Page 4 of Rescued Dreams (Last Chance Fire and Rescue #8)

FOUR

R idge parked his Jeep in the numbered spot for his town house, and a glance over at the guest spot told him the twins were home. He grabbed the bag of food he’d picked up from Backdraft off the front seat and his duffel from the back.

He’d been thinking about what had happened today the whole way home. The fact that it seemed like firefighters had been the target of a deliberate attack. The cops hadn’t had enough time to ascertain anything, so there was no new information.

Okay, fine, he’d been thinking about the look on Amelia’s face when she left.

Whatever she’d talked to the chief about had upset her, but Ridge had no idea what it could be, and with a whole forty-eight blissful hours off work to look forward to, he wasn’t going to get an answer on that anytime soon either. Not unless he tracked her down outside work—which he’d never done.

They’d gone on exactly four dates. She’d always gone with him from the firehouse or met him at a restaurant or movie theater. He’d never picked her up from her house and had no idea where she lived. Then again, no one from the firehouse had been to his town house since he’d moved in.

Rescue squad used to come over sometimes to watch a basketball game, or they’d all go to Bryce’s to watch football. But with the guys getting into relationships, that happened less now.

He and Amelia were just private people, and he didn’t want the twins all aflutter because of a bunch of firefighter guys and gals in his house.

He doubted Amelia would answer the phone if he called.

The door opened before he even reached it, and one of the twins appeared in the doorway. Maddie always tracked his phone, and when the app said he’d arrived, his sister always met him at the door. “Take this bag, will you? Dish up and I’ll go shower real quick.”

Now that she was seventeen and on the cusp of being a gorgeous woman, keeping her out of line of sight of firefighters was a good plan.

They had enough drama with boys at school.

Even if he trusted his friends implicitly, he didn’t like the idea of personal tangling with professional—unless it came to Amelia.

Maddison had long brown hair with a wave that came nearly to the small of her back.

She wore wide-leg jeans low on her hips and a shirt that didn’t touch the waistband.

As long as there wasn’t a belly-button ring in her navel.

At least, not one he hadn’t been informed about before she got it.

He was going to keep his mouth shut and pick his battles.

“You should put your laundry on. Your duffel smells like Josh’s car.” She took the bag and wandered to the kitchen counter. “He’s on the football team.”

A person could stand in the middle of the kitchen, reach out and touch all the counters plus the fridge without stretching too far. The little square space was barely big enough for two people, let alone all three of them at once.

When they’d moved here, the twins had replaced his black-and-white highway print on the wall in the hallway with a vintage Casablanca movie poster.

Six months ago it had been replaced with a poster for Trek of the Osprey, a sci-fi show he’d watched as a kid, which they called “vintage” and insisted on watching over and over when all three of them were home.

“Hi.” Ella burrowed under his arm and squeezed his middle.

Slightly smaller than Maddison, she had the same hairstyle but wore a floral top and a pair of skinny jeans.

Aside from their sense of style and Ella’s more introverted personality, the girls were mirror images. Most people couldn’t tell them apart.

He put his arm around Ella. “Good day?”

She shrugged, still holding his middle with her slender arms. He rubbed a hand across her shoulders. “Maddie, how do you know what Josh’s car smells like?”

Even though her back was to him, he knew she winced. Ella let out a little giggle. Maddie twisted around. “Did I say Josh? I meant…uh…we went to the library. That’s how I know what his car smells like. We studied. At the library.” She shot wide eyes in Ella’s direction.

“That’s where I do all my studying,” Ridge said. “At the library .”

Ella laughed aloud, and it was about the best sound Ridge had ever heard. Up there on his top five favorite things, along with Christmas carol services sung by a children’s choir, a hot dog at a ball field, and Amelia’s smile.

Ella disconnected from the hug and went over to slump on their cushy sectional. The one they’d made him spend two hours picking out because they had to sit on every couch in the entire store. Twice. And okay, it had been worth it. Not that he’d admit as much to them.

“I guess I should pay more attention to that tracking app. See where you’re going.” He watched Ella curl up with a calculus textbook and her math notebook, sliding the pencil out from behind her ear.

“Right now I’m in the kitchen, doing what you told me to do.”

“Is Josh still a thing?” He’d learned Maddie switched out flavors of the month like an ice-cream shop, but he’d rather she just have a lot of friends so he wasn’t worrying about her getting hot and heavy with some guy while he had an overnight shift at the firehouse.

Maddie shrugged. “Ella didn’t like him.”

Despite their differences, the girls’ instincts were sacrosanct for decision-making.

If one had a vibe, it was law. Thankfully, when their mom had remarried eighteen months ago and their stepdad Gary didn’t want to be tied down with kids, they’d had the feeling Ridge would be great to live with.

So the twins called a family meeting and announced their plan to have Ridge adopt them.

Gary had been thrilled.

Considering Ridge never would’ve left the girls in the lurch, he hadn’t even given it time so he could think it over. He’d said yes immediately, and they’d been living with him as their guardian since.

At the time, Ridge had been in a one-bedroom apartment on the rough side of town, saving for a down payment on a house.

He’d taken that money and put a deposit on this place.

The girls got the main bedroom upstairs because it was bigger—and had two sinks in the bathroom.

He had a small room he used a few days a week, and the third room was an office with a pullout couch.

Maddie put a full plate of food in the microwave, then took the container of salad and two packets of plasticware and went to sit by her sister on the couch. Ridge got the breadsticks and ate two on the way to the shower.

He rinsed off, set his clothes in the washer, and headed back to the kitchen in sweatpants and a T-shirt.

While he’d been in the bathroom, he’d received an email from Chief Macon James, asking him to come in early next shift.

He responded, acknowledging the request, and set his phone on the breakfast bar.

“I made you a plate. It’s in the microwave.” Ella didn’t look up from her math.

Maddie nudged her.

Ella looked at her sister, then at Ridge.

“Whatever it is, let me eat first. I’m starving.” He went to the microwave and pulled out the hot plate of sausage pasta. His stomach growled. Ridge went to the armchair. He ate one bite, then said, “Okay, hit me with whatever it is.”

Ella smiled.

“Okay, well.” Maddie shifted on the couch, curling her legs up so her knees were almost in her sister’s lap. “We’ve been talking about Benson, Washington.”

“About you getting a job there,” Ella said.

“And we don’t want to move.”

“We wanna stay here.”

Both of them stared at him.

Ridge said, “There aren’t any open lieutenant spots in Last Chance County.”

“We’re in our senior year. We shouldn’t leave before graduation,” Ella said. “It would be too much of an interruption to move mid-year.”

“I know.” He’d been dragging his feet for that exact reason. He’d also called his mom and talked about her coming home for a few months. “But they have a good college there.” He knew they’d been applying around, finding somewhere they could both land.

Ella said, “They already accepted us.”

Maddie nudged her. “But so did three other schools, so it’s not like we’re locked in.”

“We could all move.” Ridge set his plate on the coffee table and leaned his forearms on his knees. “Get a house there. You guys could go to school in Benson and get your degrees.”

Maddie stared at him, her expression almost brittle. Like it was about to shatter. “This is our home. We didn’t want to leave before, when Mom left, and we don’t want to leave now.”

“I know, kiddo.” Ridge sighed.

“Be a firefighter here. On rescue squad. I thought you liked it.”

He glanced at Ella. “There are some things you don’t understand.”

“You don’t want to work with her ,” Maddie said. “Because she broke your heart.”

Ridge shook his head. “It didn’t get that far.”

“But she dumped you.”

“That’s not?—”

“Now you wanna run away. Like when Eric asked Stacey to prom, and I wanted to die…or switch to the high school across town because I couldn’t stand to see either of their faces.” Maddie winced, her eyes glistening with tears.

He’d been home for those two rocky days before the summer, when Maddison had been in bed in tears with a gallon of ice cream and a bag of chocolate chips.

No one wanted to relive the Great Eric Firestorm all over again.

Considering Ridge’s ankle injury at the time, he hadn’t been able to work out and couldn’t leave the house without Ella driving him.

They’d all been trapped with nowhere to go, but they’d survived.

Before he could respond, she continued. “I worked through it. And you need to do the same thing.” She nodded, certain she was right. Her composure back in place. “So we can stay.”

Ella looked at her phone, then at her sister. “They’re here.”

“Who is here?” He scooted to the edge of his seat. “Who else do you have on that location app?” It had better not be more Joshes. “Ella?”

She lifted her chin. “We also can’t leave because this is where our family is.”

They only had Mom and…“Kane?” He glanced between them. “You convinced Kane to back your plan to stay here?”

Maddie’s expression matched her sister’s. “We knew you were serious, so we decided to get serious.”

Ridge strode to the front door and opened it in time to see Kane and his girlfriend Maria coming up the front walk. “So this is a setup?”

“Nah.” Kane grinned. “Just here to tell you we’re engaged.”

Maria lifted her left hand and wiggled her fingers. She looked as happy as anyone had a right to be, a smile spread wide across her face. The woman was gorgeous, all dark features and Hispanic coloring.

Ridge grinned. “Congratulations.” He gave Maria a hug, and she stepped in. He held out his hand to his cousin Kane, and they slapped each other’s backs. “I’m glad she said yes.”

“Me too.” Kane chuckled, twisting between Ridge and the doorframe.

“How are my two favorite girls?” He spread his arms wide, and both twins came over to hug him.

They hadn’t seen Kane since they were little, and barely remembered him.

But since Kane had come back from the dead, and back into their lives, a couple of months ago, he’d become an ally.

Even Maria seemed to be part of their little group now.

Ridge said, “All right. Sit, all of you. I still need to eat.” He pointed to the kitchen. “There’s more if you guys are hungry.” He grabbed his plate. “I’m not talking about anything else that’s serious until I’m done with my food.”

Maddie rolled her eyes and looked at Maria, who smiled. Kane’s fiancée said, “My father was the same way after work.”

Maddie leaned against Ella’s shoulder and asked Maria, “Did you figure out your jobs here yet?”

Maria said, “We spoke to a guy in town, Tate Hudson.”

Maddie looked at Ridge, who said, “He’s a private investigator,” then took another bite of pasta. Kane sat on the floor with his back to the couch, handing Maria one of the two bowls he carried.

“Thanks, this smells good.” Maria said, “He’s closing his business and handing off a lot of cases to others.

He’s shifting his job to more of a support role, but I’m not sure if investigating is what we want to do.

I have a remote job consulting also, and that takes up a good chunk of my time.

Working together might not be the right answer. We just don’t know yet.”

Kane swallowed a bite of food. “We’re actually talking to some friends of friends about joining a search and rescue team.” He glanced at Ridge. “They work out of Benson, where they have a whole K-9 team.”

Maddie said, “Benson?”

Kane winced. “I know you don’t want to go, but Maria and I need the right jobs for us . Her consulting gig isn’t full-time, and I need to feel like I have my thing.”

“And Ridge gets the right job for him. ” Maddie stood. “And no one cares what’s right for us.” She stepped onto the coffee table so she could get out of the sectional area.

“Maddie—”

“I know .” But she didn’t stop walking until she was upstairs, where she slammed the door.

Ridge winced, glancing at Ella. “Is that how you feel as well?”

Ella scrunched up her nose. “I want to pass this calculus class. I want Mom to come to our graduation, but she said she ‘isn’t sure what her plans are.’ Maddie doesn’t know what she wants her major to be, so how can I pick a college?” Her voice hitched.

Ridge’s heart squeezed in his chest. This wasn’t just about them all moving, it was about all the things the two teen girls in his house were dealing with.

“And I want that woman we shall not name to un-dump you.”

“Don’t worry about that.”

Ella shrugged. “You can’t tell me not to worry about you. She made you so unhappy you’re leaving town, and now we all have to go.”

“Ella—”

“I have a test tomorrow.” She gathered up her books and left the room.

Ridge set his plate on the coffee table and ran his hands down his face, groaning.

Kane said, “Is this a bad time to ask if it’s still okay that I stay here for a while?”

Ridge lowered his hands and looked at his cousin. The guy had been given back pay for his time serving the Army and his pension owed during the time he was supposedly dead, and Maria had been cut a check from the CIA for services rendered.

“Maria is going to get an apartment.”

Ridge shrugged. “Sure, whatever. We can work it out tomorrow.”

He almost laughed, even though there was nothing funny about this. He needed to do something about…everything. Before the girls decided to ignore their schoolwork and try to fix things themselves. Before he got a real job offer in Benson and had to make a final decision.

Kane set his bowl on the coffee table. “In that case, I’ll go get my overnight bag.”

Maria stood. “I’ll go with you.”

Ridge sat alone in his living room, trying to figure out how to fix the mess that was his life. Preferably before something else happened.