Page 11 of Book and Ladder
“...and then Patrick and Cody ran straight into the barn!” Winona flails her hands with every animated word, telling the story for what feels like the twentieth time.
Only this time it’s to our friends sitting around our usual table at The Pizza Den. All day yesterday and today she’s been recounting the event to the customers at Moss and Maple.
Carli hands her plate across the table to me. “Another slice, please.” She looks at Winona. “I thought it was Patrick and Dustin who ran into the fire.”
“It was,” Emberleigh says quietly.
“Right. Right.” Winona shakes her head. “My bad—Dustin.”
Carli turns to Emberleigh and says, “Oh, sweetie.”
“It’s okay,” Emberleigh says. “I need to adjust to being in a relationship with a man who runs into burning buildings for a living. Thankfully, around here the calls are usually medical or a lock-out … or something non-life threatening. Dustin fights fires, but not ones like the barn fire—at least not regularly.”
“They’re all so brave.” Winona’s voice turns dreamy. “Whatever gene makes you run into fire? I definitely missed out on that one.”
“It’s impressive,” Carli agrees.
She silently reaches next to her and places a hand on Emberleigh’s back. “Do you want to go see Dustin?”
“I think I might.” Emberleigh smiles at each of us in turn. “Do y’all mind?”
“Go. Go.” Cass, Winona’s older twin, tells Emberleigh. “If I had a man and he just fought a fire and saved the farm, I’d have told you to eat some pizza for me tonight. I can’t believe you even came out.”
Winona jumps up, runs around the table and wraps Emberleigh in a hug. “Love you!”
“Love you too,” Emberleigh says. She waves goodbye to our table.
Winona takes her seat next to me and continues to gush about the way Patrick downplayed his bravery when he came to pick up Maeve’s books.
“I admire them,” I say.
“Them, or him?” Winona asks.
“Patrick did a good job. I’ll admit. But he wasn’t alone in the rescue. From what I heard, Dustin did the rescuing. Patrick just held the hose. He even said so himself.”
“At least give him credit for the part he played,” Winona says.
“I just did.” I sigh. “Sorry. I get a little bristly where he’s concerned. I didn’t mean to snap at you, Win.”
Cass stares at me. I can tell she’s got something to say.
“What?” I ask her.
“It’s okay to admire a man for his work.”
“A man’s character boils down to more than one act of bravery. He’s the sum of his choices. Patrick cost me more than I like to admit. I still hear the voices of the judges—the sound of my feet on the linoleum floor in the exam room—the one I walked out of alone. And given the chance, he’d leave me high and dry—again.”
“Can’t argue that,” Carli says. “I love Patrick, but I’m team Daisy when it comes to how he did you wrong.”
“Well, that knocks Patrick out of the running,” Winona says.
“The running for what?” I ask.
“For your dating life,” she says as if it’s obvious.
I choke out a laugh. “Newsflash. Patrick O'Connell never was in the running for anything remotely romantic with me.”
“All single men are in the running,” Winona says.
