by Amie Denman
“So sorry, honey, I was vacuuming so I’d have everything clean when your father gets home,” her mother said.
Kate rolled her eyes and nearly joined her mother on the last five words. How many times had she heard those words?
“That’s okay, Mom, I’m just calling to say hello and tell you my great news.”
“You’re coming home!”
“I’m not coming home, but I am enrolling in school,” Kate said.
“Not truck driving school again. Your father and I just hate thinking of you all alone out there on the road somewhere where there could be maniacs and murderers.”
“I never saw any up close, but I’m sure there are probably maniacs and murderers not too far from your house, Mom,” Kate said. She regretted her words as soon as she said them, imagining her mother having additional security cameras or alarms installed on her home, which was already safer than a bank.
To cover the silence from the other end, Kate told her mother all about flight attendant school, the training and the job prospects and how she’d finally found her calling in life.
“Is that safe?” her mother asked.
“Sure it is,” Kate said. “Flying is statistically safer than driving.”
“What are you doing right now?”
“Driving from Daytona back to Cape Pursuit. I only have about nine hours to go.”
More silence on the other end.
Kate sighed. “I just wanted to share my good news, and tell you I love you and Dad and hope you’re doing well.”
Her mother assured her she loved her and said she would pass on everything Kate had said as soon as her father got home. Kate had no doubt she would.
Feeling as if the wings of her excitement had been clipped or coated with concrete, Kate tried to cheer herself up by putting her road music playlist back on, but it didn’t have the effect she wanted. It would be too late to call Brady when she got home or ask him to meet her for a late-night drink. He wanted to be a homebody so desperately he was looking at houses with a Realtor, but Kate still thought he understood her desire for freedom and accepted her feelings as valid. It was nice, and she thought of Brady’s warm eyes and smile for the next one hundred miles.
CHAPTER TEN
“PREAPPROVAL,” CHARLIE TOLD Brady as they waited for the state fire inspector to show up at the scene of the previous day’s nursing home fire. “The trick to buying the home you want is to know for sure how much the bank is willing to bet on you.”
“I’m almost afraid to guess,” Brady said.
Charlie ducked beneath a piece of yellow caution tape and held it up for Brady to step under. “You could probably get an appointment later today or sometime tomorrow and sit down with a loan officer. I think you’re going to be pleasantly surprised. I’ve gotten people into really nice houses who weren’t half as good a risk as you.”
“I have no collateral and not enough down payment,” Brady argued. He hated getting his hopes up, even though he knew Charlie had expertise in this realm. Would his friend mislead him? No. But Charlie also had no idea that Brady had started life with absolutely nothing and was very slowly building.
Charlie shrugged. “The house itself is the collateral. That’s how it works. You pay on it your whole life, and then you retire debt free, die and leave it to your kids. It’s the American dream.”
Brady laughed. “Is that how it worked for you?”
“Nope. My dad is still enjoying his house, and Jane and I are making mortgage payments just like everyone else.” Charlie cocked his head and gave Brady a long look. “You never mention your parents.”
Brady pulled off a chunk of siding that was hanging down in front of the facility’s entrance. It came loose with a loud groan and Brady tossed it into a pile of debris in the front yard. His heart ached for the infirm and elderly residents who had spent the night somewhere else after being suddenly uprooted. He knew what that felt like, the fear and uncertainty. He’d experienced it as a child, but he imagined the feelings were much the same for anyone, regardless of age.
“Nothing to brag about,” Brady said. Charlie meant well, and there was no reason to keep his childhood a secret. “Never met my dad, wouldn’t know him if I saw him. I’d like to think my mom was doing the best she could as a single parent, but, man, it didn’t really look that way to Noah and me. We slept in a lot of different places when we were kids.”
Charlie crossed his arms and leaned against the front wall of the fire-ravaged building. “You don’t have to live like that anymore. Or your brother. You’ll never be rich doing this job, but if you’ll take my advice and go see that loan officer, I think you could be putting up Christmas lights on your own house this December.”
Brady smiled. “I’ve never done that.”
“If you get good at it, you can come over to my place and put them up. To Jane’s satisfaction, of course. She has an artist’s eye, and I think my efforts last Christmas were not quite what she had in mind.” Charlie laughed. “She said it looked like a cartoon character had tried to hang outdoor decorations. I don’t think it was a compliment.”
Brady let himself dream about putting up outdoor lights and an artificial tree in his own spacious living room. As a firefighter, he wouldn’t have a fresh-cut evergreen in his home, too much of a hazard. But he’d buy the best-looking artificial tree and have his brother and niece help him decorate it. They would put out cookies and milk for Santa. He’d drink coffee with Noah while Bella opened presents under the tree on Christmas morning. Seeing Kate over a cup of steaming coffee would complete the fantasy, but he knew that was as likely as flying reindeer landing on the beach at Cape Pursuit.
He shook off the thoughts that were so real to him he could almost smell the cookies and coffee. It was too tempting, too indulgent to even hope for. Brady glanced up and saw the state fire inspector’s truck at the curb, and it was both a disappointment and a relief to get his thoughts back on work.
“This guy’s going to have a lot of questions,” Charlie said. “The chief owes us one for meeting the state inspector here and babysitting him while he walks through.”
“Chief still has to do the paperwork,” Brady said. “I think we’re getting the easy job.”
Two hours later, Charlie and Brady got back in the fire department pickup truck, and Charlie drove toward the station. He held out his phone to Brady as he kept one hand on the wheel. “Scroll through my contacts and you’ll find two banks in Cape Pursuit I think give people a fair shake. Call and make an appointment.”
Brady took the phone and tapped the screen to bring it to life. “I don’t know,” he said.
“Trust me. Any chance your brother can contribute to the buying effort? I’m assuming he’s going to keep living with you, but I don’t know what his deal is.”
Brady blew out a breath. “I’m not sure what his long-range plan is, either. His girlfriend has a family illness issue this summer, and she’s trusting him with Bella. I’m trying to make sure he does such a great job that he gets at least shared custody. I like having them in my house and feeling like a family.”
“What does Kate think of that?”
Brady paused in his scrolling when he found the first bank in Charlie’s contact list. It was the one where his brother applied for the accounting job. Should he skip that one? He had no idea if his brother would be offered a job there, and if he was, would it be a conflict of interest to apply for a loan? Better go with the other one, he thought as he found the other bank and transferred the phone number into his own contact list.
“So I’m getting ignored on the whole Kate question,” Charlie said. “Okay.”
“I was copying the phone number for the bank so I could take your pushy advice,” Brady said, grinning at his friend. “And I have no idea what to say about Kate except that I’m sure I’ll be saying goodbye to her again in September, probabl
y for good.”
“Scaring her away two years in a row, huh?”
Brady tucked his phone in his shirt pocket and leaned back in the seat. “She’s not the kind of person who scares easily, but she’s got a whole plan for her life that doesn’t include settling down here or anywhere.”
“Good for her, I guess,” Charlie said. “I gave up making plans when I found out Jane was expecting our daughter. Right now, I’m just trying to survive diapers and teething.”
“You’re loving every minute of it,” Brady said.
“You’re not wrong,” Charlie said as he pulled into the fire station and cut the engine.
After a minor ambulance call and a late lunch, Brady called the loan department at the bank and, to his surprise, got a late-afternoon appointment. His gut twisted with nervousness at the thought of sitting across from someone and exposing his financial fitness for home ownership. Would they laugh at him and tell him he was several years away from even thinking about it? He’d tried researching loans online, but always ended up giving up out of exasperation and...fear. What did he know about being a home owner and settling down? He’d never had a dad who showed him how to put up a ladder and clean out the gutters. He’d never even mowed a lawn until he got a job as a firefighter in Cape Pursuit and rented the house he was still living in. His mother had never needed him or Noah to install a dishwasher or repair a window because she had never owned a house or stayed in one place very long.
Maybe he wasn’t qualified to own a house...maybe wanting it wasn’t enough?
He would find out. There was no way to back out, not with Charlie encouraging him and asking pointed questions. And he owed it to Noah and Bella to put on a brave face and lay out his tax returns, pay stubs and banking information to be judged by someone across a desk at the bank.
With over an hour to spare between work and his appointment, Brady planned to stop by home and grab the paperwork he kept in a small fire-safe box. He decided to wear his firefighter’s uniform of a navy-blue shirt with the Cape Pursuit Fire Department symbol over the chest pocket. He would look professional and employed when he went to the bank, and that couldn’t hurt. Brady pulled up the employee app on his phone, wondering if Kate was on the schedule or if she might be at her place. He scrolled through the roster. No Kate.
Seeing her for even a few minutes would be nice. He still needed to find a way to thank her for taking care of Bella, and showing up at her house not smelling like a fire would be a step in the right direction. Maybe he could ask her to dinner after his bank meeting.
Brady pulled his truck into Kate’s apartment parking lot and got out, feeling buoyant. She wouldn’t be impressed by his excitement over a home loan, but he wanted to tell someone about it. He didn’t see her car in the parking lot, but he knocked on her door anyway, hoping. There were voices inside, he noted happily, but when Holly opened the door, Brady felt a slice of disappointment.
“She’s gone,” Holly said without any preamble. “Took off early this morning, I think.”
“Gone?” The word left a hollow feeling in Brady’s chest.
Holly wasn’t alone in the apartment. A man lounged on the secondhand couch in the living room. In answer to his question, Holly shrugged. “I’m not in charge of her schedule, and I can’t remember what she told me when she was talking about leaving.”
Brady’s stomach sank and he wished he hadn’t made the impulsive decision to stop by and see Kate. He’d been a fool to think Kate would be waiting at home for him to share his feelings about the bank visit. She had her own life, own plans, and he was well aware that they didn’t include him no matter how much he wished they could.
“Do you know when she’ll be back?” Brady asked. The way Holly said gone made it sound final. He wanted to ask Holly if Kate would be back, but Holly was preoccupied with her company and didn’t seem to have any knowledge she was willing to share.
It had been just like this last September. A kiss on the beach one evening, and then Kate was gone the next day, forever as far as Brady knew at the time. She wouldn’t just disappear again, would she? And long before the summer ended? Had he done something to drive her away, no matter how careful he’d been to respect her space?
“Did she take everything with her?” he asked.
“She doesn’t have much,” Holly said. “Sorry,” she added, her eyes straying to her guest as if she wanted Brady to go away.
“Thanks, anyway,” Brady said. “Sorry to bother you.” He went out to his truck and got in, but he didn’t start it. He rested his forehead on the top of the steering wheel, hoping maybe Kate would pull in if he just waited a few minutes. Time ticked by, and he knew he had to get going to his appointment or risk being late. He considered calling or texting Kate. Would it hurt to tell her he was thinking of her? Was she thinking about him when she left early that morning without leaving any kind of a message for him? Had she really taken everything with her? He wished he had taken a closer inventory of the apartment the one other time he’d been in it... Did it seem empty now?
He sighed, started the truck and drove to the bank parking lot. He called his brother’s cell phone. Noah had not been home during Brady’s brief stop to pick up his paperwork, but Brady needed to hear a friendly voice, someone who was always on his side.
“Are you busy?” Brady asked. It was unreasonable to hope that Noah would be able to go with him to the bank appointment. There was Bella to consider, and Noah didn’t really have anything to contribute. But still, he wanted his brother’s support.
“I’m walking home from the library with Bella. She checked out about fifteen books that all look the same to me. Bedtime is going to go on forever tonight.”
Brady smiled, thinking about how nice it would be to help tuck in his niece and offer to read a story or two. He remembered his mother reading a book to him and Noah a few times when they were little. There wasn’t always a room of their own or even a bed, but their mother had tried, sometimes.
“Did you need something?” Noah asked.
“No,” Brady said. He wanted to ask for Noah’s help or encouragement, but his brother had enough going on, his own responsibilities. Brady would do what he could to provide a permanent home without burdening his brother or pressuring him to contribute in any way. Brady was the older sibling, and he had always tried to shelter Noah. “Just wanted to say hello. I’ll be home around six. Want me to pick up dinner?”
“That would be great. Try to get something with vegetables if you can so I don’t feel like a bad father.”
Brady laughed. “I’ll get the kids’ meal with the carrots and applesauce so you won’t have to feel guilty.”
As he gathered up his tax returns and pay stubs, Brady told himself to toughen up. He hadn’t had a father to teach him about home maintenance, but Noah had a bigger problem. He hadn’t had a father to teach him how to be a dad, and yet he was giving it everything he had every day. Brady could face a loan officer if his younger brother could face the responsibility of taking care of another human being.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
BRADY HATED BEING glad about a busy day at the station because being on the run meant other people were having a lousy day. Two car accidents, one medical emergency at a beach hotel and a potentially disastrous house fire were miserable for the people involved, even though it was good for Brady to have barely a moment to sit down, eat or think about Kate.
Saving someone’s home from destruction had come at the right moment for him, just when he was questioning his passion for owning his own home. Not that the meeting at the bank had gone badly, but Brady had had a hard time interpreting the poker face of the loan officer who told him they would get back to him in seven to ten days with a preliminary loan amount he could qualify for.
The other thing he needed was communication from Kate, even if it came in the form of closure. He was scheduled for the morning shift on
the trolley after two long days of hearing and seeing nothing of Kate. He’d looked on the employee app, of course. Kate was also scheduled for the day shift. Would she show up? He couldn’t imagine her leaving George and the company high and dry, but the one thing he knew about her was her rock-solid plan for not sticking around.
“Hello,” Kate said, looking up and smiling as soon as Brady entered the break room at the trolley office and held up his card to swipe it through the time clock. His first thought was that she was there, still in Cape Pursuit. His second thought was that she looked radiant and happy. His third thought involved kissing her, but it came so closely on the heels of his other impressions that he could hardly tell his emotions apart.
“Hi,” he said, unsure what to say next. For him, so much had happened since he’d seen her, but what had been going on with her? She deserved the chance to tell him, and they had at least ten minutes before the first trolley was scheduled to depart. “I missed you.”
“I was gone less than two days,” she said. She used the break room coffeepot to refill her travel mug, and she didn’t look at him. “Hardly enough to even notice,” she added in a low voice.
“I noticed.” He wanted to add that it would have been nice if she’d mentioned she was going to be gone and when she would be back—that she would even be back. But he didn’t. Did a summer romance involve such terms? Did he have to check in with her if he was going to be out late?
“I didn’t want to bother you because I know you work a lot,” she said. Her voice faltered a bit. “So I didn’t call or text.”
“I wouldn’t have minded.” Brady slid his employee identification card back into his wallet. He separated a disposable coffee cup from the stack, and Kate took it and filled it for him. She put it on the counter next to the creamer and sugar, but she didn’t touch him even though she stood very close to him.
“You didn’t call or text me, either,” Kate said.
