Firefly Mountain (11 page)

Maybe she didn’t have to worry so much about setting things on fire around Patrick. Maybe she had to be concerned about being set on fire instead.

By the time lunch rolled around, Patrick counted sixteen marks on Gini’s tally board. He hadn’t ever laughed that much in so short a time. He wasn’t sure how she was managing it. She revealed some fun childhood stories about Jonah. Talked about her parents. Shared a few interesting photography tales. She weaved humor and wit into every topic. He had no choice but to laugh. Had to be magic or something.

Even Raina stopped in her debris hauling with Mason to furrow her brows at Patrick.

“Who are you and what have you done with my brother?” she whispered as she tugged him aside.

Patrick sobered, and Raina shook her head. “No, no,” she said. “This guy is preferred. He looks…what’s the word I’m looking for? Oh, I know. Happy. You’re allowed to be that, you know.”

He nudged her away and turned to find Gini inspecting her ungloved finger. As he walked over, a drop of blood rolled down her perfect flesh and landed on the plywood floor.

“What happened?” He automatically went into full rescue mode and took her hand in his.

“Nothing. A splinter got me. A mammoth one. Right through my glove. Got some of it out.” She held up her index finger, but blood covered the slice again.

Patrick guided her to the small bathroom off the master bedroom. Pointing to the toilet, he said, “Sit.” He pulled a few tissues from the box behind her and made her press them to her finger. “I’ve got some first aid stuff in the other bathroom. I know this bathroom is ugly, but it’s clean.” He gestured to the cracked white tile on the floor and the hideous, wicker-like wallpaper. “Be right back.”

The instinct to take care of Gini was immediate. As he grabbed the first aid kit, Patrick told himself it was because he was a firefighter. Helping people was what he did. As much as he tried to believe that, he knew other factors were at work here. He should call Jonah. Have him tend to Gini. He was her brother. She’d want family to help her. When Patrick emerged from the other bathroom, however, he turned toward the master bathroom instead of toward the kitchen where Jonah was working.

Inside the bathroom, Gini appeared small, fragile. Patrick knew she wasn’t. God, he’d seen her brandish his saw like a knight with a sword. She didn’t flinch when drywall or sawdust spit back into her face. She’d used raw physical strength, grunting louder than Patrick sometimes, to free some of the studs. She wasn’t delicate.

And yet, she was.

Patrick kneeled beside her and pulled away her hand holding the tissue. Fresh blood pooled in the cut.

“I washed it,” Gini said, “but I’m a slow clotter.”

“That’s better than being a fast bleeder,” Patrick said.

Gini laughed. “Okay, tally mark for you on that one.”

Patrick smirked and pulled on some gloves.

“My, my. Aren’t we prepared?” Gini let him rest her hand, palm up, on his knee.

He looked at the gloves as if not realizing he’d donned them and shrugged. “It’s automatic.”

“I see. Standard procedure.” Gini squirmed a little when Patrick used tweezers to remove the sliver of wood still in her finger.

“I follow the rules.” He disinfected the cut and bandaged it in under a minute.

Gini wiggled her finger, testing its mobility with the bandage. “Ever break the rules?”

Patrick looked up at her then. Some part of him wanted that to be an invitation, and maybe it was. One dimple showed in her cheek as she grinned at him, her blue eyes unwavering. It would be so easy to lean in and taste her lips, sample what she had to offer, swim in it.

No, most likely, you’d drown.
Then there would be no turning back.

When he stood, Patrick ran a gloved hand over his left side, smoothing out the wrinkles in his T-shirt, trying to smooth out the scars on his skin under the shirt. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t get rid of them, and he couldn’t let Gini see them.

“No. Rules are rules. Best to stick to them.” Patrick packed up the supplies he’d used, threw away the gloves, and left the bathroom. After lunch, he’d pair himself up with somebody else. He was mistaking proximity for feelings. Just because he’d spent the morning with Gini didn’t mean he was ready to spend anything else with her.

He wasn’t ready to spend anything else with anybody.

****

Patrick was noticeably distant through the lunch Haddy doled out from her cooler. While the others chatted and joked, he sat off to the side on one of the several wooden chairs left by the previous owners of the house. Midas lay sprawled out on the floor at his feet. Gini watched as Patrick ate his sandwich almost mechanically, as if he were counting the number of times he chewed. She thought she’d made some headway with him this morning, but apparently she was wrong. He was more closed off than ever.

What was wrong with asking if he ever broke the rules? She’d been teasing. Okay, maybe she’d been hoping. Hoping he’d take the bait. He looked as if he’d thought about it before he stormed out of the bathroom. Good Goddess, he was difficult to read. She’d never get his picture for the calendar at this rate.

When the lunch break ended, Gini decided it was time for a new strategy.

“Raina,” she said. “Want to work with me on removing the wallpaper in the hallway?”

Patrick’s head popped up, and Raina gaped at him. His eyes sent her a warning that Gini couldn’t decode. What was he so afraid of?

“Sure.” Raina slowly stood, hesitating in front of Patrick, but he nodded.

“Great. C’mon.” Gini grabbed Raina by the forearm and led her to the hallway.

Soon the others meandered back to their various projects. Patrick started on another wall—one where he could see the hallway, Gini noted.

“What do you want me to do?” Raina asked. “I’ve never removed wallpaper before.” She glanced back at Patrick.

“Find a seam and get the razor blade underneath it. Like this.” Gini successfully stripped off a sizeable sheet of paper. Smoothing her hand over the area, she said, “We’ll have to do something about the glue that’s left behind, but let’s get the paper off to start.”

Raina nodded and began peeling. After a few moments of silent work, Raina peeked at Patrick again, who was ripping into more studs with his saw. His earplugs were wedged in his ears.

“You like him.” Raina stood mere inches from where Gini scraped the wall.

Gini stopped working and stared at Raina. “What?”

“My brother. You like him. I can tell. There have been enough longing glances on both your parts. I know about longing glances.” She waved to Mason, who rolled a garbage barrel past them. He shot her a quick smile and continued on his way.

“I don’t know wh—” Gini started.

“Save it,” Raina interrupted. “Patrick could yank those earplugs out at any second. It’s good you like him. I want you to like him. I also want you to know Patrick has many…layers. Layers he’s thickened up over time to keep the world out. His moving here was an enormous step. I still can’t believe he did it. I’m so glad he did though, and I want him to have the whole deal, you know.”

Gini wasn’t sure what to say. She’d expected to have to grill Raina and here she was just giving the information out.

“The house, the job, the chick. A life. It’s about time he allowed himself to have one. He’s always worried about taking care of my sister, Julianne, or me. He’s ignored his own needs. You can fix that.”

Gini swallowed loudly. She had her own things to fix. How could she fix someone else’s mess? She risked a glance at Patrick still sawing, and a strange sensation passed through her. Like a cooling breeze, a melting of something inside her. It relaxed her, loosened the muscles in her entire body.

“I’m not saying it’s going to be easy,” Raina said. “He’s a handful. No doubt about it. You probably already realize that. But he’s also the most unselfish man you’ll ever meet. He’ll always put you first. Always.”

As the saw wound to a stop and Patrick removed his earplugs, Raina slid down the hallway a little ways. She tugged at the wallpaper and sent a pastel flower-covered length to the floor. Gini stared at it as her mind processed what Raina had said.

“What’s the matter?” Jonah whispered. He leaned on the ladder he was toting to the kitchen.

Gini turned to face him. His safety glasses were hooked on the neck of his T-shirt. “Nothing’s the matter.”

“You sure you’re not…you know, mad?” He propped the ladder against the wall and slid his hand around her bicep, ready to get her out of there if necessary.

Gini shook her head. “No. Just confused, I think.”

Immediately, Jonah’s grip loosened. “Confused is okay.” He gave her arm a light squeeze and snagged Haddy as she walked by. He waltzed her across the kitchen area, which was considerably larger now that walls had been removed.

“Hey, Patrick,” Jonah said. “This makes a great ballroom!” He dipped Haddy low, and her laughter filled the house. When he snapped her back up, their lips nearly touched. Jonah spun her away from him, and Haddy sent Gini an “Oh my God” look.

Could she get Patrick to act like Jonah? Carefree and fun. Did she want him to? Was his solemn quietness what drew her to him? Jonah was an open book, what you saw was what you got. The only thing he hid was what he knew about Gini, and he only did that to protect her. Wasn’t that what Raina said Patrick had been doing? Protecting her and his other sister. Was he so different from Jonah then?

Gini sifted a breath through her teeth and returned to the wallpaper. If only she could peel away Patrick’s layers as easily as this truly revolting wallpaper.

****

What was Gini up to? Patrick didn’t like the way she and Raina were huddled next to each other as they removed drywall screws from two-by-fours he planned to reuse. Hunched over sawhorses, they talked every so often, and Raina kept smiling at him. What was she telling Gini?

He told himself he didn’t care. Two minutes later though, he picked up three two-by-fours and planned to use them as an excuse to go into the garage. Mason swung by, however, and ruined his scheme.

“I’ll take those.” He slid them from Patrick’s grasp and carted them to the girls. Mason lingered a few extra moments, chatting it up with Raina, making her giggle. Apparently, he was over his shyness.

Patrick glanced to the kitchen area where Jonah and Haddy were tearing off drywall. Jonah paused to brush gypsum dust off Haddy’s T-shirt and ended up touching way more than he needed to. It was as if everyone was on a date in his house except for him.

And Gini.

She was focused on getting those screws out, the joviality she had shown in the morning long gone. She didn’t look angry, but those dimples were nowhere to be found. Was that his fault? Because he’d been a grouch through lunch. He didn’t want her to be unhappy, but he wasn’t used to his mood affecting anyone else’s.

He made up his mind to go talk to her. After three steps into the kitchen area, however, two different cell phone rings echoed, one the standard, manufacturer’s ring, the other an obnoxious, bass-heavy song. Patrick dug his phone out of his jeans’ pocket, and Jonah did the same.

“This can’t be good.” Jonah glanced at his phone’s screen. “Fire at Meadow Cliff Park.” He looked at Patrick. “You must be getting the same call.”

“Yeah.” Patrick stuffed the phone back into his pocket and ditched his safety glasses and earplugs. As he and Jonah headed for their cars, Mason’s phone rang, a quiet span of classical music.

“Hold up. Wait for me,” Mason said. “I’m getting called in too.” He hopped into Jonah’s Mustang.

“You’ll take Haddy home?” Jonah called to Gini.

“Of course,” Gini said.

Patrick hesitated for a moment at his truck and looked at the three women assembled in his garage.

“Go,” Raina said. “We’ll close up shop here.”

“Thanks.” He climbed into his truck and let Midas hop in. Within moments, only a cloud of dust remained of the men.

As he drove, part of Patrick’s brain worked on what he had to do once he got to the station to be ready to fight the fire. The other part couldn’t shake the image of Gini, drill squeezed between her elbow and ribs, in his garage watching him leave. When he came home tonight, the house would be dark and silent. No one would be waiting for him. No one would ask him how his day was. No one would cuddle up behind him under the covers and hold him until morning came.

No. He’d be alone. For the first time in a long time that bothered him.

****

“Must be tough to be a hero.” Haddy wiped her glasses with the corner of her T-shirt. Two white spots of gypsum were left behind.

“Harder to love one,” Gini mumbled. She’d worried about her father when he was chief. She got nervous if she didn’t hear from Jonah after he’d gone to a scene. Did she want to add to her list of firefighters to worry over?

“When Patrick first said he wanted to be a firefighter,” Raina began, “I told him he was crazy.” She hugged both her arms to her chest. Her eyes closed, and Gini watched a shiver ripple down Raina’s body.

Before she could stop herself, Gini reached out and rested her hand on Raina’s shoulder. “You okay?”

Raina blinked several times, her gray eyes glossy and unfocused. She shifted her gaze to Gini’s face and cleared her throat. A weak smile masked whatever it was she truly felt.

“Yeah. I can’t comprehend how Patrick can stand to be around fire,” she finally said. “It scares me to death, and it should scare him too.”

Gini and Haddy looked at each other, unspoken questions written all over their faces, as Raina made her way back into the house and started cleaning up. They followed her and lent a hand. Thirty minutes later, the three of them stood between Raina’s car and Gini’s SUV.

“Thanks for helping my brother,” Raina said. “There’s so much work to be done here.”

“It didn’t feel like work.” Haddy stuffed her cooler into the back seat of Gini’s car.

“That’s because you had Jonah to play with.” Gini tapped her hip against Haddy’s.

“We were just goofing around.” Haddy drew a heart in the gravel driveway with her boot and grinned when Gini saw it.