Chapter 10
Ten
While Annie had warned her mom not to ask about the firefighter dating ads, she had failed to anticipate her mom seeing Miles as a free handyman to use at her will.
The glares Annie shot at her had no effect. She would have a talk with her later. There was absolutely no way she’d allow Miles to fix anything else in their house.
Annie was enough of a charity case. It was embarrassing. She didn’t want Miles to know all the broken things they lived with— the doors that didn’t close all the way, the ancient appliances that didn’t work.
She still had some pride. There was a dash of vanity in her, and she wouldn’t let the handsome firefighter from down the street think less of her, if that was even possible.
Annie and Bella wrangled the twins into their highchairs for dinner.
Her mom moved steadily to the table and took a seat, but it was obvious she couldn’t have lifted Leon or Noel, or done the task of strapping them in.
It would be weeks, if not months, before she could safely pick up the twins, or be left alone to watch them.
The realization sat heavily on Annie’s chest. It would be hard to keep her mom from getting involved, too, hurting herself further. The whole thing was a mess of her own creation. If only she’d –
“So, Bella,” Clara said, sitting back in her seat, “I saw those pictures you put up of your dad. How’d you get his head onto that body?”
Annie nearly dropped a plate of buns.
“Mom!” Annie hissed.
Clara put up her hands, palms out, as she shrugged. “What? It looked very real.”
“It was real, ” Bella said, a devilish smile on her face. “Those are actual pictures of my dad.”
“Oh! I thought you had done something on the computer,” Clara said. The corners of her mouth curved down and she nodded approvingly. “Very impressive.”
Annie didn’t know what to do. Her cheeks burned red, her head felt hot, and she couldn’t come up with any words to say.
She did the only thing she could think of: she walked back into the kitchen.
Unfortunately, she could still hear what they were talking about.
“Do you often take glamour shots, lying on the fire truck like that?” Clara asked, her voice crackling with laughter.
Annie shut her eyes. If only she could disappear into the kitchen cupboards, or into a dark hole somewhere, and never emerge.
The shame was too heavy, hanging around her neck like an anvil. He was going to know that she’d shown her mom those pictures. He was going to think she was a silly schoolgirl, fawning over him.
Then she heard Miles’ laughter.
“No, I do not often lay on the fire truck and take glamour shots.”
“You should,” Clara said promptly. “You have a knack for it, not to mention the physique.”
Annie spun around, daggers coming from her eyes, but no one was looking at her, especially not her mom.
Miles shook his head, rubbing his face in his hand. “It’s not a hobby of mine. I did it for the department. We needed to fundraise to repair one of our fire engines. I got talked into doing a firefighter calendar. They promised me no one on the island would ever see the pictures.”
Bella snorted a laugh. “And you believed them, Dad? Don’t you know pictures on the internet are forever?”
He sighed. “I do now.”
Annie walked back into the room, her spine straightened. “Leave him alone, Mom,” she said sternly. Then, to Miles, “I’m sorry. You don’t have to talk about this.”
Miles’ eyes met hers. He held her stare for a moment, a smile dancing on his face. “It’s okay. It was my own foolishness that got me into this situation, though Bella put a fun twist on it.”
He looked at Bella, and she grinned, picking up her sloppy joe and taking a big bite.
“How much did it get you?” asked Clara. “Did you at least get enough money to fix the fire engine?”
He shook his head. “Not even close. The price for replacement parts has skyrocketed.”
“Can you get a replacement truck, then?” Annie asked.
“That’s even worse. There’s a five-year lead time, and the price has gone from $300,000 a few years ago to a cool million dollars today. Ladder trucks are two million now.”
Annie gasped. “How can that be?”
“Lots of reasons. There’s a private equity company who decided it’d be a good idea to buy up all the suppliers. Once they owned most of it, they increased the prices.”
“That’s just un-American,” Clara said, shaking her head. “Gouging firemen across the country! For heaven’s sake.”
“Un-American, and possibly monopolistic. We have a case filed by the local prosecuting attorney to sue them for anti-competitive practices.”
Annie chanced another look at him. “That’s promising.”
He nodded. “It is.”
“You still don’t have a fire engine that works, though,” Bella said. “And since I’m so skilled with digital marketing and advertisement, you should let me fundraise for you.”
“Not a chance,” he said with a grin. “I’m not going to risk seeing my face splashed across the ferries again.”
He picked up his sloppy joe, the bun looking comically small in his large hands, and took a bite.
“Annie, this is quite literally the best sloppy joe I’ve ever had. And these buns.”
The redness that had finally receded from her face threatened to return. “Brioche buns. They’re key. If you like the recipe, I can send it to you. It’s really easy to make.”
“Yeah, Dad, get it,” Bella said. “This needs to be on our evening rotation.”
Miles pulled his phone from his pocket. “Do you mind, Annie?”
Butterflies took off in her stomach. He wanted her number. Just for a recipe, but still. No one had asked for her number in decades. Certainly not a cute firefighter.
It was silly to be excited, but she was going to hang on to this feeling, if only for a little while.
She cleared her throat. “Sure,” she said, rattling off her number.
They finished dinner without further incident, and Bella and Miles stayed afterwards to help clean up, despite Annie’s protests.
They didn’t have a dishwasher, but Miles had worked in a restaurant in his younger years and was surprisingly efficient. Bella was like a trained busser, clearing the table, drying the dishes, and then putting them away.
“We need to hire you two on full time,” Clara said.
Annie let the comment go. Her nagging had no effect, the twins needed their baths, and her mom needed to relax whether she wanted to admit it or not.
Annie refused Bella’s offer to help with the kids, thanked her again, and slipped her some cash for her time.
“Thank you so much,” she beamed. “I’ll put this right into the Babysitters Club fund.”
Miles eyed her warily. “How much are you charging? I think we need to talk fair rates.”
Annie smiled. “It was more than fair. She’s a huge help.”
Bella beamed. “I’d probably do it for free, but that wouldn’t be very good business practice for the Babysitters Club.”
Annie nodded solemnly. “It wouldn’t be.”
Bella disappeared through the door, and Miles lingered for a moment, his tall figure looming against the dark evening sky.
“Thanks for taking her on,” he said.
“It’s my pleasure. Honestly, I love having her around.”
He paused, his gaze so intent that it set the butterflies off again.
“We both love being around,” he said, his voice low and husky.
Annie gaped at him, blinking. He was so close, leaning in, it seemed like he was going to hug her goodbye.
Or kiss her.
No, that was absurd.
Still, the thought of it rendered her speechless. “Oh,” she finally managed to choke out.
He flashed a smile and nodded a goodbye before ducking out of the doorway.
That night, as she lay in bed next to her snoring mother, Annie saw that smile every time she closed her eyes. He was the hunky firefighter calendar come to life, his sultry gaze, his deep, quiet voice.
We both love being around.
What did he mean by that? Was it the sloppy joes? It couldn’t be. They weren’t that good.
It had to be about Bella. Miles lit up when she was nearby, or when he talked about her.
Even when Bella made snippy comments at him, he didn’t flinch.
He was her biggest fan. He was proud of her new babysitting endeavor, as he should be.
She was an incredibly fast learner, and she kept a great attitude.
Annie wasn’t going to let herself think it had anything to do with her. To Bella’s dismay, Miles wasn’t interested in dating, and he surely wasn’t interested in Annie.
It was time to embrace her new reality. Annie was at her absolute lowest point. She thought making the decision to end things with Roy would be bottom, or the long divorce process, but no. Those were just the steps to where she was now – a dark, cold, rock bottom.
Living with her mother, barely able to pay her bills, scouring for hand-me-down clothes for the kids, all while Roy lived his life essentially unchanged.
The thought of him flared her temper, heat flickering in her chest – but she wasn’t going to focus on that. Bitterness didn’t get her anywhere. It only grew more bitterness, and she didn’t need any more negativity.
It was silly for her to entertain the idea that Miles might be interested in her.
Not only because he was a muscular, square-jawed Greek god of a hero firefighter, but because she was not in the place to entertain a romance.
She probably never would be, just like her jeans would never fit again.
She’d perpetually have yogurt in her hair, and she’d always live in this little house with her mom.
Still. That night, she could think only of him, and as she sat at work the next day, the absurdity of their fire department being out a firetruck was stuck in her mind.
She got an idea, and there was only one person to call with an idea.
“Good morning!” Margie’s voice chirped over the phone, “How are you, Annie?”
“I’m good. How are you?”
“Very good.”
Annie cleared her throat. “Listen, I wanted to talk to you about something. I heard about the fire department needing to raise money to fix the fire engine.”
“Yes, Hank talks about it all the time. It’s a real problem for the community.”
Annie took a deep breath. “What if we held a fundraiser? A gala at Saltwater Cove? We could do it before your busy season starts up again, and…”
Margie squealed, “That’s a wonderful idea. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it. I’ve been so busy with weddings, but yes, absolutely!”
“I want to help plan it,” Annie said firmly.
Margie was quiet for a moment. “Sure, but honey, you have a lot on your plate.”
“I do, but…” Annie had to take the blob of thoughts she’d been chewing over and force them into words.
It was no easy task for an overtired mind, one she was sure would never sleep through the night again.
“I don’t want to be excluded from life. I feel isolated enough as it is. I need to give back somehow.”
That was the most she could croak out. She didn’t know if it made sense, or if it justified the depth of her feelings, but there it was. Out in the open.
“Of course, I won’t exclude you!” Margie said. “I understand. Believe me, I understand.”
Warmth flooded her chest. “You do?”
“Better than you know.” Margie cleared her throat. “Okay, I have some contacts and I can start getting some things together. Maybe we can meet up this week to discuss it? Bella can watch the kids, maybe with your mom?”
Bella can watch the kids. It was that easy. She lived just down the street, so she could pop in to help.
Annie felt the skies above her clearing. She would be able to leave the house without worrying about the kids and her mom becoming grievously injured. She could have time to something – anything. Maybe even a haircut!
A weight lifted off Annie’s chest. “I would love that.”
“Lovely! I’ll be in touch!”
Annie ended the call, her chest buoyant and light.