The Firefighter's Christmas Reunion

by Christy Jeffries

  “Just wait for it,” Freckles murmured out the side of her mouth as she lowered her microphone and studied the audience members, their voices rising in whispered speculation.

  “Wait for what? You have to be kiddi—”

  “Eight hundred dollars,” a deep baritone voice called out, making the entire theater go quiet. Isaac squeezed his eyes shut and forgot about the live mic when he uttered a curse. Not because it was a male who had done the bidding. But because the man was Luke Gregson. Hannah’s brother.

  This time, Freckles quickly—and a bit too gleefully, if you asked Isaac—hollered out, “Sold!”

  “I don’t think it’s fair to—” he began, but Freckles was shushing him and shoving him toward the wings of the stage. She was already introducing the next bachelor when Cessy Walker looped her arm through his and steered him past the velvet curtain.

  “Ms. Walker,” Isaac started again once he was backstage. “There has got to be some sort of rule about who gets to—”

  “We already established that people can bid by proxy and all dates, once paid for, are transferable.” Cessy gave him a dismissive wave, but Isaac wasn’t comforted or even the least bit appeased.

  Transferable? What did that mean?

  Had Hannah sent her brother to bid on her behalf? He highly doubted it, but Isaac clearly wasn’t going to get any answers standing back here and arguing about the auction rules. Instead, he dashed toward the side door exit and looped around to the cashier table in the theater lobby to confront Luke Gregson.

  When the former Navy SEAL swaggered up with a cocky smile on his face, he didn’t even look at Isaac. Instead he asked Elaine Marconi, who was acting as cashier, “Do you take credit cards?”

  “Gregson,” Isaac all but growled, then paused when the man turned a smug grin in his direction. Unable to share in—or even understand—Luke’s apparent satisfaction, Isaac narrowed his eyes and continued. “I’m assuming you didn’t spend eight hundred dollars so that you could go with me to the VFW dance.”

  “Safe assumption.”

  “So...” Isaac prompted as Elaine scanned Luke’s credit card through a tiny machine. But Elaine was also eagerly looking between the two men as though she was she was dying of thirst and they were fighting over a bucket of water.

  “So, I’m getting married in two weeks,” Luke said matter-of-factly.

  “I know. I sent my RSVP card in the mail.”

  “And my sister will obviously be at the wedding.”

  Isaac managed a terse nod. It wasn’t like he could pretend that he hadn’t thought about that exact thing when he’d gotten the invite. But he worked in the same public safety building as Carmen and their departments were small enough that they often got called out to the same scenes to work together. Everyone else at his station would be attending, and it would raise too many questions if he didn’t go.

  He’d gone back and forth over his decision, knowing that he couldn’t win either way. Stay away and cause speculation, or go and cause more tension between himself and Hannah. Yet the truth was that he wanted to see her. He wanted to clear the air. He didn’t like walking around town, never knowing when they might run into each other.

  “Anyway,” Luke continued, “Carmen’s been working really hard on the reception details and I don’t want any drama on her big day.”

  “Isn’t it your big day, too?” Elaine asked, reminding both men that she was listening in on their entire conversation.

  “Right.” Luke took his credit card back and snapped his wallet closed as he jerked his chin toward the exit door. “Let’s talk outside.”

  Elaine had always been one of the biggest gossips in Sugar Falls, even ten years ago. In fact, she was the one who’d first told him that Hannah was cheating on him with Carter Mahoney. Isaac knew all too well she hadn’t changed much over the years, so he eagerly followed Luke outside to the front steps of the theater. The exit doors couldn’t slam closed fast enough.

  “Looks like we’re going to get an early snowfall this year, after all,” Luke said as he zipped up his jacket against the evening mountain air. “Too bad—I was kind of enjoying that warm spell.”

  “Did you want me to come out here to talk about the weather or were you planning to explain why you had to blow eight hundred dollars to keep your wedding drama free?”

  More importantly, why would Luke think that Isaac would bring any drama in the first place? If he was that worried, Isaac would simply decline the invitation and stay home. He was about to say as much when Luke finally responded.

  “Hannah hasn’t quite been herself since she got back from Ghana.”

  Isaac studied the man before him, wishing for a further explanation that didn’t seem to be forthcoming. “Not that I would know how the adult version of Hannah Gregson is normally, but I’d imagine that recently adopting a child, especially one from a foreign country who isn’t accustomed to life over here, would cause her some added stress.”

  “Obviously. Plus there’s our mom’s health that has her worried.” Luke shrugged, leaving Isaac to wonder what was going on with Mrs. Gregson. “But finding out that her old flame now lives in the same small town probably hasn’t helped much, either.”

  “Old flame? I’d hardly call—”

  “Please.” Luke held up a palm. “Let’s not pretend like you guys didn’t used to be totally bonkers about each other. She didn’t eat for a whole week after that video came out.”

  Isaac flinched. That damn video was one of his deepest regrets and he wished to hell that he and the rest of the world could put the stupid moment behind them. But, other than blaming the foolish and reckless teenager he used to be, there was no defense for the words he’d once spoken. Clearly, there was no point in rehashing his mistake. Instead, he argued, “Maybe Hannah’s hunger strike wasn’t because of me. I’m pretty sure it was right about that time that people were protesting—”

  Luke cut him off again. “She was in love with you back then, and judging by your heated words in that video, you cared pretty deeply for her, too.”

  Isaac hunched his shoulders against the chilling wind that had picked up, shoving his fists into his pockets. There was no point in denying anything that had taken place that final summer. It wasn’t that Isaac was still bitter about things, it was just that seeing her had brought up all the old hurt. It had also stirred to life a lot of the good memories, too.

  “So, how are we supposed to get past all that and go on with our lives?” Isaac voiced the same concern that had popped into his head when he saw Hannah for the first time a couple of weeks ago.

  “That’s the million-dollar question. So here’s what I figure... If you and Hannah could talk things out and come to some sort of understanding before my wedding, it would ease a lot of tension. For everyone.” Luke took a deep breath. “I thought maybe you could discuss it over dinner at the VFW thing tomorrow.”

  Isaac’s brows lowered with suspicion. “Or you could just ask me not to come to the wedding. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings and it’d be a helluva lot cheaper than the eight hundred bucks you just paid.”

  “Yeah, I thought of that. The easy way out would be all fine and good until the next big town event when you and Hannah have to see each other. You can’t just keep avoiding one another like this and pretending you’re over things. Hannah would kill me for telling you this, but the whole unresolved situation is eating away at her. And I don’t like to see my little sister suffering.”

  “Suffering?” Isaac grumbled then cleared his throat. “Maybe Carter Mahoney could help ease some of her suffering. Again.”

  Luke responded by lifting one side of his mouth into a half smile. “I wonder what ol’ Carter’s up to these days.”

  Probably still making the moves on someone else’s girl, Isaac thought, swallowing a growl.

  “Anyway, the bottom line is, I need you two
to kiss and make up...” Luke paused, then his face grew more serious. “Scratch that. Just make up—kissing optional—before my wedding so that Hannah doesn’t accidentally shove you into the four-tiered cake Carmen’s Aunt Lupe is making from scratch.”

  “You seem to think that anything I could say would convince your sister to let go of a ten-year-old grudge just like that.” Isaac snapped his fingers.

  Luke rolled his eyes. “I don’t think Hannah’s the only one holding on to the grudge.”

  * * *

  “I’m going to kill my brother,” Hannah said the following evening when she opened the front door to Carmen and the twins.

  Neither of her blond, curly-haired nephews seemed particularly fazed by their aunt’s announcement and brushed past her into the cabin where Sammy was learning to play chess with Hannah’s father. Caden asked, “Hey, Pop Pop, where’s Grammie?”

  Hannah’s annoyance with Luke quickly vanished when she heard the question and she held her breath, waiting for her dad to take the lead on what they were going to tell the kids.

  “Grammie was feeling pretty tired today so she’s at our house in Boise resting and I’m going to babysit all of you little squirts so your parents can have a much-deserved night out. Now, since you two beat me out of three dollars last time we played poker, I decided that we’re going to be learning a gentleman’s game tonight, instead.”

  That was the thing about Hannah’s dad. Jerry Gregson, a retired youth minister, was always direct and honest, even with young children who didn’t quite understand that their grandmother had Stage 3 breast cancer. But he also knew how to relate to kids and, more importantly, how to distract them from asking more questions.

  Still, the reminder of her mom’s illness sent waves of guilt pouring through Hannah and she wished she had insisted on being at her family’s home tonight, taking care of her mother instead of going on a fake date with her ex-boyfriend to the VFW hall. But Donna Gregson was as stubborn as they came and had not only told Hannah to go on the date, she’d volunteered her husband as the sole babysitter of the Gregson clan—a job that several teenagers, two teachers and even the town’s sweet, patient librarian wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole—and claimed that all she needed was a quiet evening with nobody fussing over her.

  Of course, that didn’t stop Hannah from worrying.

  Carmen gave Pop Pop some last-minute instructions about curbing the twins’ sugar intake and limiting their video game time while Hannah kissed Sammy goodbye and promised to be home in two hours.

  “Two hours?” Carmen asked when they got into her small SUV.

  “Or less.” Hannah buckled her seat belt. “There’s no way I can be in the same room with Isaac Jones longer than that, let alone sit at the same table with him. My brother should’ve known better.”

  “I don’t blame you for being mad at Luke.” Carmen put the car into gear. “I almost killed him myself when I found out how much he paid for Isaac at the bachelor auction.”

  “Oh, my gosh!” Hannah gasped, realizing that she’d never asked. The auction had barely concluded when she’d found out about the date at Patrelli’s Italian Restaurant when she was picking up a pizza last night. Even now she squeezed her eyes shut and shuddered at the way Mrs. Patrelli had given her a big hug and told her how happy she was that Hannah was finally forgiving Isaac.

  It had taken three phone calls and the entire drive back to the cabin to get the basic details that her brother Luke had bid on Isaac to be her date at tonight’s fund-raiser. Then it had taken another thirty minutes of venting and a lengthy text session with Drew, Luke’s twin and a Navy psychologist, to convince Hannah that if she didn’t go tonight, the gossips would be out in full force tomorrow morning.

  Squinting one eye open, Hannah looked across the interior of the car. “How much did he pay?”

  But Carmen’s lips were sealed. Probably because Hannah’s soon-to-be sister-in-law knew better than to get her any more riled up than she already was. “Don’t worry. I’ll sit between you and Isaac and run interference the whole night if you want. In fact, that’s why I’m picking you up and we’re meeting Luke at the hall. He’s probably already there now, talking to Isaac and telling him that the whole thing was a practical joke gone bad.”

  “Is that what it was?” Hannah asked, a familiar ache blossoming in her lower chest. Normally she didn’t care what people thought of her, but it hurt when someone she loved played her for a fool. “A practical joke?”

  Carmen sighed. “No, it wasn’t a joke. But if I tell you why Luke did it, you have to promise not to go off on him when you see him.”

  Hannah studied Carmen through the dim light inside the car as they made their way down the dark highway and toward the center of Sugar Falls. “I don’t think that’s a promise I could keep.”

  Luckily, Carmen either hadn’t heard, or had decided not to require a vow. “Your brother’s really worried about having the wedding go smoothly and thinks that if you see Isaac there and haven’t worked things out by then, then someone might say the wrong thing and he just doesn’t want any unnecessary commotion.”

  “Seriously?” Hannah clenched her fingers and had to remind her lungs to force all the air she was inhaling back out. “He thinks I’m going to be the one to cause a scene? And about Isaac Jones, of all people?”

  “If you breathe any harder, I’m going to have to turn on the defroster. Besides, I said a commotion. Not a scene. Luke’s more worried about emotions running high and the potential for drama. I saw you at the jog-a-thon after Elaine and Marcia were talking to you. Can you honestly say that if one of those bitchy gossips tried to start up with you about Isaac, that you wouldn’t get worked up? And if you’re miserable at the wedding, then your mom will be miserable and...”

  Carmen didn’t have to finish. Nobody liked to think about Donna Gregson’s condition, let alone mention it out loud. However, with their mom’s refusal of any more treatment, this could possibly be one of their last major family celebrations with her, and Hannah could understand why Luke would want to make it extra special. Hell, they all wanted to make things extra special for their mother. So if that meant that she had to paste a smile on her face and play nice with Isaac, then that’s what Hannah would do.

  Unfortunately, when she walked into the VFW hall ten minutes later, Hannah’s stomach was in knots and her heart was beating so loudly she could hear her own pulse thumping in her ears over the sound of the eighties song coming from the band on the small raised platform near the dance floor. It was a good thing Big Rhonda and the Roadsters usually played gigs at the VFW on Saturday nights. They’d only had a couple of weeks to come up with and rehearse a new playlist for tonight’s theme.

  Hannah didn’t get dressed up very often and she tugged at the short hem of the dress she’d borrowed from Drew’s wife. Her sister-in-law Kylie had an eye for fashion and an aversion to loose-fitting clothes. The soft, silky material and floral print hadn’t seemed so daring when it was on the hanger, but now that it was clinging to Hannah’s hips, she was reluctant to leave her bulky jacket at the coat check.

  It didn’t help that everyone was looking in her direction as she followed Carmen toward the round table where Luke and Drew were sitting with Kylie. There was another couple seated with them, but Hannah’s eyes couldn’t focus on anybody other than the man standing behind an empty chair, holding a bottle of beer and frowning at the dance floor as though it might swallow him whole if he dared to take a step in the wrong direction.

  Right. Isaac had always hated dancing, especially in front of people. He’d once told Hannah that his mom had made him go to cotillion classes and the overly technical steps of the waltz had emotionally scarred him for life.

  Some of the tension in Hannah’s muscles loosened as she recognized the uneasiness in Isaac’s body language. After all this time, she shouldn’t still be able to recognize those tiny details
, but maybe she could use her knowledge and his discomfort to her advantage. Not that she wanted the guy to be uncomfortable. But if she could get her emotions under control and act as though she was completely unbothered by the fact that he was there—or that her brother had literally paid money to ensure his presence—then at least Hannah wouldn’t be the most awkward person in the room.

  Straightening her shoulders, she told herself that she would just need to fake it for two hours. The problem was that she’d never been a very good actress.

  Chapter Seven

  “This is supposed to be a dinner dance,” Hannah yelled above the music almost three hours later. “Where’s the dinner part?”

  Isaac shrugged. They were the only people left at their table when the band began playing “Beat It” and everyone else had made a mad rush toward the dance floor. But there was no way he was going to follow suit.

  “You want me to go get you another drink?” he offered.

  He’d already reached his maximum alcohol level for the night, and the last thing he needed was more beer. But if it kept him from sitting here all alone with Hannah Gregson, then he’d gladly head to the bar for another round.

  She shook her head, her long, loose hair falling behind her shoulders. “If I have any more wine on an empty stomach, someone’s going to have to use a wheelbarrow to push me out of here.”

  “Ha.” Isaac barked out a laugh, the vibration unfamiliar in his throat since he hadn’t been able to laugh all evening. “I’d forgotten about that.”

  The first summer they’d met, Elaine Marconi, who’d been Elaine Simmons back then, had sneaked a couple of six packs of wine coolers from her daddy’s mini-mart and brought them on a cleanup hike that Hannah had organized. They were supposed to be picking up litter and other debris that tourists and novice hikers had left behind on the trail going up to the waterfalls.

  Hannah had been appalled that there was underage drinking going on at a volunteer event she’d assisted in organizing, but little did she know that the only way to get most of the high school kids there to help out was the promise of a good time. Hannah had been even more appalled when Elaine had passed out and Chuck Marconi had grabbed an old wheelbarrow from the back of his grandfather’s pickup truck to get her back down the trail. Isaac smiled at the memory of how scandalized Hannah’d been and how that evening, when he’d driven her home, she’d told him that what she liked most about him was that he hadn’t gotten into the alcohol like the other kids in town. He’d stayed clearheaded and on mission.