caught his attention and interest. For weeks, all Ethan had heard was Greg this, Greg that, and while he wasn’t normally a jealous person, he’d suspected Emily was interested in the man who’d driven into Brookhollow in his Audi R8 and designer suit.
So when the executive had offered her an opportunity to join the management trainee program to become a corporate trainer, Emily had jumped at the opportunity. That hadn’t surprised Ethan. Emily had always talked about leaving Brookhollow to live in a big city, but he wondered how much of her decision had been based on the job offer and how much on her new boss.
“Why don’t you ever answer it?”
“I’ve got nothing to say to her.” In fact, he had a lot to say, but he preferred to take the high road. Emily had made her choice, and while her decision to end a ten-year relationship on a whim had made him angry, there had been nothing he could do about it when she was standing right there in front of him. He doubted he could talk sense into her when she was in sunny Florida, living the life she’d always claimed she wanted.
“I can think of a few things to say. Can I answer it next time?” Jim drained the contents of his iced cappuccino and set the cup in the holder.
“There’s no point, Jim. Nothing we say will bring her back.” Ethan checked the rearview mirror and noticed Bailey’s tow truck speeding along in the lane beside him.
“Is that what you think I want?” Jim scoffed. “Tell me you’re not crazy enough to want that.”
Ethan remained silent. His brother didn’t get it. Jim and his girlfriend, Jill, had only been seeing each other for two years. They were sickeningly in love and Jim had never had to experience the pain and humiliation Ethan had suffered. Emily’s leaving had shocked him, along with almost everyone else in town. Sure, things hadn’t been great between them for a while, but they’d still loved each other. At least, he’d still been in love. And to leave him for a man she’d known less than a month was a blow to his ego, difficult to recover from.
“Oh, come on, man. She ran off the first opportunity she got.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that.” And his family hadn’t allowed him to forget. They expected that his anger over the situation should help to erase the pain and longing he felt for the woman who’d been a major part—maybe even the biggest part—of his life since high school. His sister, Melody, was probably the most understanding, having lost her husband two years before in a car accident, but even she thought that he would have moved on by now. And for the most part, he thought he was doing well. At least, until the phone rang and it was her. Not answering her calls when he longed to hear her voice was torture.
The phone chimed with a text message and he reached for it.
But Jim got to it first. “We need to talk?” he read aloud.
Ethan sighed. “That’s all she ever says.” Above everything else was a nagging curiosity about what she obviously needed to say to him. He wondered how long he could remain strong and continue to ignore her. Admittedly, his resolve was weakening. Angry or not, he missed the life they had created together. He had liked knowing where he was headed—his job was solid, one he enjoyed and did well, and his relationship had been comfortable, secure.... Maybe that had been the problem. Emily thrived on new and exciting, changing jobs every few months. He wondered how long the new Play Hard opportunity would keep her happy.
“Do you think she wants to come back?”
Ethan denied himself that hope. “I don’t know.”
“Would you take her back if she did?”
The million-dollar question. He hesitated before saying, “I’m not an idiot, Jim.”
“You’re not answering the question.”
Ethan snatched the phone away before Jim could answer the text, which he knew he was aching to do, and slid it into his shirt pocket. He pulled the truck to the side of the highway behind an old rusted red Volkswagen Jetta and jumped down onto the gravel. He positioned two traffic cones in the inside lane, forcing the oncoming traffic to take the outside lane, as Bailey’s tow truck pulled in front of the Jetta and she climbed out, clipboard in hand.
“I’ll be here if you need me,” Jim called from inside the truck, reclining the seat and shutting his eyes.
“You’re not even going to get out of the truck?”
“It’s a simple backup call. I only came along to get out of clinic duty.”
Ethan shook his head as he closed the truck door. It amazed him how their work ethic differed so drastically. Jim was four years older, yet he’d never shown any interest in advancing his rank at the fire hall. Ethan had worked hard, proving himself to his senior coworkers and landing the position of captain by the time he was twenty-four.
He approached Bailey at the front of the vehicle where she was speaking to a short, frazzled-looking bald man. “I’ll just need your driver’s license and your credit card...and I’ll have you hooked up and ready to go in just a few minutes. Feel free to sit in the truck to wait. The air-conditioning is on and it’s much cooler in there.”
The man disappeared inside the cab of the tow truck and Ethan waited until he was out of earshot before saying, “This car has to be at least thirty years old.” He leaned against the bumper to watch her work, and the metal frame creaked in protest.
“That thing looks about to fall off,” she warned as she put the tow dolly’s coupler in open position by lowering the locking lever all the way down and inserting the locking pin to secure it in place.
Good point, he thought as he stood. “So, before I forget, we’re holding Luke’s bachelor party at the fire hall tonight—poker, darts, beer, the baseball game.... If you’re not doing anything, stop by.” Bailey was a regular at their weekly poker games, much to the dismay of the other guys, whose wallets she emptied.
“Stop by? To Luke’s bachelor party—the ultimate boys night?” She sounded incredulous as she inserted the electrical plug from the dolly into the switch on the back of the tow truck. That way the brake lights and turning signals on the dolly would work while en route to the shop.
“Yeah, why not?” He knew Luke wouldn’t mind. Bailey had always been like a third, less-annoying sister to the groom-to-be, and she kept his ancient, rusted-out truck on the road.
“I have Victoria’s bachelorette party tonight. A wine and cheese in the backyard of the Brookhollow Inn.” She crisscrossed the chains and connected them to the eyelets on the bumper of the car.
“That sounds awful.”
“You’re telling me.”
A loud boom sounded and they both swung around to see smoke and flames coming from the hood of the Jetta.
Great, the piece of crap car was on fire.
Quickly, he pushed Bailey toward the guardrail on the side of the highway and said, “Stay right here!” Then, running to the truck, he rapped on the passenger door to get Jim’s attention before grabbing a jump line of two lengths of forty-four-inch hose and a nozzle.
“What happened?” Jim asked, joining him.
“That car should never have passed its last road-safety inspection,” he muttered as he grabbed his coat and self-contained breathing apparatus from inside the fire truck. Nothing annoyed him more than accidents that could have been prevented. This car was long past retirement and posed a safety threat.
He secured the mask in place before advancing toward the car, spraying the flames that had spread around the base of the vehicle. The last thing he wanted was for the flames to spread to the tow truck. Bailey had just purchased the wheel-lift truck the month before after buying the garage from her uncle. She loved that four-wheel drive almost as much as she loved her motorcycle. It would serve as her primary vehicle in the winter months.
Jim grabbed the Halligan bar to gain access to the fire under the hood. Hurrying,