Page 29 of My Three Hometown Firefighters (Aspen Springs #2)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Grayson

A string of curse words flies from my mouth. My fingers squeeze my phone so tightly that my knuckles turn white as I fight the urge to chuck it across the parking lot.

Why isn’t she answering?

“I take it she didn’t pick up,” Tucker says from behind me.

I turn around to face him and Warren, who just walked out of the firehouse. I shake my head.

“Fuck,” they both mutter in unison.

Yeah, that sums it up. These last few days have been torture. Sienna hasn’t returned any calls or texts from any of us.

There’s a nagging feeling in the back of my head telling me something is wrong. She wouldn’t just be ignoring us for this long if everything was okay.

Is she sick again? Did we do something wrong? The possibilities have been on a constant loop in my brain.

We all share a look before, wordlessly, loading into my truck. The worry is evident on both of their faces. We need to figure out what’s going on and make sure she’s okay.

Our first stop proves to be a bust because she isn’t at work. The guy working told us she took a few days off, which only heightened our worry. Sienna rarely takes time off from work.

Now we stand outside her apartment door, waiting to see if she’ll answer. After what feels like an hour, but in reality is probably only a couple of minutes, Tucker knocks again.

When that goes unanswered, we all exhale in defeat. Where the hell is she?

Warren walks over to the railing, looking around the parking lot. “Her car’s not here,” he announces.

I didn’t even think of looking for her car when we pulled up a few minutes ago. I was so blinded by the need to see her, I charged right up here.

Tucker grabs two fistfuls of his hair, letting out a strangled groan. “I don’t know what to do,” he says.

My mind tries to come up with a solution. Hadley .

“I’ll go talk to my sister. She probably knows where she is,” I say.

They both wanted to come, but I figured this conversation was probably best had between just my sister and me. I don’t know how she’s going to take all of this.

I would simply ask her where Sienna is and if she’s okay, but that will never fly with Hadley. She will demand to know why I have such a sudden interest in her bestie.

She’s going to find out way more than she bargained for.

With a promise to let them know as soon as I find anything out, I drop them off at the firehouse where both of their cars are still parked. Then I drive out of town to Hadley’s house.

The gravel crunches under the tires as I drive up the long driveway. Exhaling heavily, I slide the truck into park.

Here goes nothing.

The moment my foot hits the first step, the front door swings open. My sister stands there, smirking at me.

“Took you long enough,” she says, rolling her eyes.

What?

I stand there frozen, staring at her. She pushes the door open further. “Come on, lover boy.”

Lover boy? What the fuck?

“What do you know?” I ask as I pass her and make my way into her living room.

“More than you , apparently,” she says, flopping down onto the sectional.

I sit down, angling my body toward her.

She tilts her head to the side, giving me a once-over that makes me feel like I’m on display.

“Stop looking at me like that. I’m not a zoo animal.”

She snorts. “So, you and my bestie are fucking,” she says with mock outrage that seems more like amusement.

I guess she knows more than I thought. I nod. “Yeah, you could say that.”

She snorts again. “And Tucker and Warren are sprinkled into the mix, too.”

Alrighty then…

“You have no right to be judgmental of that. You are regularly fucking three guys, one of which happens to be my best friend.”

She holds up her hands. “Does it look like I’m mad about this or judging any of you?”

I shake my head.

“Because I’m not,” she says. Her hands fall back onto her lap.

I swallow heavily. “I know something is going on. She hasn’t returned any of our calls or texts over the last few days. She wasn’t at work or at home. Do you know where she is or what’s going on? Because all three of us are kind of going crazy right now.”

She gives me a small smile. “She’s at her parents’ house in Denver.”

“Is she okay?” I ask.

She nods. “She’s alright. She just needed a little space for a few days.”

Why? Did we do something? Did I do something?

Hadley must sense my inner struggle because she continues. “I’m not going to tell you why she’s there—that isn’t my story. But she’s okay. She’ll be home soon.”

I feel my head bobbing up and down as I try to process what she’s said.

“You care about her. Don’t you?” she asks.

My head darts up. Our eyes lock. The way her eyes are boring into me, I know she’s learning more than I want her to in this moment.

“How long?” she asks.

“How long, what?”

She tucks her hair behind her ear. “How long have you been in love with her?”

My jaw hinges open. When I don’t answer right away, she continues.

“Did you fall for her two years ago, or did this happen recently?”

My jaw drops even further. I guess Sienna told her everything . Not that I mind.

I hate keeping everything between us in the dark. I don’t want her to be my dirty little secret. I want to be with her in the open, in front of the whole world.

Hadley lifts her eyebrows in a silent demand for me to answer her.

I lick my lips and shrug. “I started falling back then but got all the way there recently.”

“Does she know?”

I shake my head, unable to keep the sadness from my face. “It isn’t what she wanted from all of this.”

She gives me a knowing smile but doesn’t say anything.

We talk for a few more minutes before she walks me to the door. I lean down, giving her a hug. I go to pull away, but she holds me against her.

Her voice is lethal when she whispers against my ear. “If you hurt her, I will chop off your dick.”

Little psycho.

Now I’m the one that’s snorting out a laugh as we pull away from each other. “I won’t.”

I just hope she doesn’t hurt me either.