Chapter Thirty-One
Grant
After spending the night at Emily’s on Friday night, I decided to stay and spend most of Saturday with her too. I’d already done so much extra work at the ranch that I now didn’t mind taking the day off. We went out for waffles in the morning, and then walked around the town most of the day. She showed me around town, introducing me to people and showing me places that meant a lot to her. We walked for hours, stopping here and there for something to eat or drink. Then we made our way back to her house, where we took a long shower together and made love on the bed. By the end of the night, I was so exhausted that I decided to sleep over again.
The following day, I got a call from Brady asking if I wouldn’t mind helping as the new guy was off work again. He seemed frustrated, and even though I wanted another day with Emily, I decided to go and help him. As it turned out, the new guy had not been doing his job all that well, and I spent all of Sunday and half of Monday rectifying what he had done. On Monday night I sat Brady down and tried to tell him that this guy was doing more damage than anything else. Brady tried to act like a big strong guy who didn’t give a damn about anyone, but he kept coming up with a million ways to defend the guy. I knew he just didn’t want to be the one that fired him, so I offered to do it for him. The following day, I got up early to speak to the new guy before going to the fire department, but he didn’t come in.
“Shotgun, I have to go,” I said as I walked into the house. I’d waited for over an hour, and he hadn’t arrived. “He’s not here again today. I’m not sure if he’s even coming in.”
“He’s not here? But he promised to come early to make up for the lost time.”
“Yeah, well, he didn’t. I’m happy to come back later to talk to him if you like. That’s if he even comes in.”
Brady shook his head. He might be a nice guy, but when he got pushed too much, he snapped. “I’ll fire him.”
“You sure?”
“Oh yeah. This is getting ridiculous now. And you got up early to talk to him for nothing. I’m sorry about that. I’m going to see if I can find someone else to take his place.”
“I’ll come out and help at the ranch soon. I’ll ask the chief if I have any days off this week.”
“Thanks, Patriot. I appreciate it.”
I spent the rest of the week working at the fire department and helping Brady out at the ranch. He’d plucked up the courage to fire the guy, who didn’t even seem that bothered about losing his job, and set about finding someone else. I wasn’t sure how long he was going to take to find someone, and in the meantime, I knew I’d have to help out as often as I could. I was still living with him until I sorted out somewhere to stay, and I owed him a great deal. But I was exhausted, and I was glad when Thursday night rolled around and Emily invited me over for dinner. I went straight to her house from work, just in case I got too caught up in wanting to help Brady.
“Hey, fireman,” Emily said as she opened the door.
“Hey, you. Mind if I use your shower real quick? I didn’t get a chance to go home,” I said as I leaned in and kissed her.
“Of course. I’m busy preparing getting dinner ready, anyway. I’m glad you’re here early.”
“Yeah, Brady’s been stressed these days, and if I went back home, I figured I might not be able to get away. I’ve had enough of Brady this week. I need some Emily time.”
“Ooh, I like the sound of that. Okay, take a shower, and I’ll have a glass of wine ready for you when you’re out.”
“Want to join me?” I asked.
She smiled. “Don’t tempt me. If I join you, I might burn the food.”
“We might have to shower again later then,” I said and grinned.
“Oh, now that I can do.”
I hopped into the shower and thought about Emily. I had to stop myself from thinking about her too much, though. Which, I was starting to realize, wasn’t all that easy. It was probably a good thing that I kept myself so busy during the day. I’d go mad if I had nothing to do and could only think about Emily.
Afterward, I joined her downstairs and took a grateful sip of the wine.
“This is nice,” I said. “And it smells amazing in here.”
“You think? I’m trying out a new recipe. It was my gran’s old curry recipe. I made it once before, and it was a disaster. But so far I think it’s turning out pretty well.”
“She would be very proud of you, Em.”
“And she would’ve liked you! Oh, which reminds me,” she said as she stirred the pot. “You won’t believe what I found out yesterday!”
“What’s that?” I said as I took a seat at the kitchen counter.
“I decided to read through my gran’s diary again. I read it such a long time ago, and I thought it would be nice to relive it all again. And in it she talks all about her husband, my grandfather, who died when I was just a kid. I didn’t get a chance to know him at all. Guess what he did for a living?”
“I don’t know? Uh, a chef!”
“No. He was a fireman!” she said and beamed at me.
“What? Are you serious? That’s so cool, Em.”
“I know. I couldn’t believe it. You see, my gran would’ve loved you. Us Wessler girls obviously have a thing for firefighters!”
“That’s amazing. I’d love to read her diary one day,” I said.
“You would?”
“Of course. It must be so interesting. So, do you have a diary?” I asked. I had this sudden image of Emily lying in her bed in her cute little pajamas, and writing in her diary.
“No way!” she said.
“What? Why not? I was hoping you were writing about me every night.”
She giggled. “Well, that’s the thing. If I did have a diary, I would be writing about things that I didn’t want anyone else to read about. I’d be so nervous that someone found it. No thank you. I’d rather keep all my dirty thoughts to myself.”
“You have dirty thoughts about me?”
“I didn’t say they were about you.”
I put a hand to my heart. “Ah, Em. You cut me deep.”
She chuckled. “They’re about Patriot.”
I laughed. “Oh yeah? Man, I wish you had a diary now.”
“You see! I’d have to keep it away from prying eyes.”
“So, tell me what exactly you’d write about. Give me a little hint.”
“Hmm . . . let’s see,” she said. “Dear Diary. I’m hungry. The end.”
“Giving me nothing, are you?”
“Maybe later . . . .”
I smiled at her and was just about to say something else when my phone rang. I took it out and saw it was Brady. I groaned. “Brady,” I said to her. “I hope he’s not going to ask me why I’m not there helping him.”
I stood up and walked to the other side of the room. For some reason, I could never just sit and talk on the phone. I always paced.
“Hey, Shotgun,” I said. I saw Emily smile at the name.
“Yo, Patriot. Sorry for bothering you. I’m assuming you’re at Emily’s now?”
“Yeah, I decided to just come straight here. We’re about to have dinner. What’s up? Anything wrong?”
“Well, I just got home, and I saw some man snooping around at Emily’s old house.”
“What do you mean?” I said and shot Emily a look. She was working on the food and didn’t seem to notice me talking at all.
“I don’t know. I didn’t recognize him from this far. I was thinking that maybe it’s someone else that wants to put an offer on the house. But I’m not sure. There was something about the way he was looking around that made me uncomfortable.”
“Really? What do you think he was doing?”
“I have no idea. But it just made me nervous. I couldn’t stop thinking about the whole arson situation. I don’t know. Maybe just tell Emily to watch her back. Anyway, I just thought I’d let you know.”
“Thanks, man. Hopefully it’s nothing serious.”
I put the phone down and looked at Emily.
“You hope what’s not serious?” she asked.
“That was Brady. He said there was some guy looking around your old house and looking suspicious.”
“Some guy? Who?”
“He didn’t recognize him.”
“That’s weird. Why would he be snooping around my old place? It’s in ruins.”
I shrugged. “I have no idea. Brady just said you must be careful. In case.”
“Be careful of what?”
“Look, Emily, I wanted to talk to you about your old house, anyway. Do you know that there was arson involved?”
“Arson? What are you talking about? Since when?”
“Well, that’s what the chief discovered. I wasn’t sure if you knew about it or not.”
“No. I had no idea. Why would anyone want to do this on purpose? I haven’t done anything to anyone. And how long have you known about this?”
“The chief told us the day after, I think; I can’t remember exactly when.”
“The day after? You mean you’ve known it was arson all this time and you didn’t say anything? Why?”
“Em, I wasn’t sure if you knew or not. And if you didn’t then I didn’t think I should be the one to tell you. I mean, I have no evidence other than what the chief told me.”
“I thought that we had something special going here, Grant.”
“We do. Of course we do.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Em, back then I hardly knew you. And now there’s been so many other things going on. Don’t think I don’t care for you. I do. It’s because I care for you. I know how upset you’ve been about your dad. I didn’t want to make things worse for you.”
“So you lied to me?”
“Lied to you?” I said. I stood up and looked at her. I’d been nothing but nice to her. “How can you say that? So what now? Are you going to hold this against me? I know you’re not quick to forgive.”
“I’m not quick to forgive? What is that supposed to mean? Is that a dig at my situation with my father?” she asked.
“He made a mistake, Em. I know it’s hard to see, but you should hear him out. Not everyone is as perfect as you.”
“Get out.”
“What? Why? Look, Em, I figured you knew what had happened, anyway. And even if you didn’t, I didn’t think it was my place to tell you. I was trying to protect you. How can you not see that? You mean the world to me.”
“Just go. Please just go.”
Emily was still sitting, and I was standing above her. I could feel my muscles tense the angrier I got, and I knew I was trying to be intimidating. I knew I’d never do anything to hurt her, but at the same time, I couldn’t stop my emotions from pouring out of me. Is this what had happened with my father when he’d hit Brady? The thought sobered me up. For a brief second, I saw how scared she was of me and I backed away.
“Oh, I know that not everything is perfect. Trust me, Grant, I know that more than anyone,” she said. “Now, please leave. I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere by talking anymore.”
“Gladly.”
I walked out of her house and made my way to the car. I had to take several deep breaths to calm myself down before I could drive. I could feel the anger well up inside me. I knew that my temper had gotten the best of me, and it was good that I had left before it got even worse. After everything I had done, she had told me to get out of her house. How dare she? Perhaps Brady had been right all along. Maybe I should never have gotten so close to Emily? I pushed the look of fear she’d had to the back of my head.