Emma's Home (The Fairfield Series) (2 page)

Pulling her car off the highway at a rest stop, she needed a quick break. With only a little farther to go to her destination, she wanted to be as fresh as possible when seeing her niece again. She hoped Laurie would keep the greeting simple, but her niece was the type to throw a party. Well, best be prepared. Using the ladies room, she touched up her makeup and ran her fingers through her hair. Giving up on that, she realized there was no one to make an impression on. Sliding back into her car, she continued down the road.

She was finally off the highway and on smaller, less congested roads. Emma enjoyed the view of the mountains as they rose up in the foreground. She had never lived near the mountains and loved the vista in front of her.

Fairfield….. it sounds like a nice place for a home.

*

“You’re meeting us tonight at Smokey’s, right?” Laurie said on phone.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be there,” Jake answered.

“My aunt is coming in this evening, and I want her to meet all of us at the bar so she can know some people in town.” Silence greeted her. “You’ll like her, I promise.” More silence. “Jake, just be her date for the evening since the rest of us are paired off.” More silence. “Are you there?” she asked.

“I’ll be there. Later,” was the only answer she received. Laurie glanced over at her boyfriend, Rob, who was grinning. Rob was lying back on the couch, watching baseball. He was tall, muscular from years of football and now as a firefighter. He kept his dark hair short, saying that it was too hot for long hair under a fire helmet. Laurie walked over and snuggled up against him on the couch.

“You tryin’ to set Jake up with your aunt?” Rob asked. Laurie answered with a laugh. Rob continued, “Babe, he’s gonna walk in thinkin’ he’s been set up with some little old lady as his date. You think that’s fair?”

“He should know she’s not old. I’m sure I’ve talked about her before,” Laurie answered.

“Laurie, you talking and a guy listening are two different things. Most of the time, we just tune you girls out and nod occasionally.”

Laurie looked up with an incredulous look on her face. “Well, if he hasn’t been listening, that’s not my fault!” She leaned up and pulled her hair into a messy bun.

Rob looked at her profile as she was fingering her hair. Laurie was petite but curvy, and when she leaned back in to snuggle, she fit perfectly next to him.

Laurie leaned back over to Rob, pressing into his chest to give him a quick kiss. “It’ll be fun, you’ll see.”

Rob dipped down and deepened the kiss. Turning her quick peck into a soul searing, kiss, he kept her from plotting any more matchmaking plans with their friends.

*

Jake slipped his cell phone back into his pocket. “Damn,” he said under his breath.

“What’s eatin’ at you?” said his partner. Jake and Tom had been paired up as detectives for the Fairfield Police for the past several years, and had been friends since childhood. He, Tom, and Rob had been friends, football teammates, and now lived in the same town as adults.

“Laurie,” Jake answered while Tom laughed.

“She still settin’ you up with her aunt at Smokey’s tonight? Come on, Jake. It will be fun.”

“Fuck off,” Jake said. “You don’t have to show up at the town’s main bar with a date the age of your mom.” Tom would be there with his wife, Carol.

“Look, it is just for dinner tonight, so she can meet some people. That’s all.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jake answered. He stood up from his desk, stretching his six foot two inch muscular frame, rolling his neck to ease the tension. “It’s not really Laurie or her aunt comin’ into town. I’d just rather go home and chill tonight. Not much in the mood to be around everyone.”

Tom nodded, looking back at the files on his desk. They had been working on a robbery case and were getting nowhere. The missing items were not all that important, but considering that the robbery had taken place at the high school, the department was on alert. The case was several days old, and they had very few leads. The principal was friends with the mayor and results were expected quickly. There were no signs of breaking and entering, so the police were running into dead ends.

“Come on – let’s head out,” Tom said. “It’s Friday night, and we need to go hit the bars with our ladies,” he smirked. “I’m runnin’ home to change and get Carol. We’ll see you at Smokey’s.”

Jake dropped by his mom’s house to shower and change. He took off his badge and gun holster and laid them on his dresser. Coming out of the shower, he chose faded jeans and a black t-shirt that stretched across his chest. He kept in shape working out 3 times a week at the local gym and running every morning before going to the station. He had never had a problem attracting women but was cautious about sleeping around. Fairfield wasn’t a small town, but neither was it a large metropolis. He had no desire to run into previous one night stands while on the job. Before Tom met Carol, Tom had no such cares and had his fair share of one night conquests. Afterwards, Tom instantly gave up his man whore ways and was completely whipped.

Their friend Rob, a local firefighter/EMT had met his girlfriend, Laurie, when there was a fire at the elementary school where she was a new teacher. All three were over six feet tall and turned the ladies’ eyes whenever they made an appearance. But since Laurie and Carol had entered the scene, Jake was often the odd man out, unless he brought a date.

It wasn’t as though Jake did not want a relationship – he just had not found the right woman yet. Finding a woman who would meet his standards and understand his life choices was difficult. Usually as soon as a woman found out that he was thirty-three years old and living in his mother’s house, she would declare that a deal breaker and not come around again. He had his reasons, and if a woman couldn’t understand his situation, then he wasn’t interested in her either. But it made life a little lonely.

Looking in the mirror before heading out, the thought that he certainly wouldn’t be finding the love of his life tonight went through his head. He knew he was running late, but what the hell, he had no one to impress. Sighing to himself, Jake left his room.

Mary Campbell looked up smiling as Jake came down the stairs. She was sitting in a comfortable chair, her Kindle in her lap. “Hey sweetheart, are you heading out now?” she asked. She wished that his father could have seen what a wonderful man Jake was. Her son looked so much like her late husband that she sometimes had to pinch herself to remember who she was looking at. Jake’s father would have been so proud of him, just as she was.

“Yeah, mom. Are you going to be all right here tonight? I may be late, but I can easily cut this evening short. In fact, I may want to cut it short,” he added, ruefully rubbing his hands through his thick sandy colored hair.

“Of course,” Mary replied. “I don’t have to go upstairs for anything, and I have my walker right next to my chair if I need it. Have a good time.”

Leaning down, Jake kissed his mother on the cheek before he headed out of the door. Jake’s dad had been diagnosed with cancer soon after Jake had graduated from the police academy, and he came back to Fairfield to help out. Soon after his dad passed away, his mother was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, and was having difficulty taking care of things by herself. Jake moved out of his apartment and back into her home to help out. He did not begrudge his choices, but knew that it would take a very special woman to ever be able to have a relationship with him. He sighed deeply and headed downtown to the bar.

*

Laurie, Rob, Tom, and Carol were sitting at a table in the back of the bar where there was more room to move around. Emma had arrived about thirty minutes earlier, much to the delight of Laurie.

Smokey’s had a homey feel with rich dark wood on the floor and the bar. Behind the bar was an old fashioned mirror with brass light fixtures. Tables and booths lined one side and were in the back, along with an area for a few pool tables. Smokey’s also served great food, one of the reasons Laurie chose this as their meeting place. The bar was run by Wendy and Bill Evans, longtime town residents, who knew everyone and everything going on in the town.

“God, I can’t believe you are finally here and not just visiting but staying!” Laurie said while not letting go of Emma’s hands. Laurie, like Emma, was petite but her thick brown hair hung in soft waves down her back. Emma was a brunette with auburn highlights that fell to just below her shoulders. Emma had the dark brown eyes of her parents, but Laurie’s were stormy grey, a trait they could only assume came from her father.

“It was time for a change, and I figured I might as well come to where my only family was,” Emma replied, smiling at her niece.

Seeing Laurie sitting next to Rob, Emma noticed the way they looked at each other. Rob was tall and powerfully built. He wore faded jeans, a navy t-shirt fitted tightly to his torso, and cowboy boots.

“Rob, I’m so glad to meet you. I can tell by the way Laurie is looking at you, this is the real deal,” Emma said enthusiastically.

“I’m the lucky one,” Rob replied, smiling back at the lady who had given up everything to raise the woman he loved.

Carol and Tom sat across from Emma. Carol was a beautiful slim woman with blonde hair stylishly cut to just below her shoulders. She had an angelic aura about her. Her husband, Tom, was slightly leaner than Rob, with the same yellow blond hair that his wife had. Carol wiggled in her seat, trying to disguise the rumbling of her stomach. Her husband gazed at her with a questioning look on his face.

“I’m sorry, I’m just really hungry. I haven’t eaten since breakfast,” Carol said sheepishly.

Laurie looked around, not seeing Jake. “I wanted to wait and order when Jake got here. Where
is
he?” she said, agitated. Tom and Rob shared a look over their wives’ heads.

Emma grinned. “Am I being stood up, gentlemen?” Emma, never taking herself too seriously, knew that life was too precious to waste on things that just did not matter. And being stood up by a man she had never met would certainly not break her.

Laurie snapped her head around, looking up at Rob to see what she was missing. Her temper began to rise, but Rob quickly spoke to calm her.

“He would never skip out – he knows how important this dinner is to you.”

“Yeah,” Tom added. “He’s just running late.”

“Well, while we are waiting on him, why don’t you go ahead and order appetizers? I am going to run to the ladies room.” Emma stood and walked over toward the hall by the bar.

J
ake pulled his pickup truck up to the bar, but didn’t get out right away. He didn’t know why he was so opposed to going inside to have dinner with his friends. He understood he wasn’t being “set up” with Laurie’s aunt; he was just supposed to meet her and sit with her so she would have a dinner partner. But being there watching Rob and Tom have what he wanted was just going to be one more reason for delaying. He was happy his friends had found amazing, beautiful women. Rob and Tom were his best friends and deserved the best. But… Jake shook his head to clear his thoughts. Taking a deep breath, he hopped out of his truck.