The Firefighter's Appeal (Harlequin Superromance) (9 page)

Macy tucked a curl behind her ear. “He’s coming to Danbury and he wants to see you. Wondered if I could relay the message since you won’t call him back.” Her face scrunched. “What’s this all about?”

Lily spread her hands. “I don’t know, and to be honest, I don’t care. I’m sorry he called you.”

Macy’s eyes lit up. “Maybe he’s dying from some horrible bastard-killing disease and he’s coming to throw himself at your feet to beg forgiveness.”

They both laughed at the crude justification in that. Lily had wished a pox on Rob more than once—never seriously, of course—but it was hard to not feel vindictive when her heart had been breaking.

Even as she thought about it, a familiar pang hit her. Rob had never said why he’d left, and though it shouldn’t matter after all this time, it sort of did. There were times, more than she wanted to admit, that she wondered what had prompted him to go, and it left her unsettled. Closure was a good thing, and though she’d mostly achieved that, Lily had a little hole that Rob could fill with an explanation. Even if it was one she didn’t want to face.

“I’ll send him a text to stop calling. I’ll change my number if I have to. Seriously, that is how badly I don’t want to speak to that man.” Lily didn’t miss the tight corners of Macy’s usually smiling mouth, or the tired little creases next to her eyes.

“Yeah,” Macy agreed with a sigh. She looked down and picked at something on the table. “If only it was that easy, right?”

Concern hit Lily hard. In all the years she’d known Macy, Lily had never seen her look so...flat. She touched Macy’s hand.

“What’s up, Mace? Don’t say nothing....”

Macy shook her head as if it wasn’t a big deal. “Devon keeps calling me. I know what it’s like, the calls—not wanting them. Wishing they’d just leave you alone so you can move on. You know?” Macy and Devon hadn’t been together that long.

“So you haven’t been sad that the two of you broke up?” By the disgust on Macy’s face, Lily figured she was right.

“God, no. I’m frustrated because he won’t leave me alone. Calls at all hours, drives by my house. Sometimes he just sits there and stares at the front door, like he’s waiting for me to come out.”

Lily’s throat went tight. She leaned in closer over the table, wanting to simultaneously hug Macy and shake her silly. “Macy Marie, why didn’t you tell me? What...what can we do?”

The smile Macy produced might have fooled someone else, but not Lily.

“It’s fine. I haven’t heard from him or seen him in over a week. I think he’s finally moved on.” Macy took both of Lily’s hands and cocked her head.

“I didn’t say anything because you’ve got enough going on. Katja’s... The anniversary of that day, and all the projects you’re working on. Speaking of which, how is our hot Thor/bartender/fireman doing?”

Lily slumped in her seat and took a long drink of coffee. “Nice deflection, Macy.”

Truth was, she’d wanted to talk to Macy about how muddled her emotions had been since meeting Garrett, but the opportunity had never presented itself. She checked the clock on her cell phone, saw that she still had plenty of time to finish up Garrett’s drafts before he stopped by that night. She folded her hands and pursed her lips. No time like the present.

“I’ve been having nightmares again, ever since I met Garrett. It was like the moment he told me he was a firefighter a switch in my head turned on and let all the demons back out.”

Lily grabbed two sugar packets, ripped them open and dumped them into her coffee. She didn’t usually like sweet things, but it gave her hands something to do.

“I haven’t slept much since the night of the fund-raiser,” she continued. “Every time I close my eyes, I see Katja’s face, and I get this
feeling,
like she wants me to... I don’t know.” Lily grabbed another sugar packet, but Macy plucked it from her fingers and put it back.

“Wants you to what?”

Lily’s chest grew heavy. This was silly. “Nothing. I just...I have this feeling that she wants me to find out
why.
” She puffed air between her lips. That was probably the craziest sentence that had ever come out of her mouth. Ah, the fun of emotional trauma.

Despite how foolish Lily felt, Macy didn’t look surprised. Her brow was furrowed, her green eyes inquisitive.

“Are you saying you’re seeing Katja’s ghost?”

Shivers burst along Lily’s arms and scalp. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe in the supernatural, but the thought of her sister’s spirit roaming the earth was too much to bear. If Katja had to be gone, it was better for her to be gone completely.

“No, no. That’s not it. It’s just that, when I think about her, I get this sensation that she wants me to find out
why.
Why the fire happened. Why she died. I never had that feeling before the fund-raiser. I think it was being around all those firemen.”

Lily and her father had never gotten a firm answer on what had caused the fire, and the case had been closed as accidental. Lily knew she should be grateful to have made it out alive when eight others hadn’t—and she was—but the memories made it hard not to be bitter. All those firemen, and not a single one had been able to get Katja out....

“Maybe you should talk to Garrett about it.” Macy raised an eyebrow and nodded as if that made perfect sense.

Lily shook her head. As much as she liked to see things through, she had long ago accepted that she’d never get closure in Katja’s death, not completely.

“He’s a client. Why would I discuss my personal business with him?”

She grabbed another sugar packet and ripped it open before Macy could stop her. The little granules glittered in the sunlight streaming through the window as she poured them slowly into her coffee. Macy plucked the sugar container off the table and made it disappear under her side of the table.

“Because he’s a firefighter. Maybe he’d be able to help you understand a little more about that night. He wasn’t there, so maybe he’ll have an unbiased, professional view on the whole thing. Or—”

Macy’s cell phone rang. Her shoulders tightened and she clenched her jaw as she dug it out of her purse. She checked the number, visibly relaxing.

“Or you could just sleep with him and enjoy yourself.” Macy’s wink was wicked as she answered the call, leaving Lily with her mouth open.

Sleep with Garrett.
There were so many reasons that would not happen. She thought of all the phone numbers in Garrett’s personal pick-a-girl bucket. She’d fallen for his charm once and luckily stopped herself before she’d become another number.

Macy hung up, her smile genuinely happy.

“Ha! That was my hairdresser. She can fit me in right now. Call me later?”

This girl and her hair.
Macy took naturally curly to a red-carpet level and didn’t care how much it cost. “You got it.”

“Think about what I said?” Macy slid out of the booth, Lily right behind.

“About sleeping with Garrett?” She rolled her eyes, giving Macy a little wave as she headed to the door while Lily went to order new coffee.

“That, too!” Macy called out before the door shut behind her.

That, too. No. Way.

* * *

L
ILY
WHISTLED
WHAT
should have been Maroon 5’s “Payphone,” but it came out more like the screech of a dying cat as she walked into the Ashden building. Her talents had never extended to music, but it didn’t stop her from trying. Especially since she knew how much her father hated whistling. She thought he might still be at lunch, but Doug stuck his head out of his office as she passed by.

“What the hell is that noise?”

Lily whistled louder in response. Girl time with Macy had been just what she needed, though she now had more clutter in her head than before. Namely, worry over Macy’s confession about Devon being a creeper and the hope that he really was gone for good. Next in line was Macy’s lovely suggestion about spilling her guts to Garrett.

She pushed that advice away as a sick feeling churned in her gut. Talking to him about Katja would probably lead to her having a meltdown, and she wasn’t about to put that kind of emotional baggage on a man she barely knew. Besides, Ashdens didn’t have meltdowns; they just found more work to do until they got over it.

“Deal with it, Doug,” she called out with sticky sweetness as she walked into her office. And stopped dead. Her purse and laptop bag slipped off her shoulder, dumping her computer onto the carpeted floor.

At least a dozen yellow roses sat on her desk in a glass mosaic vase.

“If roses will keep you from whistling, I’ll get you some every damn day.” Lily barely heard Doug’s quip as she made her way to the desk and gingerly touched the delicate petals. There were fifteen, artfully arranged around a backsplash of baby’s breath and greenery. A little card sat on a stick in the center. Heart pounding, she plucked it from the holder. Her father’s breath washed over her neck as he leaned over her shoulder.

“Who’d ya impress, there, girlie?”

“Doug, please. It’s probably a mistake.”

Doug smacked his lips. “Yep, that’s why the card says ‘Lily’ on it.”

Her cheeks flushed when she realized her name was scrawled across the white envelope. She’d never been sent flowers before. In the four years they’d been together, Rob had never sent the token, insisting that she wasn’t the “flowers type.”

Until now, she’d never considered flowers her thing, either, but apparently all it took to change her mind was for someone to make the attempt. The roses were gorgeous, and her office smelled amazing. And with the beautiful mosaic vase, the arrangement was most certainly her style.

Someone had guessed well. Her fingers trembled as she eased the card out of the envelope, already suspecting what name she’d find. Her tummy quivered when she saw she was right.

Enjoy. Garrett

Lily dropped the card onto the desk. She couldn’t stop the smile that crossed her lips or the flash of joy that sparked in her heart. As she tucked her hair behind her ear, she realized she was shaking. A mixture of jubilation and fear tumbled into her. She was way too happy at Garrett’s thoughtfulness. She liked this too much—she couldn’t like this, could she?

She read the note again, as if an explanation would magically pop up, something like “thanks for meeting with me” or “thanks for dealing with my cockiness.” The little he had written left his motives open to interpretation.

“This
Garrett
isn’t a client, I hope,” her father said from behind her.

“Jesus, Doug. Don’t make me chop you up into little pieces and scatter you across five states.”

“Lily.” The firmness of his voice dampened her joy, but it also made her want to laugh. Was he trying to be protective or watch out for her interests...something
fatherly?

When her engagement to Rob had ended, her father had given her a pat on the back and extra work to “take your mind off things.” Nothing more was ever said about it, nor had he encouraged her attempts to bring it up. So she’d locked her pain and anger and withering self-worth away, in the same little compartment of her heart where her grief over Katja’s death lived.

She wasn’t about to put herself out there with her father now. “Garrett happens to be the co-owner of the Throwing Aces. I’ve been meeting with him since Brad Mateo is apparently out for a while. These are just a nice gesture, that’s all.”

Lily retrieved her laptop and set it down before turning to the windows behind her desk. Golden rays of sun struggled to break through the overhead clouds. Little shadows of yellow dotted the grass and leaves outside, not unlike the pale golden hue of the flowers on her desk.
My own perfect sunshine.
Lily hugged herself, wishing to hold on to the contentment. That peaceful feeling was unfamiliar, yet so very, very comforting.

Doug cleared his throat behind her. Moment over. Lily turned, frowning at the blueprint that looked up at her from her desk. She cocked her head at her dad and picked the paper up. “What’s this?”

“Lincoln sent that over for you this morning.”

Lily’s gaze returned to the drawing. She immediately recognized the old shoe factory. A turn-of-the-century brick structure, the shoe factory had housed a handful of businesses in Danbury over the years since closing its doors to shoe making in the 1930s. It sat just at the edge of town on a lot that was both quiet yet easily accessible from the main road. The blueprint showed the stately three-story building redesigned as a showroom. Across the top was Lincoln’s fancy script handwriting. “Lily’s Showroom. Big Plans for My Brilliant Sister.”

“Shoe factory’s for sale.” Doug’s nose twitched. “Lincoln thought you might like to see how easily the building could be converted into a showroom like we have in Nashville.” He sniffed and turned to the door as if he was going to walk out, but Lily called his name. Unable to take her eyes from the miniblueprint, she waved Doug back to her side.

“Wait a minute.” She and Katja had planned to open a showroom in Danbury. The town was growing, thanks to the state college being so close. Tourism had increased, and people were slowly investing more in their homes. The success of a showroom was promising, though Doug had never seemed very supportive of their plan.

After Katja’s death, his indifference to Lily’s passion for local artists was a big reason she’d given up on the idea of the showroom and resolved to just move to Nashville. Lincoln was always welcoming and supportive. Even now, Lincoln was giving her something to believe in, a reason to stay in Danbury and be close to their father. She pushed down a sad sigh. Too bad work had to be the reason she stayed here with him.

Lily ran a finger over the carefully drafted blue lines on the drawing. It was standard-size paper, just right for sending via fax machine, but she could still envision the scale. Lincoln had drafted out the bottom level as a store for architectural salvages to be sold, the middle floor as an artist showroom and the top floor for offices. It was large enough that another business could be hosted there, too. It was perfect.

Doug’s breathing was loud in her ear as he leaned over her shoulder to peer at the print. She turned to him. The blasé look on his face should have stopped her, but she didn’t learn easily, apparently.