Chapter 1
Chapter One
I looked at my friend and shook my head. “Zarek, if the Captain caught wind of what you did out there, he’d suspend you.”
“Who’s going to tell him?” Zarek stared daggers at me.
“I’m your best friend. Actually, I’m damn near your last friend. I think you need to take it easy with the assholishness.”
“Jesus, Michael, can’t you for once lose your temper?” Zarek glowered.
“Not in my nature.” I smiled.
It wasn’t. As soon as Rick and Nancy adopted me, I’d said goodbye to my rage. Done and dusted. “Let’s get back to the chance you took out there. You scared the hell out of me.”
“It was a calculated risk. If I hadn’t shoved forward like I did, the fire was more likely to jump that path, leaving Lucy, Dave, and Max exposed.”
“They could have fallen back. They weren’t in immediate danger,” I argued. “You should have only made that move if they were in imminent danger.”
Zarek sighed. “Yeah, I know that. As soon as I did it, I knew it was a mistake.”
“It’s like you don’t give a shit if you live or die. I don’t get it.”
Zarek ran his fingers through his thick black hair. “Chloe left last week. She said she needed to get her head together.”
I winced. Zarek and Chloe were meant to be together. They’d been friends since childhood. But her second miscarriage had sideswiped her. Hell, it had hit them both like a ton of bricks, but Chloe?
“Where’d she go?” I asked.
“She’s staying at Evie and Aiden’s place since they’re in San Diego.”
“That’s out of the way.” I frowned. I knew Zarek. It would grate on his nerves that she wasn’t close to town.
He glared at me. “Thanks for pointing out the obvious. Anyway, I hear you have your own problems to deal with.”
“What?”
“Fallon’s back.”
I missed a step as we headed out to the fire station parking lot. “Excuse me?”
“Rumor was that it took her over two hours to unload everything from her fancy SUV into her parents’ house.”
“Shit, I didn’t know that Bob was doing that poorly that Isla needed help.” But come to think of it, I hadn’t seen Fallon’s parents in months.
“He must be. You know there wouldn’t be any other way they’d have Fallon living back at their place after what she did to you.”
I winced. Fallon had never had a good relationship with her parents. When Fallon and I had started dating I’d done everything in my power to smooth things over between them, but they’d cut her out of their lives after she’d cancelled the wedding and left town.
“I’ve told you, Fallon is a good woman,” I said.
“Yes, you have.” Zarek nodded and thumped my back. “And now you have your own set of problems and can stop sticking your nose in my business.”
My parents always got up early. It was their way. I had the coffee made by the time Mom came out of their bedroom. She was wearing the same robe she’d had when I’d left home.
I pushed a full mug over the counter toward her, and she nodded her thanks without looking up at me. It stung, but I knew what I was getting into when I decided to come back home.
Mom had to use two hands to pick up her mug. Her swollen, knotted knuckles from the rheumatoid arthritis looked crippling, but I knew her, she was never going to complain. Never going to ask for help. But the fact that she let me move back in told me just how bad things had gotten.
“How’s Dad?”
“I think today will be a good day,” she murmured. “He wants to get out of bed.”
Shit, didn’t that just say it all?
“What are the doctors saying?”
“It’s complicated.” Her voice was so low it was almost lost under the hum of the refrigerator. She stared down into her coffee like she would find answers to my question.
I held in a sigh of frustration. For the last few years they’d tolerated my holiday and birthday calls. They never called me or asked questions about my life, but they allowed me to wish them well. They would always tell me what was going on in Jasper Creek and they never failed to tell me something about Michael Rankin. That would be the point I’d shut down, guarding the fragile pieces of my heart.
Three weeks ago in February, on Dad’s birthday, the call was different. This time it was just him on the line, and he was whispering.
“Your mother needs you.” His voice was labored and out of breath..
My heart had jumped to my throat. “What’s wrong with Mom?”
“She’s trying to take care of me all on her own. She won’t allow nurses in, and it’s too much for her. It’s time you came home.” Now he sounded like the father I’d grown up with.
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked.
“The cancer’s come back. Worse this time. Your mom’s arthritis and constitution isn’t up to handling this on her own, but she refuses to see it. You owe it to us to help out.”
My hand trembled as I held my phone. “Dad, how sick are you?”
“I’m going to die,” he said simply. “When can you be here?”
The air rushed out of my lungs. “I-I’ll need to put my condo on the market and rearrange some things with my company. A month?”
“Not soon enough,” he snapped. “You owe your mother your help.”
He hung up and I cried for the first time in nine years.
“How is it complicated?” I probed. I kept my tone even, like I did when my software developers told me they were going to come in late on a deadline. The trick was to get them to explain things in their own way, then gently guide them toward a workable solution.
“There are too many doctors. They say different things.” Her response was quiet and she still avoided my gaze.
I turned to the refrigerator, where she always kept the bread. There was none. As a matter of fact, the contents of the fridge were dismal. I winced as I looked closer. I saw condiments and some leftovers that looked like they were from last week, at best. I turned back to my coffee on the counter.
“I haven’t had time to go shopping,” my mom snapped. It was the first time she looked at me. She looked angry.
Okay. Nothing new there.
“Would you like me to go to the store?”
“I’m more than capable of taking care of my own home. Your father should have never asked you to come.”
I took one of three overripe bananas from the fruit bowl and started to peel it. At least it was something.
“Aren’t you going to say something?” Mom was working herself up into a good-sized mad.
“Is there anything I can say to make you less angry?”
Silence stretched between us, thick and heavy.
Good to see all those management training classes had taught me something.
After I finished my banana and threw away the peel, I saw the garbage needed to be taken out. Dad had been right to have me come home.
“If you give me a list, I can go to the store.” I kept my voice soft. Kind.
“You decide. You’re going to take over, anyway,” her voice cracked.
If it had been nine years ago, my mom would’ve spun around and marched out of the kitchen, but it wasn’t nine years ago. She slowly turned and walked slow and stiff out of the kitchen, her pain obvious. I preferred it when she’d marched.
“Why didn’t you call me as soon as you arrived?” Maddie Avery said as she came up behind me in the checkout line in Roger’s supermarket. “You need a wingman.”
I spun around and just stopped from squealing. Maddie wrapped me up in a huge hug, and I started to tremble. I hadn’t seen her face in three years. Three years too long. And after some of the looks I’d gotten as I went down the cramped aisles, I needed to see her smile.
“How did you know I was here?” I whispered into her ear.
“Roger called me. He saw what was happening.”
That made me tremble even more. I’d stocked shelves here one summer, and he’d always said I was his best worker. I’d looked for him, but I hadn’t seen him. Apparently, he’d seen me. And he’d done something to help me.
“Come on, let’s get your stuff on the belt, before Amanda pops her cork.” I looked up to see the young cashier glaring at the two of us. When I looked behind us, there was nobody else in line.
“We’re not holding anybody else up,” I pointed out.
“There could be somebody coming soon. It’s busy today,” Amanda grumbled.
That was a blatant lie, and I also saw her phone by the register, logged into some kind of video app. I started to slowly take my items out of the cart. Very slowly. Maddie chuckled and didn’t help me, instead she kept talking.
“So, how’s life in the big city been treating you? Last I heard, your consulting firm was developing some architecture with coffee programmers?”
I laughed. Maddie always asked what my company was doing to be nice, but tuned out my answers. “We created architectural designs by implementing Java-based solutions when we migrated the company’s outdated systems into something more streamlined based on their business needs. That was a long project.”
“How many people did you have to hire for that project?” Maddie asked, as I put the last two items on the belt.
“At the most intense phase of the project, we had eighteen. They were a good client.” I smiled. I wished every client was as easy to work with. The one I had now required a lot of personal handholding. Coming home couldn’t have come at a worse time.
“How are Mr. and Mrs. Frosty?”
I grimaced. That had been Maddie’s nickname for my parents for years, and considering the shitty parents she had, it was amazing she had anything bad to say about anyone else's.
“They’re the same. I’m trying to gauge how sick Dad is, and Mom’s arthritis is so much worse than when I left.”
“Is she doing anything about it?”
I watched the bagger take care to gently place the eggs and bread in one bag. I swiped my card and took my receipt from Amanda. Before the bagger had put the last bag in my cart, I heard some new silly video playing.
As I left through the sliding glass doors, I waved up at the security camera and mouthed the words, ‘thank you,’ knowing Roger would eventually see that.
Maddie walked with me to my Audi SUV and helped me load up my supplies.
“So. Do you know if your mom is taking care of her arthritis?”
“I don’t know anything. I just got here three nights ago. Mom’s either freezing me out or angry as hell. She says that Dad wants to get out of bed. When I asked about his condition, she said it was complicated and too many doctors were involved. I’m hoping since Dad was the one who asked me to come home, he’ll be a little less reticent to tell me what’s going on.”
Maddie snorted. “Yeah, sure.”
“I don’t want this to be all about me. What about you? Last we talked you were dating a doctor in Nashville.”
“That didn’t work out. It took me four months to trust him enough to tell him the Avery Family saga, after that he pulled the dick move of being constantly unavailable.”
“Forcing you to break up with him, cause he had teeny-tiny balls.”
She sighed. “That about sums it up.”
“What an asshole.”
Maddie looked around the parking lot, then leaned in. “I’d ask about your dating life, but that’d be a snoozefest,” Maddie said as she rolled her eyes.
“That’s not true. I date a lot.” Even though there weren’t any cars around, I kept my voice quiet.
“Yeah. But have you gotten past second base with any of them?”
I shut the back of my SUV and turned to face my friend. “A couple.”
“Third?”
“One got to home plate two years ago,” I whispered.
“How come this is the first I’m hearing about it?” Maddie practically shouted.
“Be quiet!” I looked around again, but all the cars were parked closer to the store, so we were safe. “The reason I didn’t tell you was because it was miserable. Alka-Seltzer gave me more of a fizz than that guy.”
“Then why in the hell did you sleep with him?” Maddie’s voice was fierce.
“Because I wanted to make sure my lady parts were still in working order.”
“That’s what vibrators are for. How’d you get rid of him?”
“I tried for three months, but he kept calling. Luckily, he didn’t know where I lived. I was trying not to hurt his feelings, and then it turns out the rat-bastard was engaged the whole time.”
“Damn, Fallon, you definitely need a wingman, and I’m here for you,” Maddie patted my back.
“Juggling Mom and Dad and the work project I have going on is all I can handle. I’ll be lucky to duck out for coffee.”
“I’ll come rescue you. I’ve so missed you.” Maddie wrapped me in another one of her warm hugs. “I’m going to arrange something this weekend.”
I cringed. “I don’t want to go out.”
“No, this will be a girls night in. You’ll be covered in Avery girls.”
“Oh my God, that would be great!”
“I’ll even see if I can talk Chloe into showing up.”
“What are you talking about? Why wouldn’t she show up?”
“I’ll tell you when I tell you the time and place.”
“Okay.”
I watched as she sauntered over to her Jeep. I hadn’t noticed her cowboy boots until just now. In my designer heels, I was going to stick out like a sore thumb.
I shrugged and got into my SUV and headed home, passing truck after truck along the way.