Fireflies From Heaven (2 page)

“Are you
waiting for Cora?” he asked me.

“No. Not today.
She has band practice.”

Reed nodded.
 
“Get in the truck and I’ll take you
home.”

Blinking, I
stared at him and probably looked like an idiot, but I could not believe that
Reed Bentley was offering to take me home.
 
He made me nervous. Being in the same truck with him, even for a short
drive, didn’t seem like a good idea.
 
“It’s okay,” I told him, noticing the odd pitch to my voice. “I usually
walk anyway.”

“Ellie, it’s
going rain,” he said patiently, glancing up at the gray sky. “It’s the least I
can do to make up for what just happened.”

My eyes
widened. “That wasn’t your fault.”

His steady gaze
held mine. “It wasn’t yours either, but everyone is going to be talking about
you now.
 
I wish I could protect you
from the gossip, but I won’t be able to stop all of it.”

He seemed
genuinely troubled by that, and I wanted to reassure him that I was going to be
okay.

Smiling I said,
“A little gossip isn’t going to break me, and I’ll take care of Cora.”

His studied me,
as if couldn’t believe what I had said.
 
“You really mean that, don’t you?”

“Of course.” I
felt strange beneath his unwavering gaze. “Look, if you think I’m going to be
skipping classes and hiding out in the bathroom because of this, you don’t need
to worry,” I assured him.

This seemed to
amuse him. “No hiding out in the bathroom, huh. What about under the
stairwell?”

I started to
shake my head, but I was almost positive he was teasing me. “Not the stairwell,
but maybe the library.”

He laughed, the
sound a deep, rich rumble that tickled my senses.
 
“Courage at any age is remarkable, but
it’s damned rare in someone so young.”

“I’m almost
fifteen,” I told him.

Reed’s lips
twitched. “That old?” he teased.

I couldn’t help
but smile. “I guess if you’re seventeen, fourteen-year-olds seem like kids.”

“Eighteen,” he
corrected.

My heart sank.

The four years
between fourteen and eighteen were an unbridgeable gap.
 
I wasn’t sure if the despair I felt was
for Cora or myself, and I shoved aside the feeling of guilt because neither of
us would ever stand a chance with Reed.
 
If we would have, then I’d never do anything to hurt Cora.

I got into the
truck and let him take me home.
 
We’d barely pulled out of the parking lot when the sky opened up and the
rain fell in sheets, pounding the windshield.
 
I thought about my mother, remembering
what she’d said about a storm in heaven, and I wondered what she’d think about
Reed.

“You were right
about the rain,” I told him.

“Yeah. You
should always listen to your elders,” he teased.

“I’ll keep that
in mind.”

His smile vanished,
and he looked suddenly serious.
 
“I
take that back, Ellie. Don’t listen to anything teenage guys say to you.”

Turning to look
at him, my gaze collided with his.
 
“You think they would lie to me?” I didn’t realize at the time that I was
flirting with him.

“I know they’d
say just about anything if you looked at them the way you’re looking at me
now.”

I didn’t say
anything else and neither did Reed. We rode the rest of the way to my house in
silence.

“Thanks for the
ride and for everything.” We’d reached my house and I was reluctant for my time
with him to end.

He shrugged and
looked over at me as if he wanted to say something but wasn’t sure if he
should.
 
“I know what it’s like when
kids make fun of you,” he admitted.

I didn’t know
what to say.
 
Reed Bentley was the
most popular guy in school, but the sincerity and the troubled look in his eyes
told me he wasn’t a stranger to pain.

“You and I have
a lot in common, Ellie.
 
My mom died
when I was young too, and my dad didn’t handle it as well as yours.
 
Luckily, I had my sister Isabelle.”

He knew about
my mom.
 
I wasn’t sure what to think
about that, but suddenly I felt a connection with Reed Bentley that I’d never
felt with anyone before.

“I’m sorry,” I
said lamely, knowing it wasn’t enough.

He smiled at
me, and his expression was one of acceptance without a trace of self-pity. “My
dad started drinking after mom died. I’ve lost count of the times he’s been
arrested. Isabelle and I have met your dad at the police station.”

I didn’t stop to
think, I just reached for Reed’s hand, needing to comfort him.
 
I’d surprised him and his gaze flew to
mine.
 
I could feel the tension
coiled within him, and I assumed that it was because of what he’d shared with
me.

“You can trust
me,” I assured him.
 
“I’d never tell
anyone.”

“I never
thought you would.” He gently pulled his hand from mine and lightly chucked me
under the chin.
 
“If anyone gives
you a hard time about the note, let me know.”

I nodded and
started to open the door, but Reed stopped me.
 
“I’ve got an umbrella,” he said,
reaching down on the floorboard. “Wait a sec.”

He came around
to my side of the truck and held the umbrella over me while we ran towards my
front porch.
 
Dad was still at work,
but I could hear Jack’s happy bark from inside the house.

Reed waited
while I’d unlocked the door, and as soon as I did Jack came barreling out,
rolling over cheerfully at my feet while I rubbed his belly. This made Reed
smile.

“He’s like a
hundred pound puppy,” he said, petting Jack.

“Shh, I haven’t
told him yet that’s he’s a grown dog.”

Reed chuckled.

My heart
swelled. He was amazing.
 
We talked for
a few more minutes before he left, and as I watched his truck pull away, I was
filled with an inexplicable melancholy.
 
I shook it off, and I never told anyone about that afternoon with Reed,
but over the next few years, every once in a while I’d think of him and
remember that rainy day.

Reed graduated
from high school a few months later and joined the army.
 
Not long after that I heard that he was
deployed to Afghanistan, and every night I prayed for his safety.
 
So did Cora.
 
She eventually got over Reed, and our
junior year she met her first boyfriend, Carter Prescott.
 
I still thought of Reed and wished him
well.

My lack of
interest in the boys at school had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that
no one was as amazing as Reed in my eyes.
 
I was just too focused on my grades and taking care of Dad to worry that
I’d never been on a real date. My dad saw nothing wrong with my lack of
interest in dating, but Cora was constantly trying to set me up with guys.
 
Occasionally, I let her and I met some
great friends, but I graduated high school without ever having a boyfriend.

My dad cheered
proudly when they called my name at graduation.

“Eleanor
Madison McAllister!”

I walked across
the stage, waving at my beaming dad who was videotaping Cora and I getting our
diplomas.
 
Beside him sat Cora’s mom,
Olivia, who looked bored.

Cora and I both
received scholarships to the University of Houston, and we talked about getting
an apartment together, but I wasn’t sure about leaving Dad alone.

It was Dad that
convinced me to get the apartment.

“You could have
gone anywhere you wanted to college, and I know you stayed in Houston because
of me.”

I started to
protest, but dad cut me off.

“Go live your
life, Ellie.
 
Just remember to come
visit your old man,” he’d said, which was ironic since he was only thirty-six
years old.

Cora and I
moved into our new apartment the July before we started college.
 
It was North of Houston only a few miles
from Dad’s house, and I’d protested at the waste of money keeping two
households, but Dad insisted I move.
 
I think he’d started to worry about my lack of social life, even though
I assured him that I liked cooking his dinner every night and keeping up the
house, and I preferred reading a book to partying on Saturday nights.
 
I didn’t tell him that Cora and I were
not invited to these parties because the cool kids, my own cousin Brooke
included, thought we were geeks.

Instead of
weekend nights filled with beer and bonfires, Cora and I frequented the Theatre
Under the Stars and saw some awesome plays, painted at a local shop, hung out
at the mall, and I never missed one of Cora’s orchestra concerts. She was
talented member of an orchestra group called the Southern Strings, who
performed in the Houston and surrounding areas and occasional they’d travel to
Dallas, Austin or San Antonio.
 
Cora’s
boyfriend, Carter, had also been a member of the Southern Strings, but he’d
quit the group when he left for College Station to attend Texas A&M.
 
He and Cora also broke up. She cried for
three days, and we holed up in our new apartment with plenty of chocolate,
coffee, tissues and I’d raided the Red Box of every sappy feel-good movie they
had.

School started
and Cora was busy with classes and the Southern Strings, and that helped take
her mind off of Carter.
 
Cora
majored in music with a minor in education. I decided I wanted to be a nurse,
and I planned to get my Bachelor of Skilled Nursing degree.
 
During most of high school I’d
volunteered at the hospital and nursing homes, and I loved making people feel
better.
 
It was during one of my
volunteer shifts at the hospital that I saw an ad for a job that caught my
attention.
 
I read it twice.

LIKE TO MAKE PEOPLE SMILE?

ARE YOU GOOD WITH PEOPLE?

IZZY THE CLOWN IS LOOKING FOR A SIDEKICK

WE’LL VISIT CHILDREN’S WINGS OF LOCAL HOSPITALS AND NURSING
HOMES

WE WILL ALSO DO OCCASIONAL BIRTHDAY PARTIES

CALL OR TEXT IZZY AT 832-657-7719

I immediately
sent a text to Izzy asking for an interview.
 
The reply came quickly, and I was going
to meet Izzy at a local coffee shop that afternoon.
 
I arrived fifteen minutes early and
ordered a regular coffee, which I mixed with plenty cream and sugar.
 
I’d just sat down at a table by the
window when a stunning young woman approached me.

“Ellie McAllister?”

I smiled.
“That’s me.”

“I’m Isabelle
Bentley.” With a warm smile, she offered her hand. “I created Izzy the Clown.”

“It’s great to
meet you,” I told her.

Isabelle
possessed the kind of beauty that most people only saw on the covers of
magazines. She was slightly taller than my own petite five-foot-four frame,
slender, with long, glossy dark hair and gorgeous, sun kissed skin that
probably had that glow all year round. Her eyes were a deep blue that somehow
seemed familiar.

I could tell that
she was proud of her creation, and she should be.
 
I’d asked around at the hospital about Izzy
and everyone loved her.
 
Her name
was also familiar. Bentley. Startled, I suddenly realized she was Reed’s
sister.

She sat down
across from me and placed my resume, which I’d emailed her earlier, on the
table.

“I see that you
just graduated from Forest High.
 
My
brother Reed graduated from there three years ago.
 
You would have been a freshman at the
time.” She looked at me expectantly, which wasn’t surprising because Reed was
someone that people remembered.

Smiling, I
asked, “How’s Reed doing?”

Isabelle
glanced down a moment, and I wasn’t aware that I was holding my breath until
she answered.

“He was just
promoted to Sergeant and joined the Special Forces Team.
 
It’s an honor, but he’s my baby brother
and I want him home.
 
So does his
girlfriend, Amber.”

The relief that
flooded me was almost overwhelming.
 
Reed was okay, and he’d received another promotion.
 
The news that he was still dating Amber
didn’t really come as a surprise, and I wasn’t upset about that even though I’d
had a few fantasies about Reed over the years.

I discovered
that Reed’s sister was also amazing, and we hit if off instantly.
 
Over coffee we talked and laughed and she
hired me to be her assistant.
 
I was
going to be Ellie, Izzy’s sidekick.
 
At first I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be entertaining enough
because after watching Isabelle work, I knew that she’d be a touch act to
follow.
 
She was extraordinary with
people, warm and open and friendly. She loved people and they loved her in
return.

“You’ve got the
same magic, Ellie,” Isabelle told me just before my first job.
 
“You care and you listen.
 
That’s all most people really want. Everyone
will love you.”

She was
right.
 
Ellie was a hit, and I
absolutely loved my job.

Over the next
year Isabelle and I became close friends. Things were neatly settling into
place like the pieces of a puzzle when that fateful day came and turned my
world upside down.

Isabelle asked
me to work for her, and I agreed.
 
Since she rarely missed a day, I joked with her, “Hot date?”

I felt her
tense and knew something was wrong.

“Funeral.
 
My dad. Actually, there’s no service I’m
just going to the graveside before the burial.”

I didn’t know
what to say so I hugged her, and once I was finished at the hospital I drove
over to the cemetery, where I found Isabelle alone staring at a simple grave
marker that read:

Darryl Bentley

1968-2012

There was no
personalized message, no beloved father/husband, nothing to indicate that he’d
be missed, and given all I knew about Darryl Bentley he’d be lucky to make into
heaven.

Isabelle didn’t
say anything when she saw me, and she didn’t have to because the grateful look
in her eyes let me know how much my presence meant to her.

“You didn’t
have to come.” Her dark, spiky lashes were wet from tears.

“I know.”

“I’m not crying
because he’s gone, Ellie. He made our lives hell and I know it’s wrong, but I
hated him.”

“You don’t have
to feel guilty Isabelle,” I told her, and I meant it.

“You don’t
think I’m a horrible person?” she asked, looking at me hopefully.

“I think you’re
strong and courageous.” I think she believed me because I saw her shoulders
relax and a tremulous smile pull at the corners of her mouth.

We stood
beneath the shade of an old oak tree in the warm May sun and watched the cab
pull up to the curb just a few feet away. My heart began to race, and a
quivering of excitement danced along my nerves.
 
I knew he was here even before the cab door
opened and Reed emerged, slinging a green backpack over his shoulder.
 
My stomach dipped at the sight of him.

He was taller,
more muscular than he’d been four years ago and his hair was shorter.
 
Something else was different about him
that I couldn’t put into words.
 
He’d never seemed like a boy, but now Reed possessed dangerous air, a
leashed sensuality that marked him for the man that he unquestionably had
become.

Dressed in army
fatigues and boots with dog tags around his neck and Aviator glasses covering
his eyes, he looked like the strong, capable soldier he was.

“Reed?” Isabelle
whispered.

 
It was obvious she hadn’t expected him,
but she was clearly overjoyed and ran straight for him, throwing her arms
around his neck.
 
Reed caught his
sister and held her tight. Tears pricked my eyes at the joyful reunion.

I stayed back, giving
them space but soon they were making their way towards me.

“Reed, this is
my best friend, Ellie McAllister,” Isabelle introduced us.
 
“Ellie, this is my brother, Reed.”

Isabelle knew
that I was aware of who Reed was, but she had no idea how often I thought of
her brother.
 
I wasn’t even sure
Reed would remember me.
 
He slid his
glasses down his nose when Isabelle introduced us, and I felt his deep blue
eyes slide over me, making my skin tingle.

I held out my
hand and Reed took it, his touch sending shivers down my spine.

“It’s good to
see you again, Ellie.”

Hearing him say
my name had strange affect on me, making me feel incredibly alive and
intensively aware of the man standing close enough to me that I could touch him
if I’d only reach out.

His unwavering
gaze held mine. Isabelle was watching me as well. My eyes widened when I
realized they were waiting for me to say something.
 
After four years of fantasizing about
him, I should have been able to come up with something better than, “Hi, Reed.”

He didn’t seem
to mind my sparse response. The corners of his mouth tugged upward, and his
eyes lit with interest. “Your all grown up,” he said softly. “I guess you’re in
college now.”

“I’m a nursing
major,” I told him. “Isabelle says you got a promotion, congratulations.
 
It’s good to see you again, too.” I was
nervous talking with him and I knew that it showed.

“Thanks.
 
How are your dad and Cora?”

“They’re doing
great.”

Isabelle looked
slightly puzzled at our familiarity but didn’t comment.

“I’m scheduled
to work in an hour, but I can cancel,” Isabelle told her brother.

I was about to
offer to work for her when Reed spoke.
 
“Don’t change your plans.
 
I’m jetlagged, and I’ll be here for three days.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive,”
Reed assured her, but he was looking at me when he said it.

Isabelle
flashed a sly smile. “You probably want to spend some alone time with Amber.”

“Yeah.”

“If we hurry, I
can drop you off at Amber’s place,” Isabelle said, glancing at her watch.

“Or I can catch
a ride with Ellie, if it’s okay with her,” Reed suggested with smile that made
my insides turn to mush.
 
“She owes
me a ride.”

Isabelle and
Reed were both watching me closely.
 
Somehow I managed to reply easily,
 
“Sure, no problem.”

I noticed that
Reed only glanced at his father’s grave once, and then he tensed and looked
away quickly.

Having Reed in
my Jeep was distracting to say the least.
 
My nerves were coiled tight and I made myself think of Amber so that I
wouldn’t make a fool of myself over her boyfriend.
 
Apparently, I wasn’t doing a good a job
at hiding my unease or maybe Reed was just perceptive, but he seemed to know
that something was wrong.

“You okay,
Ellie?”

I could feel
his eyes on me. “I should be asking you that question.”

“I told you
about my dad.” The words were matter-of-fact, but something in his tone made me
aware of the significance of the statement. “Do you remember that afternoon?”

“I remember.” I
looked over at him. “Still, I’m sorry.”

“You’re as
sweet as you were back then.”

Glancing over
at Reed, I wondered if he was flirting with me.
 
I tended to say whatever was on my mind
and take things too literally, which made me lousy at flirting.