Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
E ddie’s boot hit the next rung down on the ladder, which rested against the side of the firehouse. A lunchtime rain shower had cleared out all of the movie crews. His mother had been spotted leaving too. And no further calls or texts. Except from Bianca.
It wasn’t her fault that she didn’t know his past with his mother. But maybe it was better to put some space between him and Bianca. Though, she’d been right to tell him about Will. Of course, the kid hadn’t answered Eddie’s call. He’d visit Will after work. Right now, Eddie had to focus on his job. Finally, back to doing what he loved.
A rescue dummy was draped over his right shoulder, and Amelia was hot on his tail. Only four more rungs until he could hit the ground and tag his fellow Rescue crew member’s hand in the training relay race. Truck against Rescue.
“Come on, Rice,” came Zack’s shout. His friend had already completed the second leg of their relay.
Amelia grunted from above him. She must be lifting her rescue dummy on the roof.
Eddie exhaled and steadied his next step on the last rung. Victory was in sight. The sun dipped below the trees lining the street. His boots pounded the driveway, and his helmet hit against the mannequin’s side. Eddie readjusted his grip and sprinted for the ambulance parked halfway down the driveway—the finish line.
“Put it in overdrive,” Izan Collins yelled at his own lieutenant, but Eddie pretended the encouragement was for him, not Amelia.
Eddie tucked his chin and dashed forward.
On the sidelines of the first leg of their relay, Ridge cupped his hands over his mouth. “You got this, Rice. Hold on to the lead!”
Hold on.
Eddie’s boots slapped against the wet asphalt as his mother’s words from over ten years ago rang in his mind.
She’d tugged on the hem of the same navy shirt she’d been locked behind bars wearing almost twelve months before .
“I can’t hold on to what’s weighing me down. No more. I deserve happiness. It’s right within my reach. I can feel it. I’ve got to make some hard decisions for both of us. That’s what this book says. You’ll understand one day.”
“What book?” was all his young mind managed to ask.
With a glance over Eddie’s shoulder, she lifted her hand to a taxi idling in the jail parking lot. “I have to get rid of everything I’ve been holding on to. It weighs me down, and it’ll all send me right back in that jail. I can’t keep surviving that. So I signed the paperwork.”
She gave Eddie a pat on his shoulder. “You’ll be okay without me. It’s better this way.”
She walked away from her son. No hug. No apology. Not even a backward glance over her shoulder.
Eddie rubbed at the spot on his shoulder where his mother’s hand had rested. During the past twelve months in foster care, he’d grown taller than his mother. And apparently, she had grown out of being a mother to her only son.
Eddie blinked away that old jail parking lot in time to notice a puddle in the fire station driveway. He widened his stride, hurdling over the water. The heel of his boot slipped against the wet pavement. The next thing Eddie knew, his foot went out from under him. His left side hit the ground. Hard.
Amelia leaped over his rescue dummy, which now lay on the ground behind him.
Eddie rolled onto his back and groaned. He’d blown his lead. And worse, lost Rescue’s victory.
Bianca’s face popped into his mind. So sorry.
Bryce bent down over him, sending Bianca’s memory away. “You hurt?”
“All my fingers and toes are moveable.” Eddie stared up at the purple-and-pink-painted clouds. “Sorry, Lieutenant. Not sure what happened.”
Bryce squinted as if he knew exactly what had tripped his focus. “Give yourself a breather, and then I want to retime your leg in the relay.”
Eddie sat and unsnapped his helmet. “Yes, sir.”
Amelia strolled back over with her rescue dummy. “I’ll race you again, Rice. I want to earn our victory fair and square.”
Ridge came over next to Amelia and crossed his arms. “You only want a chance to rub it in our faces. Twice. It’s not going to happen.”
Amelia squared up to Ridge, practically nose to nose. “Bragging’s not what a team player does. Why don’t you and Collins go place the dummies on the roof for round two between Rice and me.”
Ridge inhaled deeply but grabbed rescue squad’s dummy.
Zack squatted beside Eddie on the ground. “I’m not sure you could duplicate those moves even if it meant you could win enough money for the youth center. You got some air, man.”
“My body agrees with you.” More bruises to go along with what he’d already earned. Eddie placed his helmet on his knee and raked his fingers through his hair. “But I think you need to work on your encouraging speeches.”
Zack didn’t crack a grin. “I think I need to work on my friend’s-girlfriend-led-his-birthmother-right-to-him-and-we-need-to-talk-about-it speech.”
“I’m certain that’s not on today’s training agenda.” Eddie pushed himself to his feet.
Both Ridge and Bryce came and stood on the opposite side of Zack. Three against one.
Fine. Eddie popped his knuckles. “Just make it quick.”
Ridge shook his head. “We’re not going to make you do anything you don’t want to.”
Zack adjusted the hem of his turnout gear. “Since Mary showed up, it might be good to see…”
Eddie lifted his brow. “You think I should meet with Mary? You were supposed to understand the most why that wouldn’t be a good idea.”
Except Zack’s foster-care placement hadn’t been because his mother had stopped being a parent by her own selfish choice. Zack’s parents had actually loved their son.
Zack tilted his head. “It could be exactly what you both need.”
He didn’t need that woman. “I’ve been more than fine without her.” Eddie bent back down and retied his boot strings. “What I need is for her to leave me be like she did ten years ago.”
Bryce widened his stance. “What if she’s as stubborn as you are and keeps calling and texting and showing up?”
Eddie straightened. That was an unfortunate possibility.
Zack held up his palms. “Look. You keep saying you’ve put the past behind you. But burying something isn’t the same as surrendering it over completely to the Lord.”
Eddie flexed up the front of his boot and bent forward, stretching his calf muscle. He’d handed over his past when he’d surrendered his life to God. Hadn’t he?
Ridge stepped forward. “Your feelings toward Mary aren’t misplaced.”
Eddie stood and rolled back his shoulders. There was a but coming. It was only a question of who’d actually say it. He eyed Zack.
Instead, Ridge said, “There’s a chance she’s changed from her old ways.”
Eddie glanced heavenward. The Lord had changed him . Obviously, nothing was impossible with God. “Maybe,” Eddie murmured as his chest tightened. “However, honestly, forgiving her in theory is much different from forgiving her when she’s standing in front of me.”
Ridge slid his hands into his uniform pockets. “Then it’s a good thing that God shows us how to forgive. He won’t leave you to do it alone. You could take one of us with you.”
Zack cleared his throat. “Or you could take Bianca?”
Eddie snapped his attention to his closest friend. Had he been outside in the heat too long? “You want me to bring a movie star who not only led Mary to me but is also only temporarily in my life? ”
“He’s right.” Ridge moved over to Eddie’s side and faced Zack. “Unless it’s to potentially shift some of Mary’s focus off of Eddie. But not sure if Mary’s the kind to be starstruck.”
Eddie curled his toes in his boots. “In jail she became obsessed with a Joel Gillian and that life coach book of his.” Had given her son away because of it.
“I think,” Zack said, dropping his voice, “Bianca’s been hurt by someone in her family too. It could be a bonding moment for everyone.”
Eddie put his helmet back on. “There can’t be any bonding moments between Bianca and me.”
Because he wasn’t supposed to have any feelings for her. They had a business deal. Teammates. Nothing more.
Zack narrowed his gaze at Eddie as if he’d located the target he’d been looking for. “Healing, then?”
Eddie snapped his chin strap closed. “Not in charge of her healing, either. I’m around her to keep her safe and to get her money.”
He grimaced.
Ridge shook his head. “Yeah, that sounded horrible to us too.”
Eddie stepped out of the speech circle and spotted Amelia taking a drink from a water bottle. “Hey, Patterson. How about the rematch?” Then to Zack. “Bianca’s not made to stick around Last Chance County, so stop making something out of nothing.”
She’d leave him. Just like Mary.
Amelia came up behind Ridge. “Done pep talking yet? Let’s get this rematch done.” She repositioned her helmet. “What if we raise the stakes? If I win, the entire station goes on Truck’s three-mile run.”
Ridge rolled his eyes. “Nothing says team like three miles.” He jogged past them with a stopwatch bouncing around his neck.
Zack thumped his hand against Eddie’s back. “You got it, Rice. All of it.”
Amelia walked to their starting position while Bryce matched Eddie’s pace.
Bryce lowered his voice. “I know you’ve got a lot going on in your head. Just remember that, yes, God already knows it all, but He wants to hear about it from you.”
Eddie swallowed. He hadn’t prayed about Mary in a long time.
Sorry, Lord.
Firefighting he could do. He wasn’t sure about the Mary and Bianca thing.
Eddie stepped to the starting line beside Amelia.
Ridge held out the stopwatch. “You ready? On your mark…”
Amelia raised her arm. “The chief should count us down. It’s only fair.”
Ridge gave Amelia a glare. “Should he do the stopwatch too?”
Eddie gave Ridge a look. “Maybe you and Patterson should be racing instead.”
Bryce smirked. “As much fun as that would be for the rest of us, Patterson, the chief is busy. Foster races into fires for a living. Surely he can handle the time.”
Ridge raised his brows at Amelia and then to Eddie. “Ready? On your mark, get set, go!”
Eddie shot up the ladder.
On the roof, he was the first to his rescue dummy. Amelia only had hers hoisted onto her shoulder as Eddie had already started down the ladder. His boots hit the ground, and this time, as he neared the rain puddle, he went around it.
Amelia’s boots thumped behind him, but he didn’t turn, kept his sights on the goal—the ambulance ahead.
Zack waved him on from the sidelines. “She’s coming! Go, Eddie, go!”
Eddie sprinted hard and rested his rescue dummy on the stretcher placed at the rear of the ambulance.
His fellow rescue squad members lifted their arms in victory. Eddie pumped his fist and smiled.
Until he spotted Bianca.
She waited farther down the drive, dressed in a T-shirt, jeans, and flip-flops. The wind blew her hair back, making her appear, even in her casual clothing, as if she were here for a photoshoot.
He unsnapped his helmet. After his short reply to her text, he was surprised to see her.
Zack jogged up behind him. “Why don’t you go and straighten out a few things? I’ll take care of the dummy and your helmet.”
Eddie handed over his helmet. He walked down the drive and stopped in front of Bianca, only then noticing the two familiar cups in her hands.
“You brought me a milkshake?”
“I’m sorry.” She set the milkshakes on the ground. “I don’t want it to look like a bribe. I passed the restaurant on the way here and…Eddie, I never should have assumed that it was okay to bring someone to you without asking. I keep doing that. I don’t mean to be self-focused, but I promise to try harder not to be. To think of your needs over mine.”
The sincerity in her gaze made Eddie glance down. Which brought his attention to her mouth. Which was bad because he didn’t need to be looking at her lips.
He stared at the grass to the left of the driveway and ran his fingers along his hair. “Before Mary left for jail that last time, she’d promised me that she’d become a better mother. Instead, when she was released, she stopped being my mother officially. Gave me up to follow her dreams of happiness.”
Tears swam in Bianca’s eyes. He didn’t even have a second to open his arms out fully before she fell against his chest and wrapped him into a hug he hadn’t even known he’d needed.
She tightened her arms around his back. “I’m afraid your milkshake is going to melt and be pointless.”
He set his chin on top of her head. “It’ll be all right.”
It would. Because God had his future.
Milkshakes didn’t exactly fix mistakes, but maybe it was time Eddie finally faced his past.