Hope Falls: Hearts Afire (Kindle Worlds Novella) (12 page)

Katie kept talking and talking, which made him smile. She was as hilarious as always, but all he could think about was her naked breasts and bubbles.

He stepped inside the tub, sinking down in front of her. Then he pulled her onto his lap and lined up his face with hers, along with other parts of their bodies. “All aboard, Katie. Hop on.” He didn’t wait for her to respond. He filled her mouth with his tongue, as he filled her in other places too. She was so slick and so tight around him. He kissed her, tasting her with his tongue as she worked her hips over him. The way they moved together was perfection. If them making love was like writing a song, it would have been a number one hit it was so good.

He loved how she sucked on his neck as she was about to come. She tightened her arms around him and held on as she rocked back and forth along him. She felt so good, massaging him, milking him for both their pleasure. She came first, crying out his name and placing wet kisses up and down his jawline. When she pushed her tongue inside his mouth, he lost it too. He held her close, sucking on her tongue and sprinkling kisses all over her beautiful face.

“Dammit, Case,” she said, breathlessly. “I just wanted to take a bath.”

He pressed his lips against hers for a quick peck. “Save the romance for another time, Kate.” He threw her words back at her, which had her laughing aloud. Her head tilted back, her eyes closed, and she let it go. It was adorable. He slapped her gently on the ass, and said, “Pull the plug and let’s rinse off so I can hit the sack.”

“Fine,” she said, getting to her feet. “I’ll just lather up your hot bod. Bubbles are overrated.”

When Casey’s alarm went off, he wanted to throw his phone across the room. He contemplated calling one of the guys to see if they’d cover him. The day before had been the first time in years he’d asked someone to switch a shift. He was sure he’d be able to make it happen again.

He didn’t call anyone though. He couldn’t stay in bed with Katie forever. If it wasn’t today, it would happen eventually. He had to go to work. It was just two days a week. He could learn to sleep without her for two days. He laughed inside when he wondered how he had done it all these years without her.

Now that she was lying beside him, naked as the day she was born, he didn’t want to have it any other way. He lifted the blankets to get a better look at the curve of her perfect ass. He loved that she stripped down before getting into bed with him. She was sitting at her desk, tapping away on her keyboard. At some point, he heard the printer going and saw pages spitting out through the slits in his eyes. When he woke up again, her warm body was lying next to him. He was on his back and she was on her belly. Her hand was on his chest and his hand was on her ass cheek. He had dozed off again with a smile on his face.

He couldn’t allow himself to doze again. He had to get up. Casey slid out of bed and went to the bathroom. He wasn’t surprised when Katie didn’t move a muscle. He knew she was up late working and she’d probably sleep in most of the morning.

As quietly as possible, Casey got ready for work. Eventually, he sat at her desk to put his boots on. There were papers, pens, and sticky notes everywhere.
No wonder she loses everything
, he thought. He really needed to teach her some organization.

A big red heart on one of the pages caught his eye as he finished lacing up his boot. The letters SFC were written in capital letters beside it. The heart was darkened, over and over again. He thought it was kind of cute. It reminded him of how the girls in middle school would write boy’s names on their folders with hearts and flowers.

He probably shouldn’t look, but he couldn’t help himself. It’s not like he wasn’t going to buy the book when it came out. He had already read all of her children’s books—he was going to read her first romance novel too.

Nothing could have prepared him for what he read though. All the anger from years ago flooded his mind. It took all he had not to scream. He couldn’t believe what she had done. He loved her. He had made love to her, and what did she do? She used it in a book. She wrote about the intimate things that they had shared. Their first time. The claw-foot bath tub. The Palmer Express. Choo. Fucking. Choo.

He picked up more pages, scanning them for details that he recognized. Bile surged into his throat. He had to fight hard to swallow his own vomit.

She had used him. She didn’t care about him. She didn’t love him.

She was just like Nicole.

Tears pricked at the back of his eyes. They stung, burned, and ached. He was not going to cry over her. She didn’t deserve his tears. She didn’t deserve anything from him. He had been so fucking wrong.

She wasn’t worth it. She wasn’t worth sticking around for, after all.

He grabbed his bag, stuffed his shit inside, and zipped it up. Then he piled up a stack of her papers and threw them on the bed. She woke up, startled. Squinting, she looked up at him, half-asleep, half awake.

Casey waited for her to blink her eyes fully open and look down at the pages in front of her. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“I should ask you the same thing,” he yelled. “Only I already know the answer to that. You’ve been using me the whole fucking time, Kate. You’re using me to write a book. I can’t believe everything we had was all a lie.”

“Slow down, Casey,” she said, wiping her eyes. “Just sit down and I’ll explain.”

She was so damn calm; it made him even more angry. She was acting like she didn’t do anything wrong and he couldn’t even see straight. All he wanted to do was hold her and shake her and hold her again. And ask her why or how she could do this to him. After all they shared, everything they had been through and talked about, he couldn’t believe that this was the way she treated him.

“I don’t have time for your explanations. I have to get to work. It was great knowing you, Katherine. Hope it’s a fucking best seller.”

He could hear her yelling things at him, but he had no idea what. It didn’t matter what she said. He couldn’t trust her.

He just needed to keep on walking and never look back.

Fuck love. He’d had enough.

What the hell was that saying?

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me.

He’d gladly reprise his role as town manwhore before he ever fell in love again.

He was done.

She was so pissed she threw her pages across the room. The sound of them fluttering to the ground only angered her more. She wanted to hear the bang and crash as they hit the floor. It was anticlimactic. Immediately, she wanted to kick herself. That was well over two hundred pages that were scattered and mixed up all over the room. She wasn’t about to piece them back in order. She’d shred them all and print them out again. It’s not like she’d written the final draft. She still had so many revisions—and a healthy amount of cuts—to go through.

If only Casey would have understood that.

Instead, he left. He seriously left and didn’t even listen to what she had to say.

Mind. Fucking. Blown.

Men were stupid. She had known that for years. But she didn’t think Casey was that dumb. One little hiccup and he’d proven her wrong.

She looked around the room, her chest puffing in and out with each maddening breath. If that’s the way he was going to be, then she had no other choice. She was leaving. If he was so quick to jump to conclusions, she didn’t need him in her life. She’d be doing herself a favor and getting the hell out while she could.

In a rush, Katie threw on the first thing she saw—a pair of underwear and a hoodie. Then, she started packing her things. She piled as much as she could in her backpack before she pulled her duffle bags from the closet and started filling those too. She was on her third bag when she realized she was crying hysterically.

Tears fell from her eyes like Niagara Falls. She didn’t fight it. She let them fall until her eyes ran dry. Then, she started packing again. She had just finished throwing all of her toiletries in a plastic bag when Shelby walked in.

“What the hell is going on, Katie? Are you okay?”

She could see the concern registered in her friend’s expression. She tried to hold it in, but her lip quivered and she slid to the floor like a blob of nothing. “He broke up with me.” Katie sobbed, trying to catch her breath. “The fucker didn’t even listen to my side of the story. He just left. He said he would always be here for me but he left.”

Shelby looked as confused as ever as she kneeled down in front of her on the floor. “You broke up? I didn’t even know you were together.”

“It was only one night, Shelb. The best night of my life. I should be smiling, giddy as can be right now, not crying in my underwear. I can’t even leave like I planned. I packed all my shit and I don’t even know where my pants are.”

“Aww, honey.” Shelby pouted her bottom lip. “I’m so sorry.”

“You know what sucks?” Katie tried to wipe her tears, but it was no use. Snot smeared across her face as she laughed at the absurdity of it all. “Whenever I lose something, Casey is the one who finds it and puts it someplace safe. I can’t very well call him and tell him I lost my pants.”

“Oh my God, Katie.” Shelby stood up, went inside the bathroom and came back with a roll of toilet paper. “You’re the cutest mess I’ve ever seen. Wipe your face, babe. You’ve got boogers everywhere.”

“Are you laughing at my heartbreak?” Katie frowned. “It’s not funny, Shelb. Men are stupid.”

“You’ve got that right, honey. And when you find a good one, it’s your responsibility to pound some sense into him.”

Katie groaned.

“Do you love Casey?”

Katie nodded.

“Have you told him?”

She shook her head.

“Well shit, Katie. You write romance novels for crying out loud. What would your characters do?”

Katie groaned again. Her manuscript is what had gotten her into this mess.

“Well?” Shelby asked.

“The couple would drown in their tears for a couple chapters before they saw the light and got back together.”

Shelby rolled her eyes. “How long are a couple chapters in real time? A few hours?”

“Oh crap, it could be months,” she said, blowing snot into the toilet paper.

“Do you really want to wait a few months to get your man back?”

She shook her head again. “Hell no.”

Her friend got to her feet again. “I hate to leave you like this but I gotta get back to the bar. An order is coming in and Levi is helping his brother at the gym. Now, I trust that you’re going to unpack your shit and pull your head out of your ass. I don’t know what happened, but you can’t sit around and wait for Casey to fix it. This is fixable, isn’t it?”

Katie had tissues stuffed up her nostrils, but she tried to talk anyway. “Completely,” she mumbled. “Thanks, Shelby.”

Her friend was just about to leave but turned back. “Go get your happily ever after, Katie. Don’t just write about it. Live it.”

Katie couldn’t help but smile at her friend’s request. She was right. It was time she lived her own HEA.

He’d almost called and told the chief he wasn’t going to make it in to work at all. His head wasn’t in the right place after what happened earlier. Casey had finally fallen in love again and it was all for nothing. She was just like Nicole. Katie didn’t love him. She had just used him. Used him to write her damn novel. He couldn’t believe what he had read. It was like he was a peeping Tom, looking through the window watching what they had shared. To him, it was sacred, something that was between only them. He’d heard of kissing and telling, but this took it to a whole other level. One that he had no interest in being a part of.

Dammit. How did he read her so wrong? While they hadn’t said the words, he was sure that she loved him as much as he loved her. He felt like he was dying inside knowing that he was completely mistaken. She didn’t love him. She didn’t care for him. She was a damn liar. She got what she wanted, and he was sure she was probably halfway home by now. She didn’t need him anymore.

And he didn’t need her.

Fuck. He only needed to tell himself that about a million more times before he’d believe it. Or maybe he never would. He thought he suffered from a broken heart in high school. It was like comparing the size of a Chihuahua to a Great Dane. He wouldn’t wish this pain on his worst enemy.

Thankfully, the station got a call for support. A wildfire had started a few hours outside of Hope Falls, so they had to back up the other units who were already on scene. He had never been so grateful for a fire in his life. Logically, he knew he shouldn’t be happy about shit burning down, but he desperately needed something to take his mind off of Katie.

They had been on the road for an hour when his phone started ringing. He looked at the screen and saw that it was her. His chest squeezed and his throat tightened like he was being strangled. He sent the call directly to voicemail.

She didn’t leave a message but called again. And again. He silenced his phone, but he could still see her name light up on his screen. Each time, he sent her call to voicemail. He really wanted to turn the damn thing off, but he wasn’t allowed to do that while he was on shift. His phone didn’t light up again, though. Only this time, he noticed the little icon at the top of his phone appear. She had left a voicemail.

He stared at his phone. What could she possibly say? “I’m sorry.” As if that would make him feel any better about being used. He was confused about why she was calling in the first place. She’d gotten what she wanted so why was she even bothering?

As much as he wanted to ignore the icon staring him down like he was in a duel, he couldn’t do it. He had to pull the trigger. He tapped on his phone and held it up to his ear.

“Oh my word, Casey Palmer, I don’t know whether to cry or scream. You bastard. You just left and didn’t even give me the chance to explain anything. You left. I went to the station to try to talk to you, but they said you left town to take on some action. I can’t believe it. You left me. You said you’d always be here. That you were a small town firefighter who loved your small town fires and your small town people. You’re full of shit. Maybe you did take me all the way to see my mom to get into my pants. God, I’d hate to think I was that stupid. I thought you cared, Casey. I thought you loved me.” He could hear the sniffles in her voice. She had been crying. It pained him to know that she was hurting, but he didn’t understand why. Why did she care? “I wasn’t wrong, was I?” There was a long pause before she continued. “Listen, here’s the deal. I write romance novels. Or, I’ve written one. Have I written about you? Yes. You’re my inspiration, my muse. But
details
…about you…about us…have never made the final cut. Especially the scene you read today. My book is fade to black, Casey. I tried to tell you that but you wouldn’t listen. I want my HEA, Case. I want it with you. I’m not going to let you ruin it. I’m not going to do the drag-out, rip-your-heart-out kind of all-is-lost misunderstanding with you either. I am going to make you understand even if I have to beat it into your thick skull. I need you, Casey. I can’t find my pants. I’m cold. I have snot dried up on the side of my face and I need you. Be my hero, Casey Palmer. Don’t leave me like everyone else. I’m worth it. I promise.” A pause. “This is Katie. Bye.”

This is Katie?
He chuckled. As if he didn’t know who was spewing nonsense on his line. He couldn’t help but smile at her message, even though he had no idea what half of it meant.

He recognized some of what she said as author terminology, but he didn’t know all of their meanings. Quickly, he dialed a number and held the phone to his ear again. “Hey, Mom.”

“Casey, what’s going on? Katie called.”

“Everything’s a mess. I need your help. Think romance novel terms. What does it mean to ‘fade to black’?” he asked. He couldn’t believe he was calling his mother for help, but he needed to understand what the hell Katie was talking about.

“Honey, it means that the novel doesn’t have any sex scenes in it. The sex is insinuated, but there aren’t any details. The scene fades to black. You know the couple is going to do the deed, but you don’t get to read about it.”

That was odd. He had clearly read explicit detail with his own two eyes. Fade to black, his ass. Katie was the one who was full of shit.

“Katie told me what happened. You need to listen to her. Authors write thousands and thousands of words that never make it to print. Sometimes, they just need to write whatever comes to mind to keep the words flowing. She never had any intention of including your private life into her final draft.”

He was trying hard to believe what she was telling him, but it still hurt. After all that he had gone through with Nicole, he couldn’t believe that Katie would think it was okay to write about what they shared, period—whether it was for her first or final draft.

“Okay,” he told her. “What about knock out, drag out, heart ripping out or something kind of misunderstanding? What the hell is that?”

His mom actually chuckled at that one. “Oh, goodness. You are one silly boy. Haven’t you ever watched a romance movie? The misunderstanding is like the ‘all is lost’ moment,” she said.

“Yeah, yeah, she mentioned all is lost or something. What’s that?” If he was going to talk to Katie again, he had to understand.

“That’s usually when there is some misunderstanding that breaks up the couple so all of us readers can feel their pain and cry our hearts out. Then when you can’t cry any more tears, they finally talk and all is right in the world again. The couple gets back together and they have their happily ever after.”

“She said she wasn’t going to do the big misunderstanding with me.”

“Well thank the heavens for that. She’s telling you she’s not going to drag this out, honey. She loves you and she wants to resolve this thing as quickly as possible.”

“You think she loves me?” Casey smiled, relief washing over him the more he talked things through with his mom.

“Of course she does.”

That’s all he needed to know. They said their goodbyes and for the first time since he left the B&B, he could finally breathe easy. They still had a lot to talk about, but he felt better knowing he’d be back soon. And then, as his mom put it, all would be right in the world again.

But first, he had to text Katie. He couldn’t call her. Chris had shaken his head in his direction earlier. Now, he had a stupid smirk on his face. He didn’t need to hear their shit. And he also had no idea what Katie would throw at him. Like she’d lost her pants. What the hell was that all about?

He stared at his phone for a second before he tapped on the screen.

I’m not full of shit. I didn’t leave you. I’m on a call just outside of town. I should be back tonight. I’ll call you when I get in. I don’t want to drag this out either. I’m sorry I didn’t listen. I know you’re worth it. I’m not going anywhere. Ever. You’re my HEA, Kate… PS: what happened to your pants? PPS: you might want to wash your face.