Stay: Changing Tides, Book 1 (14 page)

He stopped midway through buttoning his shirt. “That’s it? It’s really that simple to you?”

“Simple, fun, exciting.” Surprised by the conviction of her imposed blasé tone, she added, “And no strings attached.”

The dark shadows of the room didn’t hide his surprise. “You never cease to amaze.”

Myself more than anyone
. “How so?”

“How can you be so—unaffected?”

Without effort he made this difficult. Lord help her if he ever tried. She moved to stand in front of him and fixed the last button on his shirt. “I’m affected now, just as I was affected earlier. Several times, if I remember correctly. But that doesn’t change the fact that you need to get home to your son, and I need some sleep.”

He nodded, silent questions shifting in his steady gaze. With a kiss too brief, he walked from the room. When the front door slammed a moment later, she dropped to the edge of the bed, emotionally and physically drained. She’d walked in and out of so many lives and somehow, leaving Brack seemed too difficult to imagine. She rolled onto her stomach and pressed her cheek to the pillow where his head had rested. For the first time in as long as she could remember, staying was a temptation she couldn’t ignore or push away.

And it scared the hell out of her.

Brack stared at the door. It didn’t matter that she was right.

He did need to get home before Jonathon. Still, her reasoning didn’t make it any easier to walk away. He’d felt more in the few weeks he’d known her than in the last four years of his life. And she’d tossed him out.

He stormed to his truck, each heavy step releasing a fraction of his frustration. In the hours he’d spent inside, the cold had taken its toll. The truck turned over with a heavy groan. The temperature indicator’s bright red digital numbers read negative six degrees. But he was far from cold. After spending time under Abby’s blankets, wrapped up in her passion and every curve of her body, the cold couldn’t penetrate the lingering effects.

He snapped his seatbelt in place and backed out of the drive. Even with her impassive reaction to what they’d just shared, he couldn’t keep a smile from his face. Hell, why should he? She might see it as a one-night stand, nothing more than a fling. That didn’t mean he had to. He’d let go, given into the pleasure they’d shared, and he couldn’t be sorry for it.

He’d felt alive. And if nothing else came from their time together, he’d remember the night fondly.

Scattered static broke through his thoughts and he flipped the channel on his fire pager to Brighton’s working frequency.

“Dispatch, Fire Six and Fire Four are 10-8 to the call on Center Street with Engine One.” The blare of the fire engine’s sirens muffled Joe Bentley’s voice. “Fully engulfed structure with two barn attachments in jeopardy. Page out Limerick Fire to stand by at their station for assistance.”

Brack flipped the emergency light switch on the console and whipped a U-turn.
They’d had a call!
They’d had a fucking call, and he’d been too busy getting laid to notice. He’d left his pager and his cell in the truck when he’d followed Abby inside. Shit.

The snow began in earnest, blowing against the windshield in a mottle of reddish blurs as the flakes caught the reflection of his emergency lights.
Near 88 Center Street
. He was fifteen minutes out.
Structure fire
. Joe and Sam were in Engine One. Jenna, Jacob and Allen, along with others not broadcasted over the air were en route with Engine Two.
One male victim with slight smoke inhalation. Animals released safely… Limerick confirming the station was on standby…

The information from the fire pager raced through his mind, and he focused on the road. What if the call had been Jonathon instead of a fire? What if he’d been in an accident? Brack smashed his fist against the dashboard. This was why he followed the same routine. The simple reasoning for his carefully laid out life. The perfect example why taking chances could spell disaster, and why he couldn’t afford to be sidetracked. Especially by a woman who stepped outside of every precaution he felt strongly about.

Glad he hadn’t given her a pager yet, he took the turn toward the center of town with a bit more speed than he should have. The truck hit an icy patch and the momentum flung the end of the vehicle around sharply near the edge of the road. He sliced the steering wheel with the spin, shifting according to each alternate slip and slide of the back end. Finally able to gain control, he dropped it into four-wheel drive and slowed his pace on the rapidly icing roads.

Determined to keep Abby from his thoughts, he focused on the radio chatter as a bright haze broke over the trees ahead in the distance. The flashing lights and emergency beams focused near the blaze illuminated a huge plume of smoke in the night sky. The scent of acrid smoke filtered through the truck. One more turn and he’d be able to see the extent of damage. Somewhere just past the post office. The dispatcher had said two barns were attached to the house. The only home he knew that had barns was the Parsons’ place. If the old farm was lost, at least no one was out a home. It had been deserted for years and was used only as leased land for housing farm animals.

The truck slid again as he rounded the corner. He’d have to put a call in to one of the selectmen. The new road commissioner wasn’t doing his job keeping the roads sanded and salted. He pulled over at the side of the road behind Jacob’s truck and slammed it into park. Grabbing his gear, he ran toward the rest of the team.

Pillars of smoke and flame encased the entire structure. The old farm would be a total loss, but the effort now seemed to be containing the fire so it wouldn’t spread. Between the engine’s roar and the loud rush of water through the hoses, Brack had to yell before anyone heard him.

Sam rushed over, his face streaked with soot. He grabbed onto his hat as a gust of wind whipped snow across his face. “Where the hell ya been?”

Brack shrugged his coat on and latched the front. “What have we got?”

“Fully engulfed. No use working on the house.”

With a quick nod, Brack counted out team members. “Let’s get it knocked down so it doesn’t spread.”

“What do you think we’ve been doing while you couldn’t be located?”

Brack turned to face Rand. “And you’re doing it well.”

The creases on his brother’s forehead were accentuated by soot. He glanced toward Brack’s truck. “Where’s Abby?”

The last thing Brack intended to do was have a discussion about her with Rand. “At home, I imagine.”

“You imagine?” He stepped closer. “Didn’t you give her a ride home?”

Irritation settled over him. “I did. Now, if we’re done rechecking my evening, can we get to work?”

Rand opened his mouth but before he could say anything, Sam grabbed his arm. “Why don’t you go help Jacob with the hose?”

With a hard glance at Sam, Rand walked away to where Engine Two was parked.

“What’s with not showing up?” Sam pulled a cigarette and lighter from his pocket. He lit up before clamping the smoke between his teeth. “And don’t tell me to mind my own business.”

“None of your damn business, Sam.”

A low chuckle puffed smoke from Sam’s lips and nostrils. “Touchy subject. Far as we’re all concerned, it’s great to see you take an interest in something besides work.”

Christ. He should have known. Small towns hold no secrets. No matter how well a person tries to hide them. “Leave it be, friend. You know I won’t tolerate being fuel for gossip.”

A beam inside the house cracked with a brutal snap. The rumble of falling supports and ruptured wood filled the area. Huge flames erupted from the roof as the fire consumed the newly exposed wood, sizzles of sparks and ash spiraling into the air to mingle with the snowflakes like millions of fireflies.

A hundred years of legacy burned before them, the splintering brittle timbers that had once created a beautiful home now fragile and powerless against the awesome strength of the fire. The house buckled on one side, folding in on itself slowly.

Sam cursed under his breath. “She’s gonna topple.”

Sinister flames ruptured the eaves where roof met clapboard shingles, bright in their dance of destruction. Brack matched Sam’s curse and grabbed a radio from Engine One. “Have everyone focus on the eastern barn now. We’re going to need Limerick.”

Sam barked out orders while Brack put the call in to dispatch for mutual aid. He quickly mentioned the roads and caught sight of Jenna standing near the eastern barn. He pulled her aside. Her eyes were half closed and tear-streaked. “You okay?”

She nodded. “Smoke in my eyes.”

Her voice chewed out in a gravelly whisper and he handed over the radio. “Get back away from the heat. Take a few minutes’ break. Call Hopton and tell him to get some salt and sand on these roads yesterday. When your break is up, relieve one of the others.”

She nodded, coughing into her coat as she stumbled away from the barn. Brack slammed his helmet on and ran to where Rand and Jacob held the fire back on the eastern side of the house. Heat from the roaring flames seeped through his protective clothing. Even at a distance, the eerie voice of the fire crept down his spine. He hated fire. Respected it, but hated it just the same.

“Rand, let me take the front.”

Jacob shifted back to allow Brack access and as he gripped the hose, Rand slid his hands back to support position.

“We’re going to lose it,” Rand hollered over the din.

“We just have to keep it focused until Limerick arrives.”

Brack pulled his coat off, his muscles screaming with exertion. The scent of smoke curled up from his clothes before being whisked away on the increasing wind. A steady mixture of snow and sleet pelted his neck and arms, but the cold brought him relief after the hours it took to finally contain the fire.

The old farmhouse hadn’t toppled on its own as he’d predicted. In the end, it had been safer to break down the remaining supports weakened to a dangerous state by the fire and let the structure burn in on itself. He glanced back as the Limerick engine and tanker pulled away from the scene. Limerick’s assistance couldn’t have come at a more pivotal point. Two of the lines had frozen, the couplings nearly impossible to detach after the snow and ice had formed. With the distance to the water source playing against them and the roads so slick, they had required three tankers to keep the reserve tank full at the scene.

But he couldn’t complain. No one had been hurt, and the animals were being placed at various temporary shelters. The farmhouse was the only loss, and the team had performed to perfection.

The heavy crunch of boots on the accumulating snow gained his attention, and he turned to face Rand. Fatigue replaced the earlier anger Brack had detected on his brother’s face.

“Good work tonight, Captain.”

“Everyone did well,” he agreed.

Rand glanced back at the other members of the team before drawing a hand through his hair. “Look, I just want to apologize for earlier. I was out of line.”

“Yes, you were.”

A slight flicker of annoyance deepened the lines of his forehead before he shook it away. “Whatever’s goin’ on with you and Abby isn’t my concern.”

“No. It isn’t.”

Rand seemed to expect more than that, but Brack was too tired to oblige. When he moved to open the door to his truck, Rand gripped the mirror. “I’d like to know if I have competition, is all.”

Dragged back to the hour before he’d left her cottage, his gut tightened when he imagined her arms wrapped around Rand’s neck. He gripped the door handle tight to keep from lashing out. “She’ll make her own decisions, regardless of anyone else’s opinion.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” His eyes creased at the edges then widened before a small smile lightened his features. “She turned you down?”

Brack shook the door to loosen Rand’s grip and climbed up to his seat. “You plan on minding your business sometime tonight?”

“Way to skirt an answer, man. And if you can’t give it straight, you can’t get mad if I keep asking her out.” Rand laughed. “Stake your claim, bro, or I’m giving it my all.”

“You do what you want.” He started the truck and jerked it into drive. “Abby’s a big girl.”

He slammed the door and pulled away before Rand could say anything more. And just in time. If his patience had been tested any further, Rand would have found himself in the snow bank with a bloody nose. Brack could only imagine the gossip that would have created. His brother was notorious for his inability to keep his mouth shut. As it was, by tomorrow the team would think Abby had rejected any advances they might begin to imagine him making.

It was probably best that way. It would make it easier to explain any tension present when he and Abby were together. Regardless of how carefree she acted, when he told her tonight had been a mistake, one that wouldn’t happen again, she was sure to act differently toward him.

His cell phone beeped and he pulled over. Jonathon’s text message asked if everything was okay. He texted back, letting Jonathon know he’d be home in a few minutes. After hitting send, he pulled back onto the road. He could just make out the meager glow of the front porch light at Abby’s cottage when he passed. He wanted to pull in. Tell her now, before any more time went by. But he couldn’t make the turn. It had nothing to do with the ice on the roads. His hands just wouldn’t listen. All the windows were dark, and he told himself it was just as well. He didn’t need to disturb her tonight.