A Partner for the Paramedic: A Fuller Family Novel (Brush Creek Brides Book 11)

by Liz Isaacson

  When she woke the following morning, she was still no closer to a solution for how to get her and Jazzy with the right men, under the right names.

  “We have to do something,” she told Jazzy as she came into the bathroom bleary-eyed.

  “Yeah, sure,” she mumbled. “I’m showering. Can we do something after that?”

  Fabi finished rinsing her teeth and left her sister alone in the bathroom. She dressed in a pale yellow dress with a brown leather belt, wondering if the paramedic partners attended church. It was expected as a Fuller, and Fabi had never really minded. Sure, she’d gone through a year or two right after leaving her parents’ house where she slept in and skipped church, or drove to Vernal and hiked up to the hieroglyphs instead of listening to a sermon.

  But she’d come back, because she liked the hour where she got to sit and do nothing. Sit and think. Sit and feel like there was more to her life than furniture polish and disinfectant wipes. At least she certainly hoped there was more for her than the family cleaning business.

  She and Jazzy had been cleaning houses since they’d turned fourteen years old. Always side-by-side, always splitting the income and tips fifty-fifty. Neither of them had any inclination to go to college, and they both liked their work. In fact, the only reason Fabi had even considered leaving town was to find a bigger dating pond to fish from.

  She sat at her vanity and put on her makeup, taking extra care to get the wing on her eyeliner precisely right. Jazzy came in and dressed, did her makeup, and fixed her hair before Fabi stood from her dressing table.

  Jazzy stood in the kitchen, a rubber spatula working the liquid eggs into scrambled solids. “Breakfast?”

  “Yeah. And we need to talk about setting things right with Ed and Max.”

  Jazzy cut her a glare and scooped half the eggs onto one plate, and the other half onto another. She set the syrup between them and came around to sit beside Fabi at the bar.

  “How are we going to do that?”

  “I don’t know, but it has to be done.”

  “You like Ed.” Jazzy took a bite of her eggs. “Either that, or you just wanted to put on a show last night.”

  “I did not put on a show.” Fabi drizzled maple syrup in diagonal lines across her scrambled eggs.

  “Oh, please.” Jazzy snorted and scoffed. “Poor Mrs. Hoffman almost went and got an usher.”

  “She did not.” Fabi rolled her eyes though her cheeks heated slightly. Maybe she had put on a bit of a show. But it wouldn’t be a date without a little bit of drama. “Besides, Ed didn’t seem to mind.”

  “Of course he didn’t.” Jazzy shook her head. “You…I don’t act like that.”

  “I’m not you.”

  “But he thinks you are.”

  “It’s not like we’ve met before.”

  Jazzy shook her head again, her lips practically disappearing into a thin line while she chewed.

  “What?” Fabi asked.

  “You’re delusional if you think they haven’t done their homework on us.” She got up, though she hadn’t finished eating, and put her plate in the sink. “We’re Fullers. They know everything about us.”

  “You think so?”

  “I know so.” Jazzy opened the shoe closet and selected a pair of black heels. “Come on. We’re going to be late for church.”

  Fabi left her plate on the counter and slipped into a pair of wedge booties. “You really think they asked around about us?” she asked as they exited the building. For some reason, the idea bothered her.

  “Well, Tate works in the same building as they do. Dahlia too, when she’s in town. And that’s easy access to Wren and Kyler. So do I think Ed and Max have asked about us?” Jazzy hogged the half of the sidewalk that was bathed in shade. “Of course they have.”

  Fabi fell silent and let the breeze and Jazzy’s heels make all the noise as they passed the bakery and started across the parking lot toward the red brick church.

  “I’ll hold back,” Fabi said as they neared the doors.

  “Why would you do that?” Jazzy looked at her, which made Fabi sweat more than the June heat usually merited.

  Fabi had the distinct impression that Jazzy already knew why, but she wanted Fabi to say it out loud. She reached for the door handle, the blast of air conditioning pushing her hair away from her face.

  “I like Ed, and I want to go out with him more than once.” She started to step through the door, but Jazzy touched her arm and made her pause.

  “More than twice?” she asked.

  Fabi’s pulse raced around her body, and she searched her sister’s face. Of course, Jazzy knew that Fabi hadn’t been out with anyone more than twice in a long time. In fact, there had only been a few men that Fabi had wanted to go out with more than twice.

  And Ed was one of them.

  She grinned and said, “Yeah, I want to go out with him more than twice.”

  “Gotta call outside of Maple Mountain.” Max knocked on the desk as he shrugged into his paramedic vest.

  He swiped the keys to the ambulance off the hook on the wall, not bothering to see if Ed was following him. Of course he was. He’d seen the flashing red stripe on his computer too. Max had clicked forward, and the address would be waiting on the GPS console in the bus.

  “I don’t want to say I’m thankful,” Ed said as he buckled his seatbelt. “But I wasn’t sure I could sit there for another day, pushing paper.”

  “I hear you.” Max had a love-hate relationship with his job. He loved being able to help people. He loved that he knew how to stop bleeding on a head wound and that he didn’t panic at the sight of blood and other bodily fluids. That alone had helped him through a lot of stressful situations with his first wife.

  But the desk aspect of the job was not something he favored. Even getting paid to go to the gym seemed ridiculous when he was there for half of his shift. Plus, muscles needed time to rebuild before he could tear them down again.

  He didn’t like that someone needed their services, but this call seemed like a legitimate accident, not someone’s cat that had gotten stuck in a tree or a schnauzer trapped on a barn roof. He’d saved that silly Cupcake more than he wanted to admit—and in his opinion a dog should never be named Cupcake.

  “It’s been a long week,” Ed said, rolling his neck as Max set the ambulance north and hit the switches to get the sirens and lights going.

  “Only because you haven’t been able to see Jazzy,” he teased. Though Fabi had likewise been “busy,” Max had hidden his emotions better than Ed.

  “No,” Ed said quickly.

  “When are you goin’ out with her again?” Max loved the thrill of driving fast, lights on, siren blaring. Of course, in the middle of the day, there wasn’t much traffic to contend with, especially once they rushed past the strawberry fields.

  “Saturday night.”

  “Ah, you got yourself another date.” Max grinned at his friend.

  “Yep. And you’re comin’ to help me move some things for Maggie that morning, remember?”

  “I remember.”

  “When are you seeing Fabi again?”

  “Tonight. She texted this morning.” Neither twin had mentioned doubling again, and Ed and Max had talked about the situation at length. In the end, they’d decided to let the women set the pace, lead the way, dictate the dates.

  “What are you doing?”

  “She said she wanted to get outside her comfort zone.”

  “Does Fabi Fuller have a comfort zone? I thought she was the adventurous one.”

  “She said she’s lived in the country her whole life and never taken up horseback riding. I guess we’re goin’ up to the canyon to the horse farm. Her brother-in-law has a horse boarded there and says the riding instructors are great.”

  Ed pinned him with a look. “Do you ride horses?”

  Max threw a handful of pickle-flavored sunflower seeds in his mouth, his taste buds puckering at the sourness. “Sure. Vernal’s a big horse town.” At l
east Max hoped riding a horse was like riding a bike, because he hadn’t done it in several years. But how hard could it be?

  They came upon the accident and all small talk ceased. Ed got out the stretcher while Max shouldered his medical bag. Two cars were smashed up, and a woman sat in the driver’s seat of the black sedan, her door open, one leg out. She seemed awake, at least.

  McDermott, the state trooper in these parts, approached. “Head-on collision when the driver of the blue SUV fell asleep and crossed the center line.” He hooked his thumb over his shoulder to the black sedan. “She was traveling east at the time.”

  Her car wasn’t facing east anymore, and Max nodded. “Did she lose consciousness?”

  “That’s unclear. The driver of the SUV made the nine-one-one call.”

  “Where’s he?” Ed asked.

  “Lying down in his vehicle.” McDermott’s mouth pinched into a tight line. “He’s complaining of headaches, chest pains, and he’s got some nasty burns on his arms from the air bag.”

  “I’ll take him,” Ed said. “You take the woman.”

  Max nodded his thanks to McDermott and approached the black sedan. He took one deep breath and pushed it out slowly. Again, and then again before crouching down and letting his heavy medical bag rest on the ground.

  “Ma’am?” The fact that she didn’t turn at his approach concerned him. “My name’s Max. How about you tell me what hurts?”

  She swung her head in his direction, and she looked dazed. She blinked slowly, almost like it was happening in slow motion. She said nothing, and while Max recognized her, he couldn’t place her name in his mind.

  “Can you tell me your name?” He reached for his stethoscope, making careful, measured movements to unzip his bag.

  “Winnie,” she said, her voice croaky and soft.

  “That’s right.” Max smiled at her and placed his device against her chest. “I’m just going to listen here for a minute, okay, Miss Winnie?” He focused on the ground as he listened to her pulse. “Sounds okay.”

  He scanned her from foot to head, finding several small burns, cuts, and abrasions. “What’s your last name?”

  Max had placed her as Winnie Towers, and when she said it, he smiled. “You’ve got a big bump on your head here.” He touched the spot just above her left eye and probed back into her hair. “What did you hit your head on?”

  “The window?” Winnie made it sound like a guess.

  “Have you called anyone?” He didn’t need to glance at the hood of the car to know it was totaled. The smell of various liquids leaking from it and the quick scope he’d taken when he’d arrived was enough.

  “I live alone,” the older woman said. “I have a son in Vernal.”

  Max’s heart twisted the tiniest bit. “I think you should go to the hospital; get some scans. I can call your son for you.”

  “All right.”

  “Do you think you can stand?”

  She put her weight on one foot but made no attempt to get out of the car.

  “Okay,” Max said in his kindest voice. “Stay put. Let me go talk to the trooper, and we’ll get you the help you need.” The bus would be needed for the man Ed was currently strapping to the stretcher. But Winnie needed transportation to the hospital too, that much was clear.

  As he walked over to McDermott to make the arrangements, he also vowed to call his parents that night. After all, he hadn’t spoken to them in a couple of weeks and he’d want them to know to call him if they were ever in Winnie’s situation.

  I’m fifteen minutes behind schedule. Max sent the text to Fabi as soon as he stepped inside his apartment, the accident up at Maple Mountain taking much longer to sort through than he’d anticipated. He hurried into the shower, his stomach growling, and he tossed some food at Birdy before darting back out to the carport.

  He showed up at Oxbow Park, only twelve minutes later than he and Fabi had agreed, to find her leaning against the black iron fence. She gazed out over the water, a look of peace on her face that had Max wishing he was with her wherever she’d gone inside her mind.

  “Hey,” he said, stepping beside her.

  She blinked and a smile lit up her whole face. “Hey, you made it.”

  “Busy afternoon.” He put the accident and the way Winnie reminded him of his mother out of his mind. He’d learned to compartmentalize during his medical training. He could apply it to real life too. “You look real nice.”

  She wore a pair of jean shorts that went halfway down her thighs and a silky blouse the color of the lilac bush in his backyard. She glanced at herself, an inkling of surprise in her eyes. Max couldn’t take his eyes off of her, and his thoughts ran rampant. What would it be like to kiss her? Could he ever see himself falling in love again? Getting married?

  When everything had broken with Irina, Max had vowed to keep his heart inside a safe box, make sure it didn’t get so shattered again.

  But the intensity between him and Fabi was a force that couldn’t be denied, and he thought maybe he’d endure any number of cracks in his heart if he got to spend more time with her.

  He’d held her hand last weekend, and his fingers had been reminding him about it for days. When he finally slipped his between hers again, a sigh passed through his whole body. “Are we walking?”

  She’d suggested they meet at the park, but she hadn’t said why. This wasn’t the horse farm, and as far as he could tell, there were no horses here at all. But the water was calm, almost a mirror for the trees and blue sky above, and a measure of that peace he’d seen on her face pulled through him too.

  “I love this place,” she said, a wistful quality in her voice. She didn’t move to walk along the paved trail that led around the lake.

  “I do too.”

  She seemed a bit lost inside herself, and Max didn’t try to pull her out. She finally drew in a long breath, her chest lifting with the effort.

  “Hey, you okay?” he asked.

  She met his gaze with seven shades of fear in hers. “No.”

  Max swallowed, sure she was about to break up with him after only two dates. He searched his mind for what he’d done wrong. He hadn’t kept her up too late with texts. He’d tried not to come on too strong with his questions.

  “What’s goin’ on?” he asked when she still didn’t speak.

  Her hand tightened against his. “I have something to tell you, and I want you to promise you won’t be mad.”

  Max frowned, way past the age where he promised such things. “I don’t know, Fabi….”

  “I’m not Fabi,” she blurted, her cornflower blue eyes widening as tears filled them.

  He shook his head, sure he’d heard her wrong. “What?”

  She drew herself up and a sharp edge entered her eyes now. “I’m not Fabi.”

  Chapter Six

  Jazzy watched the confusion sweep across Max’s handsome face. That cute little frown stayed, pulling his eyebrows down, and she sucked back the urge to babble the truth in nonsensical sentences.

  “I really like you,” she said instead. “And it was just a big misunderstanding, but I didn’t want it to continue.”

  He opened his mouth to say something, but promptly closed it again.

  “Do you want the whole story?” she asked, somewhat encouraged that he hadn’t ripped his hand away from hers yet.

  “I think so, yeah.” He glanced around like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  “So you met the real Fabi in the park a few weeks ago. That was her.”

  Max’s eyes came right back to hers. “Really?”

  Jazzy hated that he hadn’t even known her hair had been different that day he’d met Fabi. She nodded though a sliver of ice moved through her bloodstream.

  “Yeah, it was her. She does have the darker eyes. And the mole on the side of her jaw. And the A-line cut. I didn’t have any of those things.”

  Max appraised her now, his gaze turning more and more knowledgeable. She pulled her hand out of his,
her chest so tight, so tight.

  “But she had a hard time getting together with you, and she didn’t want to break your date again last week.”

  “Why would she have to?” His voice sounded like he’d scraped his throat with sandpaper.

  “She had the flu.” Jazzy tossed him a miserable look. “So she begged me to get my hair cut and meet you. I—” She could not get herself to tell this beautiful man that she hadn’t been out with anyone in so long, and how desperate she was for a little bit of attention, so she just shook her head.

  “You said yes. You pretended to be her.” At least he could put the pieces together without her having to spell everything out.

  “Yeah.” She gazed out over the lake, which she’d always loved. She hoped this would not be the place where she lost her chance with Max Robinson. “I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you. I gave you my phone number, so we’ve been texting since our date last week. I was going to tell you. Then you suggested that Ed go out with Jazzy, and well…things just got out of control.”

  Her pulse quieted slightly now that she’d spilled the truth. Fabi would be livid, but Jazzy had vowed not to go on another date with Max when he didn’t know who she was.

  The warmth from his body seeped into her side as he settled his weight against the fence, much too close to her to be casual. They breathed in together, then out, and then Max slid his arm around her, slowly. So slowly, Jazzy had several long, delicious moments to savor the feel of his strong hand along her lower back.

  “You know what?” he said, his voice low and dripping with honey.

  “What?” Jazzy didn’t dare look at him, hoping he didn’t hug all the women he broke up with.

  “I don’t care,” he said. “I don’t care that you pretended. I….” He cleared his throat, and Jazzy dared to take a peek at him. He stared out over the water too, a muscle in his jaw jumping.

  “I like you too,” he said. “You. Whether your name is Fabi or Jazzy.” He turned and looked at her, their eyes locking. For the first time in her life, Jazzy felt like someone was looking right at her and not flicking their eyes to Fabi to see which sister it was, which twin they were more interested in.