Hometown Heroes, page 64
It was a minute before he spoke. “I appreciate that offer. I know you didn’t make it lightly. But, Sarah, I’m not going to let you do it. You can take some time off, you can work from home, you can do whatever you need to. But unless you start working for another company, you’re still running my firm.”
The ache moved to her throat. She couldn’t push it down. It made her jaw cramp and tears well in her eyes. Making herself perfectly still, she willed it to go away, to go numb, to stop feeling.
It was working until Mark said, “Sarah, I don’t regret one minute putting my trust in you.”
The ache splintered, and tears began to fall. Mortified, Sarah stared at her computer, unable to gain enough control to talk. She tried to stop them, tried to suck them back down, to blink away the wetness. They came too fast, dropping on the desktop. Oh, what must Mark think of her? This should be proof that his faith in her was misplaced. Good grief. She swiped at her eyes and nose with the back of her hand. She reached for a tissue and began wiping. This was so embarrassing.
“I’ve been through a lot of ups and downs in my time. Things somehow turn around. And since Martha’s diagnosis, I’ve had more time to reflect on God’s faithfulness. It doesn’t always look the way we expect it to. But, he never leaves us.”
Sarah nodded, then realized he couldn’t see her nod and whispered. “Yes, I know.” She sniffed. “But I needed the reminder.”
“You going to be okay?”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “I can’t believe you’re worried about me after everything I just told you.”
“You are more important than the company.”
She nodded. She hated it when people were nice to her when she was crying. Made it harder to get those tears under control.
She hung up with Mark. Nothing about this day had gone like she planned.
Chapter 28
Joe wasn’t thrilled with Sarah going into work today. Driving with a cast on wasn’t recommended. But he also understood how stir crazy she was getting. He wished she’d let him take her and pick her up. She could be stubborn when she wanted to.
He’d taken a walk after getting back from getting his stitches out. He’d tried running a few steps, but the jolting hurt his back. But the shower after had been one of the best ever, rivaling those after coming off the fire line.
After Kyle had called him and updated him on the subfloor sabotage and the potential bug in Sarah’s house, he’d gone over to let the LVPD techs in. They had found a bug in Sarah’s house. One in the living room outlet and one in her office desk lamp. Sarah didn’t seem overly disturbed by the news when he’d called her at work. More like resigned to a continual string of bad news.
Now it was about time for Sarah to get home, unless she’d returned early. He texted her to ask. Yep, she was home. After spending so much time with her lately, today had felt… off. Even Shadow wasn’t the same.
“Let’s go, boy. Let’s go see Sarah.” He clipped on the dog’s leash and headed out the door. At Sarah’s front door, Joe bounced on his toes. She wasn’t answering, though he’d knocked and rung the doorbell. She knew he was coming over, so she wouldn’t have laid down for a nap. The back patio slider was open. His pulse picked up its pace. She had to be back there. Maybe she just couldn’t hear him. He had her key, but he didn’t want to startle her either. But what if she had fallen?
He slid the key into the lock and turned. “Sarah? Are you here?” He pushed the door open the rest of the way. And came inside. “Sarah?” Shadow bounded out the slider. Joe shut the front door and followed the dog. “Sarah?”
A teak chair was knocked over. A Diet Coke lay on its side by the patio door, brown fizzy liquid seeping into everything else.
And in the middle of it all sat Sarah, desperately trying to replant some fuzzy purple plant. She had her casted leg out to the side and was up on her good knee, trying to get some leverage to push the roots back into the dirt.
“Sarah? Are you okay? What happened?”
She looked up and blinked, almost as if seeing him for the first time. She swiped a torn, dirty sleeve across her nose and shoved her hair back from her face. Tendrils stuck up all over, more frizzy than her generally soft, well-tamed curls. Her eyes were red rimmed from crying. As if noticing him notice, she rubbed at a wet spot on her cheek and left a mud smudge.
Joe was next to her in two strides. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
He looked around, grabbed and righted a chair.
“I need to get it back in the ground, before it dies.” Tears overflowed her eyes. “I can’t do anything right.”
Joe knelt in front of her, taking her dirty hands in his. He noticed cuts and scratches, broken nails. “We’ll get a new one.” He waited until she met his eyes. “Okay?”
She nodded.
“That’s my girl. Now let’s get you inside and cleaned up.” He reached for her. “Here. Let me help you up.”
“Oh, no. You’ll rip open your back. Just get the other crutch and hold this one.”
“Not if we do this right.” He put his hands around her waist. “On three. One, two, three.” He straightened and lifted her, keeping his back straight while she pushed with her good leg. He handed her the crutches.
She grabbed them but winced.
“Where’s your knee wheeler?”
“In the car. I couldn’t get it inside.”
All he wanted to do was to pick her up. But he couldn’t even do that.
Her foot pounded on the wood deck with a hollow echo. It had to be throbbing. She hobbled through the door, and he pointed to the kitchen sink. He dragged over a chair, and she plopped in it.
He turned on the water and let it run until it was warm. “Wash cloth?”
“In the bathroom.”
He nodded and headed down the hall. “Don’t go anywhere.”
A moment later he ran the cloth under the now-warm water and added soap to it. He picked up her hand, and she tried to pull it back. “I can do that.”
“I know.” He pulled it toward himself again. “But I want to.” Gently, he washed the dirt off the cuts, cleaning them with soap. She winced a few times but didn’t try to pull away again. He rinsed the soap off. They weren’t bleeding anymore so he’d just let them dry. He’d bandage them before she needed to use her crutches, though.
He headed to the garage and retrieved her knee wheeler from her car. He set it in front of her. “I wish I could just carry you to the couch.”
She eased on to the knee wheeler and looked up at him. She reached up and touched his face. “Thank you for coming over.” Tears welled again.
“Let’s get you to the couch.” He helped her wheel to the couch and got her settled with an ice pack and some ibuprofen. “Need another Diet Coke?”
“Yes, please.”
He brought it to her and sat on the edge of the couch. “What happened?”
She let out a long breath and told him about her perfectly awful day. “I thought spending some time in the garden would help. It always does. And it needed some work. But I lost my balance trying to deadhead the roses and I fell, grabbing the butterfly bush on the way down and pulling it out. And then suddenly, the one thing that had always brought me joy and peace was something I was ruining and had become a source of frustration. I just don’t even know what to do any more. Maybe I do need to take a vacation somewhere away from here.” She thumped her cast. “Though I can’t go very far with this stupid thing.”
Joe wrapped her in his arms and kissed the top of her head. He’d never felt so helpless.
Actually, he had.
Joe slid into his truck and leaned against the seat, already warm from the August heat, even though it was still early in the day. His first day back at work, even if it was light duty. His back was still a little tender. As he pulled out of the parking lot, he missed his morning walk with Sarah. It would be awhile before those could resume. He hoped she stayed safe today even though she was determined to go into the office again. She did promise him she wouldn’t work in the garden again without him.
Last night he’d cleaned up her patio then brought her a pint of rocky road and a spoon. Her red-rimmed eyes told him he’d made the right move with ice cream. He hadn’t followed through on his plan to ask her out for their first real date. It hadn’t seemed the right time with her so upset. At least by the time he’d left her and Shadow, she wasn’t as upset.
He’d called Kyle later and pressed him on how they could wrap this thing up. It was eating Sarah alive, proven by her offer to resign to save Mark’s firm. Maybe he should take her away somewhere away from all of this, despite her cast.
He was still thinking about it when he pulled into the fire station parking lot twenty minutes later. The rest of the guys filtered in, greeting him and teasing him about the time off.
“Oh, and I see you made the calendar twice,” McCoy razzed him. “And you didn’t even take your shirt off.”
“How’s the back?” Chief O’Grady headed toward Joe.
“Just got the staples out. I’m here to help you reduce that fire hazard on your desk you call paperwork.”
“Good. I could use the help. Hey, you gotta minute?”
“Sure.”
“Let’s head to my office.”
When they got in O’Grady’s office, he motioned for Joe to sit, as he moved behind his desk and took a seat. Folding his hands on his desk he studied Joe. O’Grady wanted to say something, Joe just didn’t know what. But he didn’t think he’d like it.
“So, how are you feeling?” O’Grady was stalling for time, but he was also looking for something specific.
Not entirely sure what O’Grady wanted to hear, Joe shrugged, the movement still restricted by the unhealed muscles in his back. “The muscle was torn pretty good back there. The doctor doesn’t want me doing any lifting for four to six weeks. Then I’m sure it’ll take some time to regain that strength.” Joe leaned back in his chair and flashed a grin. “Can’t happen too soon for me, though. I’m going a little stir crazy.”
O’Grady’s return grin wasn’t as enthusiastic. “That equipment training we have coming up in two weeks. You won’t be one hundred percent by then, so I’ve asked Micah Flores from alpha shift to take your squad.”
Joe nodded. Disappointment slapped him like a spray of water, because he’d been looking forward to that for months, but he understood. Still, it was a bitter realization.
“What were you doing over at that building anyway?”
Caution lights flashed in Joe’s head at the change of subject. He switched mental gears, shoving the disappointment away. He didn’t want to say something that would end up putting Sarah in any further danger. Considering they only had a vague idea where the danger was coming from, that made it pretty difficult. “Sarah wanted to show it to me. She’d designed it.”
“Any particular reason you went at that time, after work hours?”
Joe frowned. “I didn’t ask. I assumed it was easier to check it out without the crews around. I don’t know. I didn’t think about it too much.” He reached for a typical male line of reasoning, pulling out his phone. Trina had taken a picture of Sarah and him at Marcus’s party. It was now his phone’s wallpaper. He flashed it at O’Grady. “This is Sarah. I’d pretty much do anything she wanted to without question.”
O’Grady nodded but looked distracted. “You’ve got a review coming up, Joe. You’ve done really well. Got potential to go far. You don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that.”
Joe tilted his head. Where was this going? “What does that mean?”
O’Grady met his gaze. “Look. This is a political organization. We both know that. Tick off the wrong people and your career is over in this city. Sarah is a person of interest in the arson case. And if your fall turns out to be caused by sabotage . . . All I’m saying is you might want to keep a low profile, maybe not get too close to her until all of this is resolved.”
Anger and suspicion flared in Joe. “Where’s this coming from?”
O’Grady shook his head. “I don’t know. I just got a vague phone call from the chief asking about you and your relationship with Sarah.”
“That’s not his business.”
“I know. But it doesn’t matter. It can still affect your career.”
Joe stood. “Anything else?”
“I’m sorry. I’m just trying to warn you.” O’Grady got to his feet. “You’re one of the best at what you do. I’d hate to see you become a victim of politics. Maybe just play it cool for a while until it all blows over.”
Joe walked out of the office and out to the back apron. He didn’t want to talk to anyone else right now. Why would the chief or anyone care about his relationship with Sarah? And how on earth would that affect his career? He didn’t know, but politics were unpredictable. He pondered it some more, still coming up with nothing.
Ah, what did it matter? It wasn’t like it was anything he could control. God knew what was going on. At least he could tell himself that. Whether or not he could actually let the problem go was another thing.
Fortunately, he had a pile of paperwork to get his mind off things. Yeah, he was looking forward to that.
Sarah heard a plate clinking on her black wood coffee table. Slowly she cracked open her eyes. She’d plopped on the couch as soon as she’d gotten home from work. Joe and Shadow had shown up with something that smelled wonderful. Savory. Charo Chicken. Yum. Chicken marinated in citrus juice and spices then slow roasted, eaten with salsa and tortillas. Messy but delicious. She heard a pop and hiss, then a Diet Coke can was plunked down next to her plate.
Pushing herself to more of a sitting position, she smiled at Joe. He leaned over and kissed her. It was quick but definitely left her wanting more. Even hurt, he took good care of her. And they hadn’t even been on a real date yet. But that was changing tomorrow night. Joe had called her at lunch today and asked her out. Which was funny considering he’d been arranging all of her meals for the past two weeks.
“Thank you. Didn’t realize I was so hungry.” She picked up the plate.
“You’re welcome. I thought it might sound good. Still planning on going to choir practice?”
Sigh. “Yes.” She glanced at her phone. “Heather should be here in a bit.”
“You don’t have to go.” Joe had his own plate balanced on his lap.
“I know. I just want to get it over with. My injury is a good excuse to arrive late and leave early.”
Joe didn’t respond. He didn’t have to; she knew what he was thinking. Ryan would be there. Yeah. Still, she needed to get this over with.
They finished eating just as Heather knocked on the door. Joe got up and answered it.
Heather grinned at Joe. “Ooh, smells good.” She stepped through the door. “Charo Chicken, huh?”
“Yep. There’s some left if you’d like it.”
“No, thanks. I already ate. Unfortunately, it was a TV dinner from the microwave. Yuck. Why do I buy those things anyway? They’re a step above plastic. I should have come over earlier.”
Sarah grabbed her crutches and pulled her leather tote over her head like a cross body bag. Once outside, she scowled at Heather’s Miata. “Nope, we’re taking my car. You can drive if you want.” She unclipped her keys from inside her bag and handed them to Heather. She’d parked out front today. No more trying to maneuver in her tiny one-car garage. She slid into her car. It was weird sitting on the passenger side.
Joe tucked the crutches in the back seat. “Sure you don’t want your knee wheeler?”
“No, the ramps would be more effort. Heather can drop me close.”
He leaned over and kissed her. “I’ll clean up.”
She snaked her hand around the back of his neck. “I wouldn’t mind it if you were still here when I got home.”
He kissed her again, this one with more promise. “Your wish is my command.”
“Heather, watch her and bring her home if she’s getting too tired or in too much pain. She’ll be too stubborn to admit it.” He said that last with a wink and a smile at Sarah.
“You and Kyle compare notes? Gee. I think we managed to survive this long without you two.” Heather started the car.
“Yeah, but it’s more fun with us.” Joe closed Sarah’s door and waved.
Heather had driven out of the parking lot before she sighed. “I’m so glad you guys are finally together. Are you worried about seeing Ryan tonight?”
“Trying not to think about it. I’m hoping everything will just fade from people’s minds.”
“Other than asking me where you were, no one has said anything to me about you and Ryan being a couple.” Heather reached over and squeezed Sarah’s hand. “I think it’s good for you to do this. It’ll be closure so you can move on with Joe, and no one will think anything weird about seeing the two of you together. The way he looks at you, no one has any doubt about how he feels about you.”
“I hope tonight is the end of it. Joe and I are finally going on a real date tomorrow night.”
“Ooh, where?”
“I don’t know yet. It’s going to be a surprise.”
They pulled up to the church. Heather got as close as she could and helped Sarah out.
Sarah focused on adjusting her crutches. She could hear people coming over to her. She hated being on display. They had arrived later than usual, hoping to slide in as practice began. So why were all these people still outside? A chorus of “Are you okay? What happened? What did you do?” surrounded her. Maybe she could get through the explanation just once or twice if she waited until everyone was gathered around.
She moved with her audience toward the rehearsal room. “I was looking at one of my buildings, and I fell through to the basement and broke my ankle.”
The great chorus erupted in “Oh, no! I can’t believe it! Thank the Lord you weren’t hurt worse.” Two more hops. “We’ll be praying for your speedy healing.” This from Sharon.
