While it wasn’t fair to question Sammy about what his mother knew or the motive for their visit, Isaac still found himself turning to the child, searching for a clue about what they were doing there. Especially since, last he’d heard, Hannah wasn’t exactly comfortable leaving Sammy with Mrs. Gregson due to the woman’s growing health issues and the fragility of the boy’s bond with her.
But instead of providing Isaac with answers, Sammy’s lower lip quivered as though he’d done something wrong. Shame threaded through Isaac for making the boy feel badly.
“Not that we’re opposed to having the right candidate.” Isaac knelt between him and the rambunctious pup, who was playing a game of tug-of-war with herself. And losing. He scratched between Big Dot’s ears and she made growling sounds as she clenched her leash between her tiny teeth. “If she’s indeed trainable.”
“She is.” Sammy eagerly bobbed his head. “Right, Grammie?”
“Everyone is trainable, if given the right incentive,” Mrs. Gregson replied, her unreadable gaze never leaving Isaac. “Even old dogs.”
“Speaking of old dogs...” Isaac stood up. “Uncle Jonesy might have some leftover bacon in the kitchen that you can use as treats. Clausson, why don’t you take Sammy and our new candidate here back to the kitchen to work on some simple commands?”
The dog’s ears perked up at the mention of bacon and Sammy barely recaptured the leash before she pulled him along behind her, Clausson following them both.
“Mind if I sit down?” Donna Gregson nodded toward one of the recliners.
“Of course. Sorry, I should’ve offered you a seat earlier.”
“I get enough of everyone else treating me like a frail invalid.” She flicked her wrist at him. “I don’t need it from you, too.”
“Then you won’t mind me asking why you’re here.” Isaac walked over to one of the side tables, picked up the remote control and turned off the fishing channel on the big-screen TV.
“Because Sammy is obsessed with firefighters and fire departments and turning that handful of a puppy into an honorary fire dog—whatever that is.” Donna Gregson lifted the lever on the side of her recliner, propping her feet up. Apparently not planning on leaving anytime soon. “And because my daughter is just as stubborn as she is selfless. And she tends to know what’s best for everyone but herself.”
Isaac dropped into the matching chair next to hers, the woman’s surprising comment all but knocking him off his feet. “So, I’m guessing Hannah doesn’t know you’re here.”
“Are you kidding? She would be mortified if she found out. Not that Sammy won’t tell her as soon as she gets home.”
Good. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about keeping this little meeting a secret. Isaac had a lot of questions on the tip of his tongue, but the one that made it out first was, “Where is she?”
“Shopping for Christmas presents in Boise. School’s out for the winter break and she dropped Sammy and Big Dot off at our house down there so she could go buy his gifts.”
“Should you be driving up the mountain in your condition?”
She narrowed her eyes and Isaac wished he hadn’t brought up her health again. “You guys have ambulances and medically trained staff here, don’t you?”
He nodded.
“Then I should be in good hands. Besides. I’m actually having a pretty good day. I wouldn’t drive over here with Sammy if I wasn’t feeling up to it. Now, do you want to talk about my cancer or do you want to talk about my daughter?”
That was a loaded question if Isaac had ever heard one. He didn’t want to be an insensitive jerk who was willing to ignore the poor woman’s medical needs, but his curiosity was killing him. The past week, he’d been walking around town with his ears wide open, hoping for even the slightest bit of information about Hannah and how she was doing. Yet any time he walked into a store or restaurant, all the chattering ceased and everyone watched him with keen interest, probably wanting to be the first to pick up on any new developments in his destroyed relationship.
“I want to talk about whatever brought you here,” he offered.
“Good. My daughter has been in a funk ever since you showed up back in Sugar Falls.”
“Just to be clear, ma’am, I was here first. She came home after I arrived.”
“Son, I don’t know how many more months I have left on this earth, and you want to argue semantics?”
Isaac sank lower in his recliner, a petulant child being called to task. “So Hannah’s been annoyed since we ran into each again. Are you here to ask me to leave town?”
“My husband and my sons told me I’d have my work cut out with you both.” Mrs. Gregson shook her head, then straightened the brim of her cap before she continued. “For two people with such charitable hearts, you each have a reckless amount of pride when it comes to believing in each other.”
“Who says that I don’t believe your daughter? In fact, just the other night, she told me that she couldn’t see me anymore. I believed her and I’m trying to do my best to let her go.”
“That’s the problem. You’re both trying to let go when you should be holding on tight.”
“Holding on tight to a relationship that she doesn’t want?”
“It’s not the relationship she doesn’t want. It’s the hurt.” Donna Gregson held up her hand when Isaac opened his mouth to apologize for all the emotional destruction he’d caused way back then. “I know you were nothing but a kid yourself when that stupid video came out, and from what I’ve been able to pick up from my sources, you’ve done your best to make amends for all of that.”
It was true. Over the years, long after they’d gone their separate ways, he’d thought about that video from time to time with a twinge of remorse, making him double down on his public service and volunteerism as a way to prove to others—and to himself—that he maybe he wasn’t a bad person, after all.
“Who are your sources?” he asked. And where had they been when he needed them to tell Hannah all of this?
“Sugar Falls is a small town. Even for us summer folks. Everyone talked about your breakup back then and everyone is talking today about whether you two will end up back together.”
“It was always the rumors that got us, you know?” He let his head fall against the leather headrest, sending a pent-up breath toward the ceiling. “I think she’s worried about her reputation and how it might affect Sammy and her job at the school. What she doesn’t realize is that most of the people in this town, including me, think she walks on water.”
“My daughter is a saint,” Mrs. Gregson agreed. “Always taking care of people and volunteering for everything under the sun. But she can be pigheaded and downright blind when it comes to looking out for herself. Not that I blame her hesitation where you’re concerned. I get it that she doesn’t want to get hurt again. Or made to look like a fool.”
“I think we can safely say that neither one of us wants that.” Back then, Isaac had been the injured party. Or, at least, he’d thought so. When he’d heard from his Uncle Jonesy that Carter brought Hannah home for Thanksgiving their freshman year of college, he had never been more convinced that she’d intended to leave Isaac all along. But now, faced with his own actions and inactions, his own contributions to the destruction of their relationship, he wasn’t sure how to overcome the damage they’d already inflicted. “Are you here to warn me off, then? To tell me to stay away from your daughter?”
Mrs. Gregson brought her palms together, bowed her head and murmured something that sounded like, “Lord, give me patience.”
Since she obviously wasn’t talking to Isaac, he remained silent and tried to sort out what pieces he was missing from this puzzle. But his reprieve only lasted seconds before she lifted her eyes to him and said, “I think I’m going to need reinforcements to get through to you both.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that I want to see my daughter happy before I die and I think that being with you will make her happy. She loved you once and I know it’s still there, buried beneath all the heartache and disillusionment. But it’s going to take more than just a dying wish to get her to see past all that.”
It would’ve been easy to ask Mrs. Gregson why she was assuming that he might still have feelings for Hannah or whether he was even interested in making her daughter happy. But the question would’ve been pointless because they both knew the truth. Actually, everyone in town probably did.
Instead of protesting, he asked, “What do you suggest?”
* * *
When Hannah’s dad told her that Sammy and her mother had driven up to Sugar Falls, Hannah hopped back into her car and floored it up the highway. Her mom’s phone went straight to voice mail, and when Hannah called the landline at the cabin, there was no answer.
Unfortunately, the check fuel light came on several miles before she reached town and she was forced to stop at the Gas ’N Mart. The credit card machine on the pump was out of order and she growled in frustration. The place was owned by Elaine Marconi and her husband, making Hannah send up a silent prayer that it would be Chuck who was on duty this evening.
She entered the mini-mart with her wallet and decided that fate was not on her side today. Elaine sat beside the register, a tabloid magazine open on the counter. However, the woman’s eyes weren’t bothering to look at printed gossip when the opportunity for the live stuff had just walked into her store.
“Hey there, Hannah. What’s going on?”
“Not much.” Hannah didn’t even bother to keep the irritation from her voice as she handed over a twenty dollar bill. It was all the cash she had, but she wasn’t about to use her credit card inside and have to come back in to get the receipt. “I’m on pump number four.”
Elaine’s bracelets jingled as she pushed the buttons on the register and Hannah quickly turned toward the exit. “What’s the rush? You have a hot date or something?”
Every word she and Isaac had said to each other last week came floating back to Hannah. Every tear she’d cried back then, every assumption she’d made, had originated with this woman. Hannah’s shoulders reared back and she turned around to point her anger and frustration in the direction it should’ve gone ten years ago.
“Why are you such a nosy troublemaker, Elaine?”
Instead of acting offended, Elaine smiled and took a drink out of a paper slushee cup that smelled suspiciously of pinot grigio. “Because life would be boring if people like me didn’t spice it up.”
Disgust threatened to choke Hannah and she shivered instead. “Do you realize all the lives you’ve affected with your gossip over the years?”
“Is that what’s bothering you?” Elaine asked. “Something I might’ve said back when we were teenagers? Really, Hannah, you give me too much credit. I only said what everyone was thinking. Including you.”
Was that true? Had Hannah really thought those same things about Isaac all those years ago? That he was adding bikini tops to his collection?
It wasn’t that she hadn’t trusted him, but she had been quick to doubt him. Just like he’d been quick to doubt her. How much easier would it have been to ignore everyone else and go to him? To have asked for an explanation and believed him? To have believed each other?
Staring at Elaine’s smug expression, something clicked in Hannah’s mind. The woman was right. By letting another person’s comments affect her, she’d given someone else way too much power in her relationship. Way too much power in her life.
That ended tonight. A weight was lifted from Hannah’s shoulders as she decided that she would stop caring about what the gossips said and take her future back.
Chapter Seventeen
Isaac stood outside of Luke Gregson’s old Victorian home on Pinecone Avenue, the lights inside not doing much to brighten the darkness in his heart. When he’d asked Donna Gregson for her suggestion on how to win back Hannah, the last thing he’d expected was an invitation to their family dinner on Christmas Eve a couple of days later.
Standing outside on the recently shoveled porch, he waged a war with himself, debating whether or not he should go inside. He shivered underneath his heavy fleece-lined coat, his feet telling him he needed to make a decision soon before he froze to death out here in the frost. How had he made it to age twenty-eight and never once attended a big family holiday gathering like this?
Growing up an only child, his experience with Christmas parties had always been grand, formal affairs with his parents and their wealthy friends. The gifts he usually received had been motivational books from his mom and over-the-top toys from his dad—which was always bittersweet because there’d never been any other kids around with whom to enjoy them. But judging from the shrieks of laughter coming from the other side of the door, there were plenty of children in attendance tonight. Which meant lots of Gregsons. And lots of Gregsons meant lots of judgmental, questioning looks—and protective big brothers.
He took a step back, calculating the distance from the front door to his SUV. But his retreat was blown when a little face pressed up to the frosted glass window pane.
“Chief Isaac is here,” a young voice called out, and there were several thuds against the front door before it opened to reveal Sammy and his cousin Aiden.
The boys grabbed each of his hands to tug him across the threshold and he was suddenly thrust into a room of complete chaos. A set of toddler twins in matching red velvet dresses, waddled like ducks amidst the shredded wrapping paper and ribbons littering the floor, along with a slew of opened boxes and toys. There were adults, as well, but Isaac wasn’t quite ready to focus on who was where because then he’d find himself seeking out Hannah. And he didn’t know if he was ready for that confrontation yet.
Or if she even knew that he was coming.
Instead, he focused on the huge noble fir in the middle of the room, the steepled ceiling providing the only location that would tolerate its ten foot plus height. The tree back at the station was artificial and covered with generic red balls that someone had bought in bulk at a discount store. This tree was very real and very crooked and loaded with an assortment of ornaments that must’ve come from decades’ worth of holidays. Ones made from construction paper and popsicle sticks hung next to fancy, breakable decorations, and he had a feeling that each told its own story.
“Sorry, it looks like a tank battalion just stormed through here,” Luke said, a piece of packing tape stuck to the side of his collar and a Nerf box tucked under his arm. “Merry Christmas and welcome to the war zone.”
Isaac didn’t think it was possible for his gut to clench any tighter, but it did at the potential double meaning behind Hannah’s brother’s comment. “Should I be expecting another battle from your sister tonight?”
“I’d put money on it if my mom and Sammy weren’t here.” Luke sighed. “Unfortunately, Hannah won’t make a scene in front of either of them.”
“Unfortunately?”
“Kylie and I were laying bets on how long it’d take for you guys to blow up at each other, but Carmen and Drew told us to knock it off and let you guys have space to talk things through. Then my dad chimed in and reminded us that she may not be willing to even talk to you.” Luke lowered his voice conspiratorially. “I’m not allowed to tell you that we have a pool going, because it might tip the odds in my favor.”
Great. Everybody was expecting Hannah to be upset that he was there. That wasn’t exactly reassuring. “Does she know your mom invited me?”
“Nope.”
“Don’t you think she’s going to be upset when she sees me here?”
“Hey, did you see our tree?” Luke gestured toward the middle of the room, his attempt to change the subject completely lacking even the pretense of subtlety. “The boys cut it down themselves a couple of days
ago.”
“Yeah, I was on the team responding to the 911 call for the handsaw accident. How’s Caden’s finger doing, by the way?”
“Still attached, Chief.” The boy in question held up a bandaged pinky covered in gauze. The cut hadn’t been deep enough for stitches and one of the paramedics had easily cleaned it up and used a medical glue to close the wound. In Caden’s other hand, he was holding up an extended box cutter. “Look, I found it, Dad. Aiden was using it to open the package of blaster darts.”
Luke rolled his eyes, then took the dangerous tool out of his son’s grasp. “As you may have noticed, we need to do a better job of keeping the boys away from sharp objects. Anyway, we have eggnog and cider and a full bar. If you could open this, I’ll go grab you a drink.”
Luke didn’t wait for a response before passing over the box cutter and the Nerf soft dart launcher, still secured to its cardboard backing with impenetrable plastic ties. But having the task would give Isaac something to do other than wonder how Hannah might react when she saw him here.
He didn’t have to wait long.
“What are you doing here?” Hannah asked from behind him as he struggled to free the toy and almost sliced through his own pinky.
“Your mom invited me.” He turned around just in time to see her school the surprised expression on her face. Hopefully that meant she wasn’t too upset. But just in case, he warned, “Apparently your family has a betting pool going on right now where we’re concerned. So you might want to act like you’re happy to see me or else Pop Pop is going to be sixty dollars ahead.”
The Firefighter's Christmas Reunion Page 18
