Chapter Eight
GRAHAM
“Please,” Allie said, the pleading look in her eyes not doing me any favors.
It was on the tip of my tongue to say no, but my daughter didn’t give up easily. Before I could even reply, she pressed, “Maddie said I could. I just want to do something.” She threw her hands up. “And she has a dog. You said he was really friendly too.”
I silently swore. I had, in fact, told Allie Madison’s dog, Wilbur, was friendly. He was. He was a happy smile incarnated in canine form.
“Fine. You can go. I need you to check with her before you startle her by showing up unannounced.”
That earned me a hard eye roll. Allie slipped her phone out of her pocket, promptly pulling up a number and sending a text. “Can you give me her number? I’d like to have it in my phone if you’re going over.”
Okay, that was a completely reasonable request. But it was also a convenient excuse to get Madison’s number.
My daughter’s eyes swung up to mine. “She didn’t give me permission to give you her number,” she offered pointedly.
I gave her a skeptical look. “Allie, you’re my daughter and you’re going over to someone’s home. It’s a standard expectation that I have the phone number. I’m not really worried about what Madison might think about that.”
“Why do you call her Madison?” Allie asked when she handed me her phone.
I pulled up her contacts and texted Madison’s number to myself. “That’s how she originally introduced herself to me. I know she told you that some people call her Maddie, but until she tells me otherwise, I’ll keep calling her Madison.”
Allie blinked at me. “I’m sad Harold died, but I’m excited to have a new neighbor. He wasn’t here that much anyway. Maybe she can paint nails with me.”
I didn’t completely get it, but Allie really wanted someone to paint her nails with her.
I’d offered, but she didn’t take me up on it except for once.
She had already snatched her phone back from me and was skipping down the hallway, sliding on her socks halfway down to stop precisely in front of her door.
She’d perfected that distance years ago.
She wasn’t looking my way, so she missed my reflexive scowl.
I wished I was surprised her mother had canceled another visit with her, but it was expected. I was more surprised when her mother stuck to a plan.
Talk about listening to the wrong head back when I was a senior in high school.
Allie’s mom was the homecoming queen, and all I’d wanted was her.
I was no asshole, but my hormones led the way.
It was hard to fathom a more abrupt reality check than Allie’s mom getting pregnant the last month of our senior year.
To this day, I still didn’t know the whole truth.
I’d honestly wondered for years if she’d thought having a baby was a quick shortcut to tying me down.
But then, she’d skipped town. Babies were a lot of work. I’d lived that truth deeply. After Allie’s first month in the world, I’d handled raising Allie with a lot of help from my parents. Thank God for them.
I’d worked at the grocery store job that I’d started in high school.
I’d volunteered for the fire department on the side in high school, and that got me into training.
I’d been on the town firefighter crew for years here.
I hadn’t had the time to do the training to become a hotshot firefighter until I got Allie to the other side of elementary school.
She was now in her freshman year of high school, and I still didn’t know how I felt about that.
She’d always loved sports. Every fall, she ran cross-country.
In the winter, she played basketball, and then come spring, she played softball.
It was busy. I was grateful because she didn’t mind my new schedule not hewing so closely to her school schedule.
My parents helped out when I was out in the backcountry fighting fires.
I had misgivings about Allie getting close to Madison, but then, I knew it would be weird if I tried to prevent it.
Willow Brook was a small town, and Allie was accustomed to being friendly with the neighbors.
So was I. We counted on each other. If I singled Madison out as someone she couldn’t be friendly with, well, that would make her more curious than I cared to contemplate.
I couldn’t exactly say to my daughter that I was hesitant because I wanted Madison for all the wrong reasons. Our kiss was tattooed into every cell of my body. The memory of the feel and scent of Madison conjured fiery jolts throughout my body.
“She said yes!” Allie called a minute later as she came skipping out of her room. “I’ll go over after school.”
“Okay. Sounds like a plan. You can call if you need anything when you’re there.”
“I’ll text you, Dad,” she said, her tone exasperated. She frequently reminded me of how slow I was on the uptake when it came to technology. She was not a fan of phone calls.
I was relieved she was in a cheerful mood.
Last night had been tough after her mom called.
She’d stopped crying, and we’d enjoyed dinner, but she’d been melancholy, and I knew it.
She hated when her mom canceled, but sadly, she was accustomed to it.
She was as realistic as one could be about one of their parents being mostly absent in her life.
I knew it hurt, and I hated that my little girl had to carry that ache in her heart.
Not much later, I dropped her off at school and headed in to work.
Willow Brook Fire he likes to know who’s coming into the station.”
We stopped by the office space I shared with Cade, Beck, and Ward. Levi followed me into the office and plunked down in a chair at a round table in the corner.
“You think they’re gonna have all that framing done before the snow flies?” I asked as I sat down across from him.
Levi nodded. “Oh, yeah. My girl runs a fast business with Amelia,” he said as if I had somehow been questioning that.
I rolled my eyes as I dropped my backpack on the floor and took a seat across from him. “I know that, but it’s just the two of them. Do they ever hire on extras?”
Levi ran a hand through his dark blond hair and shook his head. “They’ve tried a few times, but Lucy tells me they work well together and they’d rather do less work and do it the way they want. Most people who do construction are men, and they don’t love having two women as their bosses.”
I chuckled and took a swallow from the coffee. “Damn, that’s good. This isn’t from the office here.”
“I picked up one of the coffee boxes at Firehouse from Janet. I’d tell you to get some more, but I’m guessing it’s already gone.”
“Course it’s gone. I feel lucky Lucy told you she was busy,” I teased.
Levi gave me a lopsided grin. At that moment, Rex poked his head around the door, asking, “You guys ready?”