like a woman half my age the day that Rachel came bouncing in and talking a mile a minute about the new business she was opening.
Before he’d left, Owen had given his brother, Noah, instructions to help Rachel financially with a loan on a small business. I didn’t know all the details because everyone insisted on tip-toeing around the subject with me. But from what I had gathered, it'd been a substantial amount to get her started on a small interior decorating business.
A week after Rachel’s announcement, my father had nonchalantly mentioned to one of his buddies at a luncheon that Owen was performing well at the academy. Not that I was eavesdropping or anything.
I had wanted to say something rude about it. But, even then, I couldn’t be bitter about my feelings when the man had given my sister the opportunity of a lifetime.
Now I was back to sulking and dealing with the noise next door.
I wasn’t mad precisely. That wasn’t the feeling that came over me when I thought about him. It was more of a lingering hurt. A deep wound that I just couldn’t seem to heal.
Every day I woke up with that hurt settled in my chest. I carried it around with me, tried to ignore it, but it was there. I missed him. Terribly.
The last month, I'd been wondering why I hadn’t heard from Owen. Because the more time passed, the more I began to question what I knew of him.
It wasn’t in his character to give up. And unlike the previous time he'd disappeared to Texas, I had fully expected him to pull some of his typical Owen behavior. Battering ram to the house, small siege on the shop, gifts, stalking.
We'd shared something very intimate, and very private. Something that I thought had affected him as much as it had me. But there had been nothing but silence for over two months.
The finality of my last encounter with him weighed heavily on my mind. I hadn’t given him a chance to defend himself, much less talk to me about what happened.
I was a grown woman, though, and I deserved to be a part of an equal relationship. I liked that he was a little bossy and pushy. I liked that he was a bit of an ass at times. He was smart, witty, sarcastic and funny. He was also hot as hell, which didn’t help things. He made me feel again which was a feat that no man had been able to do for years.
But still, it was those very same traits that I liked about him that irritated me to no end when I found out that he saw our relationship as less than equal.
I wasn’t a wilting flower. I could make decisions on my own about whether to see him or not as a firefighter. He should have told me. And that whole baby thing. I had no idea what he was thinking and still didn’t.
The sound of a saw next door was excruciating and made me jerk the scissors I had in my hand. A small bud fell onto the table and rolled to the other side.
“Hey, chica, we have three more orders that just came in,” I heard my friend Kelly say. “I forgot how fucking busy this place was during winter.”
“Birthdays, holidays. It’s a race to Christmas,” I mumbled.
Kelly placed the orders in front of me so I could scan over them for a minute. I looked up and saw her lean athletic frame amble over to one of the cases. She grabbed a few vases off the top shelf and set them on the table.
“Thanks. I still can’t get used to you with short hair.”
She smiled and ran her hand through her blonde locks. The result of which made her hair stick up in several places.
“It’s fucking hot in Georgia. You have no idea how much it kills me during the summer months. I don’t know how those girls play tennis with long hair. It was just easier.”
Smiling at her, I shook my head in amusement. “Only you would chop off your hair to play tennis. I’m surprised it’s not green too.”
She looked annoyed for a moment then shrugged. “Team rules. No wacko hair colors. When you’re representing the college, you have to look like a professional athlete.”
“Professional athlete’s do wild things to their hair all the time,” I replied, thinking back on several that that had done some wild things over the years.
“They’re also making the big bucks. If I get a shot at making it on my own, then I’ll dye it red. Can’t miss that on a court.”
Finishing the last touch on my order, I looked at the tag again. “Just need a love note on this one and it’s done.”
The hammering next door started up again.
Kelly jumped from the sound. “Jesus, I don’t know how you put up with this back here. It’s ten times louder than out front. I had to walk down the block to hear that last order it was so loud and it’s worse back here.”
I set the vase down in front of her, handing her a pen and card. “Can you write the note? Pretty please.”
Kelly nodded and looked around. “Is the message on the ticket?”
“Yes,” I said as I grabbed it off my workspace and brought it to her. “Thank you, Kelly. Have I told you how much I love and adore you? You come to my rescue every fall.”
“Yeah, well, I have to be someone’s knight in shining armor. Morgan doesn’t want anything to do with me.”
“She’s just not ready for that
step. You start back up in January. Maybe by that time she’ll be ready.”
“Speaking of which, I hear your boyfriend will be back in a few weeks. Are you ready?”
I stiffened at her question. I hadn’t realized he would be back so soon. Looking at a calendar everyday filled with orders should have given me some indication. I was so used to planning week to week I hadn’t realized the time had flown by that quickly.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I muttered as I went over to a row of greenery and started yanking a few sprigs out of their containers.
“Right. Is that why you’ve been depressed, moping around here, and crying in your bedroom at least once a week since I got here?”
Having Kelly stay with me for the last couple of months was a choice. She wasn’t necessarily welcome at her parent’s home. Tolerated would be the best word for it. And yet, Nolan Creek was always where she came back to, regardless.
Rachel always stayed with my dad for a while and it worked out during a season when she would normally be busy with city planning on parades and functions. Kelly helped alleviate the stress of the holidays on both of us, and I was always glad to see my childhood friend. Unfortunately, this year, she walked into our lives at a difficult moment for me.
Difficult moment. That’s what I wanted to call it. This one would pass eventually but I was going to be dealing with a lot of difficult moments in the years ahead. I would handle it, but it was going to be hard as hell without him.
I grabbed a willow branch and accidentally broke off a limb.
Oh, who was I kidding? This sucked!
“I’ve had problems with my allergies this year. You must have just heard me blowing my nose several times.”
“Right,” she said, sounding unconvinced. “So, again, what are you going to do about your non-boyfriend?”
“She’s going to go out on a date with me,” I heard Patrick say behind me.
Turning, I saw him dusting a few snowflakes off his jacket and shutting the back door. The chill of the weather came in with him, and I shivered.
“I’m not going on a date with you, Patrick. I guess the snow started up earlier then they thought?”
Smoldering Heart_Fleming Brothers [Book 1] Page 17