Chapter 21
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A kaleidoscope of color danced along the sides of his locker as Eli stared down at his grandmother’s ring. He rolled the band between his forefinger and thumb. It had been burning a hole in his pocket since he picked it up from his mom yesterday. He’d taken it out and admired it every chance he got. The crew had just finished dinner and this was their downtime. He’d come to his locker to grab his gym clothes but instead of doing that, he’d pulled out the ring.
Since he’d left his mom’s house, the conversation they’d had kept playing in his mind. He’d given it a lot of thought, and he’d come to the conclusion that his mom was right. Kenzie could handle the truth. His plan was to talk to her about everything when she got back from Vegas.
Kenzie was an intelligent, loving, forgiving, incredible woman. He’d been so worried about protecting her that he wasn’t giving her enough credit. His mom also had another point. She deserved the truth. Plain and simple.
And she would get it.
Hopefully, she’d find it in her heart to forgive him, to put the past behind them, and move forward together. Then, he would ask her to be his wife. Not immediately after, but soon. He’d finally get to put a ring on her finger. The ring that he’d asked his mother for when he was seventeen because he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with the girl who snuck into both his window and his soul.
“Whoa, is that what I think it is?” Marco whistled loudly behind Eli.
Eli put the ring back and shut the locker. When he turned around, he saw Marco standing at attention with a somber expression on his face. His friend had taken his ball cap off and was now holding it over his heart.
Eli crossed his arms. “What are you doing?”
With sincere reverence, Marco replied. “I’m paying my respects to my fallen wingman. Eli Bishop, you were one of the greats.”
Eli chuckled as he shook his head and turned around to do what he’d come here to do: grab his gym clothes.
“Bishop,” Jake called from across the bunkhouse. “My office.”
“Uh oh.” Marco’s eyes widened. “Looks like delivering a baby at gunpoint isn’t going to deliver you from trouble.”
The crew had been giving Eli a hard time about his recent attention. Everyone thought they were a comedian. As time went on, the punchlines grew less and less original and funny.
“That was weak, bro.” Eli slapped his friend on the shoulder as he passed him. “You’re better than that, Reyes.”
“It wasn’t my A game,” Marco conceded.
Eli still had a smile on his face as he walked into the office.
The chief was sitting behind his desk and he lifted his chin. “Shut the door.”
Damn. Jake had only called him in like this and asked him to close the door once before, and it was to let him know that a woman Eli had saved and resuscitated hadn’t made it. She’d passed away after being on life support for three days.
As he took a seat across from the chief, he prepared himself for news that he knew wouldn’t be easy to hear.
“Things have been crazy around here, and you’ve really shown that I can count on you. You picked up shifts when I needed you to.”
“Overtime is never a bad thing,” Eli deflected, not feeling comfortable with receiving praise for just doing his job.
Jake pressed on, “You keep morale up for the guys who are all overworked and exhausted. You lead by example and never complain. You always go above and beyond your duty.
“I didn’t want to say anything until it was official, but I got the green light today to create the position of assistant chief. I want to offer it to you. There’s no one else I’d rather have at my side.”
Eli was speechless. Every firefighter at Station 23 worked their asses off. There wasn’t a man or woman here who didn’t pull their weight and Eli didn’t have seniority. There were a half dozen firefighters that had been here twice as long as he had.
He didn’t get a chance to respond before there was a knock on the glass. Jake motioned to whomever was there.
“Hey, chief.” Eli heard Randy’s voice. “Bishop has a visitor.”
Eli turned around and saw Kenzie standing at the far end of the station entrance. Her back was to him, but he knew it was her. She was leaving tomorrow morning and he hadn’t thought he was going to get a chance to see her.
“Go,” the chief excused Eli. “Think about what I said.”
“Will do.” Eli was grinning from ear to ear as he left the office.
He’d just been offered a promotion. The woman he loved was back in his life. He was on cloud nine.
But, when she turned around, he crashed back to earth. Kenzie was white as a sheet and clutching papers to her chest.
“What’s wrong?” He closed the distance between them and reached for her.
She moved away from his touch and it felt like someone punched him in the gut.
“Can we talk?” she asked in a quiet voice.
“Yes. What’s wrong?”
Her eyes darted from side to side. “Somewhere private?”
“Uh, yeah. Sure.” He started to put his hand on her back but pulled it back when he remembered how she’d reacted just moments ago. Instead, he held out his hand toward the darkened training room.
She walked in front of him and went inside. He followed behind her, flipped the lights and shut the door.
“Why did you leave?” she asked. “The day we were supposed to get married, why did you leave without saying a word?”
The question took him by surprise. He’d tried to talk to her several times and every time she’d changed the subject. He knew this conversation was coming, he just hadn’t planned on having it here, like this.
Eli ran his hands through his hair. “I…it’s complicated.”
“Complicated?” A forced laugh expelled from her lungs as she thrust the papers she’d been holding at him. “Yeah, it seems complicated.”
He took them from her and couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He flipped through the papers and the same white-hot anger he’d felt the first time he’d been handed these documents rose up in him once more. “Where did you get these?”
“What?!” Her hands flew up in the air. “Why does it matter where I got them?!”
He held the papers up. “Did Theo give you these?”
When Theo had interviewed Eli the questions on camera had been general. But when he’d turned it off they’d grown personal. He’d point blank asked Eli what was going on with him and Kenzie. Theo had made it clear that he cared about Kenzie and would be watching Eli, but he hadn’t expected that Theo would dig up the past. Maybe Eli underestimated the fact that he was a documentary filmmaker and part of his job was to investigate stories.
“Theo?!” her voice rose. “Why would Theo give me these?!”
“Because he’s in love with you.”
“He’s not in love with me!” Anger radiated off of her.
“Yes.” He said with a calm that did not reflect his blood that was boiling. “He is.”
She shook her head back in short jerks. “Are you fucking kidding me? What are you even talking about?! This isn’t about Theo! This is about you! This is about—”
Flashing lights and an alarm sounding interrupted her outrage.
The door swung open, and Marco stuck his head in and shouted, “It’s a ten-forty!”
“Shit,” Eli cursed under his breath as his heart pounded like a hammer in his chest. “I have to go.”
“Of course you do!” Her face scrunched in frustration as she snatched the papers back and started to storm past him.
“Kenzie!” he shouted to be heard. Her eyes shot to his and the pain he saw there stabbed through his heart. “It’s not what you think!”
He saw tears pool in her bottom lids as her lower lip quivered.
“It’s not what you think!” he yelled again.
“Let’s go, Bishop!” Randy banged on the glass as he ran out toward the bay.
Kenzie took that as her cue to exit. She rushed out and he watched her leave, and frustration and helplessness raged through him. Just like the first time he’d had to walk away from her. But there was one difference. This time he wasn’t going to stay away. This time he was going to tell her the truth. When he did, her heart may be broken again, but this time he’d be there to help heal it.