Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
HAILEY
“ H ow long has this place been open?” Reed asks as he takes in the chipped paint of the evergreen walls and the one random missing tile from the drop ceiling with the duct work showing.
Grenaldough’s is old, yes , but in the most charming, small-town way. Residents don’t seem to mind the dated wallpaper in the back either, from the way the line always stretches the entire length of the self-serve salad bar. People come here for the food. It’s not uncommon on a Friday night to wait an hour for good pizza.
But my attention is elsewhere. On the lazy grazing of Reed’s fingertips against my hand, to be exact. A simultaneously soothing yet distracting pattern that has me forgetting all about the painfully long commute back to the barracks earlier. Listening to Ben drone on about the upcoming Brundage ski season was not my idea of a relaxing scenic drive.
I net my fingers with his hand. I can’t focus enough to respond to his question with him touching me like that.
“At least since I was eight,” I reply. “Aunt Karen and I used to eat here on Friday nights. Sometimes twice a week if I was lucky.”
“The candy connoisseur is that good of a cook, huh?” He gives my hand a playful squeeze.
“She has her talents.”
“Like raising you,” he says.
“Like raising me,” I confirm.
His hand slips into the back pocket of my jean shorts as he leans in close and rasps against the shell of my ear, “Is this okay?”
The punctuated swallow that bobs down my throat leaves me speechless.
Hah, is that okay…
Is it okay if the room catches on fire? Because his hot palm feels like a branding iron burning through the denim fabric. I tilt my head onto his shoulder in acknowledgement. A good thing, too, as he breathes in through his nose and moans around an exhale. My face flushes at the sound.
We really should have had them deliver.
“It smells so good in here. Beats that last MRE meal any day,” he says.
I raise my head off his shoulder. “I thought the helicopter crew was doing food drops?”
“We got into some pretty steep terrain on our last day,” he admits.
An unsavory churning seizes the pit of my stomach. Not only did I miss him while he was gone, but I worried about him too.
Only… people doing casual don’t worry. Which means I need to focus on a different feeling.
Empathy? Compassion? No , neither of those screams casual.
Curiosity? Yeah . I can act interested without seeming attached.
“What does an MRE meal taste like? I’ve always wondered.”
“I don’t know about all of them, but this was some sort of chicken and mashed potato situation that’s right up there with the texture of sludge. I think chalk mixed with a tablespoon of water might be better.”
I imitate a gag reflex. No wonder he’s moaning over pizza.
“Did your family have a Friday night dinner ritual growing up?”
“No. We were more of a fend-for-yourself kind of household. In high school, my brothers and I got good at ordering from an app and having it delivered.”
A strong urge to wrap my arms around his waist takes over. Again, with the pesky not-casual feelings.
“Did your parents work late or something?” I ask instead.
Coming from a single parent household, I always had this vision of the perfect all-American family—a mother, a father, at least two children, all under the same roof. Reed had all of that and his reality is still not what my naive mind imagined.
He nods. “All the time. But they tried when they could.”
I question whether or not I imagined a frown tugging at the corners of his mouth with how swiftly he shrugs it away.
It doesn’t sound like they tried hard enough , I think to myself. But I’m pretty jaded in that department. What my dad did… the word try wouldn’t even be considered in the same zip code.
Reed was right earlier. We are more alike than I thought. Which means he knows how it feels to be forgotten. And I’ll remind him he’s worth all the time and attention as much as he needs to hear it .
“Thirty-six,” a teenager in a white polo and visor hollers from behind the pick-up counter.
“You sure you don’t want to eat here?” I ask, pointing toward an intimate corner booth in the back.
Reed slides the flat box from the counter and rests it on his forearm.
“I seem to recall a certain someone preferring a date night in. Not sure where I’ll find a fire, but…”
My smile blooms. He remembered .
“Can I take you somewhere then?” I ask, knowing just the place.
He holds out his free arm to me and I loop mine through it. “I go where you go, Red.”
He ushers me past the row of wooden booths. There’s only ten of them. But with the high-back seating, you can’t see the occupants’ faces until you’re passing their table. That’s precisely how I’ve missed these two until we’re passing the last one.
My gaze lands on a shift dress accentuating very -there cleavage and blond curls. Not sitting across from the girl but with her on top of his lap and his hand on her thigh is Ben. Eyes closed, she inches in close to him, turns her head toward us, and presses her lips to his ear, whispering something that makes him flash a dangerous grin.
“What the hell,” I whisper, eyeing them both down.
“What’s wrong?” Reed’s attention tracks to the booth. “Is that Ben?”
“Shh, keep your voice down,” I scold.
“Why are you whispering? Ben’s not allowed to take a girl on a date?”
I toss my bangs as if they’ll shield my eyes from the cheating taking place before me.
“Not a girl… that girl. Madison Walter. ”
His pupils dilate. “ Dean’s girlfriend?”
She licks the shell of Ben’s ear and then giggles, and I jerk Reed’s arm toward the exit.
“Hurry, before they see us.”
Reed’s chest puffs up even broader than it already is. What is he going to do, start a brawl? He looked like he wanted to deck Ben the other day, and I can’t say I’m Madison’s biggest fan, but this is not the time or place for a fight.
Before we can clear the door, bright blue eyes swivel in our direction and widen in delight.
“Oh my gosh, Hailey? Is that you?” She jumps from Ben’s lap and rushes over to us. “I didn’t know you were back!” Her boobs smash against my chest with her hug.
“Oh… hey, Madison. I didn’t see you there. Yeah, I moved back about a month ago.”
“No way!” she squeals. “I thought for sure you were getting out of here for good when you left.”
She’s never been very tactful about other people’s feelings judging by the way she’s cheating on her long-term boyfriend.
“Guess I couldn’t stay away.”
With her smile brighter than ever, she turns to Reed and pins her arms behind her back, swinging from side to side. “Hailey, we’re being rude. And you are?”
I expect him to hold out his hand when he greets her, but he wraps his free arm around my shoulders instead. “Reed Morgan.”
“Reed.” She samples the way it sounds coming out of her mouth, and I hate it.
“Iron Summit firefighter,” he adds.
She releases a puff of air and avoids eye contact with him. Then, like a wig, she puts on that smile once more.
“Well, it was nice to see you, Hailey. We should get together sometime!” Her eyes dart to Reed and back to me again. “Ya know, like a girls’ night kind of thing,” she adds, making the g pop.
In all the years I’ve known her, we’ve never had a girls’ night.
“Yeah, sure. See ya, Madison.”
She scampers away, and I level Ben with a glare.
Just as we break through the exit, I hear my coworker calling after me.
“Hales, wait!”
The door to Grenaldough’s swings closed in his face. He pushes it back open.
“Hales!” he says again.
I spin around. “Don’t call me that!”
“Hailey, I’m sorry! I didn’t know until today, okay?”
“You knew today ?” I close in on his personal bubble.
“Yes. She comes around the clinic sometimes when the crew is on duty.”
“And she what, told you she was there to sell Girl Scout cookies all the other times?”
“No. She said she had a friend on the crew.”
“Hah. A friend? And you believed her?”
“Why the hell wouldn’t I?”
“No, you’re right. Most people don’t go around lying to their first loves and cheating on them with the first thing that moves. What are you still doing with her if you know full well she’s already taken?”
“I think you of all people should know what it’s like to feel lonely,” he says to me.
I don’t have time to react to his judgment. Reed’s hands get angry for the both of us, tightening into fists at his sides as he steps in front of me. For a moment, I’m terrified he’s going to do something stupid and ruin his firefighting career. But then he says, “You’re lucky I love my job. Now apologize.”
Ben cowers in a sheepish slump. “I’m sorry, Hailey. I should have never said that. It’s me who’s lonely, and it shouldn’t come at the expense of anyone else.”
I should accept his apology. But I can’t do that when he’s put me in the worst position.
“You better get back to your date,” I say, and he takes that as his cue to leave.
When he spins on his heels, Reed’s hands relax.
“And I thought McCafferty was the asshole,” Reed jokes.
With my mind on Dean, I leave Reed for his truck.
We aren’t even talking, Dean and I, but he deserves to know this . What am I going to tell him?
“Wait. I’m sorry. You could have handled that situation all by yourself. I shouldn’t have stepped in. And I’m supposed to be defending Dean to you, not making stupid jokes.”
“Dean was my best friend. Did he tell you that?”
Reed and I are the farthest apart we’ve been all night, and as if he senses it too, he reaches for me. His fingers skate down my palm until they thread between my knuckles. “Implied it. I don’t know what he did to ruin that, but he regrets it.”
“I know he does. But it doesn’t change anything for me.”
Just when I thought we’d gotten all of the hidden information out in the open, Madison had to go and do this.
Reed crowds me against his truck door, shielding me from witnessing Madison and Ben stepping out onto the sidewalk.
“Dean’s going to be so upset. He’s loved her since we were fourteen,” I whisper.
She’s not looking, but Reed glares at Madison anyway. “Doesn’t anyone stay true to the person they’re with anymore?”
I don’t think he notices, but his grip tightens on my hand as he says it .
Who hurt you, Reed Morgan? I still don’t know.
I cradle his face in the palms of my hands so he doesn’t have to look their way. And even though it’s weirdly poetic, I say the first thing that comes to my heart.
“Not everyone is looking on the other side of the fence. Some people notice the beauty in their own backyard.”