Page 5 of An Ex Affair

I pulled back just enough to see her face. I needed to know if I was being an inconvenience. “I was actually going to look for a place to buy, but can I stay with you in the meantime?”

Mama’s eyes lit up and then filled with tears. My throat closed just seeing how much my words affected her. “Of course, honey. Of course.” She hooked her arm around my waist and pulled me into the house.

CHAPTER TWO

Colson

“Thanks,man. You’re saving my ass today.”

Lawson handed me two bakery bags and two hot coffees to go. I stopped at Crazy Beans most days of the week, only skipping if my work schedule at the fire station didn’t let me swing by. Today, I was running late and Lawson had my order ready to go for me the moment I stepped inside the coffee shop and bypassed the line.

“Anytime, bro,” the tattooed coffee barista and owner of Coffee Beans answered as I backed out the glass door and headed for my truck.

He and I had developed a kind of understanding. We both didn’t talk much and were able to communicate with mostly grunts and head lifts now. I kept my head down as I walked the sidewalk. I had to talk to the citizens of Blueball often enough on the job as a firefighter. Didn’t need to start waving and saying good morning like I was inviting further conversation.

Moving back to Blueball recently had been a mixed bag of blessings. I was now close by to watch over Mom and Sofia theway I liked, but I was also haunted by a heavy load of memories I wanted to forget about. Every place I looked in this town held a memory from my youth, and most of them either had my dad or Tully wrapped up in that memory. Both caused me pain, but for different reasons. Most days I couldn’t understand why it had been so damn important for Dad to make me promise on his deathbed to move back to Blueball. Didn’t he think I’d been hurt enough over Tully for one lifetime?

I got the coffees settled in the holders and the pastry bags on the passenger seat of my truck. I glanced at the thick black watch on my wrist, seeing I had just enough time to drive by both houses and drop off breakfast. Staying to chat wouldn’t be possible today, but at least my two mothers would have a sweet treat to start their day. First, I swung by Sofia’s, racing out of the truck to drop the caramel latte and her favorite banana nut muffin on her doorstep. Safety took a back seat as I texted her while driving back down her long driveway on my way to Mom’s. She replied with two heart emojis.

Mom, ever the eagle eye, spotted me from the front window as soon as I sprinted out of my truck to drop off the goods. She stood in the doorway, one hand on her hip in a blue bathrobe and reading glasses jammed on to the top of her gray head. “Late again?”

I handed her the goods and kissed her cheek. A hint of lemon hit my nose and I didn’t know if it was her or the lemon loaf in the pastry bag. “Not yet, which is why I gotta run.”

I backed up, shooting her a wink and a smile I knew she couldn’t resist. She pursed her lips like she was mad I couldn’t stick around and chat, but the scent of the coffee and pastry must have kicked in, distracting her from giving me a hard time.

“Oh, all right,” she muttered. “You sure are nicer now that you don’t live with me.” She lifted the items in the air. “Thanks, baby number two.”

I opened my truck door and put my right hand on my heart. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder, Gigi.”

She sputtered and waved me away before retreating back in the house. She and I had gone round and round when I first moved back to Blueball. Living with her hadn’t gone well, maybe because Warrick, my older brother, and his then-fiancée, Em, and her daughter, Georgia, also lived with Mom. That’s a lot of people under one roof. I eventually moved out, stating that Dad would have wanted me to keep the peace between us at all costs. Mom couldn’t really argue with that.

My truck slid to a stop in my parking spot at the fire station right as the digital numbers on my dash flipped over to eight o’clock. I slid out and hustled inside, not wanting to piss off our captain. I was relatively new here and didn’t want to rock the boat before I’d had a chance to show him how invaluable I was.

“Look who decided to show up to work today.”

Joey Corsi, my old best friend from high school, was also a firefighter, and while he wasn’t happy I’d moved away years ago, our friendship had picked right up as soon as I’d moved back home. Guys didn’t hold grudges like women did.

“Shut up. I’m right on time, asshole.” I threw my bag into my locker and turned to his wife, who swung by the station on occasion and was much nicer than her other half. “Sorry for the language, Gabi.”

She flipped her jet-black hair behind her back and snuggled against my best friend. “You think I haven’t heard worse married to this guy?”

I put my arm up on the locker door and shot her the smile that made all the ladies swoon. “I know you have with that loser. When are you leaving him and marrying me?”

Before Gabi could laugh like she always did when I flirted with her in front of Joey, my best friend whipped the jacket he held into my gut. I grunted and dropped my arm.

“She’d never date an asshole with a ’stache like that.”

Our captain’s urgent voice cut off our teasing before I could defend my recently grown mustache. “Got a smoke alarm coming from ol’ Betty’s place in the mobile home park. Suit up and let’s go!”

Gabi quickly kissed Joey and headed for the door while all of us jumped into action. We climbed into our gear in record time and boarded the truck, all serious now that a call had come in. The siren blazing as we raced out of the station just thirty seconds after Captain announced the call woke me up more than any caffeine jolt could.

Betty met us outside her home, hair in curlers and still in her bathrobe. “It’s just the bacon smoking! I told that idiot to call you boys off, but he said he already called it in.”

She waved her bony hand at the manager of the mobile home park, a man standing on the sidewalk who looked like he got some of the bacon grease all over the front of his shirt before he called us. We left the captain to deal with Betty and headed inside her home to make sure there was no danger. Grease fires could accelerate in the blink of an eye. I’d seen way too many homes burn to the ground because of a cooking incident in the kitchen.

Once everything checked out, we headed back outside and waited for Captain to calm Betty down. She’d lit into the poor manager and Captain was having to act like a referee in a cage match. He’d only lived in Blueball for a few years himself, but he’d learned quickly the older generation were full of spitfires that needed as much managing as the actual fires.

I’d just taken my jacket off when a reedy voice purred from behind me. “Yeah, that’s it, baby. Take it off!”

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