Chapter 6
WEAKENING HIM
“Iguess you are looking forward to food,” his mother said on Sunday morning. “You’re the first one here.”
“Too early?” he asked. Blaze knew that his mother didn’t work the cafe on Sundays now. Finally getting a day off a week.
Though he’d lay money on the fact she went over there daily to at least get some of the baking done, just not cooking or waiting on customers.
“It’s never too early. Reenie and Ford won’t be here until she closes.”
Which said that his new sister-in-law was the one who got through to his mother to take a full day off. Another thing to be thankful for in his family’s life.
“Where are Meredith and Clay?”
“I think Meredith is helping at the cafe. With school out now, during the days she’s filling in for something to do when she’s not busy with weddings.”
Meredith had been hired as the part-time wedding planner for the converted barn that now hosted events. She was a kindergarten teacher full time.
“Which means Clay is probably working.”
“The mill is closed on Sundays,” his mother said. “You know that.”
“Doesn’t mean he’s not on the land doing something. With Dad also?”
His mother smiled and poured him a beer, then handed it over. “Most likely. It’s hard to take a full day off as a farmer. I’m sure you know that as a doctor.”
“I get days off,” he said. “It’s the one thing I like. Other doctors are dealing with patients and notes and everything else on their off time. I get to leave my shift and not do much more until I return.”
No attachments to patients. Not unless they were frequent fliers to his ER. Which happened more often than he liked.
But they were treated and either discharged or admitted to someone else’s care.
The only problem, he rarely walked away like he’d said.
“I’m sure there is a tradeoff there. Though you don’t do much after hours, you take every shift you can and we know those shifts are draining. I worry about you.”
“Nothing to worry about,” he said.
“You’re going to be thirty-three in a few months.”
“I’m fully aware.”
“Don’t be a wiseass. I get enough of that from Clay.”
“We all learned from him, but he’s mellowed plenty.”
His mother turned back to the fridge and pulled out an assortment of cheeses and meats, then started to cut and arrange them on a plate.
No reason she should do all the work, so he took the knife out of her hand and did it while she placed them the way that worked for her. They’d long since given up doing much more in her kitchen.
“He has. A woman will do that to you.”
“Is Mom trying to get you to settle down?” Gale asked, walking in with Rory. “You’d think she’d be happy with one wedding down and another in less than a month.”
“Yeah, Mom. You’d think that, wouldn’t you?”
Brooke Ridgeway narrowed her eyes. Normally they’d all run for cover when they were kids if she’d done that, but having it chased with a smile proved she’d mellowed just as much as Clay had.
“I can make you sit in the other room and eat alone like I used to do when you kids were fighting.”
“My mother used to do that with Renee and I,” Rory said of his sister. “We’d be tossing food at each other and we’d have to split up. I got stuck by myself though.”
“Like good older brothers do,” Gale said, patting her boyfriend’s cheek. Talk about a guy who had it rough in life.
Came here on vacation as a teen, tasked with watching out for his sister and lost track of time when she went on a walk, only to find her murdered.
Fifteen years of living with that guilt and pain. And knowing the guilty was behind bars wasn’t going to erase it quickly.
But Blaze’s sister would have a hand in it because Gale Ridgeway got what she wanted when she put her mind to it and his sister was in love and determined to make it three for three for his mother.
He knew it, even if no one else did.
The two of them were a lot alike. Hard outer shell, that squishy center that few ever got to see. But when the goo oozed out, the ones who had it land on them, they got covered, weakening him in the process.
Making him more vulnerable than he liked to be. Been there, done that. Didn’t need it in his life again.
“We all took the heat for Gale. She was a brat and never let her tell you otherwise.”
His sister laughed. “Hey, someone had to be. And I did my fair share of chores. I don’t remember you getting up early and making donuts on the weekend. You got to sleep in more than me.”
“Your brothers could sleep in because you whined about getting dirty on the land, so they worked harder and needed more rest. You got to bake and eat while you did it.”
Gale grinned and puffed her shoulders out some. “I enjoyed rubbing their faces in that.”
“It’s no wonder you didn’t turn into a little porker yourself,” he said.
Gale looked around the room and marched into the living room.
“Don’t you dare grab a pillow to throw at him in here,” his mother said sternly. “He has a knife in his hand and if you do it, you’re sitting by yourself for dinner and Rory can join the rest of us.”
“Is Gale getting into trouble?” Ash asked, walking in the back door.
“Always,” Blaze said.
Ash moved closer and snagged a piece of cheese he’d just cut.
His mother pulled the knife out of his hand. “All of you out. Too much commotion in here. It makes me crazy. Go to the living room. Dinner will be done in ninety minutes.”
“What are we having?”
“Your father is going to grill burgers and sausage and I’ve made a few salads. More than enough for everyone to take leftovers home with them.”
Blaze moved to the living room with Ash, Gale and Rory, just as Clay and Ford came in to join them.
“Mom kick you all out?” Clay asked.
“Gale was being a brat,” he said. “But she must have seen you coming.”
Clay snorted, but at least there was a smirk behind it. His once hardened brother still carried those traits along with his demons, but there were less of them now.
Everyone in this room could see it.
“Who is Mom kidding? She’s in her glory when we are all together and causing problems,” Ash said.
His youngest brother wasn’t wrong. “We rarely get the time off all together anymore.”
“How many extra shifts are you grabbing?” Gale asked Blaze.
“One or two a week if I can. Depends on how close they are to my normal shift or if it’s nights or weekends.”
He wasn’t normally selective, but he wouldn’t grab a night shift on the heels of his normal day one, even on his last shift. He tried to avoid twenty-four-hour shifts now unless mandated.
Not enough sleep made you less sharp. He didn’t want to put himself in those positions.
“You’d do the same thing,” Rory said, nudging Gale’s arm. “You’re working almost every day yourself.”
“I’m a one-man show,” Gale said. “Got bills to pay and debt to eliminate.”
“No shit,” Blaze said. No one carried the debt he did. Gale came close, but med school was its own monster.
Still, he was making more than any of them now, and if everything stayed on track, he could wipe those loans clean in six years.
He lived pretty lean for a guy who could afford more. A small townhouse with no frills.
Why bother with fancy when he was rarely home and didn’t need the headache of upkeep?
The goal was simple. A debt-free life before forty. That gave him a two-year buffer, room to breathe, maybe even time to think about the future he kept pretending he wasn’t dodging.
A family. A real life. The kind that cost more than money and didn’t fit neatly into a ledger.
He shook his head. Damn, now he was sounding like one of those planners he was always giving grief to.
“Are you whispering in your brain?” Gale asked.
“What?”
“You just shook your head as if you were internally arguing. You and Clay always do that. So, what were you gossiping about? Anything juicy you want to share?”
He turned to look at Clay and saw an eyebrow lifted. He got that trait from his brother.
The one where they beat themselves up before someone else could do it for them.
“Just thinking of the future,” he said. “Working my ass off to get there. Nothing more than Rory is saying you do.”
“I tell her to dial it back,” Rory said.
“Says the man up clicking on the keyboard at three in the morning last night.”
“I’m on track. I can’t stop now.”
Rory was a mystery writer with several bestsellers. Looked like Lake George was the home to his newest series. At least from the bits and pieces he’d picked up.
It wasn’t as if Blaze read much more than medical journals. It’d probably be nice if he checked out one of Rory’s books... if he had the time.
His mother came in and put two plates of food down, then sat with them. She didn’t normally do that, but it sounded as if dinner wouldn’t take much work, and his father had slipped in and gone upstairs to shower and change.
“So, everyone fill me in on their lives. Ford and Clay, I know the most from your women since I see them daily.”
“Maybe those aren’t the versions we want you to know,” Ford complained.
“Don’t be a little bitch,” Clay said. “You can whine like the best of them.”
Ford shoved at Clay with his foot, Clay kicked back and he thought they were going to flash back to when they were teens and the couch would be overturned.
If it weren’t for the fact Ford was laughing when Clay said it, he’d be worried because his two brothers were bigger and tougher than shit, but Clay had a level of fierceness that would even scare the evilest person around.
“I’m off the clock today,” Blaze said. “So let’s keep the damage to a minimum.”
“I sure miss this,” his mother said. “Boys, your women sing your praises and you know it.”
“No way Meredith is singing anything about Clay other than telling him to wipe the grouch off his face,” Ford said.
“She has you there,” his mother said. “Sorry. You’re better but not great.”
“She likes me that way,” Clay said.
“Let’s talk about me then,” Gale said. “Because I don’t get that much attention.”
“Who are you kidding?” Ash said. “You’ve always been the one to stand up and get attention and make our ears bleed until you shut up and got your way. I think that is why Blaze went to be a doctor. Because he couldn’t get his ears to stop aching.”
“Jerks,” Gale said. “You love me that way.”
“I do when I need your services,” Blaze said.
“What’s going on?” she asked, sitting up straighter. There she was, ready to launch into battle. His sister was there for them all.
“Nothing,” he said, laughing. “No tickets, no lawsuits, and no buying any properties. I just meant I’ve needed you before and love you that way when I do.”
“We all do,” Ash said.
“Says the one who gets the most tickets,” Gale said.
“Hey,” Ash said. “Shhh. Don’t say that shit in front of Ford.”
“You’re not getting them from my guys or I’d know. The rest is on you.”
“As long as you’re not bringing any bad press on the name,” his mother said, pointing her finger. “You’ve always been the one who got caught.”
“I’ve settled some,” Ash said. “I’m not doing anything to lose my job. Gale, what were you saying?”
“Just that I’ve got a big case that I hope is going to be settled out of court soon. If not, then it will be a bigger payout because I’m winning and they know it. My biggest, so I’m kind of excited over it.”
“That’s great,” his mother said. No one would ask specifics since they couldn’t know anyway. “Ash, what about you?”
“Just working with Corbin on days off now. Or when Clay doesn’t need me. He’s getting busy.”
Corbin was one of Ash’s closest friends. His family had a construction company and were always looking for help in the summer, but Ash was just as happy to fill in at the mill.
His brother was as hard a worker as he was a partier.
“And you, Blaze?”
“Not much. Work, work, eat, sleep, work again.”
No reason to say he had a new sexy neighbor. Even if he saw her in the ER on Friday again, got a shy smile before she put her lady-in-charge face on and marched into the room to save another patient.
That was how he was choosing to see her. Someone who had a good handle on her life, even if maybe she didn’t think she did.