Chapter 2
2
K aelie sat on the front step of her new home, feeling a sense of pride that only ownership could bring, but even that couldn’t change the fact that today was the anniversary of the single most painful event in her life.
She glanced at her phone, which she’d set on the wood plank. The porch needed a fresh coat of paint, and she would enjoy doing all those chores and fix-it-up projects that came with finally being in one place. Gunner Reed had always told her she had a restless soul. He constantly suggested that she consider settling down. Maybe stay at one fire department. One location. One job for more than a year or two.
Sometimes that thought was appealing.
Her only fear was that she’d get bored. Of course, right now, she had the sexy firefighter across the street to keep her eyes occupied. He waved as he jogged across the street.
“Hey, I’ve got some bad news,” Buddy said, stopping at the base of the porch.
She tipped her head, staring into those dark eyes that reminded her of the finest warm dark chocolate drizzled over ice cream. “What’s that?”
“I’ve been called in for an overnight shift, so dinner and drinks will have to happen another night.”
“It was drinks, and you know where I live.” She flicked her hair over her shoulder. It was a blatant sexual move, and she had no idea why she’d done it. She had very few rules about her sex and dating life. But the one that she never broke was sleeping with anyone she might have to work with.
Considering that she had taken a job with the Jacksonville Fire Department, there was a pretty good chance their paths might cross outside of being neighbors.
“It will be more than drinks because I cook the best steaks in town.”
“And if I’m a vegetarian?” Someone needed to sew her mouth closed, giving her brain a chance to think through the things that she said.
“Then I make a mean veggie platter.” He winked.
“For the record, I enjoy a good piece of meat.” Shit. She really needed to keep flirting to a minimum.
His eyes went wide.
“Your mind just went straight to the gutter, didn’t it?” She really needed to shut the fuck up. This banter was the kind of shit that got her into trouble.
“Who? Me? Never. But now that you sent my mind there, I’ll remember what you like.”
She waggled her finger in his direction. “I think we need to dial this conversation down a notch. I don’t even know you.”
“I plan on getting to know you,” he said with a smile. “I gotta run, but if you need any help with the move, come knock on my door. Just don’t ask my roommate; he’s helpless.”
She laughed. “Are you cockblocking your buddy?”
“I’m Buddy. I wouldn’t do that to myself.” He smiled. “Duncan, on the other hand, absolutely.”
“If we’re going to be neighbors and occasionally have a drink, you should be forewarned, I say exactly what I think, when I think it.”
“I had already figured that out. My sister’s pretty blunt. She’s a firefighter, like me, and working with a bunch of assholes, she’s had no choice but to be quick-witted.” He leaned forward, stretching out his arms, resting his hands on the step on either side of her hips.
She cocked her head to the side as he invaded her personal space.
Oddly, she didn’t mind.
“And since we’re being forthright with each other, unless you flat-out tell me to bug off, I’m going to stop by next time I see your car in the driveway with a bottle of wine and a huge steak.” He pushed off the steps, turned on his heel, and strolled across the street as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He hopped into his pickup truck. Another man, who she assumed was his roommate, slid into the passenger seat.
She fanned herself after the truck took the corner and disappeared onto the main road. Buddy had sent her heart into a tailspin, and that didn’t happen often.
“Christ, that is one sexy man,” she mumbled. He wasn’t quiet six feet, and he wasn’t overly broad, but he was solid, with well-defined muscles. He had that All-American boy-next-door look, with a dash of badass.
Pushing him out of her thoughts, she sipped her diet soda, waiting for the clock to tick to eleven in the morning.
Thirty-two seconds.
Gunner never failed.
And like clockwork, his name appeared on her phone.
“Good morning,” she said with a smile, trying to ignore the tightness in her chest. It had been eleven in the morning on this date twenty-five years ago when the police told her and her father that her sister had been found dead. It had been hard to pinpoint the exact time of death since Amy’s body had been so badly decomposed, so Kaelie used this day as the anniversary of Amy’s death.
A year later, her father committed suicide, leaving a young child to be raised by her grandmother.
And now she was gone.
Tears stung her eyes. She’d chosen this day to move into her new house, hoping it would ease the ache in her heart. Amy had been seventeen when she’d been murdered and ten years older than Kaelie. The gap in their age didn’t create a distance in their relationship. However, it felt like Amy had been more of a mother than a sister, considering their mother had died from breast cancer when Kaelie was fifteen months old.
She didn’t remember her mother, but her sister—she could still smell the coconut of her shampoo and feel her loving arms wrapped around Kaelie like a protective blanket. Even her wonderful grandmother couldn’t recreate that sensation.
Her sister would be proud of what Kaelie had done with her life, and hopefully, Amy and their dad were in heaven, staring down at Kaelie. Over the years, she’d reconciled with herself that Amy had needed her dad up there more than Kaelie needed him here with her.
“Are you settled in?” Gunner asked. She’d met Gunner the year he’d brought his own sister’s killer to justice.
The same man who took Amy.
Kaelie had wanted to thank him and never expected the kind of kinship they had developed over the last six years.
“Still waiting for the truck with what little shit I have.”
Gunner laughed. “Trust me, you’ll start collecting crap quickly.”
“How are Faith and Jessie?” Kaelie had met Gunner’s family a couple of times. Truly a blessed man.
“Great. Jessie is talking up a storm. She’s turned this man into a pile of mush. Even has me playing Pretty Pretty Princess, not caring that Faith is taking pictures with me sporting blue clip-on earrings.”
“I’d pay good money to see that.”
“Never gonna happen,” Gunner said.
As always, a short silence filled the airwaves when they talked of family. They belonged to a club that no one wanted, and the price of admission was too painful to comprehend.
Unless you lived it.
Then it haunted your every breath.
“Don’t forget, I know a few men in the area. You should look up Arthur Knight. He’s ex-Air Force. He and his wife are good people. He served with Rex Jordan and Kent Carter. I know Rex but have only met Kent a few times. They are all local firefighters and also work for an organization called the Aegis Network. I’d reach out to Timothy White there. Good guy. Great resource if you need them for anything.”
“You’ve given me all their contact information more than once, and after I get settled, I’ll reach out.”
“I’m sure they will stop by your office when they can if you don’t. Arthur informed me you’re in the same county, so you’ll be working together at some point.” In the last few years, Gunner had become her only family, and she appreciated everything he did for her, but sometimes, she just needed to sink into a quiet space. “What about Buddy West? Do you know him?”
“Yeah. I met him at Arthur’s wedding and again when I went out there to visit. He’s good buddies with Duncan Booker. I believe they are roommates now.”
“As in the son of JAG Officer Ashton Booker?” The only reason she knew Corporal Booker was because when she’d been in the Air Force, she’d been called to testify in a case where he’d been the defendant’s attorney. Smart man and scary, too. The cross of her testimony had been more frightening than the first time someone fired a machine gun in her general vicinity.
“That’s the one,” Gunner said. “I know Buddy is single. Duncan is now too.”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t you dare try to set me up.” She’d never tell Gunner that she had every intention of knocking on Buddy’s door, if only to get another look. However, relationships weren’t her thing. Not because she didn’t like men, or the company of men, but every boyfriend she ever had told her she was emotionally unreachable. The last one would always try to get her to talk more. What the hell was wrong with silence? Why did everyone want to fill it with small talk and stupid shit?
“Having a boyfriend might be a good thing,” Gunner said with a slight laugh. “Now that you’ve gotten that death wish mentality out of your system and took a stable job, maybe it’s time.”
“You call being an internal investigator with the local fire department a stable job?”
“Hell, yes,” Gunner said.
A moving truck turned down the street. “I’ve gotta run. Talk soon, okay?”
“Let me know if you want a visitor. I’ll be on the next plane.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it. Hug Jessie for me.”
“Will do.”
With that, the phone went dead.
Kaelie stood, waving to the driver. It was time to start the next chapter in her life.