There had been no wrestling with options. He was needed, so he came home. Hadley, who had always adored his mom, could not possibly have heard that she was ill, or she would have defrosted enough to ask about her.
It didn’t surprise Fletcher that his mom had kept her failing health a secret. Greensburg was small enough, insular enough that people watched out for each other, and Rose Gates had spent all her life delivering meals, offering service, and organizing assistance for other people. She was unlikely to welcome any such help for herself.
Fletcher clicked the last “accept” button on the last form and got up from his chair. At the same time, both Hadley and Savanna stood and brushed off the dust and lint from their pants.
“I’m through with this,” he said, handing the laptop back to Savanna. “Anything I can help you do with that?” He gestured to the piles of toys, refolded blankets, and stacks of books. Hadley did not even glance his way.
“Soon enough, eager fireman.” Savanna smirked at him. “For now, you can get yourself acquainted with the station.” She did not offer anything further, so Fletcher nodded and walked through the door to the station proper.
As much as the updates and renovations had created more space and new amenities, it felt like the same fire station he’d known all his life.
The soaring ceilings of the engine bays may have seemed taller when he was a kid, but the majesty and power of the trucks capable of carrying a dozen men to an emergency and restoring order and safety? That was exactly as he remembered it.
His experiences with BLM, though fascinating and significant, had lacked some of the magic of his childhood adoration and admiration for the machinery, the systems, and the trappings of the city fire station. Walking through the door, he saw that one of the engines was pulled out and the men were washing it, squirting each other with jets of water, shouting and laughing. It made him remember some of what he’d witnessed as his dad had taken part in days like this.
Now it was his.
Fletcher walked out onto the blacktop, and someone saw him and hollered. “Gates? That you?”
Fletcher raised his arm in a wave and Wayne Redman, who had worked at the station for years, jogged over. “Red” had been a trainee of Fletcher’s dad’s, and something of an uncle figure to Fletcher.
Red wrapped him in a hug and slapped his back so hard he practically winded him. Fletcher laughed.
“Chief told us that unless you walked in and spit on his desk, he’d be offering you a place on the crew today. Man, it’s good to have you here.”
Red, unusually tender for a seasoned fire fighter, placed both hands on Fletcher’s shoulders and gazed at him, possibly looking for a reminder of Paul Gates’s face in his son. Whether he found it or not, he pulled Fletcher to him in another crushing hug and called over the other men.
“Guys, some of you know Fletcher Gates. This is Paul’s boy.” Heads nodded, and a few of the men came over to shake his hand.
A guy probably Fletcher’s age smiled and held out his hand. “Nick Baxter,” he said by way of introduction. He looked like a solid guy, confident and capable.
“Hi,” Fletcher said, grateful that there were guys on the team his age. He wouldn’t be required to prove that he was an adult every minute of every day.
“I hear you’ve been…” Nick began, but at the opening of a door was distracted, and dropped Fletcher’s hand. In a matter of seconds, his confident and capable look had fled, and his eyes seemed to go unfocused. What Fletcher could only describe as a dorky grin overspread Nick’s face, and Fletcher looked to see what had sidetracked Nick.
Hadley, followed by the angry Savanna woman, came out the door, waved to the crew, and told them she’d brought her first box of donations for something called “Greensburg Cares for Kids.”
“I’m sure there’s lots more coming,” she said. “Get ready.”
Nick murmured under his breath, “Ready and waiting.” He turned to Fletcher and continued to whisper. “That’s Savanna. And Hadley Booth. I swear, that woman could ask me for anything, and I’d make it happen.”
If it was odd to have a stranger telling him who Hadley was, that was nothing to the weirdness of instantly knowing, without a doubt, that Nick was in love with her.
This can’t end well, Fletcher thought.
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Embracing Her Ever After: A Sweet Romantic Comedy (ABCs of Love Book 5) Page 19
