Chapter 20
“Are you guys good here?” I watch as Ryan helps Jake into bed. We brought Jake home to Ryan’s place just a little while ago after he was discharged from the hospital, and I wanted to stick close by, in case they needed anything.
Not to mention, it’s fucking interesting to watch Ryan’s father instincts kick in with the boy. I honestly had no idea that we’d end up here when I suggested he hire Jake to help him with the horses, but I have to admit, they look natural together.
“I think so,” Ryan says and props his hands on his hips as he gestures for me to leave the room with him. “He’s on some good meds, and he’ll just take it easy for a while.”
We walk down the stairs to the kitchen, where Ryan passes me a bottle of water and takes a beer out of the fridge for himself.
“When are you going to fill the family in on all of this?” I ask him.
“Mom and Dad were out here last weekend. They met Jake and hung out for a while.” He leans his hips against the countertop. “Mom winked at me. It’s like she has a sixth sense for these things.”
“Oh, I get it.” I think back to Rem’s rehearsal dinner and the looks she was shooting me regarding Summer. “Mom knows everything. So, it won’t be a surprise to them, then.”
“I don’t think so. But, like you said earlier, they won’t mind.”
“None of us will mind a bit. It might cramp your bachelor style, having a kid underfoot.”
Ryan scowls, staring down at his untouched beer.
“What is it?”
“Nothing.”
“Come on.” I sit on a stool at the island the size of Massachusetts and grin at him. “Talk. Tell Uncle Chase everything.”
“You’re an idiot,” he says with a half laugh and then sets the bottle on the counter and crosses his arms over his chest. “It’s really nothing. I’ve been kind of interested in a woman here in town, but it doesn’t look like that’ll pan out.”
“Who?” I narrow my eyes at him, mind whirling, wondering who it could be. “Spill it.”
“It doesn’t matter now. You just pointed out that I have a kid; I can’t be canoodling with a woman.”
“I mean, I think you can find the time to canoodle if you put your mind to it, and you’re a fairly intelligent guy. Who is she?”
He sighs. “This stays in this kitchen, Chase. I mean it.”
“Who am I gonna tell?”
He stares at me as if to say, “Really?”
“Okay, I won’t tell. I promise. I’m a vault. Who’s the broad?”
“Would you be okay with me calling Summer a broad?”
“For fuck’s sake, Ry, just tell me.”
“Polly.” He swallows hard, shakes his head, and reaches for the bottle again, and I stare at him in shock.
Of all the women in town, she might be the last person I would have guessed. Not because she isn’t pretty or smart or even successful. But she’s not the type that’s usually photographed on Ryan’s arm. He usually goes for the super tall, super blonde, super…model type. Polly can’t be five feet two in her sneakers, and she’s got curves for days. Not to mention her fiery red hair. She’s just the opposite of what Ryan’s known to date.
“I hear what you’re thinking, you know.”
“I didn’t say a word.”
“You don’t have to.” He takes a pull on the bottle and sets it aside. “She’s smart and funny, and she…well, it doesn’t matter. I have other things on my mind.”
“Let the dust settle,” I suggest, but then the hair on the back of my neck stands up. “Whoa. You already slept with her.”
His eyes whip up to mine, and he doesn’t deny it.
“You did.”
“We’re both consenting adults, so I don’t think we broke any laws or anything. At least, not in this state.” His grin is smug and satisfied, and I can’t help but laugh.
“Yeah, let the dust settle, then see what’s what. Polly’s great.”
My phone pings with a text, and I glance down to see Summer’s name.
Summer: We’re done here! I’m going to drop these flowers off at the shop so they stay cold. Charlie wants them for a wedding tomorrow. Then I’ll be home.
“Looks like the girls are finished with their first meeting,” I inform my brother as I type out my reply.
Me: Just drive safely. Need anything?
“I hope it went well,” Ryan says. “London came to town to speak to them, which I think is pretty cool. I liked chatting with her at the wedding. She and Drew are great.”
I nod in agreement as I watch the three dots bounce with her reply.
Summer: No, I’m good. I had food. Can’t wait to tell you all about it!
“How are things with you and Rem?” I heart her reply and shove my phone back into my pocket. “They seem better, but how are they really?”
“Fine.” He shrugs a shoulder. “I’d say they’re just fine, compared to how it’s been the past few years.”
“I don’t know what went down between you two, and it’s none of my business, but I hope you figure it out. I’m going to head out and meet Summer at home.”
“Yeah, I need to check on the kid. I don’t think I’ll get much sleep tonight.”
“Just call any of us if you need anything. You know we’ll help.”
“I know. I’ll probably call Mom after you leave to fill her in, but I don’t think there’s anything anyone can do. Except give me five minutes alone with that asshole in his cell and turn off the fucking cameras.”
I blink at him. “You know I can’t do that.”
He lifts an eyebrow. “I’m sure the department could use an anonymous million-dollar donation.”
“Fuck, Ry.” I push my hand through my hair. “I want that as much as you do.”
“No,” he interrupts, his voice hard and cold. “You don’t. I want to fucking kill him. I want to take him apart slowly, painfully, but I’ll settle for five minutes of beating his fucking face in.”
I lick my lips and shake my head. I understand the rage. That boy upstairs is in terrible shape, and it’ll take him a while to heal from all the injuries.
Wally deserves to have his ass kicked big time.
“This isn’t the wild west,” I reply softly. “I can’t just hand him over to you so you can bloody him up.”
“Think about it,” he suggests. “The donation stands.”
“Man, if I could afford to give a million dollars as a donation just to kick someone’s ass, well…I don’t know what I’d do.”
“I’m telling you,” he says as he follows me to the front door. “Let me help?—”
“With my investments. Yeah, yeah, I know. You can’t do much with my measly police pension.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised.” He tugs me in for a manly hug, pats my back, and then I head down to my truck. “Thank you for today.”
“It’s what I do, as a cop and as a brother.” I wave and start the truck, then pull out of the driveway and onto the highway into town. Ryan isn’t as far out as our family ranch, so it doesn’t take quite as long to get back into Bitterroot Valley.
I’m still ten minutes out when I get a call.
“Wild,” I say.
“Chase, you need to get downtown,” Bridger Blackwell, the fire chief, says. “Now, man.”
“What’s up?”
“Summer’s shop is on fire. She’s?—”
I hang up and press my foot on the gas as my heart hammers with adrenaline. I just heard from her, and she was fine. But she took the flowers back to the shop. Jesus, is she inside? Is she hurt?
The last few miles feel like they take forever, and when I reach downtown, I can’t get near the shop because of the emergency vehicles, so I pull to a stop two blocks away and jump out of my truck, running as fast as I can. The smoke is intense, and there are still flames coming out of the roof of the flower shop as well as the office next door. I scan the area, looking for Summer, and then spot her across the street.
And motherfucking Evan Spencer has his arms around her.
Seeing red, I yell out, “Summer!”
Her head whips up, looking for me, and when she sees me, her eyes fill with tears.
“Chase!”
Evan’s arms tighten around her, and Summer scowls as she shrugs him off. When I reach her, I frame her face in my hands and take her in.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.” She shakes her head. “No, not at all. Evan?—”
I turn on the man and punch him square in the jaw. “You’re going to learn to keep your fucking hands to yourself.”
“Hey!”
I get closer to him, intending to get right in the asshole’s face, when I smell the gasoline on him, and the fury that rolls through me is all-encompassing.
“You son of a bitch.” I swing again, this time knocking him to the ground. Fisting my hand in his shirt, I pull him to his feet and hit him again. And again.
“Chase!” Summer yells behind me, but I don’t stop. I can’t stop. “You need to stop this, Chase.”
I shake my head and hit him again, satisfied when blood spurts out of his broken nose.
“Wild!” Someone grabs my arms from behind, and I’m pulled off of Evan. “Stop it, man.”
It’s Bridger and Brooks, and I shake my head, trying to shake the two brothers off.
“Let me fucking go.”
“No,” Brooks says. “You can’t kill him, man.”
“He smells of gasoline,” I inform them, and Bridger scowls down at Evan. I hear Summer gasp.
“I didn’t smell it,” she says.
“You were in the building,” Bridger reminds her. “You probably just smell smoke. You son of a bitch.”
“Hey!” Evan cries out, dabbing at his nose with his sleeve. “You can’t prove that.”
“You idiot,” I growl. “You fucking reek of gas. You set this fire.”
“Evan set the fire,” Summer says as I turn to her. She’s staring at the man in shock. “Evan, you set the fire?”
“You’re a fucking whore,” Evan erupts as rage takes over the pain he’s in. “You’re a goddamn worthless piece of shit. I did everything right. You were supposed to come running to me for help, not this asshole.” He gestures to me, and as more police join us, I let the man hang himself.
“You tried to break into my house,” Summer says as realization dawns. “You spray-painted it, broke my window. Why?”
“I’m the one you’re supposed to be with.” He’s breathing hard, and blood continues to spill onto the sidewalk from his nose. “We were going to live an amazing life in Helena. I’ll be a senator. It’s what I’ve always wanted, and if I just did a couple of small things to scare you a little, you’d come to me for help. It never would have escalated to this, but you just wouldn’t follow the goddamn plan, so your mom and I came up with this. If there’s no shop, you have nothing to stay here for. And now look what you’ve done!”
His phone rings, and he answers it before I can wrestle it away from him, but then I hear a woman’s voice say, “Is it done?”
Summer takes the phone and puts it on speaker. “Who is this?”
“Summer?”
“Mom?” Summer’s eyes fill with tears. “Mom!”
“You’ll come home now. It’s for the best, sweetheart.”
“I’m pressing charges,” Summer says as her mother starts to yell on the other end of the line. “Have her arrested.”
Summer passes the phone to me, then rage covers her face, and she shoves forward and decks Evan right in the jaw. I can’t hold back the proud grin that spreads over my face. “You son of a bitch, you vandalized my home. You scared me to the point where I didn’t feel safe in my own home. And you conspired with my mother!”
“I would have protected you,” Evan cries.
“Against you! Do you know how absurd you sound right now? For fuck’s sake, you’re crazy!”
“I am not.” Evan lurches forward and pushes his face into Summer’s. “I’m not crazy. We can still make it work. I won’t tell your dad about this. Your mom didn’t involve him, so he never has to know, and he’ll still support me in my campaign. You and I can still be together.”
“You’re delusional,” Summer says. “And you’re going to jail. You can campaign for head yard worker or something in prison, but you won’t be a senator.”
Evan howls with rage and reaches for Summer, his hands in claws, but I get to him first and push him against the wall.
“Say one more word,” I murmur into his ear, “make one more move toward her, and I’ll fucking kill you right here. Think I won’t?”
I hold his eyes with mine and snarl.
“Try me, you bastard.”
“I think he just peed his pants,” Bridger says from behind me as Evan starts to cry.
“Take him in,” I say, passing Evan off to the other officers, and Summer walks right into my arms, holding on tightly. “Hey, it’s okay, baby. It’s okay.”
“It was Evan,” she says, shaking her head. “This whole time, I thought he was my friend. A nuisance, but my friend, and he had this weird fantasy that he could make me want to be with him if he scared me. I can’t even think about my mother.”
“That’s the Cliff’s Notes version,” I agree and kiss the top of her head. She smells like smoke and a little like gasoline after being near that asshole. “When all of this is over, we really need to have a conversation about you letting other men put their hands on you.”
“I was in shock, and he was there,” she says with a frown. “And I didn’t question it because his office is right next door. It didn’t feel out of place. God, I’m stupid.”
“Hey.” I tip her chin up with my fingers and shake my head. “You’re not stupid. I didn’t suspect him either, and I can’t stand the idiot. I should have. It’s over now, babe. You don’t have to be scared.”
“Thank God.” She sighs and then pulls her phone out of her pocket in a frenzy. “I haven’t called Aunt Paula.”
“Summer! Where’s my girl? Summer!”
“There she is,” I tell Summer, pointing to our right.
“Aunt Paula!” She runs to the older woman and is swept up in a fierce hug.
“Oh, my baby,” Paula cries. “Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m not hurt. I’m so sorry, Aunt Paula. Your beautiful shop.”
Paula holds Summer by the shoulders. “It’s your shop, my love, and it will be rebuilt. You have insurance. But I can’t replace you, so as long as you’re okay, that’s all that matters.”
“I’m okay,” Summer assures her. “Is Lily at your house?”
“Yes, darling, she’s safe at my house. Don’t worry about her.”
It’s been a long fuckingnight. The first thing I did was contact Helena PD to have Summer’s mom arrested, and as far as I know, she’s in custody and denying everything.
Summer refused to leave. She wanted to be here, for her shop, until it was done. Word spread through town almost as quickly as the fire did through that building, and my family—minus Ryan, who is home with Jake—came to support us. I couldn’t believe it when Rem arrived, along with my parents and Brady. Erin stayed back with the kids, but she promised to come check on things today.
Millie’s here, and she opened her coffee shop early so everyone could have some caffeine and a little comfort that a warm drink provides.
It’s six in the morning when the last of the fire is out. The firemen did a great job of keeping the fire contained to just the flower shop and Evan’s law office next door. None of the other businesses on the street were impacted at all.
“The fire’s out,” Bridger says as he approaches us. “There’s going to be smoke for a little while yet, but there are no more hot spots that could flare up. I’m sorry, Summer, but it’s a total loss.”
Summer nods and bites her lip as tears fill her pretty blue eyes. “I know. I’m just glad that no one else lost their businesses. Thank you, Bridger, for everything.”
“Here’s my card,” the fire chief says, and passes a card to Summer. “Call me anytime. I’ll be happy to work with your insurance company, as well.”
“You’re the best,” Summer says with a smile. “I really appreciate it.”
“I think it’s time to go home and get some rest,” my dad says and pats Summer on the back. God, she looks tired. “There’s nothing more to do here, my dear. But there will be plenty that need your attention later. Go home.”
Summer nods and then smiles at everyone. “Thank you all for coming. You didn’t have to stay all night.”
“That’s what family does,” Brady says with a wink. Everyone takes turns hugging us both, and then they start to disperse, walking several blocks away to find their vehicles to head home.
“I’ll come by later,” Polly promises as she pulls Summer in for a hug. “I’ll bring liquor and food. Because I’m your person, and that’s what I do.”
“Thank you,” Summer says, holding on just a minute more. “I’ll take it. But go catch some sleep first, then we’ll wallow in food and liquor.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Polly says before walking away.
“Everyone came,” Summer murmurs as I take her hand in mine and lead her to where I abandoned my truck last night. “Even though it was the middle of the night, they just…came.”
“You’ve lived here long enough to know that this town bands together, especially when something like this happens. They want to help, in any way they can, even if it’s just to stand by and be moral support.”
She chews her lip and stares out the window as I drive her to my place.
“I want Lily,” she says and turns to me. “Can we go get her? Or have someone get her and bring her home?”
“I’ll go get her, baby. Let me get you home first.”
“Okay.” She sighs and relaxes into the seat, and just when I think she’s fallen asleep, she reaches for my hand and holds on tightly. “Thank you.”
I didn’t wantto leave her. She was just out of the shower, finally washing away the smoke and soot from the fire, and I wanted to just curl into bed with her and hold her.
But she wants Lily home with us, and I’m not about to deny her anything right now.
“I’m sorry, I know you wanted to sleep,” I say to Paula as she opens the door of her cottage. “I think Lily will be a comfort to Summer today.”
“Of course, she will,” Paula says with a kind smile. “Lily should be home with you two.”
I squat down and pick up the dog, and when I stand, Paula’s still grinning at me.
“You’re going to marry her.”
It isn’t a question, and I grin back at her. “How do you know that? Are you a fortune teller?”
“I know true love when I see it. Go on now. Take care of our girl.”