Burning Ember (Ember Lake Book 1)

by Sara Arden

  Bill very slowly removed his keys and put them on the table. “I’m sure thirsty tonight. I’m going to get a refill.”

  He made a big show of getting up and wandering over to where a girl was pouring sodas and Hayden laughed before reaching out to “steal” the station keys and tuck them in his pocket.

  “You should probably keep the tux on. She’d like that.”

  “Really, I was going to go shirtless in my turnout gear. They seem to like that on the calendar.” He shrugged.

  She laughed. “You know, why don’t you save that for a honeymoon. Wear the tux.”

  “I guess I should’ve known that my future was decided when you took her to the kitchen for your secret pre-dinner thing with Grammie.”

  “Most definitely and if I can ever get Livie to dinner, that’ll be the first thing I do.”

  “What are you going to do with yourself when we’re both married and you can’t meddle anymore? You’re going to be bored out of your head, Ma.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “You underestimate my powers.” Allison grew serious and took his hand. “You know that all I want is for you to be happy, right?”

  “Yeah, I do know.” He leaned over and kissed the top her head. “I love you.”

  Allison sniffed. “Well, shit. Now you made me cry.”

  “You can’t meddle when you’re crying.”

  “Yes, I can.” She dabbed at the corners of her eyes with a napkin.

  “I’ve got another thing I have to do. A gift for Sophie that’ll say even more than the truck.”

  “I’ll tell your brother you’ll be back for your shenanigans.”

  “I’m asking the woman I love to marry me. I wouldn’t call that shenanigans.”

  “I… what? You what? Oh my god. I thought this was just, you know, the grand I love you. Not… How did I not know this? I’m not ready.”

  “Yes, you are.” He squeezed her shoulder. “And so am I.”

  “Are you thinking a Christmas wedding? That would be beautiful.”

  “Ma, the girl has to say yes, first.”

  “She will.”

  He left the benefit feeling like everything was almost right in his world. He knew he did indeed live a charmed life and he wasn’t going to spend one more minute doubting it.

  Like Sophie said, dessert first.

  This was his dessert and he was going to enjoy every second of every flavor.

  He hoped he wasn’t completely off the mark with the gift he wanted to give her. He didn’t want to propose with a ring. She could pick that out herself and get exactly what she wanted.

  What Hayden wanted to give her was candles.

  Wishing candles.

  He wanted them to last their whole lives because he wanted to make every wish she ever had come true. He wanted her to let go of her past as well.

  It had been all very well and good to talk about letting go of their baggage, pretending like they both weren’t still hauling it around.

  He wanted her to know that he didn’t blame her for anything. That she shouldn’t blame herself.

  That it was okay to wish, to hope.

  That he would wish and hope right along with her.

  For always.

  18

  The benefit had gone off without a hitch, but her feet were exhausted from those strappy heels. Cute though they were, her feet were protesting.

  Seeing Hayden had been a double-edged sword, like she knew it would be.

  She’d been so happy to see him and he’d seemed happy to see her, but it had hurt, too. There were several times when he’d been sitting next to her that she was tempted to reach over and take his hand, because it was so natural.

  So she’d clamped her hands together in her lap.

  She’d taken the coward’s way out when she’d left after seeing to Livie. Maybe she could stand to be that close to him in the future, close enough to touch, but not be able to, although now was too soon. Sophie still felt that loss too acutely.

  Her eyes were drawn to the candles she only burned for Hayden on the anniversary of the fire.

  Maybe it was time to break that tradition.

  Maybe it was time for wishing candles again. They didn’t need to be a lone sentry in the dark. They could be anything she wanted.

  Just like she could be anything she wanted.

  Although, she could call them any name she dared, but they would always be Hayden’s candles. If she suddenly called them wishing candles, she would wish for him. If she kept them in the window, they would be to light his way back to her door.

  Whatever they were, it was time to light them.

  With shaking hands, she drew the matches from their drawer and for a single moment, she felt the ghost of a burn on her arms and neck, like she did whenever she lit a candle or was near fire.

  This time, she didn’t feel the same panic claw at her throat, or the same phantom heat. It was a nuisance, it was an itch.

  It was inconsequential to the woman she’d become.

  She was finally free of her demons.

  Sophie struck the match and held it to the wick.

  He’d never know they burned for him, but that didn’t matter. Because at the core of this act of defiance, they burned for her, too.

  They burned for all the good things, instead of the bad. All of the hopes and dreams, and all the things she still hoped to have and accomplish.

  The sounds of sirens echoed as they seemed to draw closer.

  Sophie looked outside and saw the cherry lights of a fire engine blooming on the horizon. They seemed to be headed for her.

  Momentary panic surged, but she didn’t smell smoke and didn’t see any either.

  Part of her hoped against hope that it was Hayden. That her wishing candles had brought him back to her.

  As if she should be so lucky.

  Yet, the sirens died down and she watched as the truck rolled to a stop in front of her house.

  Oh God, was this real?

  Hayden was on the side of the truck, wearing his tux from the benefit.

  The horn blared twice and she knew that meant she was supposed to step outside, but could she do it?

  Hell yes.

  She opened the door and he jumped down from the truck, stopping to reach into the cab for a square box wrapped in silver paper.

  “First, I need to know if you can forgive me.”

  “Only if you can say the same.”

  “Of course, Sophie. There was never anything for me to forgive. I have something for you, and I really hope it’s the right thing.” He shoved the box at her.

  She took it with shaking fingers and unwrapped it slowly.

  It was a set of three flameless candles, but on the box, he’d written, “Wishing Candles.”

  Sophie gasped, she couldn’t breathe and her vision blurred with tears.

  “I love you, Sophie.” He sank down to one knee. “I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you and I guess I could’ve done this with a ring, but I’d rather give you every wish you’ve ever had. I’d rather you had wishing candles that never burned away because there’s always more wishes.”

  She brought her hand to her mouth and she couldn’t speak. She was overwhelmed.

  “I know what I have to bring to the table now. I know what I put on the line. I know how charmed my life is and the only way it could get any better is if you say yes.” Silence reigned heavy. “But God, Soph. Say something. This silence is killing me.”

  “Yes, oh yes!”

  He was on his feet in an instant swinging her up into his arms and kissing her hard. The wishing candles fell away, forgotten.

  “I don’t need wishing candles. I just got everything I ever wanted,” she whispered in his ear.

  “The candles in the window—”

  “For you, to light your way back to me.”

  “I like that, Sophie. This is where I want to come home. To those lights in the window. To you. To that couch where it all started.”
/>   “The couch! I love that couch.” She touched his face. “The first time you spent the night, I thought this was all I wanted in the world. Quiet evenings with you—”

  “—on that couch.” He finished her sentence.

  “I take it she said yes?” Royce called from the cab of the truck. “Great, I’m going to take this back to the station before McCade flays me alive.”

  “Nope,” Sophie called out. “You come here.”

  “No, really. He can go. He played his part,” Hayden reassured her.

  Sophie laughed. “Get over here, Royce. I need to give you some love, too.”

  “I’m all about that.”

  “If you get out of that truck…” Hayden teased.

  Royce came over and swooped her up in a big bear hug. She squeezed him back with all of her might.

  “I love you, too, you know,” she said.

  “Welcome to the family, Sophie.” He kissed the top of her head and eased her feet back to the ground. “Now, I really have to go or my ass is grass.”

  After Royce left, she couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Are you sure you want this?”

  What she really meant was are you sure you want me.

  “Never more sure of anything in my life, my sunshine.”

  “If you’re really sure, what do you think of a Christmas wedding?”

  “Did Mom call you because…”

  “What? No.” Then warmth bloomed. “Is that what she’s hoping for? I’d love to be a Christmas bride.”

  “Then that’s what you’ll be, but only if it’s what you want. I love my family, but this is our life.”

  “I love how involved your family is, I didn’t get that. And I want it. I want to be part of it.”

  “That’s good because you said yes. There’s no backing out of it now.”

  “Is this really ours?”

  “Ask your wishing candle.”

  He kissed her again and she knew then that princes really did indeed dance with little cinder girls even after midnight.

  Epilogue

  Dinner at Grammie Rose’s was one her favorite family traditions.

  Today, there was a new member who’d been invited to join and Allison, true to her word, dragged Livie Dodd straight from Royce’s arm to the kitchen.

  Today, there was cherry and blueberry pie.

  “This is a special pre-dinner ritual just for us girls,” Allison instructed.

  “I hope it’s not washing dishes. My grandmother liked to wash the dishes she used before sitting down to dinner,” Livie said and wrinkled her nose.

  Grammie Rose laughed. “No, child. I embrace the ways of you youngsters. I have a dishwasher. But I also have pie.” She brought out the cherry and blueberry delights.

  They were almost too pretty to eat. The latticework on the blueberry was a delicate work of art and she’d made roses on the cherry.

  “I don’t think I can actually put that in my mouth. It’d be a sin,” Livie said. “Plus, I don’t know how I’d ever choose which to have.”

  “My darling girl,” Grammie Rose said, “You have both.”

  Livie laughed. “I don’t know. Then I won’t be fitting into my bridesmaid dress and we can’t have that.”

  “I’m great with a needle and thread, especially if my pie is the culprit.” Grammie sliced two small pieces of each and pushed them toward Livie.

  “I can’t believe that this is actually how you live. You’re like a family on television. Or a commercial.” Livie picked up her fork.

  “We have our faults and our flaws just like everyone else.” Allison took her own pieces, and then added a second cherry. “I do love your pie, Mama.”

  “This is what hooked you, wasn’t it, Sophie?” Livie said after a bite. “Grammie’s pie.”

  Sophie studied her for a long moment and debated if she should actually say what was on the tip of her tongue. “It was Grammie’s pie and her fried chicken. Can’t forget that.”

  “Mmm. Fried chicken.” Livie nodded as if that were a perfectly acceptable reason to get married.

  “Actually, what hooked me was more than falling in love with Hayden. It was falling in love with Mom, Grammie, Bill.” She gave her a pointed look. “And even Royce. Family.”

  “I don’t even know what that feels like,” Livie confessed, but then blinked rapidly, as if blinking away tears. “Wow, didn’t mean to get all down in the mouth at the Sunday Dinner Pie Ritual.”

  “That’s okay, sweetie. That’s kind of what it’s for. The pie is there to make it easier, but this is where we connect with each other. Where we keep building bonds of family,” Sophie said. “I think it’s a wonderful tradition and when I have my own daughters, I’ll be glad that I have this for them.”

  “Speaking of that, you know I’m not getting any younger,” Allison teased.

  “Hush,” Grammie Rose said. “I didn’t bother you and Bill like that.”

  “I seem to recall one Christmas that you asked for a grandson. It was the only thing on your list.”

  “Well, when you’ve been so blessed as I have, there comes a point when you can’t ask for anything else.” Grammie Rose smiled indulgently.

  But Sophie knew there was something lurking under that grin.

  “Really? So what’s on your list this year? Are you coming to the Bahamas with Bill and I?” Allison asked.

  “Lands no, child.” She was still looking like the cat that ate the proverbial canary.

  “Then what is it, Grammie Rose? How can we make you happy?” Sophie prompted.

  “I’d love for my grandsons to have a double wedding. After all, none of us are getting any younger.”

  Livie choked on her pie.

  And Sophie, well, she’d love to have a double wedding and was more than happy to share the spotlight while her soon-to-be brother in law got his happily ever after, too.

  Sneak Peek at Rekindled Ember

  Chapter One

  The check Livie Dodd held in her hand could change her life.

  She could use it to pay off the loan on the bar, which meant she could sell it. There was enough money to give her a new start, in a new town. In a place far away from Ember Lake, the place where her happily ever after had been born, and the place where it had died.

  Livie would never have to drive past Country Road 5 again. She’d never have to see where her husband had taken his last breath, where he’d traded his life for someone else’s. She wouldn’t have to live with everyone whispering about “poor Widow Dodd” every time she walked by.

  It was a chance to live again.

  And she had Royce Cole to thank for that.

  She was still a little angry and embarrassed at being singled out in front of the town because Livie always felt like she was on display. Her pain a source of town discussion and speculation. Except, he’d done this thing for her.

  He was currently re-hanging the screen door back in the kitchen. The damn thing had been rattling for three years. Ben had only been gone for two. It had been on his project list. One of the many things he’d never gotten to do.

  Ben, like Royce, had loved working with his hands. She rested her hand on the smooth surface of the bar. He’d refinished it himself. There was a piece of Ben just below the sealant. His had been the last hands to touch it, his breath blowing the sawdust away from the surface. His love seeping into the grain of the wood…

  Could she really let go of that? Of that piece of him?

  Logic told her it was time. She’d never live her life if she spent all of her time in a mausoleum. That’s what the bar had become. A crypt.

  “Hey, Liv. Got that door fixed. Anything else on your list?” Royce appeared in the doorway. Just the sight of him there in his white t-shirt, dirty from an honest day’s labor gave her a kind of peace. He was familiar. Solid. He’d been a fixture in her life since high school. While everything else changed, Royce was the same.

  Livie was worried she’d come depend on him more than she should. The
jukebox had been acting up, but she didn’t want to ask him. He already did so much for her. She bit her lip.

  “What is it? Come on, I want to you to let me out of the dog house.” He flashed her a grin that showed all of his straight, white teeth.

  Really, it should be against the law for a man to be as pretty as all the Cole men were. Someone in their family tree had made a deal with the devil.

  “You’re not in the dog house. How could you be? You’ve fixed the sink, and re-hung the door.” And gave me my freedom.

  “Oh, are we still not talking about the First Responder’s Widows and Orphans Benefit?” He nodded his head. “That means I’m still in the dog house.”

  He knew her too well. “I’m not mad, Royce. I mean, after the initial shock.”

  “I couldn’t stand it, Liv. You struggling with this place. Trying so hard and it just kept pulling you down. This bar was never your dream. It was his. That money is rightfully yours. Every penny.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “It feels like blood money.”

  “It is, but Ben would want you to take it.”

  “Do you think so?” Sometimes she wondered if he would understand that she didn’t want to stay here. Didn’t want to live with ghosts of a past and a future she couldn’t have. “I wonder if he’d be disappointed in me.”

  Royce’s strong arms came around her. “He could never be disappointed in you. You were the best thing that ever happened to him.”

  His kindness was too much. It made her feel worse. Like she’d betrayed Ben in some way. Even though, deep down, she couldn’t help but feel Ben was the one who’d betrayed her. “I was never really his wife. I always felt like his mistress,” she dared to confess.

  For a moment, she wondered if Royce was going to be angry at her for disparaging Ben’s memory. This town had made it a holy thing, like all their heroes, but he was more than a hero. And less. He was just a man, and he’d been her man. Now, he was gone.

  “What do you mean?”

  He didn’t push her away and she allowed herself the luxury of hiding her face against his chest. He was so strong, so warm. So alive. She inhaled deeply and he smelled like Allison’s cupcakes. Red velvet with cream cheese frosting.