Young Buck: A Slow Burn Small Town Romance (Green Valley Heroes Book 5)

Chapter 43

Waking to an alarm from a dead sleep never got any easier, no matter how many times I’d jumped up to take a call. In this case, it wasn’t the obnoxious trill of the call alarm at the firehouse, but the less jarring chime of my phone. It had been almost dawn by the time I’d gotten back from seeing my mother off, and the events of the night prior still had me feeling wrecked. But I’d wanted a decent sleep before I went to see Loretta.

Loretta.

Now that this was over, I could finally win her back. Now that I didn’t have to be back and forth between here and Lookout Mountain, I could explain. Now that I had neutralized my father as a threat, I wouldn’t have to fear for her safety. I would head to her house shortly, with my tail between my legs and a peace offering in my hands.

Said peace offering had to be one of Loretta’s favorites. I hadn’t forgotten the way her eyes had fallen shut the first time she’d tasted my pork chile verde. I’d gotten the beginnings of it into the slow cooker when I’d gotten home the night before.

The prospect of seeing her soonish helped me out of bed. I could use herbs from the garden to cook my cilantro rice. I pulled on a T-shirt and pants, yawning as I padded toward the closed curtains that sealed off the light from my patio door. When the unmistakable squelch of a garden hose turning on sounded from the other side of the glass, my heart rate spiked. Loretta must be standing in my backyard.

Every part of me wanted to go to her, but something in me thought twice. Did I really want to make my impassioned plea when I was half asleep? Every reunion I’d pictured in my mind had involved me wearing low-rise jeans and the Henley I knew she liked. I wasn’t above using a secret weapon if it helped me get back into her life.

That notion was how I wound up using my firefighter skills to get out of my pajamas and into something more appealing in record time. Getting myself together also meant giving my teeth a good brushing and dabbing a bit of cologne on my secret spots. A second before I whipped open the curtains, I took a fortifying breath, eager to make things right with the woman I loved. Only, it wasn’t Loretta.

“Clarine?”

She stood in the backyard where Loretta should have been, standing in profile as she watered a shrub. I’d never seen anyone other than Loretta water her garden. Before I could settle on what to do, Clarine regarded me. The neutral expression she wore quickly turned into a scowl.

Shit.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out her cool expression. If Loretta had told anyone about my many flaws, she’d have told Clarine. Since walking away would have further incriminated me, I opened up the door. I’d have to wend my way back into Clarine’s good graces either way. Might as well start now.

“Buck,” she said in a greeting so cold, it nearly gave me shivers.

“I heard someone in the garden,” I explained. “I’m guessing Loretta’s not home if she asked you to do her watering.”

An unsettling thought gripped me. Had she gone someplace for the holiday weekend? If so, where, and with who?

“No, Loretta’s not home,” Clarine revealed tersely. “She’s in Reddy.” Clarine spoke the name as if the town itself had committed some grave offense.

“Who’s in Reddy?”

“Not who . . . what.”

“Alright, what’s in Reddy?” I took the bait. But Clarine didn’t seem to want to answer. The conversation was getting strange.

“Clarine, is Loretta okay?”

“You tell me.”

“I don’t know.” It pained me to admit.

“That makes two of you,” Clarine was talking in code again. “She doesn’t know anything anymore.”

I felt the impulse to apologize, but quickly shut it down. Clarine wasn’t the one I ought to be apologizing to. But I could still hint at my intentions.

“Do you know when she’ll be back?” I asked. “I really need to speak with her. To clear up some things.”

“Not ’til after her appointment.” Clarine resumed her biting tone. “The clinic’s an hour’s drive.”

She turned off her hose long enough to look at me with an openly hostile glare, laying it on so thick, I was starting to think I might need to say something. But my brain caught on a detail that sent my heart into overdrive and heavied my brow.

Did she just say, the clinic?

I could only think of one time when Loretta had used that word. The morning after the first night she slept over—the morning she told me she couldn’t date me because she wanted to have a child. If Clarine was talking about the clinic I sincerely hoped she wasn’t, what the hell was Loretta doing there?

“What clinic?” I asked with extreme suspicion, my voice now growly and low.

“The clinic she shouldn’t even be at right now. Because the worst time to make big life decisions is when you’re all messed up from some hot firefighter fucking with your head.”

Well, shit.

Clarine’s gloves were really off now. But I didn’t dare hit back. Not when I deserved every punch. I hadn’t meant to leave Loretta hanging.

“I thought I had time,” I said out loud on a whisper of pain and regret. It was the gamble I’d been making all along. After helping my mom, I’d planned to make amends.

Clarine squeezed her eyes shut and balled up the fist that was holding the hose. I braced myself for the fury I was sure she was about to unleash. But when she opened her eyes, a fast tear slipped down her cheek.

“Please. Leave her alone if you’re only gonna break her heart. You don’t know what she’s been through.”

Something in her raw emotion scared me. But if Clarine could lay it down like that, so could I.

“I love her,” I said with raw honesty. “And I had to push her away. I did it to protect her from my father.”

Clarine looked at me like I was full of shit.

“How much do you know about my case?” I asked.

Clarine gave me a blank look.

Loretta really didn’t tell anybody.

“Do you know my last name?” I prodded.

“Rogers. Like Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, that old show?”

I didn’t know what she was talking about and I didn’t have time to ask. “No. Buck Rogers, son of Rex Rogers, former governor of Tennessee.”

I gave Clarine the Cliff’s Notes version of the investigation. My powerful father. A family secret. My goal to get my mother out from under his thumb. “It got to a point where I needed to get Loretta far away from everything. I didn’t want her to be collateral damage.”

“So you didn’t dump her?” Clarine seemed genuinely baffled.

“Why would I break up with the woman I love? It’s like I told her. I just needed time. That was all it was ever about.”

“Time is the one thing you’re running low on.” Clarine looked at her watch. “She’s at the clinic now. That’s why she’s got me here, watering her plants. If you’ve ever been to Reddy, you’ve seen the place I’m talking about. You need to stop her if you don’t want her doing something you’ll both regret.”

“What the fuckdid you just say?” Grizz’s low, disbelieving voice came through the other end of my phone. I would have rolled my eyes if I hadn’t needed them for driving. I’d never driven my truck like a service rig. Lucky for the other motorists, I was formally trained in pushing my way through intersections and bobbing and weaving through traffic. What I had to do now felt more urgent to me than getting to an actual fire.

“I need you to take me to the nut hut,” I repeated. That’s how Tennessee’s most notorious sperm bank was known among us guys. I’d never actually been there, but I’d seen the ads. The place even had a sales guy that dropped off brochures at every house I’d ever worked in. They paid extra for fireman spunk.

“Weeks, you put him up to this?” Grizz wasn’t talking to me now, but to Dan, on the other end of the phone. I strained to hear Dan’s muffled reply. Grizz kept talking. “He wants me to take him to the spank bank.” Grizz continued to demand that whoever was behind this give up the ruse. When no one copped to it, his voice came through louder, and I knew he was talking to me again. “Come on, is this some kind of joke?”

After leaving home, I’d driven in the general direction of Reddy, and punched Need for Seed into my navigator app. Traffic was slow, which didn’t bode well for my mission. It would take a lot longer than an hour, which would mean I couldn’t make it on time.

Unless I had help.

Specifically, a rig with a siren, which could cut the drive to Reddy in half. It would be a complete misuse of department resources, even if we didn’t take anyone off the schedule to assist. Since I was completely off duty, coming in and taking a rig would be an egregious breach of protocol. But asking someone who was about to come off shift not to clock out to help with a special project...now that was a gray area.

“This is not a joke,” I repeated, taking the turn into the parking lot of Green Valley Fire Department and parking sloppily. I hung up my phone, then ran into the building to find Grizz. He stood outside of the locker room with a large handful of firefighters who were collectively speculating on what might be going on. Before I reached them, I spoke loudly enough to drown out all their voices. I needed them to believe me, and I needed them to believe me now.

“I need to get to the sperm bank. I need to get there fast. And I need one of you assholes who’s coming off duty to take me. I can explain, but right now, we need to go.”

“Is that an order, Lieutenant?” Dewey asked with a small snicker.

His question reminded me that some of the men who stood here were my direct reports. “No. This is related to a personal matter. You’re under no obligation whatsoever to help.”

“And I should mention that, whatever the hell this is, you are under no obligation to let Lieutenant Rogers ever live it down.” Grizz looked around the room with a wicked gleam in his eye after making his last proclamation. He raised his own hand first before asking, “So...who’s in?”

Two minutes later, six firefighters were crammed into an engine truck—much larger than I needed, but a lot of guys had wanted to come. Grizz, Dan, Huey, Dewey, Sebastian, and Jed had all piled in. Dan had insisted on driving and I joined him up front.

I can’t let her do this alone.

I’d left her alone for long enough. I had to go to her—to let her know I was here. And, before she made a decision this big—a life-altering family-planning decision—I needed her to know she had options.

I’d tried to convey the gravity of the situation to the guys without compromising Loretta’s privacy. I hadn’t even spoken her name. I’d spun an outlandish tale about needing to make an emergency donation. It was a stupid-as-hell reason, but not stupider than Grizz’s eagerness to pile onto whatever this was. The guys in the back cracked jokes, taking new names for the Need for Seed Cryobank too far.

Still, my plan was working. We cut through traffic like a hot knife through butter, and made it to Reddy faster than I’d hoped. I didn’t need to stop and notice how the building itself looked like a giant phallus. The guys in the back laughed their heads off enough for us all. Seconds before go-time, I convinced the others to sober and do one simple thing: get us inside.

In true firefighter fashion, we parked haphazardly against the red-painted curb, walked calmly into the building, and looked official. Only half of us had on our Class Bs. We’d decided Grizz should do the talking, partially because he was among those in uniform, but mostly because he knew how to turn on the charm.

None of us was surprised to be led to a waiting room full of women. From the overt staring and dropped jaws, they sure were surprised to see us.

“Afternoon, darlin’.” Grizz sidled up to the check-in desk and leaned his hip against the counter.

A wide-eyed receptionist stood, her eyes sliding over us one by one before snapping back to Grizz. “May I help you?”

Grizz was doing a thing I’d seen him do with half a dozen women, at bars. He kept his eyes fixed on her, like she was the only person in the room. When he spoke again, he leaned in a little more.

“Me and my friends here, we heard about your fine clinic through one of your representatives. We were hoping you’d give us a tour. You think something like that could be arranged?”

She blinked, seeming dazed, before stammering out an answer. “We don’t—I mean, we do give tours, but not usually on a walk-in basis. Most prospective donors fill out an online questionnaire, and book tours by appointment.”

Grizz frowned a bit theatrically. “Well, that’s not how your rep made it sound. He gave the impression that y’all were really looking for firefighters—that men who fit our profile were in high demand. I convinced my friends here to come all the way from Green Valley to have a look. It’d be a shame to turn us away.”

Before the receptionist could respond, someone from the waiting room spoke. “I think you should let ’em in.”

Another waiting woman piped up with more indignance. “If fine men like these want to donate, I don’t think you ought to stop them.”

“Emphasis on fine,” someone else said under their breath.

Heads nodded all around and Grizz grinned at the receptionist in a way that told her she’d been beaten.

“You look like you have backup.” Grizz jutted his chin toward the two other receptionists who stood behind the counter, also wide-eyed as they took in the interaction. “What do you say you show us around, kill seven birds with one stone?”

“If you don’t have time to take them, I do,” one of her two co-workers spoke up.

That was all it took for the first one to relent. She agreed to personally give us a tour without further ado.

Seconds later, she was ushering us through a door that led to the bowels of the operation. As we exited the waiting room, someone called, “Thank you for your service!”As all this was unfolding, I’d kept an anxious eye on my watch. It was 4:03 p.m. Loretta’s scheduled appointment time had been 3:30, according to Clarine. What I had going for me was the hope that nothing substantial could happen within thirty-three minutes. What I didn’t have going for me was that I had no idea where she was.

I tuned out what the receptionist was saying the second she dove into her spiel. It was obvious she wasn’t accustomed to giving tours. It bode well for my mission. An inexperienced tour guide wouldn’t notice if I fell away. I almost gave her the slip seconds before we approached an area that was unironically labeled as The Man Cave. But she held the door, waiting for all of us to pass through.

“Holy shit.” Grizz broke character and sounded genuinely surprised.

The Man Cave was true to its name, a space that looked nothing like a medical office or cryostorage facility. It looked like a cross between a sports bar and a gentleman’s club. Its reception area had leather couches and an enormous flat-screen television that had on ESPN. A kitchen area had a fancy coffee maker, one of those bright-screened soda machines, and a mini-sandwich and dessert buffet.

“When our men come in to give samples, we like them to relax. The average stay is about two hours. We encourage our donors to sit back and unwind. For some men, that means watching television. For others, that means taking advantage of our spa-like amenities.”

She led us down a dim hallway to continue our tour.

“Through here is our locker room, for any man who would prefer to wear a robe. We have soaking pools this way, at temperatures that don’t compromise the production of sperm. This is our Himalayan salt relaxation room.”

“What does salt do?” Huey wanted to know. Suddenly, all the men seemed rapt with attention. All of them except for me.

I debated the merit of slipping through an unmarked door. Would it shortcut me to a different part of the building, or trap me in a utility closet? We had just turned a corner. I could head back toward the locker room. I was actively backing away when a ruckus erupted from the front of the group.

“Holy shit...Louie?” Dewey’s voice pitched high and incredulous, and far too loud for this tranquil space.

My gaze darted forward, and to the utter shock of us all, there was my tormentor, looking like a deer in the headlights as he stood with a specimen cup in his hand, wearing nothing more than flip-flops and a robe.

If he’d had any color to begin with, it would’ve drained from his face. He looked ashen in the dim light, horrified and scandalized by all that was transpiring.

“Guys? What are y’all doing here?”

The astonished silence lasted only another beat before laughter and mockery began. I couldn’t have dreamed up a better diversion.

It’s now or never.

Unnoticed in all the chaos, I turned and walked away, tracking back the way I came, exiting The Man Cave and walking past cryostorage. Loretta had to be somewhere deeper in. I hoped to God I could think of a way to find her room. The last thing I wanted to have to do was knock on doors.

I passed by an open space full of chairs and tablet bays, unable to fathom what purpose it might serve. By my estimation, I’d already been two-thirds of the way around the circle, which had to mean I was zeroing in.

I was relieved to come upon what looked like more of a standard medical office, and expressly unrelieved to find yet another reception desk. It left me only one choice.

“Hi, I’m here for Loretta Boggs,” I told the receptionist. “I’m her husband, Buck.”