47. Hayes
Hayes
“Last night was a good night,” I said as I hammered another nail into the post I was working on. Mom was standing right next to me, the cup of tea I’d made her still warm as she sipped on it.
“Yeah, it was, honey. I’m so excited for Lach and Lainey.”
“Me too. Even if that means I’m the last lonely Ford left standing.”
“You know, he would have loved how this turned out.” Ma placed her hand on my shoulder as I finished placing the last birdhouse on the stand I’d built.
“He’d love them because you love them.” I wrapped her up in my arms, pressing a kiss into her hair. “I’m sorry I didn’t make him stay.”
“We’ve been over this. Daniel Ford was a stubborn man.” Her voice cracked, my own throat aching, just like it did any time my dad came up. “He was trying to get to me. Nothing in the world was gonna stop him.”
“Nothing except his heart.”
“I am his heart, Hayes. So are you, and your brothers, and your sister. So are Violet, and Birdie, and Lainey, and all the babies. His heart is this land we all get to live on. That organ in his body was destined to fail a long time ago. We both knew it. He went fast, which is what he always talked about wanting to happen. Do I wish we had more time with him? Of course I do. But he’s still here.
” Ma tipped her face up to the sun, the breeze blowing her long, silver hair out of her face. “Can’t you feel him?”
I swallowed back my grief. “Yeah, I can.”
“Don’t keep blaming yourself for what happened. I hate that. He’d hate that. And besides…” Her finger poked at the emblem over my heart. “You’re about to go back on shift. I don’t want any of that guilt clouding your judgment. I don’t want you being reckless on a call.”
“Never.”
“Promise?”
“Yeah, Ma. I promise.”
“Well, good. I packed you some supper, it’s in the fridge. Put your name on the brown paper bag just like I used to when you were in school.”
My hand came up to wipe my eyes. “If you need anything today…If it’s too much being in the house alone…”
“Hayes, I do not need a babysitter. I am perfectly capable of being on my own.”
“I know you are. Just…if you aren’t ready…”
“I’ll be fine.” Ma rolled her eyes. “I’ve got Colt and Violet bringing Connor up for dinner, and then I’m just gonna read that book Jessie let me borrow, and sleep.”
“Well, just because I’m going back to work doesn’t mean I have to go back to my house when I’m off duty.”
“Hayes…” Ma’s eyes searched mine. “Are you sure you’re ready to go back? I know the department said you could take as much time as you need.”
“I’m ready to be back, Ma. I need to be back. I’m just worried about you.”
“How did I get so lucky to have so many sweet sons and perfect daughters in my life?”
I pulled her in for a hug, kissing her silver hair. “You’re a saint. That’s how.”
“Hey, man. Welcome back.”
Fuck. Exactly what I didn’t want to happen the second I walked back into the firehouse was exactly what I got.
“Thanks, Smitty,” I replied as he disappeared around the corner.
It’d been weeks of condolences every time I stepped off the ranch.
Hell, I couldn’t even escape it when I went to see Ma.
The main house was an explosion of flowers and casseroles.
I would testify under oath that every single family in Silver Springs had come out to tell us how sorry they were about Dad’s passing.
What they were really saying was how sorry they were I fucked up.
I should have had him checked out right away.
I should have known his heart issues from before could make him more vulnerable in a situation like that.
I’d failed my father, my family. I was the reason he was gone.
And that pain, that guilt, it’d settled deep in my chest. Always aching.
“Lieutenant Ford, good to see you back.” Jackson Boone, a fire instructor for Clarence County, stepped out from behind the ladder truck.
“Lieutenant Boone.” I chuckled. “Don’t tell me you’re vying for a spot back in-house. Grace can’t be too happy about that.”
“Oh no.” He sighed. “Can’t say I don’t get my fill of adrenaline at fire school. I’m happy sticking to pushing you assholes through the courses and heading home to my family every night instead of heading back to a bunk.”
“Good for you, man. So, what brings you here?” I adjusted my bag on my shoulder.
“Actually, I was looking for you. Heard today was your first day back, and I wanted to catch you.”
“Yeah? What for?”
“I’ve been called off of training for a rotation. Spending some time with the fire investigators office.”
My eyes snapped to his. “You working the fire at the ranch?”
“Among others.”
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“I think what happened at the ranch is connected to several other fires that have been happening all over the county. And not just recent ones. I think this goes back two, three years. Maybe longer.”
“The firebug. Warehouses in Lark Lake. That abandoned home in Bell Ridge.”
“Exactly.” Jackson shifted his stance, blocking more of the firehouse with his back. He dropped his voice low, looking to make sure we weren’t being overheard. “This has to stay just between us for now.”
I nodded. “But it’s only been abandoned places. The safe house doesn’t fit. There were people inside. It’s a new build.”
“It fits the escalation. Still remote. Very remote. But the stakes are so much higher for the crew responding. If they knew your family…”
“Jackson, what the fuck are you saying? You think it’s a firefighter?”
He shook his head. “I think it’s someone who knows they can rush in and save the day. They’ve tinkered with smaller, less risky situations for the past few years, and now they need more to keep them satiated.”
“You think hero syndromes at play? Or Angel of Mercy?”
“I’m willing to bet that’s exactly what we’ll find when we catch this arsonist.”
My stomach rolled. “Okay. How can I help?”
The firehouse alarm blared in two short bleeps, and my heart stopped, waiting to hear the call out over the speakers.
“Firehouse fifteen. Smoke of unknown origin reported at 1602 Cherry Street. All individuals out of building and accounted for.”
Christ. That was the address for the bookstore.
There were certain parts of this job that were so ingrained into who I was as a person that I barely needed to think to get through the actions. Putting on my bunker gear was one of those things.
Fifty seconds. That’s all it took for my gear to be on, and I was loading into the truck. First out of the guys, just like I’d always been. Because this career has always been everything to me. I wanted to be the best. I wanted to prove to my parents that firefighting was where I was meant to be.
And my dad had always supported that.
“Ready to get back in on the action?” Roger Smith asked as he parked his ass next to mine. Smitty had been on shift with me for over a decade. Compared to some of these young guys we had working beside us now, we were dinosaurs.
“Yep. Ready like I always am.”
The firehouse was five blocks away from the book store, and thank God for that, because my heart was doing weird things inside my chest. I wasn’t nervous about being back on shift. About having to fight a fire. But knowing Hadley might have been the one at work today…Fuck.
Hadley—and her daughter, Posey—were the one bright spot in my life outside of my family after Dad’s death.
I watched Hadley come out of her shell a little more each time I stopped into the shop.
And I was still buzzing over the fact that I’d finally gotten her to agree to go to the Fireman’s Gala with me next week, even if I had to settle for us going as friends.
“Hey, Park. Camp it here, would ya?” Smitty instructed the rig’s driver, Lucas Hershey. The poor kid got to pick his nickname. It was either Park, or Kisses. I knew which one I would have picked.
My eyes scanned the sidewalk landing on Hadley almost immediately. Damn, she was working today.
“Park, Lambo, locate extinguishers and walk down the building, report back on the source of the smoke. Halls and Danielson, run the line from the hydrant. Worst case, we flush a hydrant while we’re here.”
A chorus of yes, lieutenant went up around me.
“Hadley?”
Her eyes searched my face, glassy and unfocused. “Hayes…”
“Hey. You okay?” I smiled, but got absolutely nothing back in return. In fact, if it was possible, she looked like she might be sick.
I moved closer, watching my team enter the building.
My eyes ran over her, checking for any outward signs of injury. She looked pale and was very clearly shaken up. Some people were like that when they had to call 911.
“You know, if you changed your mind about the gala, you didn’t have to set a fire to get me over here,” I joked, hoping the color would return to her face. But if it was possible, she turned even more ashen.
“I wouldn’t…”
“Hey, it was just a joke.” My hand reached out, bracing her elbow. “Are you okay? Can you tell me what happened?”
She shook her head as my eyes dropped to her hands. It was then I noticed her nails digging into her arms. “I’m not sure. I smelled smoke before the alarm went off. I made sure everyone evacuated, and I called for help.”
“You’re sure everyone is out?”
She nodded. “I always keep track when a customer comes in and when they leave. So I always know. Here…look.” Hadley handed me a notebook, with the date written across the top. Fifteen people had gone into the store, and she’d marked fifteen people as leaving.
“Good, this is good.” My radio crackled, the all clear call coming from my team. Cap called out an order to ventilate, and I turned from watching the building back to Hadley.
If it was possible, she looked even more terrified. My face pulled tight as I watched her gasp for air.
“Hadley? Hey, you’re okay. Can you take a deep breath for me?” Shit. I needed to get the paramedics over here. Was she an asthmatic? Did she have a heart condition like Dad did? Oh fuck.
“MEDICS!” I yelled out across the crowd.
“C-can’t…fire…”
Panic. It was rolling off of her in waves.
So, I did the only thing I could think of.
I gathered her up in my arms and twisted, until she was standing with her back to the building.
Then I lowered us both to the curb. “It’s okay to be scared, but my team has it under control.
We’ll air out the store and it’ll be good as new.
You did so good calling it in.” My hand rested on her back, but it was the tears that started falling that absolutely crushed me.
“I want to help, Hadley, but you have to tell me what’s going on. Please, tell me what’s wrong so I can tell the medics.” Medics who were taking far too long to make their way over to us.
Hadley shook her head, her hands swiping at her face. “Fire…my husband…he was a firefighter. I thought I saw him in there. In the shop, walking out the back…But it couldn’t have been.”
She was married. Christ, I’d been flirting with someone’s wife! She’d mentioned it was complicated with Posey’s dad…
I swallowed that news down, trying to keep a level head on for her. “Why couldn’t it have been him?”
Her watery eyes met mine. “He d-died back in Oregon. In a firestorm.”
The gorgeous woman I had a devastating crush on wasn’t married.
She was a widow.
A firefighter’s widow.
Well, fuck.
How will Hayes reconcile falling hard for a firefighter’s widow? What lengths is he willing to go to in order to keep her safe when shadows from the past find her in Silver Springs?
Read Hayes and Hadley’s story in Firestorm, the fourth and final book in the Silver Ridge Ranch series.