Flash Point (Kilgore Fire Book 2) Page 3

  I also tried to ignore the man that was across the bar in the dining portion of the restaurant staring at me. Not that I’d actually caught him looking. Every time I looked at him his eyes were on his wife.

  It was safe to say that I was in a bad mood.

  Today I’d seen Booth for the first time in a very long time.

  Which meant it’d been eight and a half long years.

  And he hadn’t changed one freaking bit.

  Well, the beard was new.

  Before he hadn’t been allowed to have a beard. Now, though, he had a good one.

  One that made me want to sit on his face.

  I tore my eyes away, then decided I needed a bathroom break.

  I’d just pushed into the bathroom and headed straight for the sink where I stared at my face. I was pitiful. I was the lowliest of low. I was the worst person in the world.

  The bathroom door opened, and a gaggle of women crowded in, talking about a sexy man in a superhero shirt that was sitting close to the door. Meaning I needed to go or I just might get into a fight.

  Especially when I knew the sexy man to be Booth.

  Fucking Booth and his superhero fetish.

  I slammed out of the bathroom, the door colliding with the wall as I went.

  All eyes turned to me, even the bitchy little cheerleader.

  “What are you looking at?” I snapped at the girl as I walked past her.

  She sneered. “A slut who won’t stop looking at my married father.”

  “Bitch, I will fuck your dad and make you my stepdaughter. Back the fuck off!” I hissed at the girl.

  The girl’s eyes widened in shock that I would use such crass language in front of her and her parents.

  Her mom didn’t look too happy, either. Her dad, on the other hand, looked calculating as he thought about the possibilities.

  I wasn’t saying that I wouldn’t do him, because holy shit the man was hot for an old man. However, I didn’t do married men. Ever. Period. End of fucking sentence.

  Which was why knowing Booth was married really gutted me.

  I’d always harbored a secret hope that one day he would come back and let me explain. Let me try to grovel my way back into his life.

  But now, with him married, that was never going to happen.

  Never.

  Ever.

  The alcohol wasn’t cutting it.

  Neither was the ignoring him.

  I had to get out of here.

  I looked at my watch.

  It was thirty minutes past eight, and our dinner hadn’t come yet.

  I’d promised Mia a girl’s day out, but there was no way I could make it through the rest of dinner with that man in the same room.

  What were the chances that he’d pick the same exact restaurant that we were in?

  My stomach felt queasy as I made a decision.

  Stopping behind the bar next to the jukebox, I stood on tiptoes and surveyed the room.

  I could just barely make out the top of Booth’s red hat he’d been wearing declaring him the newest member of KFD.

  Mia sat at the bar with a plate of food in front of her, and I started to feel a wave of guilt.

  I roughly pushed it back, though, instead pulling out my phone and texting Mia.

  She’d understand.

  If there was anyone in this world that would, it was her.

  Then, without another word, I slipped out the delivery door and hurried across the parking lot to my Jeep.

  It wasn’t much to look at.

  In fact, it was pretty boring.

  I’d gotten her when I turned sixteen and hadn’t looked back since.

  I didn’t spend much time in my car, and, when I did, all I needed it for was to drive me less than two miles to work and or the grocery store.

  I was a homebody.

  I read.

  I wrote the occasional review for a blog, and I worked.

  That was the extent of my life.

  I was as boring as boring could be.

  And my Jeep proved it.

  Opening the Jeep door without bothering to unlock it since it didn’t lock anyway, I started it up and backed out of the parking spot, unaware of the eyes that watched me the entire way.

  My eyes stayed looking ahead as I ignored the motorcycle that I knew was his.

  He’d had it for a long time, now.

  It’d been in my parent’s drive enough, and I’d been on the back of it so many times, I’d know that bike anywhere.

  I’d done things on that bike that were inappropriate, and there would never come a time that I didn’t look at that bike without remembering the infinite possibilities that Booth had shown me were possible on it.

  My drive home was short, thankfully, because by the time I arrived in my driveway I was crying so hard that I couldn’t see.

  Sobs wracked my frame as I opened the door of my Jeep, then promptly busted my ass on the concrete due to the slickness of it.

  And so I sat there, in my driveway, with rain pouring down on me, and cried.

  Chapter 3

  Real men don’t have beards. Beards stop their masks from sealing properly.

  -Firefighter’s do it better

  Booth

  “She’s the one, isn’t she?” Emily asked softly.

  I looked up from the bottle I was peeling the label off of.

  We were sitting at a booth in the Applebee’s on the main drag in my hometown of Kilgore, Texas.

  It was exactly like it used to be eight years ago.

  Fuck, but even the booth we were sitting in still had the same shit up on the walls as it did the last time I’d been there.

  I looked down at the table and saw the scarred wood where I’d carved mine and Masen’s initials into it on our first anniversary.

  We hadn’t been the first, and we hadn’t been the last.

  But I knew the instant that the hostess sat us in the booth that it wasn’t a good idea.

  Too many memories had been made in this booth.

  “You should go talk to her,” Emily said.

  I looked up at her and grimaced.

  “I don’t want to,” I lied.

  I did.

  Very much so.

  We’d both been young and stupid when that thing with her sister had taken place.

  Emily laughed, catching the attention of a very pissed off woman that was sitting at the bar next to Masen.

  Mia. Her best friend.

  I was only married because Emily was pregnant with my best friend’s baby and was losing her insurance coverage. To help her out, I offered my name and my benefits. Both of which she took me up on while she had her baby and then got back on her feet after losing her boyfriend to an IED.

  One of my very good friends that I missed with all my heart; a day didn’t go by that I didn’t think about him.

  And, had I been in his shoes with a baby on the way and leaving behind a woman that struggled to pay for my funeral costs, I would’ve hoped he’d do the same for me.

  There was no love between Emily and I.

  In fact, she’d divorced me the moment that she didn’t need me anymore. Which was fine with me.

  The whole ‘hubby’ thing she did was a joke, and she’d been doing it for a very long time now because she thought it was funny.

  She only did it sparingly now, though.

  Ever since she met her new man.

  A man that treated her like she was a piece of spun glass, and loved her daughter like she deserved to be loved.

  And I was so happy for her.

  I watched as Masen got up from the table, giving me a full unencumbered view of her attire.

  She’d changed since we were together.

  Before I’d gone on my deployment that led to the worst time of my life, she’d dressed as girly girl as one could get.

  Dresses. Skirts. Heels.

  She wore it all, then piled jewelry on top of that.

  Now, I didn’t see a single piece of jewelry on her.

  And she was in sweats.

  At a restaurant.

  I’d never once seen her go out of the house in that.

  Not that she didn’t look good in the sweats.

  They were tight and cupped her ass nicely, which had rounded out beautifully since the last time I’d seen her, but she still never would’ve been caught dead in that when she was seventeen.

  What hadn’t changed, though, was her temper.

  A temper that was clearly on display as she slammed out of the bathroom moments later, anger tight on her face.

  Masen had always had a temper.

  And I’d missed seeing it, even though she’d used it on me, which had backfired on me in more ways than one.

  Emily laughed.

  “What?” I asked, turning my attention back to her.

  “Oh, you have it bad,” she giggled.

  I shrugged and crossed my arms over my chest, completely dissatisfied with the appetizer Emily had ordered for the two of us.

  Food wasn’t what I wanted.

  Hadn’t been what I wanted for a very long time now.

  “So why’d you come by the station?” I asked. “Thought you were getting married this weekend.”

  Emily grinned.

  “I am. At the end of the month,” she answered. “I just wanted to make sure that you got the papers.”

  I nodded. “I did. But I told you I didn’t need any money.”

  Emily rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t my decision to give it to you.”

  I sighed, my eyes going back to the bar area once again when I saw movement out of the corner of my eyes.

  I watched as Masen moved, hugging around the pole that led to the bar and crouching down until she could sneak out the pick-up door.

  Then I turned in my seat so I could watch her walk to her Jeep.

  The same Jeep that she’d had for a very long time now.

  And it looked it.

  “She’s leaving,” Emily told me helpfully.

  I turned around and glared at Emily.

  “She sure is. Would you look at that?” I teased.

  Emily stuck her tongue out.

  “Now, let’s discuss money.”

  ***

  “You’re a dumbass,” Aaron said, rolling his head in my direction to glare at me.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “You’re wondering why she ran out of there when you were having dinner with your ex-wife. You don’t think that would be something that would be cause to upset her?” He asked stiffly.

  “Well, Masen thinks that Emily is my wife. And I didn’t correct her misconceptions,” I answered reluctantly.

  Aaron raised his brow.

  “You’re a dick, you know that?” He asked.

  I shrugged. “I don’t care.”

  “Yeah, you do. Which is what I never understood. You loved her more than life, and there is no way that you would’ve taken her dismissal of you unless you were secretly wanting to leave her, too,” Aaron added.

  My jaw tightened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Aaron laughed, causing a grimace of pain to flicker over his face.

  Aaron had been injured badly in an accident causing burns that covered nearly half of his body.

  It took up the majority of his left side.

  One side was perfect unmarred flesh, and the other was mottled with ugly, unhealed skin.

  My brother, though, was a fucking survivor, and I had no doubt that he’d make it back to his old self.

  His burns were in that gross stage where they were starting to heal. His skin flaked off in clumps here and there, and he looked a tad bit grotesque.

  “You do know what I’m talking about,” Aaron said. “You’re just refusing to acknowledge it and letting her take all the blame. It’s the same thing I’ve been telling you for years.”

  I sat back in my chair and stewed.

  He was right.

  I had been, perhaps, at least partially responsible for the entire thing.

  But I wouldn’t be taking all of the blame.

  She was the one to put the entire thing into motion. It was me, however, who refused to run after her.

  At least not until two years later, and I’d fucked up that night, too.

  I’d received a call in the middle of the night from my CO asking me if I wanted to join a different company who’d just lost their medic. I’d done that twice before, but this time was different. This time it was during combat, and the company was pinned down in a remote village in the outskirts of our patrol.

  I’d taken him up on the offer, my mind going into work mode, not thinking about what I was doing until I was in the air with nothing else to do but think about what I’d just done.

  However, it didn’t stop me from doing my job.

  What I loved.

  “What are you doing here, baby?” My mom broke into my thoughts, making me look up.

  Her and my stepdad were standing in the hospital room door, both with huge smiles on their faces.

  “I’m sneaking Aaron in some beer,” I told them the truth.

  They’d think I was joking, but I wasn’t.

  I’d snuck in three beers in my coat pockets and had buried them in a urinal of ice next to the sink.

  A clean urinal, but a urinal nonetheless.

  “Oh, Booth,” my mom laughed. “What are y’all talking about?”

  “Masen,” Aaron said.

  My mother’s head snapped towards him, then turned to me.

  “What about Masen?” Bill asked.

  “He was telling me that he saw her today at the fire station,” Aaron said.

  “You just started yesterday,” my mom said. “How’d she know you were there already?”

  “She didn’t. They were having a bake sale to help fund this bozo,” I said, pointing at Aaron with my thumb. “She baked some cookies.”

  “She baked?” My mom giggled.

  I grinned myself.

  Masen really couldn’t bake. In fact, she was more of what one would call a ‘burner.’

  She burned everything, even when she was actively trying not to burn it.

  Literally.

  I was scared to even look at her cookies.

  “Yeah, she baked. Guess we’ll see about how those cookies come out. It’s a small town, there’s bound to be talk about them,” I teased.

  Aaron made a low sound of agreement in his throat, and I stood up to offer him my hand.

  “I’ll get out of your hair. But I’ll be back tomorrow so don’t think you’re off the hook,” I tilted my head in the direction of the chess game we’d been playing.

  Aaron smiled and gave me a thumb’s up with his good hand.

  “See you tomorrow,” he said.

  My parents followed me out, and we stopped just outside the closed door.

  “How do you think he’s doing?” My mother asked me.

  I looked at her, studying the worry etched on her face, and shrugged. “He talks a good game. But I know this is affecting him greatly. We’re going to have to keep an eye on him. This isn’t going to be an easy road for him,” I admitted.

  My mother sighed and my stepfather gathered her into his side.

  “Will you keep an eye on our house while we’re gone?” He asked.

  I nodded. “Mom already asked, and I will,” I agreed.

  “Good,” he said, pulling out a piece of paper from his pocket. “This is the boat we’ll be on, and where we’re leaving port from. Call us if anything interesting happens or if you need to talk.”

  I nodded and took the piece of paper and offered him my hand.

  “Have a good time,” I ordered.

  My mother hugged me.

  “I think you should talk to her,” she whispered into my ear.

  I leaned back with a grimace.

  “I’ll see what I can do, Ma. But I’m not making any promises,” I replied teasingly.

  My mom rolled her eyes.

  “When have you ever ‘made any promises?’”

  I grinned.

  “It’s easier to do it that way, then you’re not breaking promises,” I responded cheekily.

  My mother smacked me on the arm.

  “Go home and mow your lawn. It needs it,” she ordered.

  After saluting her, I left.

  Then I mowed my lawn.

  Why? Because my mother told me to, that’s why.

  Chapter 4

  I’m emotionally constipated. I haven’t given a crap all week.

  -Coffee Cup

  Masen

  “What?” I exclaimed, pulling the phone away from my ear and looking at it like I hadn’t heard Mia right.

  “You heard me right,” Mia confirmed.

  My mouth dropped open.

  “They’re high…while on the job. How?” I cried, my mind racing.

  From what I knew, Booth had never, ever tried drugs.

  In fact, he’d been radically against them since one of his high school friends had been a huge pot head that turned into a lover of more hard core drugs once pot no longer hit the spot.

  To hear that Booth was high really surprised the crap out of me.

  “What are you calling me for?” I asked, trying hard not to sound as bitter as I really was. “Call his wife.”

  Mia was silent for long moments. “He didn’t ask us to call his wife. He asked for Tai to call you. And since we don’t have any more information other than that, you’re up.”

  I shook my head. “Call someone else. I’m not doing this.”

  “They suffered a lot of smoke inhalation tonight, as well as inhalation of the weed, Masen. Booth has a concussion and most likely a couple of bruised ribs. He can’t be alone, and he needs to be woken up every hour to make sure he’s okay,” Mia said with a no bullshit attitude.

  I sighed and gritted my teeth.

  “Fine,” I growled. “Where are y’all?”

  “The hospital. Memorial, not ours,” she answered quickly.

  I was heading to my bedroom before she’d even finished. “Okay. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  Once I hung up, I couldn’t help but be a little bit ecstatic that he’d asked for me.