Saving You (2 page)

“
Don’t worry about it,”
Lucy said, rising and claiming her coffee mug before moving behind
the counter. “I’ll get out the mop and keep it by the door. I’ll be
mopping up all day, anyway. What can I get you guys this
morning?”

Brandon wandered over to the counter. “Just
the usual. Half a dozen chocolate croissants, half a dozen plain,
and a loaf of sourdough bread if you’ve got it this morning.”

“
We do,” Lucy said, turning
to snag the still-warm loaf from the basket behind her. “Fresh out
of the oven.”

“
Great,” Brandon said.
“That’s my favorite. I toast a slice with almond
butter.”

Lucy nodded absent-mindedly as she filled a
pink bakery box with croissants. “That sounds good.”

“
It is,” Brandon said,
shooting her a strange look as she set the box behind the bread and
pushed them both across the counter. “Are you okay?”

Lucy blinked. “Yeah. Fine, I…just woke up
with a weird feeling today.”

Brandon nodded. “I get that sometimes.
Especially when it’s raining. Hard to keep your spirits up when the
sky is peeing all over them.”

Lucy’s lips twitched. Under normal
circumstances she would have laughed, but she wasn’t in the mood. A
bad feeling was bad enough, but a psychic premonition she couldn’t
pin down a reason for was plain awful.

“
Is there anything I can
do?” Brandon asked, gentleness in his tone that Lucy hadn’t noticed
from Mr. Earnest and Manly before.

She met his eyes, surprised to find herself
saying, “I think I may be broken.”

Brandon frowned. “In what way?”

“
I’m psychic. I have been
since I was a kid,” Lucy said, ignoring Brandon’s raised brows the
way she’d ignored every Doubting Thomas she’d encountered since she
was a little girl. “I worked as a consultant for the Atlanta Police
Department for a few years, helping solve cold cases. Usually if I
get a bad feeling, it isn’t long before I know the reason for it.
Or at least have a hunch, you know?”

Brandon slowly shook his head. “Um…”

“
But today I searched for a
reason and I couldn’t find anything,” Lucy pressed on, needing to
talk to someone before the bad feeling ate away her stomach lining.
“I’ve been trying so hard to shut off that part of myself, but
maybe…” She twined her fingers together on top of the counter.
“Maybe I tried too hard, and now…I’m broken.”

Brandon let out a long, measured breath.
“You confuse me sometimes, Lucy.”

Lucy sighed. “Thanks.”

“
But I like you,” Brandon
said with a smile. “And I know what it’s like to get down in the
dumps, so…if you ever need someone to talk to, I’m right across the
street.”

Lucy cocked her head, studying Brandon,
reading the genuine concern in his pale eyes. “You lost someone?”
she asked. “To depression?”

Brandon’s eyes opened a little wider.
“Yeah…I did. The year before high school.”

“
I didn’t read your mind,”
Lucy said, rushing to reassure him. “That wasn’t being psychic,
just perceptive. I’m sorry for your loss, whoever it
was.”

Brandon nodded, the muscle in his jaw
leaping. “Thanks.”

“
But I’m not depressed,
don’t worry,” Lucy said, feeling for the guy, and hoping she could
put his mind at ease. “And I’m not crazy, either. There are just
more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in
your philosophy.”

Brandon’s eyes narrowed. “Shakespeare?”

“
Yeah,” Lucy said,
surprised. “Hamlet.”

“
We studied that in high
school,” Brandon said. “Wasn’t really my thing.”

“
Mine either,” Lucy said.
“I just like the quote. My Gram cross-stitched it on a pillow for
me when I was little. She always told me that God made me this way
and God doesn’t make mistakes. Some people say being psychic goes
against the church, but I’ve only ever used what I can do to help
people.” Lucy paused, screwing up her nose before she confessed,
“Except that one time I used it to bet on a horse so I could pay my
electric bill, but I felt guilty about it after.”

Brandon shot her a bemused smile. “Then why
were you trying to turn it off? If you use it to help people?”

Lucy swallowed. “I needed a break. Just for
a little while. But I didn’t want it to go away forever.”

Brandon shrugged. “Well…maybe it’s like
working out. Maybe you need some time to get back in top condition.
If I quit lifting for a week, I can’t jump right back in where I
left off, you know.”

“
Maybe…” Lucy nodded,
mildly cheered. “That’s a thought.”

“
I have those sometimes,”
Brandon said, making Lucy chuckle when she realized he’d made a
joke.

She looked up at him, seeing him through a
different lens. “Thanks, Brandon. It was really nice talking to you
this morning.”

“
You too,” he said, eyes
dropping to the pink box and bread on the counter between them
before returning to Lucy’s. “So…think you might want to talk again
sometime? Maybe over pizza or something?”

Lucy stared at him for a long moment before
the meaning of his words penetrated. It had been so long since
she’d been asked out on a date, she’d almost forgotten the warning
signs.

“
Oh,” she said, blinking
fast, not sure what else to say. “Um…I…I don’t know, Brandon. I
think I’m a lot older than you are.”

Brandon’s brows drew together. “Doubt it.
I’m twenty-one.”

“
I’m twenty-seven,” Lucy
said, accustomed to people thinking she was younger than she
actually was. It was a hazard of being five-two, on the scrawny
side, and preferring to wear one’s hair in pigtails.

Brandon shrugged. “That’s only six years.
Doesn’t seem like such a big deal.”

“
But you think I’m crazy,”
Lucy said.

“
No, I don’t,” Brandon
said, smiling. “You’re different. But in a good way. An interesting
way. I’ve never met anyone like you before.”

“
And I’ve never been out on
a date with anyone like you,” Lucy said. “I’m more into beta
males.”

Brandon frowned. “Beta males? Like…feminine
guys?”

“
Sort of,” Lucy said. “Guys
who aren’t afraid of their emotions. Guys who don’t mind letting a
woman take the lead if she’s more qualified or in the mood to be
the boss on a given day. Guys who aren’t a full foot taller than I
am.”

Brandon frowned harder. “You’re
discriminating against me because of my age and height. Isn’t that
illegal?”

“
I’m not discriminating,”
Lucy said, vaguely troubled by the notion that she
was,
whether she liked to
admit it or not. “And besides, I’m not an employer, I’m a girl, and
all’s fair in love and war.”

Brandon sighed, nodding as he grabbed the
bread and pink box and tucked them inside his coat to stay dry.
“Gotcha. Forget I asked.”

“
I’m sorry,” Lucy called
after him as he stomped toward the door, feeling awful for hurting
his feelings. “I’m not myself this morning. I didn’t mean
to—”

The door closed behind him, cutting off
Lucy’s apology. She watched Brandon run through the rain to the
firehouse across the street with a miserable feeling in her
stomach. But this time, the misery had nothing to do with psychic
phenomenon.

It was the feeling a girl gets when she
realizes she’s let a perfectly decent guy—a guy with hidden depths,
a sweet smile, and eyes that seem to be searching for answers, even
if they aren’t the answers he expects to find—slip through her
fingers.

Chapter Two

“
Neither storm nor rain nor
heat nor gloom of night shall stay this bachelorette party from the
completion of its course!” Maddie thrust her fist into the air,
doing her best to rally the spirits of the seven women gathered at
Icing after closing the next day, each one looking more damp and
pitiful than the last. “Who’s with me?!”

“
Isn’t that the post office
motto?” Kitty, Faith’s friend, flipped her dripping brown ponytail
over her shoulder and swiped her running mascara from beneath her
eyes. She was the wettest member of their party, having walked from
her apartment with a faulty umbrella, but the rest of the ladies
weren’t faring much better.

Aria March’s jeans were wet to the knee,
while her sister Melody’s hair was standing up in a frizzy blond
poof. Maddie’s sister, Naomi, was barefoot after slipping and
falling trying to cross the slick concrete outside in heels, and
Faith—the bachelorette—was wearing camouflage duck-hunting galoshes
over her skinny jeans and looking less than ready to party.

Lucy was the only member of the group still
dry, and that was because she lived above the bakery and hadn’t
been forced out into the torrential downpour yet.

“
It
is
the post office motto,” Maddie
said, holding her dripping umbrella as far from her body as
possible, determined not to get her black cowboy boots any wetter
than they were already. “But I think it works. We can’t let a
little rain ruin our fun.”

“
It’s more than a little
rain,” Faith said. “The city council ordered two hundred giant sand
bags to be delivered overnight. If the rain doesn’t blow through,
they’re going to start sandbagging Market Street to keep the river
from flooding the east end of downtown.”

“
My grammy and grandpa are
from Pottsville, and they’ve already evacuated,” Lucy piped up.
“They’re going to stay with relatives up north until the river goes
down. They had two feet of water in their backyard this
morning.”

“
And I heard the police
might be closing some of the county roads as early as midnight
tonight,” Aria said—privy to such things as the wife of
Summerville’s Chief of Police. “Nash was talking it over with the
mayor when I left the house.”

“
I really don’t mind
cancelling,” Faith said. “I’m working another seventy-two hour
shift at the station starting Monday, anyway, and if the rain keeps
up I know we’ll be busy. I should probably get my rest.”

“
But that’s thirty-six
hours away! You’ll have plenty of time to rest.” Maddie loved that
Faith was so committed to her job, but even hardworking
firefighters deserved a chance to cut loose and party every once
and awhile.

“
Come on, y’all. Don’t wimp
out on me now,” Maddie pleaded. “There are fancy pink drinks
waiting at The Horse and Rider and they are not going to drink
themselves. And cake. Did I mention cake? And appetizers and
scandalous bachelorette party favors?”

“
I appreciate it so much,
Maddie,” Faith said. “But we could stay here and eat cake if that’s
easier. I don’t need a big party.”

“
But Maddie planned a big
party,” Naomi said, piping up as Maddie was about to burst into
tears. “And I think she has a few surprises already waiting at the
club. Surprises that have been paid for in advance and might be
getting a little…chilly waiting around for us to show
up.”

“
Ohhhh…
those
kind of surprises.” Aria smirked
and lifted a thin, auburn brow. “I was telling Nash I was too tired
from being up with the baby last night to enjoy this party as much
as I would like, but if there are
those
kinds of surprises waiting, I
say we jet. I haven’t seen a stripper since Maddie and I lived in
Paris.”

Kitty’s eyes widened. “No! Strippers?
Really?” Her grin grew wicked around the edges. “I’ve never seen a
stripper. I think I’ll laugh, is that okay?”

“
It’s totally okay.” Maddie
decided to forgive Naomi for spilling her secret now that the
company was looking more eager to get going. “That’s part of the
fun. And these are funny strippers, not gross ones,” she hurried to
assure Lucy, who had a nervous expression on her face. “Mick made
me promise not to hire anyone who was going to try to rub his junk
all over Faith.”

“
I bet those were his exact
words, weren’t they?” Faith said as she reached for her discarded
umbrella. “Such a charmer, that boy of mine.”

“
All right, y’all. If there
are people waiting, we should get going,” she continued. “I’ve
never seen anything close to a stripper except the night the guys
at the station took it off for the Hunk-for-a-Month auction and
that was like looking at my brothers half naked. I’m thinking it
will be a lot more fun with men I don’t know.”

“
These guys are from a
company out of Atlanta, so we won’t know a soul,” Maddie said,
herding the group toward the back door, where she’d pulled her
mother’s van into the alley. “Everyone can leave their keys here,
if they’d like. Naomi and I are driving to and from the
club.”

The women shuffled through the back hallway,
murmuring excitedly among themselves, and Maddie felt the tension
tugging at her shoulders begin to melt away. She didn’t care if
Noah was going to be able to sail his Ark through downtown
Summerville in a few days if it didn’t stop raining, she had gone
all out to give her future little sister-in-law a bachelorette
party she would never forget and she intended to enjoy this
evening.

Even if her own fiancé thought she was
taking things too far with the strippers and penis-shaped lollipops
in the favor bags.

Taking things too
far.
Ha!
This from
the man who had practically invented the phrase, and who had been
the raunchiest stripper at the Hunk-for-a-Month charity fundraiser
last January,
by far
. Just thinking about how shameless Jamison had been on the
catwalk was enough to inspire a fit of giggles even now, months—and
many other scandalous memories—later.