Her Forever Hero (Unexpected Heroes) (15 page)

“Congratulations, buddy!” Cam stood and smacked him hard on the back.

“Thanks. Okay, sorry we got off topic,” Axel said. “Let’s get back to your girl now, since mine seems to be doing a whole lot better than yours at the moment.”

The men finished their lunch, and when Cam left, he wondered whether Grace was ever going to talk to him again. The way things were going, she might be in deeper water with him than with whoever thought it an amusing pastime to pester her.

He just wanted to keep her safe, he reasoned. It had nothing to do with his wanting to spend more time with her—nothing at all to do with that.

Grace gazed at the modest yet beautiful home sitting in the exact same place the old monstrosity of a house she’d been raised in had once sat. This house was much smaller, but she’d played a big part in its design, and had picked out every single piece of the house personally.

She didn’t know what she was trying to prove by building a cottage right on the site of her parents’ mansion, but it gave her pleasure to picture her mother’s face upon seeing this.

She’d wanted to burn her parents’ home down, to watch the fingers of dark smoke rise into the air and have a chance to say good-bye to all the miserable things that had happened in that house. She’d gotten her wish with a “burn to learn” from the local fire department when they’d burned her house down while training new recruits. But not before she’d donated all the usable pieces of the house, the windows, fixtures, expensive chandeliers, and even the flooring. She’d gutted the house, and it gave her pleasure knowing that a number of lives would be made better from the proceeds of her parents’ property. Something good needed to come out of at least one thing they’d created.

After Cam had left her at the apartment, she was paranoid for the next hour about the dang mouse, so she decided she was better off walking around the property she would soon be living on. At first she didn’t think about the fact that there were thousands of mice hanging out in the fields she was wandering through.

But then the idea started gnawing away at her brain. Yes, she knew in theory that they were more frightened of her than she was of them, but those things could fit in all sorts of places, and they could move much too fast. What if she slipped on her shoe and felt mouse whiskers against her toes? Heart attack city! A shudder ran through her at just the thought of those beady little eyes staring up at her.

Still, she couldn’t avoid going home forever. Her furniture was being delivered next week, and if she slept in the house right now, she’d be on the floor anyway, where a hundred mice could easily crawl over her.

Not ready to go to the apartment yet, she walked behind the house, listening for little squeaks all the while, and made her way gingerly down the overgrown path that led to her grandparents’ original homestead. A soft smile turned her lips up as she pushed against the door and walked inside.

When she’d come home last year, the building had been filthy, but since then she’d cleaned it all up, brought in a new rug, and hung crystals in the windows. Sitting down in the rocking chair in the corner, she thought about how many nights she and Sage had slept in the loft, how many times they’d completely freaked each other out by telling ghost stories.

One memory drifted through her, one that took her back in time to a warm summer day when the nights were short but memorable and love was floating through the air.

She and Sage were eighteen at the time, and after a full day at the lake, they camped out in the cabin, telling stories of alien abductions in the mountains. Then they heard scratching outside, and they instantly fell silent.

When a light passed by their window, the two girls had screamed bloody murder, thinking they would certainly be the next to be taken into the great beyond. When the door opened, Grace thought for sure her life was over. She and Sage clung together, telling one another how much they were loved.

When Cam’s laughter had drifted up to them, she wasn’t sure what she felt more strongly: happiness that she was going to live or anger that he would do something like that to her. But when he pulled her outside and kissed her into forgiveness, she had stars in her eyes.

They’d had so many nights like that, dragging their feet in the water at the dock, holding hands while walking in the moonlight, and the stories he told her—oh, how those stories mesmerized her. He talked of the places they would go and the life they would have.

She had truly believed it would last forever. But Cam went back to college, and they drifted apart, and somehow she lost her childhood love. Yes, he was back, but it would never be the same.

Her communing with the ghosts of her past had just turned too depressing, so Grace decided she was done with being alone in the woods. Leaving the cabin, but still dragging her feet about going home, she drove to the small diner in town and had a late lunch. When she finally did decide to head back to the apartments just as the sun was beginning to fall from the sky, worry filled her when she spotted the fire chief’s SUV in front of her building.

She hoped Ms. Jenkins from three doors down hadn’t had another fall. The ambulance came at least once a month for her. She should have gone into a retirement home a long time ago, but the stubborn woman said she’d lived in the apartments for thirty years and she dang well wasn’t going to move. Sadly, at some point she’d be left with no choice.

But Hawk Winchester, fire chief, wasn’t at Ms. Jenkins’s door. He was at Grace’s.

“What’s going on, Hawk?”

He was posting a sign on her door. Before she had a chance to read it, he turned to her. “Hi, Grace. I didn’t realize this was your place,” he said.

She didn’t notice he wasn’t exactly looking her in the eye while saying that.

“Yes, it’s my apartment. What’s the matter?”

“There’s been a report of a gas leak. I can’t let you stay here until we investigate it,” he told her.

She fired off anxious questions: “A gas leak? Is the entire apartment building being evacuated? Why aren’t the trucks here in case it explodes? There are things in there I need. Can I just run in real quick?”

“If you tell me what you need, I can get it,” he offered.

“How long will this last?” she asked instead.

“Could be a couple of days. Could be, I don’t know, a week,” he said, shifting on his feet.

“All week?” Crap. This was just her luck. “I have to get in there, Hawk. I can’t go a week without some clothes and my computer.”

“I can help with that, Hawk. We can be in and out and you can leave the front door open,” Cam said as he joined her in front of the door.

Grace turned all her attention and frustration on Cam when he joined them. “What in the heck are you doing back here, Cam?”

“I heard about the gas leak and was coming to check up on you,” he said, way too much innocence in his eyes.

“I told you: I don’t need anyone checking up on me, Cam.”

“And I told you:
Too damn bad
.”

Hands on their hips, they faced off until Hawk cleared his throat . . . loudly.

“Listen, I don’t want to get in the middle of your fight, but if you hurry, you can go on in and grab some items.”

She decided to ignore Cam and instead turned back to Hawk. Maybe then her nemesis would take a hint and go the hell away. “How long do I have, Hawk?”

“Don’t take too long” was his only reply.

“The place isn’t going to explode if I open the door, right?” Grace asked.

“No. Not at all,” Hawk told her.

“I’ll be right behind you,” Cam said.

She ignored him once again and slowly made her way into the apartment, which seemed just fine to her. But didn’t some gases have no odor, and didn’t people just die in their sleep because of them? Who was she to argue with the fire chief?

The gas leak could have waited one more week, dammit. The big question on her mind was: Where in the heck she was going to go now?

“Do you know the amount of trouble I could get in for this?” Hawk growled.

“Hey, there was a leaky pipe,” Cam defended.

“Yeah, but it will be fixed by tomorrow. If she decides to investigate this, I am throwing you under the bus, Cam,” Hawk said, not a smile to be found.

“You agreed with me that something is going on,” Cam reminded him, “and you’ve known Grace her entire life and know what a pain in the ass she can be. She won’t admit it when she needs help. This was the easiest way for me to keep an eye on her without having her scratch my eyes out.”

“I’m only doing this because I care about Grace, and I
will
throw you so far under the bus, they won’t be able to identify the body,” Hawk told him.

“You wouldn’t do that to your friend, now, would you?” Cam said, giving his best buddy-buddy look.

“Hell yes, and I’ll do it with a big smile, knowing you’re going to get your ass kicked. If Natalie hears about this, I’ll be staying in your house, too,” Hawk warned him.

“I always have a room open for friends,” Cam said with a laugh.

“Just hurry up and get out of here so I can go home and see my wife. I want a last supper before this gets out.”

“It won’t ever get out, Hawk. I guarantee it,” Cam said.

“Yeah, somehow I’m not believing that,” Hawk told him.

Cam walked into Grace’s apartment, ready to do more battle if need be. It was a great space, actually, even if he did hate apartments. She’d decorated the place well, tastefully but not over-the-top, and a person felt welcome the moment they stepped through the front door.

He walked into her room and found her pulling things out of the closet and slipping them into a bag. She turned around and jumped.

“You should have said something, Cam,” she said with her hand on her heart, and she took a deep breath. “You nearly scared me to death.”

“Sorry about that. Why so jumpy?” He moved over to her dresser and opened the top drawer, incredibly happy with his find.

“Anyone would be jumpy to see a giant standing where no one had been a moment before,” she told him as she turned to grab another shirt.

“Mmm, so you like what you see,” he said before picking up a lacy red thong. “Nice panties.” He held them up and enjoyed the look of horror on her face when she turned back to him.

“Stay out of my drawers,” she snapped as she rushed over to him, grabbed the delicates, and slammed her drawer shut.

“But, darlin’, I’ve spent years trying to get into your drawers. Anyway, I’m just trying to help you move faster. Hawk said not to linger,” he told her as he opened another drawer, striking gold again with what had to be the matching bra.

“Camden Whitman, have you no decency?” She snatched the bra from him, then reached in and grabbed the clothes in the top drawer and shoved them into her suitcase.

“Get the items in that next drawer, too,” he said with a wink.

With a smirk, she opened that drawer. “Gladly.” She scooped out a bunch of socks.

“Come on, Gracie, you know there has to be lingerie in one of these drawers,” he practically growled.

“I don’t think I’ll be needing any of that,” she assured him.

“You’re right. I’d just rip it right off.”

“Really? I don’t think so. You had a chance this morning and turned me down flat,” she practically snarled.

“I want more than a one-night stand. What are you going to do, sue me?”

“And I don’t like being controlled.”

“You’re not being any fun at all right now,” he said with a pout.

“That’s just too bad for you. I’m not exactly in a playful mood. I haven’t even had time to figure out where I’m going to go. I’d call Sage again, but she and Spence won’t be back from the conference until Tuesday.”

“You’re going to stay with me,” he told her, opening another drawer against her wishes and finding jammies, although not the ones he’d been hoping for. Still, he grabbed some and placed them in her bag.

“Staying with you isn’t an option,” she told him before grabbing a few more items and then zipping the bag closed. “Now be a good boy and take this out for me. I have a few more items I need to pack.”

Cam decided not to argue with her. He’d just place her things in his vehicle and she’d either have to follow him to his place or go without her clothes. That sounded perfectly reasonable to him.