Chapter 5
CADDO
Going back and forth between the house that Seaton was renting and his own was a little bit of a mind bender.
Her house had the exact same structure except it was reversed, a kind of mirror world. When he'd taken her back home after their lunch at the diner, he'd nearly walked into the wall that defined the entry way.
It gave Seaton a little laugh.
She'd tried to apologize for laughing, but he'd headed her off at the pass.
She didn't have to apologize. Hell, he'd been laughing at himself anyway.
It's not every day that you nearly walk into a wall because you expected the wall to be on the other side of you. Muscle memory wasn’t always a help.
Now, there was a chance that during dinner, she might walk in the opposite direction of the bathroom if she had to use it.
Sam looked up at the clock on the wall when he heard a car pulling into his driveway.
"Right on time."
He took the tray of buttered bread and put it in the oven.
Washing his hands, he walked out front and saw that Lincoln had arrived and he'd come with a woman.
Sam stepped down from the porch and walked over to greet his friend. "Abe! You're right on time."
Lincoln looked at the woman he'd helped out of the car and rolled his eyes. "I told you."
Laughing, the woman beside him gave him a smack on his arm. "You're always right, Lincoln. Now, hurry up and move, or get the dishes out of the back."
Sam saw the way that Lincoln gave the woman a little bow as if he was trying to be a gentleman, but her reaction lightened the mood.
With a groan she walked around him and bumped his butt with her hip, sending him lurching forward half a step.
When Lincoln asked if he could bring a friend, Sam was happy to say yes.
He wanted to give Seaton a chance to see who he was, not just the two of them together, but who he was on a daily basis.
He also didn’t want her to be outnumbered.
He had a feeling that a situation like that would be a bad idea.
That and on their drive back to their homes, she'd admitted that she was a little hesitant about dinner at his house.
He understood.
Eating together at the diner was different than the two of them alone.
Even with the addition of Lincoln, he could understand why she was a little nervous.
Two men. One she barely knew.
The other, she'd met his father, but even that was different.
And he was already aware that there was something of a shadow in her life before she came to his neighborhood. May had already clued him into it.
Not the full situation but a general direction of it.
So adding another woman was a good idea, so he would have to thank Lincoln later, likely at the firehouse. Seaton didn't need to know how they were trying to make her feel better, easier with them.
If they said it that would likely have the opposite effect.
She might pull back and he didn't want that.
He wouldn't stop her from feeling a certain way.
He didn't have that ability. What he had was a quiet need to give her a person she would lean on.
He wanted to be someone she could count on.
Not the only one.
Seaton deserved a whole community protecting her and giving her a space to be...
To be herself.
He was still learning more about her, but he saw the moments when she didn't just hold back, but the moments when she pulled herself back in. Like she was afraid she'd said too much. Or done too much.
Her instinct was to check in with the people around her.
To make sure that she hadn't stepped over a line.
Or on someone's toes.
She seemed, in those moments, just so careful.
Lincoln walked up, almost a half-step ahead and then behind his friend.
He was trying to take one of the bags she was carrying, but she was having none of it.
She laughed and teased and Sam couldn't see a single moment when she was cautious.
He wanted that for Seaton, but he knew it wasn't going to happen over a dinner or a meal in the diner.
It was going to take time, and he had time to give.
It was also going to take Seaton wanting to step out of the shell she had around her.
That, he knew, was all going to be her decision about yes or no.
Her decision not just to step out but keep moving out of that protection.
"Sam?"
Startled, he looked toward her voice and saw her standing on the sidewalk under the warm light from the streetlamp. She had her arms wrapped around herself as if the light sweater she was wearing wasn't enough to keep her warm.
"Hey, Seaton. Thanks for coming."
He didn't wait for her to move, he crossed across the grass to meet her on the sidewalk.
He didn't expect her to close the distance.
Not yet.
And he was more than willing to do that work.
He stopped just a few inches short of her, his shoulders rising and falling with his breath. "I guess you can see that Lincoln is here."
She leaned forward a little and looked at the porch.
When she leaned back over her own feet, he could see just a hint of tension in her face.
"He asked if he could bring a friend and I thought he might bring one of the guys from Station Seven, but he brought a woman."
He heard the lift in his own voice.
"I've never met her before."
"No?" Seaton's eyes widened and she leaned in toward him. "So you're meeting her for the first time?"
He thought he could hear her unspoken words. 'Like me?'
"Yeah, I'm really curious. Wait until the guys on shift hear about this."
Seaton reached out and touched his arm. "Maybe he doesn't want everyone to know?"
Sam acted on impulse.
He wrapped his arms around her in a hug and laughed out loud, full throated enough that the crickets went silent.
"Firefighters," he half whispered in her ear, "are big gossipers. The only ones who gossip more are the police."
He stepped back, his shoulders still shaking with laughter.
Then he realized that he'd just pulled her into a hug without thinking.
Panic almost set in, but he gave her a look out of the corner of his eyes and saw that she looked a little stunned, but she didn't look fearful.
When her lips curved up in a bemused smile, he let out a breath.
He held out his hand toward her. "Come on. Let's go meet Lincoln's friend."
Seaton nodded and took a step forward.
For a moment he thought she'd walk right past him, avoiding his hand, and he would have been fine with that.
Right before she was shoulder to shoulder with him, she lifted her hand and her fingers glanced across his palm.
He caught at her fingers and managed to grasp them, but not her hand.
As they moved up the walkway toward his porch, their hands relaxed and their fingers folded together.
Sam looked up at the porch where Lincoln and his friend were trying not to look like they were watching.
Trying and failing.
"You know," he called out, "the door is unlocked."
Lincoln stood up straighter and gave him a look that was part indignation and part confusion.
Lincoln’s friend bumped his arm with her own. "I told you to try the knob."
"I'm not going to hear the end of this, am I?"
"Nope!" She readjusted the tray in her arms while Lincoln opened the door and held it open for her to walk in.
They were both the same height, but Lincoln’s body was thicker because of his muscles, so she had to duck a little under his arm while he leaned out of the way.
Sam turned his head for a second as they walked up the steps and he saw her looking ahead into the house, smiling ear to ear.
This, he knew, was going to be a good night.
SEATON
"So you've known Lincoln since High School?"
Zharia, Lincoln's friend, nodded and leaned into the table cupping her hand beside her mouth. "He was a senior and I was a freshman."
Lincoln sighed. "You make it sound like I was some kind of gross old man."
Zharia sat back and touched his arm in a soothing gesture. "Lincoln," she shook her head, "you've always been a little old man." She rushed on. "But that's not a bad thing. I just meant that you were... mature for your age."
MATURE, he mouthed the word and slumped over the arm of his chair. "Hand me a cane."
Lincoln jumped up in the chair a moment later and Seaton barely smothered a laugh behind her hand when she saw that Zharia had poked him in the side. Well, poked or pinched, she hadn't seen it happen, just his reaction and her smile.
Seaton struggled to tamp down her laughter, but beside her, Sam wasn't holding it back, he just managed to keep it quiet.
Leaning in a little more, Seaton asked them, "How did you meet each other?"
The two turned toward each other as if they were connected with a string.
A whole conversation happened between them using just their facial features and it seemed that they decided to let Zharia start the story without a single word being spoken.
"I was in the Junior Varsity Cheer Squad and Lincoln was in the Varsity Cheer Squad."
Seaton's eyes widened at that. "I couldn't even do a cartwheel."
Zharia gave her a wink. "I can teach you."
Seaton sat back and held up her hands in front of her. "No. You might end up getting hurt. The only thing I could do passably well when I was in school was square dancing."
She almost sank into herself after she said the words, but she felt Sam's hand on her back just over the top of the chair.
With his reassuring touch there, she straightened her back, looking up and across the table.
She heard Sam beside her.
"We did that during P.E. If they'd given us a grade on it, I would have failed."
Seaton turned in her seat and pulled a piece of her garlic bread off from the whole slice she was holding. "I find that hard to believe. You're athletic."
Lincoln coughed and Zharia had to pat him on the back.
Seaton saw Sam look across the table at his friend.
Sam grinned, showing his teeth. "Laugh it up, Lincoln."
Lincoln shook his head. "I was just going to speak, and I started to choke on the bite I had in my mouth."
"It better not be my enchiladas," Zharia gave him a pointed look.
Lincoln started to laugh and almost choked again.