Page 40 of Flare Up
“Oh, the snowblower had a flat. It wasn’t so much a two-man job as a job she didn’t think Carter knew how to do but needed to learn. Gavin said she’s been telling Cait lately how concerned she is about Carter learning to do all the guy stuff with his dad gone and not around to teach him.”
“Luckily, his sister married a firefighter and now he has a bunch of big brothers.”
He grinned. “Pretty much.”
She was trying her best to shake off the residual fear, but she must not be doing a good job because after she got in the Jeep, he didn’t close the door. Instead, he looked at her more closely, frowning. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” He just raised an eyebrow and waited. “Okay, I got a weird call on my cell phone.”
“How weird? Who was it?”
“I didn’t answer it because it said unknown on the caller ID.”
“Okay.” He thought about it for a few seconds. “That could be anybody, really. A wrong number. It doesn’t really mean anything.”
“I know. That’s why I wasn’t going to say anything. It just spooked me, I guess. Sometimes I forget about him and then—bam—something like that happens and I’m afraid again.”
“I don’t like you being afraid.”
“Me, either.” She laughed, though it was high-pitched and nervous. “I asked once about a restraining order, but he’s never really done anything to me. Which sounds horrible, but when it comes down to actual facts, he’s never even threatened me.”
“Will you be okay at work?”
She forced herself to calm down. “Yes, of course. It’s like you said, it could have been anything. And screw him. I’m going to live my life, dammit.”
He grinned and kissed her mouth. “I like that philosophy.”
After closing her door, Grant walked around the Jeep to get in and Wren tried to use that brief time to center herself. Sure, it was a nice philosophy, but it was a lot easier to say than it was to believe.
Chapter Twelve
Monday night brought snow, which meant Tuesday brought fender benders and hydrants needing to be shoveled out.
Luckily, the residents of Boston were pretty kick-ass about shoveling their hydrants out while clearing their driveways and sidewalks. Social media helped, with streets competing with each other to see who could do the best job. And as they drove around, clearing any that hadn’t been cleared, they’d stop and chat with kids who were shoveling the hydrants, or who already had.
There was still a lot of seat time in the truck and a lot of hand shoveling, which were pretty low on Grant’s list of things he liked about being a firefighter.
But there was chili in the slow cooker, and there were crackers to crush in it and a fresh bag of shredded cheddar to go on top. Sometimes it was the small things that made it a good day.
“Danny, Chris, Derek,” Scott said. “You guys have kids. I know when women are so pregnant they look like they have beach balls under their shirts, you’re supposed to go out in the middle of the night to get them ice cream or whatever, but you can’t even see that Jamie’s pregnant yet and she got up in the middle of the night to make hard-boiled eggs.”
Chris laughed. “As soon as the pee stick has a plus sign, it’s on.”
“I woke up this morning and thought we had a gas leak. It stunk up the whole place.”
“I wouldn’t complain about it,” Danny said.
“Nope.” Derek shook his head. “Keeping your mouth shut about weird smells is pretty much your life until the kid’s out of diapers.”
Scott scowled. “Women on TV always want ice cream. I get the wife who wants egg salad at two in the morning.”
“At least you had the eggs,” Chris said. “Going out in the snow at two in the morning to find a dozen eggs is worse.”
“I had it the worst,” Derek said, and they all groaned. “No, seriously. When she was pregnant with Isaac, even the faintest smell of bacon made her very sick.”
A hush fell over the room, and Scott laid down his spoon. “That’s a thing? That can really happen?”
“We had no bacon in our lives for months.”
