Chapter Seven
ROWAN
Mae handed me her keys, and I waited while she went inside.
I was pretty handy with mechanics. While my dad wasn’t a mechanic by trade, he took care of most of his own car maintenance and enjoyed refurbishing old vehicles.
I'd learned all the basics from him. It only took a minute to deduce all this ancient truck needed was a jumpstart. After getting it running, I plowed the drive inside of a few minutes and moved my vehicle to park beside the plow truck before I made sure to clear the area right behind Mae’s car.
When I walked to her door, it swung open just as I lifted my hand to knock. I didn't realize I was cold until she commented, “Get in here. You're shivering.”
I wasn't going to argue because I would take any chance to spend time with Mae. I looked around once I got inside. “Nice place,” I said when my eyes made their way back to hers.
Mae’s lips twitched at the corners. “It's okay, you can say it.”
“Say what?”
“It's like entering a time warp. There's still shag carpet on the floor and look at that furniture.” She swung her arm in an arc.
There was, in fact, bright green shag carpet in the living room, and the furniture did look straight out of the seventies, all bright colors and boxy shapes. I shrugged when my eyes met hers again. “Hey, it's got character.”
“I made some hot chocolate for you.”
“You did?” This surprised me.
“Yes. We're friends, right?”
I looked into her ginger eyes, and it felt as if sparks began to shimmer in the air around us, heating the space. “Yeah, you said we were fine. Fine is never good.”
Mae looked away. Her gaze dipped to the ground and then back up. “Here.” She pointed at a coat rack by the door. “You can hang your coat up and take your boots off. I'll give you some hot chocolate, but I'm not gonna let you tromp snow all over the place.”
I followed her instructions, toeing my boots off by the door and hanging my jacket up, smiling at the bright painted wooden daisy atop the coat rack.
I followed her through an archway to the side of the living room that led into a dining area and another archway that led into the kitchen.
Despite the dated furnishings, the house was cute.
My mom would have said it had good bones—everything was well maintained and tidy.
Mae gestured to a round table by the windows, and I took a seat. She filled two mugs and walked over. After she set the mugs down, she moved to sit down across from me before she jumped up. “Do you want something in that?”
“What’s something?” I prompted.
She pressed her lips together. “I don't know, a dash of chocolate vodka or some mint liqueur.”
“Well, I'll never say no to that. Both sound good,” I returned.
She fetched a bottle out of the cabinet, pouring a generous dollop in both mugs before sitting down.
I didn't know what she'd been wearing before, but now she looked absolutely adorable.
She was wearing a fluffy pink sweater with fitted leggings and pink socks to match.
Her hair was pulled up in a bun with loose tendrils framing her face.
As I looked over at her, my eyes lingered on her pink cheeks.
There was something almost innocent about her, but not really.
Somehow, she was wholesome and sensual at the same time.
“Thank you for fixing the truck and plowing my driveway,” she said after she took a swallow of her hot chocolate.
“Happy to help. It was just a dead battery.”
“Now, you can plow me out anytime,” she said, her lips twitching at the corners.
“Just ask, and I’ll be here,” I said, meaning that on more levels than I guessed she’d suspect.
I paused to take a swallow of the hot chocolate. “Oh, this is good,” I said as I lowered the mug. There was the smooth burn of minty liqueur mingling with the rich chocolate. “Not too sweet.”
“I don't like mine too sweet.”
“You make your own?”
Mae nodded. “I do.” When my brows hitched in surprise, she added, “All you need is actual cocoa and some sugar and milk.”
“It’s definitely better than the kind in the little packets that I use.” I took another swallow. “How are you?” I asked a moment later.
Mae lifted her shoulder in an elegant shrug. “I'm fine.”
Ah, there we were with fine. I decided to press ahead. “So, you came home because your grandmother passed away?”
Her shoulders rose when she took a breath and let it out quickly. “Yes.”
“I'm sorry about that.”
“Again, thank you. She lived a good life. I miss her, but it wasn't unexpected. She'd been sick.”
“How old was she?”
Mae drummed her fingertips on the table and took another swallow of hot chocolate. “Eighty-two, I think.”
“Well, that's a good long life.”
Her smile was quick, and my heart warmed. “It definitely was. So, how did you end up here?”
“Didn’t I tell you Remy told me about the job?”
“Oh, that's right! You did. The world is weirdly small, isn't it?” Her tone was bright with a touch of force to it.
“I never thought I'd see you again,” I said, deciding to be direct.
“No, I don't suppose you did.”
“If I need to apologize for Sharon hitting on me, I’ll do it as much as I need to.”
Her cheeks went a little pink, and she shook her head. “It's okay, it was seven years ago. You weren't the only guy she made a move on. She was kind of busy.”
“Busy? Is that what you call it?”
“I don't know what to call it. We didn't stay friends. I don't know if we really were friends to begin with.”
I nodded because there wasn’t much else to offer on that.
“Anyway, here you are, on my turf now.” She lifted her chin slightly, a saucy look in her eyes.
“I guess I am.”
“Are you staying in Willow Brook?”
I really wanted to know the answer to that question, and I didn't want to think too much about why. The very girl who’d consumed my thoughts off and on over the years was sitting right here in front of me.
“For now,” I said honestly because now was all we had. “Tell me about your life, Mae.”
“Tell me what you remember.” Her eyes narrowed.
I didn't mind meeting the challenge because I remembered a lot about Mae. She was smart and really into biology and the environment. “Let me guess. You went into some kind of science career.”
Her mouth dropped open before she snapped it shut, pressing her lips together tightly. “How do you know that?” she finally asked.
“Because we met in that environmental sciences class. You loved it. I mean, you really loved it.”
She rolled her eyes. “I did. Is that so bad?”
“Not at all. I thought it was great. It's good to be passionate about something. So, tell me what you do now?”
“Well, I did go into environmental science with a focus on oceans. I grew up around fishing, and Alaska is, at least in North America, ground zero for climate change. I took a position at a university in Anchorage.”
“That sounds perfect for you. It doesn't surprise me.”
“You ended up becoming a hotshot firefighter.”
“Does that surprise you?”
Her cheeks went pink as she shook her head. “No, you were into outdoorsy stuff. That's a great career for that. You get to be outdoors a lot.”
I nodded. “Winter’s a quiet time. That's good, though. We work our asses off during fire season, so having some downtime is pretty important.”
We chatted a bit more about mundane life stuff, and it was really nice to spend time with Mae.
Not that I’d forgotten, but it was a reminder of why I liked her before.
She had a subtle, sly sense of humor underlaid with a sweetness.
I recalled how nervous I’d been to ask her out after we’d been friends and the sheer relief that she’d wanted the same thing.
We'd never gotten past a few kisses, though.
Somewhere in that conversation, I discovered she was hoarding the last season of Schitt’s Creek. “You haven't seen it?” I asked, incredulous.
“No, because then I'll watch it, and it'll be over,” she insisted.
“Then you can watch the whole show again. Come on, we should start it.”
“We should?” She eyed me dubiously, and I wanted to kiss her.
“Yes,” I insisted. “Do you have Netflix?”
“Of course, I do.”
“Come on, Mae. I love that show. I want to see it with you.”
“All right, let me make some more hot chocolate.”
And, that was how I found myself sitting on her couch with the original reason for leaving my apartment completely forgotten because hanging out with Mae in the time warp of her grandmother's house was exactly where I wanted to be.
Three episodes later, Mae’s feet were curled up under her knees and her scent was drifting to me. She smelled sweet, kind of like vanilla. And, fuck me, I wanted to kiss her all over again.
Glancing over at her, I asked, “What would it take to get you to go to dinner with me?”
“We just had hot chocolate and watched three episodes of Schitt’s Creek. I think that's more than dinner,” she said, a subtle laugh lacing her words.
Angling to face her, I nodded. “We did, but I still want to take you to dinner.”
“You know how small this town is, right?” she prompted.
“Yeah,” I said slowly. “Is that a problem?”
“I don't know. Gossip is probably harder to put out here than those fires you fight in the summer,” she said bluntly.
I threw my head back with a laugh. Our empty mugs sat on the coffee table. Her stomach growled, and she slapped her hand over it. I grinned. “Maybe we should order pizza.”
“Then we have to go get it,” she pointed out.
“No, we can get it delivered.”
“We can?” She seemed shocked at this.
“Yeah, of course we can.”
“Oh, my god,” she breathed. “Willow Brook never had delivery when I was growing up here.”
“Well, the pizza place delivers. I can guarantee it. They've come to my place, which is just down the street.”