#4--The Quiet Day--O’Connells

by Lorhainne Eckhart

  “We’re not talking about Jessa Armstrong, city councillor, running for mayor?” Toby said, cutting in.

  Suzanne rested her hand on Harold’s arm, taking in Toby, a man she had slept with and was pretty sure she loved. There he was, listening to her talking to another guy about their relationship, their mistakes.

  “The very same,” she said.

  Harold had started coughing again but was still holding the mask to her face. Everything about him showed her the man he was, and it erased everything she had believed for so long. He should hate her, but he was doing everything he could to protect her.

  When he slid to the floor, she heard the crash of the door and knew help had arrived.

  Chapter Eight

  Lights were flashing, engines were running, and hoses were being dragged out into the parking lot so that Greg, one of the volunteers, could roll them up. The parking lot was flooded, but the fire was out now for the most part, thanks to Kyle, who’d turned on the force of the hoses and soaked everything. The sporting, clothing, and outdoor departments were completely destroyed, and smoke and water damage had likely ruined the rest of the store. Suzanne distantly heard the yelling between firefighters and the police who controlled the scene and kept everyone back.

  Harold was sitting on the back bumper of an ambulance with an oxygen mask on. Roxy, the EMT on that night, had dark hair, big eyes, and full hips, and Suzanne could see that Harold was giving her a hard time. Suzanne strode over to the back of the ambulance. Now was time for the cleanup, and she needed a minute to come to grips with what had almost happened. Marcus was lingering there, too, leaning against the side of the ambulance, his foot resting on the bumper, saying something to Harold.

  “Look, I’m fine,” Harold said. “I’m not going to the hospital. There are other people here who need your help…”

  “And you’re one of them,” Marcus said, intervening, then turned to Roxy. “How’s he doing? Harold, the only thing that’s going to come out of your mouth next is that yes, you’re going to the hospital, even if I have to tie you to the gurney. I watched you get dragged out of there. You passed out and breathed in too much smoke.”

  Suzanne was aware how stubborn Harold could be.

  Roxy was taking his blood pressure. “His oxygen levels are low,” she said. “It would be best if he went to the hospital, but he keeps insisting he’s not going.”

  Harold pulled the mask away from his face again. He was pale, but she could see he was getting ready to argue.

  “Put it back on,” Roxy ordered and grabbed the mask, pressing it to his face, holding it there.

  When Suzanne stepped up to the ambulance, everyone’s eyes were on her. Marcus’s gaze was heavy, questioning. He likely wanted to have a word with her.

  She pulled at the Velcro of her jacket and opened it. “Harold, you collapsed. You breathed in a lot of smoke. Go to the hospital and get checked out. It took two of the firefighters to carry you out of there.”

  “If I recall, you breathed in about as much smoke as I did,” Harold said, pulling his mask away again. “Have you checked Suzanne out yet?” He dragged his gaze from her over to Roxy and made a point of including her brother, who hadn’t pulled his gaze from her since the moment she’d walked over.

  The strap from her helmet was hanging loose, and she was gritty and wanted a long, hot, steamy shower. She realized she hadn’t said two words to Toby since they’d been pulled from that back room. Where was he now? Right back in charge as if he were responsible for saving everyone’s asses and putting out this fire. Everything about this situation left her feeling unsettled.

  “He’s right, Suzanne,” Roxy said. “Humor me and sit down. You know better.” She gestured to a spot beside Harold, and Marcus actually reached over and took her helmet from her head.

  “Yup, come on, Suzanne, sit,” he said. “Let Roxy check you over, run another oxygen mask…”

  “If I needed oxygen, I’d be the first over here, asking for it. You know that, Roxy…” she managed to get out, but as soon as she sat, her legs wanted to give out. Weariness, likely. She was shaken in a way she’d never experienced before, but then, she’d never been trapped like that. It bothered her now in ways she knew weren’t rational. She didn’t have to look over to Harold to know he was watching her. She could feel his warmth. Her adrenaline was still pumping.

  “Then you won’t mind sitting for a bit,” Roxy said. “Come on, Suzanne, jacket off. You know the drill.”

  There was something odd about sitting side by side with Harold, who was holding an oxygen mask to his face. Marcus was standing there, taking in everything.

  “So what happened in there, Suzanne?” he finally asked as Roxy pumped up her blood pressure cuff, which pinched.

  “Hey, careful,” Suzanne snapped.

  Roxy just shook her head as if she were overreacting as she reached past her for an oxygen mask and actually set it over her nose and stretched the elastic around her head to hold it on. She was reluctant to say it, but she could feel how much even the first pull of oxygen helped, how much she needed it.

  “It was as I told you, Marcus,” Harold said. “I thought I heard someone, but it was just a TV. We got trapped. The door wouldn’t open, and, well, you know the rest. We’re out. They didn’t find anyone else in there, did they?”

  The way Harold had jumped in, leaving out all of Toby’s dumbass moves, she wondered why he’d do that. At the same time, she was still reeling over what he’d said earlier. Had Jessa really lied, and she’d believed her that easily? It was something she needed a moment or even a good night’s sleep to consider and think on.

  She pulled the mask away from her face. “It was a little more than that, Harold,” she said. “I know Kyle made sure they went through the place after the fire was out. Everyone got out.”

  No thanks to Toby, she thought, but she was sure he’d learned a lesson from this. She knew he was upset, but it could’ve been so much worse. He’d yet to say anything to her. It was awkward, unsettling.

  “We’re fine, Marcus,” she finished. “Everyone is.”

  Roxy ripped the blood pressure cuff off her. “Okay, just sit there with that mask on until I tell you to get up.”

  “She good?” Marcus asked. Suzanne wondered if he was going to insist she go to the hospital, too.

  “Yeah, she’ll be okay. She should get checked out at the hospital, though. You know the dangers of smoke inhalation, Suzanne—the dangers to the heart and respiratory system. Don’t play the hero here.”

  She was about to argue when Marcus said, “She won’t, because she’s going to the hospital along with my deputy. I’ll wrap up things here. Harold, no more arguing, and you’re not to leave the hospital until the doctor looks you over and gives the okay.” He put his booted foot on the ground.

  Suzanne spotted Toby coming their way.

  “She okay there, Roxy?” he called out from a few feet away. He’d given her only a passing glance. What that was about, she didn’t know.

  “She’s going to the hospital with the deputy to get checked out,” Roxy replied.

  Marcus hadn’t pulled his gaze from him, and he was starting to walk his way. She went to pull her mask off when she felt a hand on her arm. Harold, who gestured with his chin for her to stay. Maybe he knew what she was thinking, what she was going to do. She was about to stand up.

  “No, stay out of it.” He was so direct.

  “Stay out of what?” She knew she sounded defensive.

  His face was so close. His hazel eyes held a confidence she’d not seen before. “It’s your brother’s right to speak to him. He’s got some things to say, so let him.”

  “He’s shoving his nose in my business,” she snapped. She took in Toby, who was now just a ways off from the ambulance, his helmet still on, the strap loose and hanging. Marcus was right in front of him. Whatever he was saying, she couldn’t make it out.

  “Yeah, well, he’s got a right to be upset,” Harold said.
“So you’re really involved with him?”

  Roxy was listening, she knew. She wondered if Harold had picked up on the fact that she and Toby hadn’t officially shared their non-dating status with anyone at the station.

  She said nothing, just took in Toby’s face. The expression there wasn’t happy. He stepped around her brother and started over to her. He allowed his gaze to fall to her as he stopped right in front of her.

  “You okay?” was all he asked.

  She nodded and went to pull the oxygen mask away, but he pulled off his gloves, reached over, and pressed the mask back to her.

  “No, leave it on,” he said. “Listen, I know we need to talk, and we will. You and the deputy will go to the hospital. I have to finish up here.”

  For a second, she thought he was going to say something else.

  He slid his gaze over to Harold, then took a step back and said to Suzanne, “After I wrap up everything here, I’ll come by and get you.” He turned away. “Roxy, make sure she goes to the hospital and gets checked out, and the deputy too.”

  It was exactly the conversation she hadn’t expected.

  Harold stood up, pulled his oxygen mask off, and held out his hand to her. “Come on, Suzanne,” he said. “Get in.”

  Chapter Nine

  Her doorbell was ringing.

  Her head throbbed as she opened her eyes, blinking in the light that spilled into her bedroom. She ran her hand over her face. Her long hair was a tangled mess, and she brushed it back from her face and out of her eyes as she put her feet on the floor, climbing out of her double bed. Her small bedroom had a dresser, a night stand, and a tiny closet, but instead of looking through it for clothes to put on, she stayed in her pajama shorts and T-shirt.

  The floor creaked. She didn’t bother looking through the peephole before she pulled open the door. There was Toby, two coffees in hand, appearing freshly showered, with a smile on his face.

  She hadn’t expected that. At the same time, she felt as if she could use another hour or two of sleep and a couple of Tylenol to clear the achy cobwebs in her head.

  “You’re here awfully early,” she said. “You brought me coffee… What time is it, anyway?”

  Toby stepped inside, and Suzanne stepped back after taking the coffee from him. “You’re welcome, by the way—and it’s not that early. It’s after ten,” he added teasingly.

  She lifted the lid of the takeout coffee and took a swallow, unsure what to make of this.

  “How’d you sleep?” he said. For a moment, it sounded like concern.

  She turned and strode the few steps to the tiny kitchen of her one-bedroom house. She rested the coffee on the counter and opened the cupboard beside the sink for a bottle of Tylenol and a glass.

  “Oh, you know, pretty good, I guess,” she said.

  Actually, she’d slept like shit, considering it had been close to three in the morning by the time she’d arrived home after Toby picked her up from the hospital, something else she hadn’t expected. She opened the bottle and tapped two pills into her hand, then filled a glass of water and swallowed them both down, feeling the rawness in her chest from the smoke.

  “Liar,” he said. “Seriously, Suzanne, I should have stayed last night. I was worried. I shouldn’t have left you alone. You have no idea how worried I was.”

  What was it about the way he was looking at her that had her wanting to wrap her arms around herself? It was a feeling of discomfort she hadn’t felt in a while. She downed the rest of the water and filled another glass from the tap, then swallowed some more.

  “You left because I told you to go,” she said. “You think I would’ve let you stay because you insisted? As you said to me last night before the fire, and let me remind you of it, you want to keep it simple, not too serious. You know we don’t stay over at each other’s places. We’re not there yet, or rather, you don’t want to be there yet. Hell, you can’t stand to be seen with me in public.”

  Okay, so she was still pissed over everything, not just about Toby but also about Harold, about learning that something she’d believed with everything in her heart wasn’t true.

  He said nothing, but he was still standing there. Good God…he was so good looking. His blue eyes gave everything to her before he glanced away, just something he did.

  “Maybe I’ve changed my mind,” he said. “It was too close last night, Suzanne, and maybe that was a wakeup call for me. I told you I care, but maybe I care more than I want to admit.”

  There it was, something she’d have given anything to hear. But right now she wasn’t sure how she felt about anything, considering he couldn’t even hold her gaze as he said it. Deep and personal was something Toby wasn’t.

  Then there was Harold. Damn him! She hadn’t thought of him in a long time, and now she couldn’t get him out of her mind.

  “You know, when the call came in last night, we were in the middle of settling a few things,” she said. “You never answered me about where you were, and I didn’t push, but I’m pushing now. You were over two hours late, and when you didn’t hear from me after you finally texted, you said you were just about to go out. Then in the next breath, you said you wanted to stay in. Yeah, Marcus and Charlotte got in my head about you and said some things that pissed me off, but at the same time, Toby, you never really answered me about where you were and who you were with.”

  He groaned and lifted his gaze to the ceiling as if she were creating a problem, something else he did that she didn’t like. “Seriously, Suzanne, are we going back to that? Fine, I had a meeting, which I told you about. Besides, I had news to share, though you didn’t give me a chance. “It seems I’m in line for another promotion to captain. It should be coming down any day. Wanted you to be the first to know. At the same time, it kind of complicates things for us.”

  She just stared at him, realizing he was serious. “You’re being promoted to captain?” She was positive her voice squeaked. Her head was pounding, and she was having trouble understanding what he’d said. He was smiling at her over news that she shouldn’t have been hearing. “I don’t understand,” she finally said, then reached for the coffee and took a swallow, hoping the caffeine would bring clarity to the situation.

  He’d screwed up so badly the night before that anyone else would’ve been better qualified for that promotion. This really was an absolute gong show.

  He let out a rough laugh. She could see she was stepping on his very male alpha ego, and she realized he’d been expecting her to be all happy and make a fuss over him. That was exactly what she’d done when he’d made lieutenant over her, but not this time.

  “Well, we’ve kept this between us, on the down low, but we’re going to have to make it more formal and disclose to everyone with my upcoming promotion, as it would be frowned on. There would be accusations of favoritism, you know, from the other firefighters, thinking you’re getting special attention, better assignments at fires and everything, because we’re involved, so we’d have to…”

  “Just dial it back a second. Are you expecting me to take a back seat on fire calls because we’re involved? Let’s be clear on exactly what you’re saying here.” She knew she sounded pissed, but at least her head wasn’t throbbing like it had been seconds ago. It was likely the water and the Tylenol that had eased the ache.

  “Well, I don’t want to seem like I’m favoring you, so I’ll have to be sure I’m giving assignments to everyone, not just you. I know you’re good, but at the same time, Suzanne, it could be tricky…” He was so matter of fact, and that wasn’t even the most absurd part of this, as she realized he was serious.

  “Wait, stop talking. Let me get this straight. You’re being promoted by who?” She held the coffee in front of her, feeling so grungy and wanting a shower, furious over what she was hearing.

  His smile faltered. “Well, Chief Burns, of course,” he said.

  She knew her jaw slackened. She pictured the chief, who’d never given her a passing glance. He was a man steeped
in the community, with deep roots, and she wondered how much of this was as Marcus had said.

  “Not your grandfather?” she said.

  He stepped back as if she’d slapped him. The smile he’d had before was suddenly gone. “What does my grandfather have to do with this, with my promotion?”

  If it had been any other time, she likely wouldn’t have pushed, not with Toby, not with how she felt about him, but at the same time, after the night before, and considering her experience and qualifications, she was realizing the only qualification Toby had was the fact that his grandfather had handpicked Chief Burns for the job, and he still very much had his hand in the running of things from his retirement, which he spent fishing and seeing to it that his grandson would soon be the next chief. Why hadn’t she seen it before?

  She shook her head and rested her coffee back on the counter. “He has everything to do with this, Toby. Did you ever ask yourself why you got the promotion to lieutenant when you hadn’t been with the department that long? I trained you, yet I wasn’t even considered. I have more experience, and so does Kyle. If it weren’t for him, things last night could have gone a lot worse. You didn’t handle that call well, and I’m not sure why you didn’t send in everyone right from the get-go to do a sweep of the store and drag the hoses in. You were more worried about keeping the damage to a minimum when there was a fire that could’ve killed people. Then us getting trapped back there after you closed the door, when we ended up locked in…”

  “We wouldn’t have been back there if it weren’t for that old boyfriend of yours!” he snapped. “A TV, seriously? It sounds to me as if you’re trying to saying this is sexist in some way. You think you were more deserving of the promotion to lieutenant?” He actually took a step closer to her, and for a second, she had to remind herself this was Toby, and she really liked him, but right now, she was positive he couldn’t see it, or maybe he didn’t want to see it.