by Amie Denman
“Is she all right?” Brady asked. He’d been on duty at the station all day and there hadn’t been any accidents involving a young woman.
Kate swallowed and laced her fingers together. “Basically, yes, but she’s in a bit of trouble. She met a guy.” Kate sighed. “At the bar last night, and she left town with him this morning for some stupid reason I don’t know, and—long story short—he dumped her about two hours away from here.”
A hundred worried thoughts raced through Brady’s mind. “But you said she’s okay.”
Kate nodded. “I think so. But someone needs to go get her.”
“I’ll go with you.”
Kate looped an arm around him and laid her head on his chest. Brady cautiously put his arms around her and held her in a close hug. This was a new side of Kate he’d never seen, the Kate who reached out and needed someone, even though she was asking for a friend and not herself.
“Someone has to drive this trolley tonight. I’m scheduled, but—”
“Tell me what you need me to do. I can take your shift here, or I can go pick up Holly. Your choice.”
He was sure he was looking at eight more hours of driving and eight more hours of wondering about his email in-box, but he would do it without a second of complaint.
Kate backed away and looked up at Brady. “I saw the guy she was with. I...didn’t like the look of him.”
“I’ll go.”
“I...wish you would, even though I hate asking. If things go well, you’ll be there and back in just four hours and you’ll get to bed at a decent time,” Kate said. “I know you must be tired after working last night at the station and all day here.” Her eyebrows came together and formed a line. “I don’t know who else to ask.”
Brady ran a hand over her hair. “I’m always here for you.”
Kate pressed a set of car keys into his hand. “Take my car. I just filled it up this morning, even though I had no idea I’d need to take a road trip today.”
“I’ll drive my truck. Just text me the address.”
“I don’t want you to have to do that—”
Brady smiled. “Do you think my truck smells too funny inside for your friend?”
Kate almost laughed, and the line between her eyebrows smoothed out. Brady hated seeing her upset and he wished he could clear the way for her wherever she went even though she would hate that.
“I’m sorry about this,” she said.
Brady kissed her on the lips and lingered there just long enough to wish he didn’t have to go. “Don’t be. I’ll let you know when I’ve found her, and I may even let her buy me dinner at a drive-through on the way back.”
Kate fumbled in her purse. “She won’t have any money, I’m sure. She—”
Brady caught her hands. “I’m kidding. I’ll call you.”
He gave her back her car keys, clocked out in the office and headed for his truck. His email could wait. Before he started his truck, his phone pinged with a message from Kate with the address of a roadside restaurant a good two hours west of Cape Pursuit. It would be a long evening, and he had no idea what he and Holly were going to talk about on the two-hour ride home, but he knew one thing for certain.
Kate had needed help, and she had come to him. That would give him plenty to think about on the road. Brady headed west, and he did think about Kate along the way, but he also thought about Holly and what motivated her to choose the wrong kind of guys and trust them. He knew her type, sadly. Had grown up with a mother who wasn’t a bad person, just as Holly wasn’t, but who made profoundly bad choices. At least Holly didn’t have any kids depending on her, and she had something his mother didn’t. She had a good friend who tried to keep her out of trouble and was quick to help her when she needed it. What would happen to Holly when she and Kate parted ways at the end of the summer?
What would happen to him?
After Brady pulled into the roadside restaurant and went inside, he found Holly at a booth by the window, scrolling through screens on her phone.
“Where’s Kate?” she asked as soon as Brady slid into the booth across from her.
“Working. I had the evening off and I volunteered to come pick you up and give you a lift home,” he said, being careful not to let any judgment creep into his voice. Growing up as he did, he knew darn well that he and his brother, Noah, could easily have fallen into a messy lifestyle filled with destructive decisions. Noah had been saved by Corrinne’s love and now his responsibility as a father to Bella, and Brady had been saved by that protective voice inside him that drove him to help others instead of becoming a burden himself.
Holly swallowed. “Sorry,” she said. Her eyes became watery and Brady pulled a napkin from the holder on the empty table.
“It’s okay. Listen, I’m starving, so why don’t I get us both some dinner and then we’ll get home in time for the sunset in Cape Pursuit.”
Holly nodded. Brady ordered them both a sandwich platter and glasses of soda, and they ate in silence and then got in the truck.
After a half hour of near silence, Holly asked, “You’re not going to say anything about how stupid I am?”
Brady shook his head. “You’re not any stupider than the rest of us. You trusted your heart a little sooner than you should have, but there’s no harm done. Is there?” he said, looking at her with concern.
“No harm,” she said. “I’ve been thinking...well, I think maybe it’s time I go home. My sister works at a nice salon in Tulsa, does hair and nails. She took a beauty course at the community college, and my parents want me to come back and maybe go into business with Annie.”
“That sounds like a good plan,” Brady offered.
He heard her let out a long shuddering breath. “I wasn’t good enough for any of the boys I went to high school with,” she said. “I thought I’d get away and meet new people, meet a decent guy.”
Brady let silence fill the cab of his truck for another mile. “I grew up with a single mom who went from one abusive relationship to the next and she dragged my brother and me right along with her,” Brady said. “She never thought she was good enough for any of those guys, and she let them walk all over her.”
“That must have been awful.”
“I learned a lot from the experience,” he said. “And it wasn’t all bad.”
He wanted to tell her he hoped she learned to value herself so she’d stop the pattern she’d begun to establish, but she didn’t need his lectures. She needed a safe ride home.
“Hope Kate’s not too mad at me,” Holly said. “She always seems to know what she wants. Like pilot school.”
Brady suppressed a smile. “I think she wants to be a flight attendant, not a pilot, even though I’m sure she would be a good one.”
“Oh, I guess I wasn’t listening when she told me about that school she’s going to.” Holly blew out a sigh. “She’s a much better friend than I am.”
“She is a good friend,” he said slowly. Despite the unbalanced relationship with Holly. And where was the balance in his relationship with Kate? He knew he wanted more than she was willing to give, and at the end of the summer, he would be the one who was much more disappointed and sorry to see the season fade away. Kate didn’t ask much of him, no matter how badly he wanted to give her his time and his heart.
Were all relationships fated to be uneven? He set the cruise control on his truck so he would have one less thing to think about as he drove toward Cape Pursuit. Holly leaned her head against the passenger window and fell asleep, and he had only his thoughts to keep him company. He’d watched his mother try to be good enough for various men for years, and he’d fallen into the same trap himself for a long time—always trying to be the perfect son and fill up some gap he couldn’t measure.
Firefighting had given him confidence and purpose and shown him that he didn’t have to be in a race to prove himse
lf. He had Noah and Bella, and that would be enough. They would be there when Kate left to chase her dreams at summer’s end. All he had to do was make sure he protected his heart from any lasting damage.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE OCEANSIDE RESTAURANT was definitely a dinner-date venue. All around Kate and Brady, couples were talking or holding hands over glasses of wine or craft beer. Because it was a beautiful warm evening with just the right amount of ocean breeze, Kate and Brady sat on the patio where they could sometimes distinguish the sounds of the ocean and the cry of seagulls over the sounds of their fellow diners.
“I’m buying dinner tonight,” Kate said. “To thank you for picking up Holly on your evening off yesterday. I’m sure you had something better in mind for your night.”
Brady reached across the table and rubbed the back of Kate’s hand lightly with two fingers. “I didn’t mind, but I’m much happier with this evening and being here with you.”
Kate smiled and nodded. She didn’t know what to say. Of course she had agreed to dinner with Brady, had even been relieved that she could thank him in a tangible way for helping out her friend. And they were—sort of—dating. Even a no-strings summer romance included sunset dinners, walks on the beach, kisses that lingered with the pink and gold streaks in the sky.
She extracted her hand from Brady’s touch by picking up her menu with both hands. All the food looked tempting and wonderful and she doubted it was possible to make a bad choice. She swallowed and tried to focus on the list of entrees and details about sides so she wouldn’t have to face the temptation across the table. Not that Brady was a bad choice. If she was going to join her heart and her emotions to another human, there weren’t many men as strong, capable, appealing...lovable...as Brady. And that was exactly why she needed to remember her goals. Her goals.
“Confession,” Brady said. “I live in an oceanfront town, but I don’t like seafood.”
“No seafood at all?”
He shrugged and gave a half smile. “I’m probably not supposed to admit to liking those breaded fish sticks that come in a cardboard box in the freezer section.”
“No one admits that, but I think it’s a more common guilty pleasure than you might think. You’re allowed.”
Brady blew out a sigh that sounded like relief. “Combined with mac and cheese, also from a cardboard box, that was one of my mother’s specialties. Not that I blame her, because I think she was doing the best she could. I didn’t learn to cook from her, but I’m an adult now, so there’s nothing stopping me from being a decent cook except time and bravery.”
Kate laughed. “I can see where you don’t have time, but I doubt you lack bravery.”
“Are you kidding? Kitchen fires are a menace. I’m not sure it’s worth the risk. Not when there are nice places like this,” he said, opening his hand in a small wave that encompassed the restaurant’s patio. “And they don’t just serve seafood.”
“I’m going to have the pasta,” Kate said. “I’m fueling up for a late night of Uber driving, which is why I’m insanely jealous of that beer you’re having.”
“You could take a night off. We could have too many drinks and call an Uber to take us home in the ultimate display of irony.”
Kate smiled. “When was the last time you had too much to drink or did anything reckless at all?”
“I go into burning buildings on a fairly regular basis.”
“That’s not reckless. My guess is that you’re perfectly in control,” Kate said.
“No one is perfectly in control, especially when you’re battling a force of nature, but I do wear my flame retardant underwear, just in case.” Brady grinned at her and the rays of the sunset lit one side of his face and left the other in shadow. Brady didn’t have a dark side—at least, none that Kate could see—but she knew his childhood hadn’t been all sunshine. His thirst for a solid home was part of that, but in other ways he seemed to have completely transcended what was behind him.
They ordered their dinners and Brady sat back and sipped his beer. “I’m celebrating a small victory tonight.”
“The scavenger hunt? That victory ended up being a lot smaller than I thought it would be.”
He shook his head. “Something bigger. My Realtor, Charlie, who is also a firefighter, talked me into going to the bank and doing the paperwork to get preapproved for a home loan. I thought it was wild advice because I didn’t believe I had close to enough money or that I was worth much at all.”
Kate scoffed. “You’re worth a lot.”
He smiled broadly. “I know that now. And I have proof. The bank says I’m worth taking a chance on.”
Brady was a truthful and even humble person, quick to help others, thoughtful...but definitely too risky for her to take a chance on. He was the kind of person who would be hard to forget no matter how many miles she traveled.
“I’m talking about a mortgage,” Brady said, dipping his chin and giving her a sideways smile. “You looked pretty worried there for a minute, like you thought I was going to raffle myself off to the highest bidder on the beach.”
Kate laughed. “Congratulations on your preapproval.”
“Thanks. It makes me less worried, but now I also feel more pressure. It’s strange, when something you thought was out of reach for so long seems to be suddenly within reach. It’s scary because you don’t want to screw it up.”
“You won’t.”
He raised his eyebrows and cocked his head. “How do you know? I have no experience as a homeowner. Maybe I’ll be lousy at it. What if I’m the guy who accidentally destroys his lawn by using too much fertilizer or mowing it way too short and the entire neighborhood goes down the drain? I could be that guy who doesn’t know which day is garbage collection day and leaves his cans on the curb all week.”
Kate shook her head. “You paint a grim picture of failure, but I think you’re worrying over nothing. Do you manage to take care of your lawn and successfully handle garbage day now?”
“Yes. But the stakes will be higher with my own place.”
“You’ll survive,” Kate said. “Maybe your brother will help you.”
“Maybe. I wish I knew his long-range plan. There’s nothing I’d like more than having him and Bella under my roof.”
Kate imagined herself under his roof for just the briefest moment. Standing next to him in the kitchen waiting for the toast to pop up, leaving her shoes by the front door, her towel on the rack in the bathroom. She took a big gulp of her raspberry iced tea to wash away the thought.
“So, when do you buy this dream house?” she asked.
“I’ve picked out a few that I want to go back and look at now that I know I just might be able to get one of them. I’ll have to sign a million forms that will probably scare me to death, but I hope to move on this soon so I might be in my own place by Christmas.”
Kate remembered Christmas growing up. It had been almost smothering in its perfection. Carefully decorated cookies. Just the right tree that filled the space in the front window. Stacked gifts under the tree in three different coordinated wrapping papers. Candles. Turkey. Grandparents. Perfect. But it had also been exactly the same every year, choreographed right down to the last minute. The tiny skaters in their musical snow globe always got the same spot on the shelf over the fireplace and three embroidered stockings hung in their assigned places year after year. They’d had to wait for her father to get home every year so he could put the star on top of the tree.
It was—sort of—a nice memory now that she thought of it, and it was nice that her father was tall enough to put the star on top and he was always there right when they needed him. Kate took a deep breath of ocean air. If she went back home to her parents, or if she tied her life to a homebody like Brady, it would mean ties where she wanted freedom. She didn’t want to see the same paint colors in every room year after year or put the dishes bac
k in their exact place in the kitchen cabinet. She wanted change and the freedom that came with it.
“Christmas,” she said lightly. “I could be anywhere by then.”
Brady’s expression flickered from happiness to sadness for a moment and then his bright smile returned. “You could celebrate aboard a flight to some amazing European city where they invented Christmas trees or someplace tropical with steel drums instead of jingle bells.”
“Or someplace way up north where snow comes from,” she said playfully. “Well, maybe not. I don’t want to freeze while I’m on a sleigh ride.”
“That’s the beauty of Cape Pursuit. I can put up Christmas lights without ever having to battle snow and ice.”
Their dinners arrived and smelled delicious. Somehow, thinking about Christmas had made her feel an unwelcome nostalgia. She was a person who always looked forward...but, strangely, so was Brady. His looking-forward plans were a whole lot different from hers—him taking solace from a roof and four walls, her finding herself in open skies.
“It sounds like you’ve got it all planned out,” Kate commented.
“As much as anyone does.”
“Speaking of people who plan and people who don’t,” Kate said. “Holly and I talked for a long time last night when I got home from work.”
Brady chewed a piece of steak, his eyes on her, waiting for her to go on.
“She said you two had talked in the truck and you mentioned that your mom didn’t...always...have her plan together.”
Brady swallowed and took a sip of beer. “I don’t think she ever had her plan together. We loved her, anyway, just like you care about Holly no matter how much she tests your friendship.”
“She’s flying home tomorrow,” Kate said. “Back to Tulsa. Can you believe I didn’t even know that was where she was from? I guess we didn’t talk about our past much.”
“You don’t,” Brady commented.
Kate didn’t take the bait. She and Brady had a here-and-now relationship, and there was no way he would understand that a suffocating and perfect childhood motivated her in a similar and ironic way to how a nomadic one seemed to mark him.
