Love Inspired December 2014 - Box Set 2 of 2: Her Holiday Family\Sugar Plum Season\Her Cowboy Hero\Small-Town Fireman (3 page)

“I am. I'll call Mom, tell her I'm running late. It's all good.”

“All right. I'll open in the morning, so if you need to sleep in, go ahead. I'll have things covered.”

“Thanks. I just might do that.” He wouldn't, but he appreciated the offer, just the same. In fact, looking at the work spread out before him, he wasn't sure he'd make it home at all, but that was okay. Jenny and Charlie Campbell had rocked him to sleep at night, held him through a phase of unrelenting nightmares and ran him from town to town as he tore up soccer fields across the county. Staying up late to help them out?

Not a big deal at all.

Chapter Two

T
ina grabbed the hardware store door handle Monday morning, emotionally sorting through the scene she had just passed. A crew of uniformed firemen, sifting through the remains of her café, searching for evidence of arson. Tina shivered at the thought that anyone would deliberately burn a building, risk harming others and destroy property.

It couldn't be true. Mild crime was unusual here in Kirkwood Lake. Felony crimes like arson? Assault?

Virtually unheard of.

The door swung open beneath her grip, and she stepped in cautiously, looking left and right. Had Max forgotten to lock up? That seemed unlikely for a guy who made his living completing surreptitious missions, but—

“Tina, is that you? I've got coffee back here. Come get some. If you drink coffee, that is.”

“I owned a café. I live on coffee. Gimme.” She reached for the cup as she entered the back room, then stopped, surprised. “Max. They're all done. Every last one.”

The array of broken equipment had been put back together, each one tagged with the owner's name and the cost of repair. They formed a pretty line along Charlie's back-room bench, then marched across the work floor, ready to be loaded into vehicles from the rear loading dock. There would be no reckoning with angry customers, no putting folks off, no begging for more time, hoping people understood business limitations brought on by Charlie's illness. “I can't believe this.” Tina turned in a full circle, then stopped when she faced Max again. “You stayed all night.”

“Not the first time I've stayed late somewhere. Won't be the last.” He brushed off the sacrifice like it was no big deal, and that almost made her like him. She'd had enough of guys who promised one thing, then did another. Max's casual treatment of his sacrifice for his family touched too many of those empty-promise buttons. He directed his attention to the coffee cup. “I wasn't sure what you like, so I got flavored creamers and regular. And sugar. And artificial sugar.”

“Covering all the bases.” The fact that he'd gone the distance for his parents surprised her. And that he'd provided for her despite his lack of sleep? Downright sweet of him. “Max, this is so nice. Thank you.”

“You're welcome.”

He hesitated a moment, coffee in hand, as if wanting to say something. Tina prodded him as she stirred hazelnut creamer into her cup. “And?”

His next words surprised her. Because it was old news or because the sympathy in Max's voice rang with quiet sincerity? Maybe both.

“I didn't realize your parents were gone, Tina.” His gaze showed regret. “I'm truly sorry.”

Max's years away had wrought lots of local change. Losing her parents had become a big part of that “new normal.” She sighed. “Me, too.”

“And your aunt owns The Pelican's Nest now?” He sipped his coffee and shifted his attention to the east window. The steep peak of the restaurant profile was just visible beyond the parking lot. “I would have thought they'd leave it to you. Or give it to you. Something for all those years of work you put in.”

“Well. They didn't.”

“Because?”

She didn't want to talk about this. She didn't want to rehash old Martinelli news the whole town already knew. But Tina knew if she didn't answer, he'd just ask his parents. It wasn't like anything stayed a secret in a small town. “My aunt and uncle were in a position to buy in. They promised to let me manage the business. My father had developed a bad heart, a combination of genetics and smoking, and he needed to step down. Mom and Dad moved to Florida to escape the tough winters and my uncle booted me to the curb.”

“He fired you?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, man.”

He was feeling sorry for her, and the expression on his face said he couldn't understand family acting like that, treating each other that way. Well.

Neither could she. “It was a long time ago.”

“Yes. But then you opened a café there.” He indicated the burned-out shell visible through the west-facing window. “With their restaurant right here.” He turned back toward the window facing the parking lot and whistled lightly. “Gutsy.”

Tina made a face. “Gutsy, yes. And maybe a little mean.”

“Mean?” He put away a handful of small tools as he scrunched his forehead. “How can that be mean?”

“Because as my business grew, their customers dwindled,” Tina admitted. “And that made my uncle grumpier than usual, and he was pretty miserable already. That couldn't have been fun for Aunt Laura and Ryan.”

He raised one absolutely gorgeous brow at the mention of her cousin's name.

“My cousin. Their only child. And now my uncle's dead, my aunt's running the place on her own with half the help she needs, and raising a kid who's hanging with a rough bunch from Clearwater. So maybe if I hadn't been bullheaded and put my café right under their noses...”

“Where your success would be painfully obvious...”

She frowned. “Exactly. Maybe things would be different. Maybe we could actually be like a normal family. Like yours.”

“Ah.”

“You have so much to be grateful for, Max.”

His face said he knew that.

“So staying away, leaving your parents and brothers and sisters, shrugging them all off...” She set her coffee cup down and faced him. “I don't get it. I'd give anything to have a family. My parents are gone, my mom died two years after my dad, I've got no brothers or sisters, and my one aunt won't acknowledge me if we pass on the street. I'd trade places with you in a heartbeat.”

Sympathy deepened his expression. “You know, I never thought of family in terms of temporary until Mom called me with Dad's prognosis. Reality smacked me upside the head and said
head home, soldier
. But you're right, Tina. I've got a lot to make up for, but standing and talking won't do anything but put me to sleep this morning. I'm going to pull the last of those Christmas displays out of the shed and bring them in. I promised Mom we'd get them into place today.”

He wanted a change of subject. So did she. She turned, flipped the Closed sign to Open and turned the key in the door. “Bring 'em in, Max. I'll be happy to help.”

“Thank you, Tina. I'd appreciate it.”

He was playing nice

His generosity rankled Tina more. After seeing investigators comb through the cold morning rubble of her beloved business, discussing her family's casual disregard for each other was more unwelcome than usual. But Max would know nothing about that, because Campbells looked out for one another.

She took care of a handful of customers while Max built a Christmas lights display case in their seasonal corner. Once he had it firmly in place, she helped stock the wide range of holiday lighting kits.

“Doesn't it seem early to be putting out Christmas stuff?”

Tina gaped at him, then laughed. “You've been in the army too long. The stores start shelving Christmas items as soon as their back-to-school displays are depleted. By mid-September, most places are stocked, lit up and ready to roll with holiday sales.”

“And Thanksgiving gets lost in the shuffle.” Max's lament surprised her, because it was a feeling they shared.

“I love Thanksgiving,” she admitted. “I love the simplicity, the warmth, the food. Of course, I'm Italian, why wouldn't I love the food?” The look she sent him made him smile, but his grin turned to understanding when she added, “The whole idea of an entire country, praying their thanks to God, regardless of faith. I just love it.”

“You know, it's funny.” Max eased a hip onto the sales counter as he grabbed a bottle of water. “When you're in the field on holidays, most of the guys seem to feel the loss of Thanksgiving more than any other.”

“More than Christmas?”

“Yeah. I might be wrong.” He shrugged, thinking. “Most soldiers get stuff at Christmas. Even the ones who don't have family are hooked up with agencies that send care packages to deployed soldiers. But on Thanksgiving, there's nothing but memories of what was. What could have been. What might be again.
If
you make it back. Maybe it was just me.” He stood, stretched and tossed his bottle into the recycling tote. “But I don't think so.”

She'd never thought of it that way. She'd helped on Wounded Warrior projects, she'd arranged pickups for the Vietnam Veterans thrift shops, but she'd never thought about how lonely Thanksgiving must be when you're thousands of miles away from anything American. “Hey, if you need to catch some sleep, head home. I've got this. Earl will be here in an hour and we'll be all set.”

“I'll leave once Earl's here,” Max answered. He rolled his shoulders, stretched once more, and she did her best to ignore the amazing muscle definition formed by long years in the armed services. He moved to the front of the store. “I'm going to use the Cat to level the parking-lot stone. I can see where the water's been puddling, and that won't get any better once the snow hits.”

“Good.”

“And when I come back in, can you give me the lowdown on this festival thing we talked about yesterday? There's not much time left, and I work better with a plan in my head.”

“From the looks of that back room, you do pretty well without a plan, too.” She didn't say how she'd dreaded facing disappointed customers today, their expected equipment lying unfixed in the back room.

He shot her a grin over his shoulder. “Let's see if they work before giving me too much credit.”

“You tested them, right?”

He ignored her question and kept on walking. Was he laughing? At her?

She finished the Christmas lights display as a customer arrived to pick up one of the newly fixed lawn mowers. When they wheeled their repaired machine out the back door, she felt a stab of pride. It might not be a big deal that Chuck Beadle was going to be able to give his yard a last mowing it didn't really need, but it was important that their efforts to maintain Charlie and Jenny's business as he fought his battle with cancer were successful. And without Max, it wouldn't have happened, so she needed to give credit where credit was due.

Her cell phone signaled an incoming call. She pulled it out, saw the realty office number and picked up quickly. “Myra, good morning.”

“Hey, good morning to you, Tina! I'm emailing you a short list of potential sites for your café if you're still thinking of Spencerport as your go-to place.”

“I am,” she replied. “That or Brockport.” She'd done her homework and these Erie Canal locations in Western New York had lots of potential. “They both have proximity to the expressway, and they're on main-feeder corridor to other towns. What I want is a west-side-of-the-road location and a drive-through for those a.m. customers.”

“Did you have a drive-through in Kirkwood?” Myra asked.

“I was lakefront, so no, I didn't. And we're a destination spot, not a commuter town, so it's a different configuration.”

“Won't you miss the water?”

Miss the water?

Yeah, absolutely. But if she wasn't willing to sacrifice something to change things up, nothing would ever happen, and that option didn't cut it anymore. The time for change was here. Now. “Not if I have a view of the canal,” she promised. “Or at least proximity to it so folks can grab a cuppa, head for the canal walkway and stroll along the banks watching the boats. Those villages are a walker's dream, so no. I won't miss the water.”

It was an outright lie. She knew it, and she was pretty sure Myra's silence said she recognized Tina's resignation, but was kind enough not to call her on it.

Tina loved the water. She loved taking her little boat out on calm summer days. Dropping a line just off the docks outside the Kirkwood Lodge where perch and bass gathered in the heat of summer. She'd caught her share of fish that way, a sweet respite from work. Private time, time to think. And pray. And dream.

But her dreams were gone now. Ruined.

She promised Myra she'd look at the property listings in the email and get back to her. Another customer walked in, then another, and pretty soon she was too busy to think about smoldering dreams and ruined hopes. She'd promised herself she'd never get mired in the past again. She meant to keep that promise.

* * *

“I brought Beezer in to keep you company,” Jenny Campbell announced as she came through the back door of the shop a little later. “And I'm going to drag Max home to catch some sleep. I think that's a good trade, don't you, Tina?”

“Leave the dog and take Max?” Tina sent Max a look that said she approved fully. “I think I'm getting the better end of this deal.”

“Hey, Beeze.” As Tina moved their way, Max squatted low and gave the aging golden retriever a long belly rub the dog loved. “You missing the action, old boy?”

“He is.” Jenny tipped a mock frown down to the beloved pet. “I reminded him that his master is sick and good dogs stay by their master's side.”

“They do in books,” Tina agreed. “But Beeze was raised in town. He likes to check out the hustle and bustle of the shop.”

“He's restless if he's home too much,” Jenny admitted. “When I let him out, he starts prowling the yard as if looking for a way down to the village. I'm afraid he'll wander close to the road and won't hear a car coming around the bend.”

“Well, he can keep an eye on Tina if I'm heading home.” Max grabbed his bomber jacket from the back hook as Earl finished up with a customer. The thought of a few hours of sleep sounded real good now. “You guys will be okay?”

“Tina will boss me around, and I'll answer any fix-it questions that arise.” Earl's wry tone said he was only partially kidding. “Same old, same old.”

“Women are bossy creatures.” Max smiled at the older man, then turned his attention to Tina. “We never did talk about the festival thing. My bad. It got busy and—”