Backdraft (10 page)

“Sounds great. Hey, I’m glad you called, man.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Dave got ready and drove the short distance to their meeting place on auto-pilot. His mind was racing, trying to decide how to approach the subject of Maya with her brother. He didn’t want Jack to think that was the only reason he’d reached out to him, but he couldn’t walk away from this meeting without any insight into where her head might be now.

He’d thought of Maya and little else since he left her house. He knew he over-reacted to the news that she slept with the doctor, in spite of the fact that she claimed they were just friends. He could say the same about half a dozen women he’d slept with in recent years. They were just friends, with benefits. He didn’t have any claim on Maya, hadn’t in a long time, but that didn’t stop him from being jealous and possessive when he thought about her sleeping with someone else. Some habits die hard.

Dave spotted his old friend right away; the years were good to him. From a distance, he looked the same as he remembered. After getting out of his truck, Dave grinned when Jack started closing the distance between them.

Jack laughed, perching his sunglasses atop his head when he saw him. “What’d you do, make a deal with the devil, boy?”

Dave chuckled, reaching out to pull him into a half hug. “What’re you talkin’ about?”

Jack elbowed him in the ribs as they walked toward the entrance. “I expected you to have a paunch by now. No one liked to throw ‘em back as much as you did back in the day.”

Dave liked his beer back then, still did, but now he enjoyed it in moderation. For a brief period after the incident with Craig and Maya, he feared he was developing a problem with alcohol, so he quit cold turkey for a few months, just to prove to himself he could still control some things in his life. “I still like to knock a few back once in a while,” Dave said, holding the door open. “But I usually stop at that. I’m too damn old to be waking up with a hangover, ya know?”

Jack chuckled. “With age comes wisdom, my friend.”

If only that were true. Dave felt like he was still making the same stupid mistakes he made ten years ago. Sliding into a vacant booth, Dave asked, “So, you’re a vet now, huh?”

“Yeah, how’d you know that?” Jack asked, claiming the bench seat across from him. “You run into one of the old gang?”

 So Maya had kept their night together under wraps. He couldn’t say he was surprised. He decided to dive in and take the opening Jack offered. “As a matter of fact, your sister came to Brant last week. She’s the one who told me what you’d been up to.”

“No shit,” Jack said, smiling at the pretty young waitress approaching the table. “You still drink Bud, man?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” Dave said, remembering how many kegs of beer they’d demolished together over the years. Damn, seeing his old friend again was good. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed him until now.

Jack waited until the waitress left before leaning forward and asking, “So, what the hell was my little sister doing back in Brant County?”

“She came to the charity auction.”

Jack laughed, sliding his cell phone across the table. “You mean that bachelor auction?”

“That’s the one.” He knew his old friend would tease him mercilessly if he found out he was on the auction block. “We hooked up afterwards and…”

Jack held his hand up. “Hold up a minute. Define ‘hooked up.’”

Shit. Jack was always over-protective of his little sister. Since Dave knew it was too late for damage control, he decided to bite the bullet and come clean. “We, uh…”

Shaking his head, he said, “You slept with her, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.” Sighing, Dave asked, “So, you pissed at me, or what?” Back in high school, Jack warned him that if he did anything to hurt his sister, they would have a big problem. He assumed he was still willing to make good on that threat.

He brushed a hand over his cropped auburn hair. “Hell, my sister’s a big girl. She can make her own decisions, but do you really think a one-night stand was smart, given your history?”

“Who said anything about a one-night stand?” Of course they’d only spent one night together, but he wasn’t willing to believe that was their last.

Frowning, Jack asked, “Are you saying you two are seeing each other again?”

“Would that surprise you?” Dave had the uneasy feeling that he was in the dark, again.

“Uh…” He propped his elbows on the table, covering his hands with his face. “Jesus, I really don’t want to get caught in the middle of this, man.”

Dave waited until the waitress set their beer bottles on the table between them before asking, “What the hell’s going on, Jack? Obviously, you’re not telling me something.”

“My sister isn’t the type of girl to date more than one guy at a time…”

Dave scowled. “She wasn’t above…” He didn’t know if Jack knew what happened to cause their break-up. He didn’t want to be the one to tarnish her brother’s view of her.

“It’s okay,” he said, sighing. “I know she slept with Craig, and that’s why you two broke up.”

“She told you?”

“Yeah, she was pretty miserable for a long time. Finally, I got it out of her.” He looked Dave in the eye. “She made a mistake. I’m not saying what she did was right. I would have felt the same way you did, but you forgave Craig. Why can’t you cut her some slack?”

Dave had asked himself that question dozens of times over the years. Was he holding her up to an impossibly high standard? “It cut deep. You have no idea what it did to me, walking in on them together.”

Jack started peeling the label off his bottle, refusing to look Dave in the eye. “I do know, believe me, I know.”

“What are you saying?”

He drew a deep breath. “My wife cheated on me.”

“Jesus,” Dave said, taking a swig of beer. He didn’t know what to say to that, so he sat in silence, waiting for Jack to fill him in.

“Yeah, it damn near killed me, but we have two little girls, ya know? I wasn’t going to lose my family because of that prick.”

Dave considered his friend’s dilemma. He didn’t know how he continued to live under the same roof and share the same bed with the woman who betrayed him. “Was it a one-time deal?”

“No, it went on for a few months.” He tipped his head back, closing his eyes. “She thought she was in love with him, that’s why she told me.”

“Shit,” Dave said, gripping his beer bottle. He didn’t know how he would handle hearing that his wife, the love of his life, was in love with another man. “What’d you do?”

“I asked her to go to counseling with me.”

“And?”

“And she agreed.” He opened his eyes, a smile tugging at his lips. “That was a year and a half ago, and our marriage has never been better.”

“How the hell do you get past something like that? Doesn’t it eat at you?”

He tipped the beer bottle up to his lips. “Only if you let it. I made the decision to let it go so we could save our marriage. If I chose to dwell on it, I would’ve lost everything that matters to me. It wasn’t worth that. I love her; I love my kids. They’re the only things that matter to me now.”

Dave considered what he would do if he had so much to lose. “I don’t know if I could let it go that easily.”

Scowling, Jack asked, “Did I say it was easy? It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I still think about it sometimes, but I don’t punish her because of it anymore. There’s a difference. I’ve forgiven her, but I’m sure I’ll never forget.”

Dave needed to take a lesson from his friend. It was time for him to forgive Maya for making a mistake. “You’re a smart man, a hell of a lot smarter than I am.”

“I don’t know about that. So, where’d you and Maya leave things?”

Dave grimaced, remembering the way he’d stormed out of her house in a fit of anger. “I got pissed when I found out about that doctor she’s been… seeing.” He would have said screwing, but again, it wasn’t his place.

“Shit, I’m glad she told you about Chris. I sure as hell didn’t want to be the one to fill you in.”

“Yeah, I met him when we went to the hospital that night.”

“What were you doing at the hospital?”

He held up his bandaged hand, smirking. “Let’s just say I still don’t know how to control my temper.”

Jack laughed. “Some things never change. So what, you got in a fight?”

“Yeah, with a sheet of drywall.” He chuckled. “It won.”

Laughing, Jack raised his beer bottle. “How many times have you made that bone-head mistake?”

“You have a memory like a steel trap, don’t you?” He’d taken his frustration out on inanimate objects a few times after they lost football games or he got into it with Maya. “But you’re not the only one. Do I need to remind you of all the dumbass stunts you pulled?”

“Hell no!”

They looked at each other and laughed, both remembering some of the best and worst times of their lives.

“I’m glad we decided to do this, Dave. I really needed this today. I’ve been so damn busy with work that I haven’t had much time to catch up with friends lately.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. My buddies at the firehouse are like my brothers, but there’s something about catching up with someone who’s known you since you were a kid, right?”

“You got that right. So, you became a firefighter like your old man, huh?”

“Sure did. In fact, he’s getting set to retire. I’ll be taking over for him.” He grinned, raising the bottle to his lips. “Unless I do so something to fuck it up in the meantime.”

Jack looked at his bandaged hand, smiling. “You? Mr. Calm, Cool, and Collected? Nah, never happen.”

Dave laughed. “Shut the fuck up.”

Jack’s cell phone rang and he glanced at the screen, smiling. “Gimme a sec.” He picked up the phone, pressing the button to connect the call. “Hey, Ma. What’s up?” He paused, listening to his mother. “She took the kids to visit her parents today. Yeah, sure, I can come over. Hey, guess who’s sitting across from me at Casey’s? Dave Briar.” He held the phone away from his ear. “Okay, I’ll tell him. Yeah, we’ll be there in about an hour. Okay, bye.” Rolling his eyes, Jack ended the call. “I guess you heard? Don’t even think about trying to get out of it. They want to see you and they’re not taking no for an answer.”

Coach and Mrs. Monroe were two of his favorite people on the planet. He was looking forward to seeing them again, and if their beautiful daughter happened to be there too, he wouldn’t complain. “How’re your parents?”

“They’re great. They travel a fair bit; go to the seniors’ center a few times a week. Dad’s into gardening and Mom’s pretty involved with the church. Their health has been good…” He knocked on the heavy wood table between them. “So life is good, can’t complain.”

“And your family, your wife and girls, you said things are good at home now?”

He smiled, picking up his cell phone again. “Yeah, they’re great.” He scrolled his images until he found the one he wanted. “Here they are. We were at the lake for a picnic that day, did a bit of fishing. It was great.”

Dave stared at the image a long time, smiling. That’s what he wanted, a beautiful wife to come home to, a couple of kids, a dog or two. Nothing would make him happier than to see Maya pregnant with his baby. But they had a long road ahead of them before they got to that place. “So, is your sister gonna be there tonight?” he asked, handing the phone to Jack. He was more than ready to start that journey now, tonight.

“Uh, I don’t know. Mom didn’t say.” Jack pocketed the phone and took a pull of beer, refusing to look at Dave.

“Okay, I said this before. I get the feeling you’re not telling me something about Maya.”

Jack sighed. “Okay, fine, I’ll tell you. I don’t know if she’s going to be there tonight because she went out of town with Chris for the weekend.”

The beer was suddenly churning in his stomach. “What the hell are you talking about? Where’d they go?”

“To Vegas,” Jack said quietly.

The beer was going to taste a hell of a lot worse coming up than it had going down. “Vegas, why Vegas?” People went there for two reasons: to gamble and get married. The Maya he knew wasn’t big on gambling, which only left one alternative. “Please tell me she’s not thinking about…”

“I don’t know where her head is right now, Dave.”

“Then you’re telling me it’s a possibility? She’s actually thinking about marrying this guy?” He slammed his good hand down on the table top. “Son of a bitch, she told me they were just friends. That was last weekend. How the hell did they go from being friends to married in a fuckin’ week?”

“It’s not like she just met the guy, man. They’ve worked together for three years, ever since Maya started at the hospital. They’ve dated casually, but he’s always wanted more.” He looked Dave in the eye. “We had lunch a couple of days ago, and she told me he wanted to get married.”

“Fuck no,” he muttered, dropping his head in his hands. “This can’t be happening.”

“She wasn’t there yet, but I got the feeling she was considering it. She didn’t mention you specifically, but she said she was tired of wasting her life, it was time to get on with it.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “No, fuck no. We can’t get this close, and let it slip away again, man. We just can’t.”