The day that they signed the divorce papers, he’d told her that he knew she’d never loved him and explained that he had thought he could love her enough for both of them. She’d left the lawyer’s office heartbroken. She’d had a good man whom she loved (but was not in love with) who came from a family that she adored and she’d lost it. Her grandmother was right, she could love two men, but she couldn’t be in love with two men. Her fate had been sealed a long time ago.
A text alert dinged and Deanna looked down at her phone. From the expression on her face, it was not bearing good news. “Now it’s the caterer with the updated estimate. This entire industry is a scam. You put the word wedding or bridal in it and the price goes up by like four hundred percent. For what? One day? This is crazy, right? All I care about is marrying Lucky. That’s it. That’s the only thing that matters.”
Kenzie nodded in solidarity. She’d had her “perfect wedding.” Everything had been exactly how she’d dreamed it would be. She’d worn the dress of her dreams. She’d had the ceremony and reception in the venue of her dreams. She just hadn’t married the man of her dreams.
As they walked out to their cars, Deanna was complaining about issues with her dress and the DJ that they’d hired when Kenzie got a text of her own. It was Eli telling her he already missed her and that he couldn’t wait for her to get back from Vegas. She’d promised Eli that they’d talk when she returned. She knew that she needed to talk to Eli about their future, which meant she needed to talk to him about their past. She was going to have to stop avoiding the conversation. She was scared after they did that things would be different and she’d just been wanting to hold on to what they had right now for a little while longer.
“All right, I’ll see you in a few days,” Deanna said, before throwing her arms up over her head. “Vegas, baby!”
“Vegas, baby!” Kenzie forced a smile as she waved goodbye to her friend.
Before she started down the mountain she shot back a text saying that she missed him, too. As she drove to Eli’s home, all she could think about was how spending a week away from Eli, after she’d missed so many years with him, felt wrong. She told herself that maybe it was a good thing. Maybe some time away from him would give her a perspective that was impossible to achieve when she was staying in his house. In his bed.
Things between them were happening so fast. They’d gone from zero to a million. Time was a funny thing. When they were younger, it felt like time passed at a snail’s pace when they were apart and zoomed by at the speed of light when they were together. That’s exactly what she felt like now. The time she’d spent with him had seemed like no more than a day had passed, but the thought of not seeing him for a week was the equivalent of a year to her emotionally.
As she pulled up in front of his house, she saw that an SUV she didn’t recognize was sitting in the driveway. She assumed it must be new renters in the back, but when she parked, she realized she was wrong.
Her father was sitting on Eli’s porch. Her chest tightened as her heart sank. There was no way he’d traveled here, in his condition, for anything good.
Was it her grandmother?
Was it Kenny?
Fear propelled her out of the car and up the porch. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” His nose flared. “This.” He pointed to a paper in his lap. “This is what’s wrong.”
It was the Sacramento Bee. On the front page was the photo of her, Eli, and Gabe. The same image had been widely used in blogs and sports sites discussing Gabe’s bravery. This headline, though, looked like its story was centered on Eli. The subhead read “Hometown Hero.”
“Eli delivered a baby and saved its life—” she started to explain.
“Is that what you think he is? A hero?” The word came out with disgust.
He’d always been her hero, and now he did it professionally. “He is a hero.”
“It’s time you know what kind of man Eli Bishop is.” Her father handed her an envelope.
She stared at it. “What is this?”
“Take it.”
Dread filled her as she stared down at the seemingly innocuous envelope.
“How did you know I was here?” she stalled.
“Your grandmother told me where I could find you.”
Right. She’d spoken to her grandmother after the story came out and mentioned that she was staying with Eli.
“Did you come all the way here to give me this?” she asked, her arms remaining at her sides. “Are you even okay to drive?”
“Charlene drove me.”
Glancing over her shoulder, she saw her father’s nurse in the driver’s seat of the SUV. When their eyes met, Charlene lifted her hands in a shrug and mouthed, Sorry.
When she turned back, she saw her father struggle as he pushed up to a standing position using a cane that she also hadn’t noticed beside him. It was shocking to see a man that she’d always feared appear so weak and feeble. He looked like a skeleton wearing clothes, there were dark circles under his eyes, and his cheeks were hollowed out.
His voice was gruff as he shoved the envelope her direction once more. “Take it.”
Reluctantly, she took it and lifted the flap. After pulling out and unfolding the paperwork, she tried to make sense of the words that she read. She flipped through the pages. There was a police report and a bank statement.
“What is this?” she shook her head.
“Proof,” he sneered.
“Proof of what?”
“Proof that Eli’s not the hero you’ve always thought he was.”
“What am I looking at?” she barked as she scanned each document.
Her father’s finger jabbed the three pages she held in her right hand. “That is the police report that shows your hero broke into a convenience store and assaulted a woman. I kept it from being filed because I knew what you felt about him.” He wobbled slightly as he shifted his weight and stabbed the papers she held in her left hand. “And that is the money that I paid him to get out of your life.”
“Get out of my life?” she was shaking her head back and forth in disbelief at what she was hearing.
“I knew what you had planned. That you were going to run away with him. I’m not stupid. You were going to throw your life away on that low-class, low life and I saved you. You want to know where your brother’s trust fund went? Well your hero has it. You didn’t speak to me for years because you thought I stole from your brother. I didn’t steal from Kenny. I had to use that money to keep a lowlife, thug away from my daughter.”
A numbness spread through her. It started at the crown of her head and went down her back and through her limbs as she scanned the papers. It was so much information to take in. She barely noticed her father’s shoulder brush against hers as he walked past her. She didn’t even look up when she heard the car door slam and then drive away.
Her eyes darted back and forth, up and down as she read and reread the papers. All of the claims her father had made were substantiated in the documents she was holding, but she just didn’t believe them.
Breaking and entering.
Assault.
Taking money to get out of her life.
None of this was Eli. She knew it in her heart. He would never do those things. But in the back of her mind, there was a niggling voice saying, you never thought he would walk out of your life and abandon you either.
Chapter 21
‡
A kaleidoscope of color danced along the sides of his locker as Eli stared down at his grandmother’s ring. He rolled the band between his forefinger and thumb. It had been burning a hole in his pocket since he picked it up from his mom yesterday. He’d taken it out and admired it every chance he got. The crew had just finished dinner and this was their downtime. He’d come to his locker to grab his gym clothes but instead of doing that, he’d pulled out the ring.
Since he’d left his mom’s house, the conversation they’d had kept playing in his mind. He’d given it
a lot of thought, and he’d come to the conclusion that his mom was right. Kenzie could handle the truth. His plan was to talk to her about everything when she got back from Vegas.
Kenzie was an intelligent, loving, forgiving, incredible woman. He’d been so worried about protecting her that he wasn’t giving her enough credit. His mom also had another point. She deserved the truth. Plain and simple.
And she would get it.
Hopefully, she’d find it in her heart to forgive him, to put the past behind them, and move forward together. Then, he would ask her to be his wife. Not immediately after, but soon. He’d finally get to put a ring on her finger. The ring that he’d asked his mother for when he was seventeen because he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with the girl who snuck into both his window and his soul.
“Whoa, is that what I think it is?” Marco whistled loudly behind Eli.
Eli put the ring back and shut the locker. When he turned around, he saw Marco standing at attention with a somber expression on his face. His friend had taken his ball cap off and was now holding it over his heart.
Eli crossed his arms. “What are you doing?”
With sincere reverence, Marco replied. “I’m paying my respects to my fallen wingman. Eli Bishop, you were one of the greats.”
Eli chuckled as he shook his head and turned around to do what he’d come here to do: grab his gym clothes.
“Bishop,” Jake called from across the bunkhouse. “My office.”
“Uh oh.” Marco’s eyes widened. “Looks like delivering a baby at gunpoint isn’t going to deliver you from trouble.”
The crew had been giving Eli a hard time about his recent attention. Everyone thought they were a comedian. As time went on, the punchlines grew less and less original and funny.
“That was weak, bro.” Eli slapped his friend on the shoulder as he passed him. “You’re better than that, Reyes.”
“It wasn’t my A game,” Marco conceded.
Eli still had a smile on his face as he walked into the office.
The chief was sitting behind his desk and he lifted his chin. “Shut the door.”
Damn. Jake had only called him in like this and asked him to close the door once before, and it was to let him know that a woman Eli had saved and resuscitated hadn’t made it. She’d passed away after being on life support for three days.
As he took a seat across from the chief, he prepared himself for news that he knew wouldn’t be easy to hear.
“Things have been crazy around here, and you’ve really shown that I can count on you. You picked up shifts when I needed you to.”
“Overtime is never a bad thing,” Eli deflected, not feeling comfortable with receiving praise for just doing his job.
Jake pressed on, “You keep morale up for the guys who are all overworked and exhausted. You lead by example and never complain. You always go above and beyond your duty.
“I didn’t want to say anything until it was official, but I got the green light today to create the position of assistant chief. I want to offer it to you. There’s no one else I’d rather have at my side.”
Eli was speechless. Every firefighter at Station 23 worked their asses off. There wasn’t a man or woman here who didn’t pull their weight and Eli didn’t have seniority. There were a half dozen firefighters that had been here twice as long as he had.
He didn’t get a chance to respond before there was a knock on the glass. Jake motioned to whomever was there.
“Hey, chief.” Eli heard Randy’s voice. “Bishop has a visitor.”
Eli turned around and saw Kenzie standing at the far end of the station entrance. Her back was to him, but he knew it was her. She was leaving tomorrow morning and he hadn’t thought he was going to get a chance to see her.
“Go,” the chief excused Eli. “Think about what I said.”
“Will do.” Eli was grinning from ear to ear as he left the office.
He’d just been offered a promotion. The woman he loved was back in his life. He was on cloud nine.
But, when she turned around, he crashed back to earth. Kenzie was white as a sheet and clutching papers to her chest.
“What’s wrong?” He closed the distance between them and reached for her.
She moved away from his touch and it felt like someone punched him in the gut.
“Can we talk?” she asked in a quiet voice.
“Yes. What’s wrong?”
Her eyes darted from side to side. “Somewhere private?”
“Uh, yeah. Sure.” He started to put his hand on her back but pulled it back when he remembered how she’d reacted just moments ago. Instead, he held out his hand toward the darkened training room.
She walked in front of him and went inside. He followed behind her, flipped the lights and shut the door.
“Why did you leave?” she asked. “The day we were supposed to get married, why did you leave without saying a word?”
The question took him by surprise. He’d tried to talk to her several times and every time she’d changed the subject. He knew this conversation was coming, he just hadn’t planned on having it here, like this.
Eli ran his hands through his hair. “I…it’s complicated.”
“Complicated?” A forced laugh expelled from her lungs as she thrust the papers she’d been holding at him. “Yeah, it seems complicated.”
He took them from her and couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He flipped through the papers and the same white-hot anger he’d felt the first time he’d been handed these documents rose up in him once more. “Where did you get these?”
“What?!” Her hands flew up in the air. “Why does it matter where I got them?!”
He held the papers up. “Did Theo give you these?”
When Theo had interviewed Eli the questions on camera had been general. But when he’d turned it off they’d grown personal. He’d point blank asked Eli what was going on with him and Kenzie. Theo had made it clear that he cared about Kenzie and would be watching Eli, but he hadn’t expected that Theo would dig up the past. Maybe Eli underestimated the fact that he was a documentary filmmaker and part of his job was to investigate stories.
“Theo?!” her voice rose. “Why would Theo give me these?!”
“Because he’s in love with you.”
“He’s not in love with me!” Anger radiated off of her.
“Yes.” He said with a calm that did not reflect his blood that was boiling. “He is.”
She shook her head back in short jerks. “Are you fucking kidding me? What are you even talking about?! This isn’t about Theo! This is about you! This is about—”
Flashing lights and an alarm sounding interrupted her outrage.
The door swung open, and Marco stuck his head in and shouted, “It’s a ten-forty!”
“Shit,” Eli cursed under his breath as his heart pounded like a hammer in his chest. “I have to go.”
“Of course you do!” Her face scrunched in frustration as she snatched the papers back and started to storm past him.
“Kenzie!” he shouted to be heard. Her eyes shot to his and the pain he saw there stabbed through his heart. “It’s not what you think!”
He saw tears pool in her bottom lids as her lower lip quivered.
“It’s not what you think!” he yelled again.
“Let’s go, Bishop!” Randy banged on the glass as he ran out toward the bay.
Kenzie took that as her cue to exit. She rushed out and he watched her leave, and frustration and helplessness raged through him. Just like the first time he’d had to walk away from her. But there was one difference. This time he wasn’t going to stay away. This time he was going to tell her the truth. When he did, her heart may be broken again, but this time he’d be there to help heal it.
Chapter 22
‡
A knock sounded on Mackenzie’s door, interrupting her magical bubble bath in the luxury whirlpool tub that was in her hotel room. For a split second, she considered
dunking her head under the water Julia-Roberts-Pretty-Woman style and ignoring it. The chances of it being the room service she’d ordered were slim since she’d called down for it less than ten minutes ago. This was the first chance she’d gotten to be alone since she’d arrived in Las Vegas this morning and she didn’t want to see anyone, and she hoped whoever was there would go away.
The entire day she’d felt like she was operating on autopilot. The packed schedule that they’d had today had served to keep her distracted from obsessing over Eli and the papers her father had given her, but it had also been tiring. Last night after leaving the fire station she couldn’t sleep and she’d been going non-stop today. She was exhausted.
When the knock came again, it was more insistent, and she knew that her brief reprieve was over. It was probably better that she wasn’t left alone to obsess over things. All she kept thinking about was the expression on his face when he saw the documents and the way he’d told her that it wasn’t what she thought. Her mind was working overtime to try and think of what it could be, but nothing made sense to her.
She pulled on her robe and didn’t even bother putting her wet hair up in a towel. Her limbs were heavy and the thought of leaning over and twisting the cotton material around her head sounded like it would take energy she didn’t have.
She was just reaching for the handle when there was another knock, but this time a voice accompanied it.
“Open up Gayle. It’s Oprah.”
A smile broke on her face as she opened the door, surprised to see her friend there. This was Vegas. It was known for two of his favorite things: women and gambling. “Hey.”
“Can I come in?” Theo patted the computer bag he had slung over his shoulder.
“Sure, but I was just taking a bath and then I was going to go to bed,” she explained as he walked past her. She hoped that he would take the hint and not stay long. It wasn’t that work wasn’t important it was just she needed a break.
“This won’t take long,” he assured her.
Applause broke out in her head. She shoots, she scores.
Fire and Love (Hope Falls Book 13) Page 18
