Burning Barriers (Barriers Series Book 3) (11 page)

Oh. My. God. I had forgotten how awesome these are!

“Nothing happened, Luce. You fell asleep, and I didn’t have the heart to wake you after everything you confessed to me last night. I put you in my clothes and slept downstairs in my old room. I had some stuff I needed to process in my head.”

As I’m about to ask him what he needed to process, the doorbell starts chiming rapidly at the same time someone bangs on the front door.

“Jake Galloway, open this freakin’ door right this second! Where is my sister?”

Ellen?
Shit.
I never called them last night before I passed out.

Jake walks quickly to the front hall toward the door while running his hand through his hair. “Well, this ought to be fun,” he says just as he pulls open the front door, and Ellen storms all the way inside. I’m about to hop off the stool when she sees me and rushes to my side.

“What the hell, Lulu?! I’ve sent you a million text messages and called only to go straight to voicemail.”

“I never heard my phone last night. Wait. Where’s my phone?”

I see Jake looking around the living room where I had it last night while talking to Sam shortly before Summit attacked. I remember being on the floor as that big ball of hyperactive fur hopped around me, her tail wagging a mile a minute. Jake lowers himself onto his knees and looks under the sofa. “Found it!” He raises his arm, producing my phone in his hand.

Ellen huffs and stalks over to him. When he stands, she punches him in the chest. And here we go.

“What the fuck, Ellen?” he shouts. Ellen points her finger into his chest as I continue to feed my face with pancakes and watch this all unfold before I intervene.

“What did I tell you about hurting my sister again? Huh? Need I remind you? Syphilis, Galloway. Syphilis.”

“I’m pretty sure from the look of her chipmunk cheeks filled with pancakes over there that she’s perfectly fuckin’ fine, Ellen. So calm your ass, okay? It was an emotional night, and both of us fell asleep.”

The two of them silently have a stare down until they turn to look at me. Ellen makes her way over to me, her riding boots stomping on the wooden floor. She stands in front of me as I swallow my mouthful of pancakes and wait for the big sister scolding she’s about to throw down. She always panicked when I’d sneak out in the middle of the night to Jake’s house when I was in high school. As long as I remembered to call her, it wasn’t an issue, and she’d vouch for me if our parents ever caught me. There was one occasion in the dead of winter when I forgot to call and never made it to Jake’s. Ellen nearly had a panic attack until she found me sledding down the ski trails with him. I suddenly begin to feel for her, knowing she must have been worried to death when I never answered my phone.

Ellen pulls out the bar stool and hops up quickly. She turns to give me a saddened look. “You told him. Didn’t you? The whole thing?” I nod, confirming for her exactly what I told her to keep from anyone asking around town about why I was home. She nods, understanding that if there were anyone whom I would tell
that
story to it would be Jake.

Ellen grabs my fork and picks off a piece of my pancake before shoving it into her mouth. She makes a little grunt and turns to face me again. “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asks. I nod silently as I catch Jake move to sit on the sofa as Summit follows him, placing her head onto his lap. I bring my attention back to Ellen and reach out to place my hand upon her shoulder.

“I know you worry, and I’m sorry for not calling. But, you have to understand I’m not eighteen anymore. I have and will make my own mistakes. Mom and Dad wanted me back here to heal and figure out things in my head. If I’m going to do that, I need to do things my way, and I’m sorry if that sounds mean, but I’m not Lulu anymore. I haven’t been in quite a long time. Do you understand what I’m saying, Ellen?”

“Sometimes, I forget you’re all grown up now. It’s just good to have my little sister back home again, even if it’s only for a short time. I guess I don’t want to see you get hurt any more than you already have, if you know what I mean?” Ellen gestures over her shoulder at Jake.

“I’m right here, Ellen. I can still hear you,” Jake says as he rises to his feet and heads in our direction. He stops behind me and runs his hands over my shoulders as his thumbs slowly massage my neck. I watch as Ellen eyes Jake, and she rises to her feet and stands in front of me with her hands on her hips. She looks at me with a furrowed brow, and I smile at her.

“I’ll be fine, Ellen. You just have to let me do this my own way,” I explain in a steady voice. I will do this, and I will not leave here the same girl I was when I was eighteen or the same unsure twenty-five-year- old that pulled into town a week ago.

Ellen grabs her purse from the kitchen counter and leans in to give me a kiss on the cheek. “Well, now that you’ve found your cell phone, you call me. I get off work at seven, so we’ll have a girls’ night.” I shake my head in agreement. “And, you,” she looks up at Jake before continuing, “my warning still stands, but if
Lucy
trusts you not to hurt her again, I guess the only thing I can do is trust her.”

She turns and walks to the front door as Summit barks at her from the living room. Just when the front door closes, Jake spins me on the barstool, placing both arms on either side of me. His hands grip the edge of the seat, but still touch the sides of my thighs. My face suddenly flushes, and I feel as though someone cranked up the heat in the house. Jake leans in close, and my eyes shut in anticipation of his touch. His lips place soft kisses along my cheek, gradually making their way closer to my lips. His tongue slides over the length of my lips before pulling away.

I open my eyes to see him mere inches from my face. “I love the taste of maple syrup and blueberries on you, and as much as I’d like to continue tasting you all day, I’ve got to head to the fire station in a few hours.” He places a quick peck on my lips before slowly standing up straight. “Luce, there’s still a lot I want to get off my chest, but I know after last night I don’t have the right words yet. Come out to the ranch with me tomorrow. We’ll take a ride out to
our
spot.”

“You know what? That actually sounds like fun. I haven’t ridden a horse since I left here.”

Jake starts to chuckle softly. “Leave it to you to take that as a sexual innuendo.”

I smile and lightly smack his arm. When I glance up at him as he walks back into the kitchen to start cleaning up, I see the markings in-between his shoulders again, and I wonder about their meaning. “Jake?”

“Yeah?” he says as he goes about putting away the breakfast supplies.

“What does your tattoo mean? I’ve never seen anything with that much detail on someone’s back.” Jake’s back goes stiff, and I see his muscles strain as his hand stops mid-air when reaching for the milk jug. “Jake? What’s wrong?” I watch as his hand reaches up and across his chest to grip his other shoulder. His head drops to his chest.

“It reads ‘Lucy,’” he whispers in a soft voice.

Then, I see it. Among all the tribal lines that overlap each other, I see each letter intricately placed so it blends into the design, almost hidden. I hop off the stool and walk over behind him. My eyes never leave the black markings. When I’m standing close enough, I raise my hand and gently trace the letters that spell my name.

“Why?” I ask in a quiet voice. “I mean, why did you get
my
name?”

“It’s to remind me that the one person I ever loved should have never watched me walk away from her. It’s to remind me of my greatest mistake ever made.”

A few hours after dropping off Lucy at her parents’ house, I’m preparing dinner with the two other firemen currently on shift with me until tomorrow morning. Most departments in bigger towns have full-time men with really long hours and sometimes up to forty-eight hours on one shift. Here in Breckenridge, I work three twelve-hour shifts a week. Even if Lucy’s dad sees it as part-time, it’s still basically a full-time job with benefits. Plus, it allows me enough time to help at the ranch and spend time with Mom, too.

Fortunately, Lucy agreed to come out to the ranch with me tomorrow. Thank God for that. When I said SJ had a big mouth, I wasn’t lying. Mom nearly blew up my phone before I took Lucy out to dinner yesterday, asking me to bring her out to see her. Mom always loved Lucy; she still does. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t get that look from her that says ‘you fucked up when you let that one go’.

True fuckin’ story.

I catch myself daydreaming as the smoke from the outside gas grill begins burning my eyes. I swiftly lift the lid, waving away the smoke and pulling the hamburgers from the grates.

“Seriously, Galloway, what’s it going to look like if the fire department is the one starting the fires around here?” Regan shouts as he shoots hoops out back of the station. He laughs as he shoots the ball, missing the rim entirely. “Where is your head lately anyway? You usually never screw up the meals, and this is twice this week. Never mind you screwed up coffee two days ago. What gives, man?”

Regan runs to grab the ball that’s rolling in my direction before securing it under his arm. I continue to toss the overly well-done hamburger patties onto the platter with more force than necessary. As I turn off all the burner knobs and shut the grill lid, Regan grabs the platter of burgers and follows me inside the firehouse to the makeshift living room. The buffet table is already set, so the other guys on shift can load their plates and relax while watching the baseball game on television that should be starting shortly.

Regan drops the plate of burgers onto the table, and the guys begin to flock to the buffet. A collective number of groans all sound as they see the sad state of the burgers. As I grab a plate, Regan picks up his as well and slaps my back once I start making my way down the buffet line. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with that little blonde chick you were having dinner with last night. Would it?”

I hang my head, instantly knowing he saw me with Lucy. I lick some of the extra mustard off my thumb and continue loading up on my burger toppings. “It might have something to do with her,” I say while scooping some extra pasta salad onto my plate. “Things with Lucy are complicated.”

“Want to try out that ‘complicated’ story on me? From the looks of that girl, she’s worth the ‘complicated’ seven days a week,” Regan suggests as I drop my plate onto the table, ready to square off with him over his comment.

“Care to explain what
that
is supposed to mean?” My irritable tone is clearly understood as his eyes widen with alarm.

“Calm down, Jake. All I’m saying is the girl… Lucy, right? She may be complicated, but she’s gorgeous as all hell, and if she were mine, I’d do everything in my power to handle that complicated situation all day, every day. You get what I’m saying?”

I nod and turn back to my plate before grabbing a water bottle from the ice bucket and sitting at the table.

“So, how did you meet this Lucy chick?” Regan asks, pulling out the chair next to me and sitting down.

“Remember the girl I told you about a few years back when you asked me why I don’t date? The girl that took my heart with her when she left town?”

Regan drops his fork from his hand, and it rings against his plate. “You’re shitting me, right? That’s her? Dude, you’re fucked!”

“Tell me about it. Even worse, I’m still in love with her, and I’ve somehow got to try to convince her to stay here.”

“So, you’re still in love with her. This is intriguing information. I never took you for Mr. Romantic, but why wouldn’t she stick around here? She looked pretty smitten with you when I saw her last night.”

“Yeah, well, ‘smitten’ doesn’t help me when I broke her heart once, and she moved out north of Boston, which is exactly where she’ll end up again if I don’t figure this shit out in my head and fast.”

“How long is she back for?”

“A month at most, I think.”

With his mouth hanging open and the burger slack in his hands, Regan’s eyes say it all. Placing the burger onto his plate, he reaches out his hand to shake my hand. As I return the gesture, not knowing why he’s shaking my hand, he looks at me and says, “Well, it’s been nice knowing you, Jake. Something tells me if she’s heading East within a month, your ass is following right behind her.”