Fan The Flames (Man Of The Month Book 3) (2 page)

Later, both had gone through BUD/S together, but afterward had parted ways—Brad to SEAL Team Seven, and Todd to the famed SEAL Team Six. Brad had done one enlistment and given up the promotion that would have sent him to Todd’s unit, considered one of the Navy’s finest. Todd told her he’d really thought Brad would reenlist, like he had. That he looked forward to their working together. She knew Todd had been accepting of Brad’s decision to opt out, but that he’d also been severely disappointed.

“Mommy? Are we there yet?”

“Almost,” Scarlett called back to her four-year-old daughter. Seat belted into her booster, Colleen had been a trouper the entire trip, which had for the most part meant watching endless movies on the DVR-and-TV combo looped over the passenger seat, or by taking long naps, or by stretching her legs by climbing in fast-food restaurant playlands during their forty-five-minute pit stops.

Scarlett glanced in the rearview mirror. Colleen hugged her doll and craned her neck so she could peer out the window. Red hair like her mother’s had escaped her pigtails. “Will my bed be there by now?” her daughter asked.

“Yes. Granny and Grandpa said the truck arrived yesterday and everything is already unpacked.” Well, everything but the boxes. Those she’d do herself. “So your bed should be ready.”

Colleen had inherited Scarlett’s eyes and those pale green orbs widened. “Mommy, are those snowflakes? Will I get to see snow? Maybe play in it?”

“Yes, they are and yes, you will,” Scarlett confirmed, managing a smile as a few flurries fluttered by. To a child, a first snowfall was special. Exciting. Magical. For an adult, it meant she and Colleen had gotten lucky. Despite the sky being a grisly gray for the last four hundred miles, the third day of February snow had held off, but by tomorrow St. Louis was expecting a good three to six inches. They’d arrived just in time. She shivered despite the heater running full blast. Time to go.

She pressed the power button, shutting down the car in front of the doors to an oversized two-car garage with living quarters on top.

“Is this our house?” Colleen asked. “And can I unclip?”

“You may unclip,” Scarlett corrected as her daughter released the seat belt. “We have to go through the yard for our house. This is where Brad lives.”

“Brad, whose house we are renting,” Colleen said, her statement designed to elicit her mom’s confirmation.

“Yes. He and your daddy were good friends. Remember? I showed you the picture?”

Colleen nodded. “They were wearing a blue uniform.”

“Yes. They were in the Navy together.”

“They were handsome. Winnie thought so too.” Winnie was a red-haired American Girl doll and Colleen’s constant companion. Todd’s parents had sent it last Christmas.

“Definitely,” Scarlett agreed.

They’d been gorgeous men, even back in high school. When many male freshmen went through an awkward, geeky phase, both Brad and Todd had skipped it. Todd had been the golden boy. Blond hair worn shaggy. Blue eyes that twinkled mischievously. A wide grin that went for miles and made you feel totally safe and loved. When his hair had been buzzed for the military, all the cut had done was accentuate high cheekbones and make him even sexier.

Then there was Brad. He’d been Mr. Serious. Taller. Darker hair, the color of milk chocolate. Deep brown eyes that held an underlying intensity every time he gazed at her. He had an edge to him, the bad boy mothers warned their daughters about.

She was attracted to him back then, even before she really understood what that meant. His long glances in her direction made her lose her breath and feel things that she hadn’t felt before. She felt wild and silly at the same time. There was a connection between them and it got the best of her one day when Brad had kissed her beneath the school staircase, hours before Todd had asked her out. She pressed the pads of her first two fingers to her lips. Thought back, but the front-end details were fuzzy. She knew she’d dropped her math textbook, and they’d knocked heads as both had reached for it. She’d seen stars, and he’d held her close to steady her, and then kissed her. Had her toes tingled? What she did remember clearly was that something had flashed in his eyes, and then he’d pulled away and left her standing there. Two hours later Todd had called and asked her out. She liked Todd—he was easygoing and made her laugh, but her lips still tingled from the kiss beneath the stairs. She’d asked Todd one question before she’d said yes. “What does Brad think?” Todd had answered, “He thinks it’s a great idea.”

And that had been that. The kiss became an irrelevant secret—a momentary aberration.

“Mommy?” Colleen caught her mom’s gaze through the mirror. The seat belt snapped back into place after being released, and the whooshing noise jolted Scarlett into the present and out of her reverie. “I need to go potty.”

“Me too.” Scarlett climbed out, opened the back door and lifted her daughter from the car seat. Carried her through the wooden privacy fence gate, down a short brick path and up the steps to a small covered porch, where she set her down.

“I could have walked, Mom. I’m a big girl now,” Colleen told her.

“This was faster.” Scarlett set her down and lifted the mat, retrieving the key that had been placed there earlier this morning before Brad had left for a twenty-four-hour shift with the St. Louis Fire Department. She unlocked the door. Stepped inside. Gasped. The place was huge. Immaculate. Way beyond her price range with what little the annuity paid out each month.

Scarlett jolted her mom back to attention. “Potty, Mommy.”

“This way.” She quickly located the half bath just off a white, custom kitchen that looked like a picture in
Architectural Digest.
Got her daughter on the toilet in the nick of time. Held her up afterward so she could wash her hands in a custom marble sink with designer brass fixtures. They’d have to get a stool, she noted.

“It’s big,” Colleen commented, glancing around as they reentered the kitchen. “Is this a castle?”

“No,” Scarlett replied, although it felt like it. “It’s just a historic house. That means it’s old.”

Colleen reached up and touched the lower stainless steel wall oven. “Everything’s shiny. It doesn’t look old.”

Scarlett had to agree. Back in San Diego, the house she’d finally sold had aging vinyl floors, slightly yellowing white appliances and linoleum countertops that had seen far better days. Here the kitchen boasted speckled gray-and-white granite counters. Shiny eighteen-inch darker gray travertine tile covered the floor. A ten-by-six-foot granite countertop topped a huge kitchen island. There were two stainless steel wall ovens. A deep three-part sink with one of those tall, hose faucets. A six-burner Viking gas stove. “No, I guess this kitchen doesn’t look old at all.”

“So maybe it’s a castle.”

“Why not?” Scarlett agreed, trying to hide the fact she was overwhelmed. Brad had told her she could live rent free as long as she wanted, but she’d never planned on living off his generosity for more than six months at the most. There was no way she could ever afford this. However, since Colleen loved Disney princesses, she’d play along. “Brad told me there’s a third floor and lots of stairs.”

“So it’s our castle?”

Scarlett hesitated, but answered honestly. “Yes.” No need to tell Colleen they’d eventually have to move.

Colleen danced her way through the kitchen. “I always wanted to live in a castle. Can we get a kitten? I want a kitten to live with us in our castle.”

“I don’t know about the kitten just yet,” Scarlett hedged, “but we can go explore our new home.”

“Okay. But don’t forget to ask Brad about the kitten.”

They left the kitchen, entered an empty dining room with a beautiful chandelier. Underneath, on gleaming hardwood floors, sat her pathetic excuse for a kitchen table—as if a street ruffian had been let into a ball. She felt as out of place as her table looked. The sliding glass doors to the living room were open, making the two rooms almost seamless. “Look, Mommy! A fireplace!”

“I see.” Scarlett walked through the doorway. Touched the ornate wooden mantel that surrounded the custom, inlaid tile that wrapped around the fireplace.

“I wonder if it works?”

“We’ll have to ask Brad.” She added that to her mental list. During one of their conversations, he’d mentioned he was rehabbing a house and needed someone to stay in it for a while. She hadn’t been expecting this—Google hadn’t done a street view here.

Colleen started twirling—the only thing in the room a floor lamp. “It’s like our own dance studio. Look at me go!”

As Colleen made herself dizzy, Scarlett wondered where the rest of her stuff was.

Colleen regained equilibrium, the large, happy smile on her face one Scarlett hadn’t seen in a while. Her daughter tugged on Scarlett’s arm, already done with the first floor and ready for her next adventure. Except for the small foyer, there were really only three big rooms on this floor, all with twelve-foot ceilings and a multitude of high, thin windows. The side windows looked directly at the brick wall of the neighbor’s house, which was no more than ten feet away. “I want to see my bed.”

“This way,” Scarlett said, heading to the front staircase. This, too, was wood, all re-polished and re-stained. About seven stairs up, there was a small landing with a beautiful rose stained-glass window inset into the outside wall. They made the turn, climbed the rest of the stairs. At the top of the stairs a small hallway opened into a wide, center sitting room. Here they found their living room furniture and television. Toward the back of the house they discovered the rear staircase—which went down to the kitchen and up to the third floor—and a hall bathroom, a hall closet, and a bedroom, this one filled with the boxes containing their old life. Off the sitting room, toward the front of the house, was Colleen’s bedroom, and Colleen found her bed and furniture already in place. The room had been painted a lovely shade of pale pink, and her heart ached. Brad had listened to her when she’d described Colleen’s room back in San Diego. A warm, fuzzy feeling washed over her. He wanted to make Colleen feel welcome. Everything in the room matched perfectly.

Colleen bounced on her bed once. “Where’s your room?”

“I guess the next one,” Scarlett said, checking out her daughter’s closet. Clothes were already hanging. Her parents clearly had concentrated their efforts unpacking items on this floor, and Scarlett bit back the tear that threatened to fall.

“Let’s go find your bed. Maybe it’s this way!” Colleen opened a door, which led into a large oversized bathroom with a walk-in tiled shower and a huge claw-foot soaker tub. “Wow!”

Brad had clearly worked his magic; everything was new. The bathroom, done in Mediterranean blues and greens, felt like being at the beach. She’d only seen these types of bathrooms on those high-end real estate shows on HGTV. Real people did not have double sinks like that.

Colleen pushed open another door. “Here’s your room! Look, the bathroom is a secret passageway.”

“You’re right.” In their old house, they’d all shared one tiny hall bath. This en suite was bigger than her entire bedroom back in San Diego. The master bedroom here, with its ten-foot-tall windows overlooking Victor Street and its ornate fireplace, was larger than probably half her house. Brad’s house was a little overwhelming, and they hadn’t even been on the third floor yet.

“Can I sleep in your bed tonight?” Colleen pointed to Scarlett’s queen-sized bed, which, like the dining room table, seemed to be lost inside the massive space. “Just this once?”

“Of course, you can.” Scarlett drew Colleen into her arms for a hug. Colleen hadn’t slept well the past two nights, despite having gone swimming in the indoor hotel pool first. She was already a fish, much like her state champion father had been. Scarlett had to find more swimming lessons—stat.

“Good. Winnie and I would like to stay with you. And Winnie says thank you.”

“Oh, she does?”

“Yes.” Colleen tossed the doll onto the bed, which Scarlett’s parents had made up. She’d call them in a few minutes. Let them know she’d arrived. Thank them for getting so many things ready. But what would she do with all this space? She didn’t even have enough dishes to fill up the kitchen cabinets.

Not that the house wasn’t beautiful. Having grown up in a tiny brick bungalow, she’d always fantasized about these beautiful old houses. Once, she and her mother had taken one of those house tours featuring the homes on Lindell, across from Forest Park. While this house was smaller than those, it was far too extravagant for two people. Yet now that she was here, she suddenly didn’t want to leave. Wanted this beautiful dream home to be hers, despite knowing dreams were foolish follies.

“Are we getting our suitcases out of the car? Can we unpack?” Colleen tugged on her arm.

“Yes!” Scarlett said, shaking herself out of her doldrums. She missed the blue sky of San Diego, that was all. “Of course we are.”

She carried the majority of the suitcases in two trips while Colleen carried her small one. They set them in the kitchen, and as they finished, the snowfall began to intensify. She allowed Colleen to stand on the back porch. Her daughter had never seen snow, and Colleen leaned over the railing and reached her hand out. “It’s wet!” She tilted her head to the sky and stuck out her tongue. Laughed as she tried to catch the falling flakes.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Scarlett called. “The weatherman says there will be plenty of snow tomorrow.”

Colleen got excited. “Will I get to build a snowman?”

Scarlett couldn’t help but smile. “Yes. Granny brought one of cousin Eileen’s old snowsuits for you, so tomorrow you can go out and play.”

“Yay!” Colleen shivered. “I like snow.”

“It is pretty,” Scarlett admitted, for there was something innately beautiful about fresh white powder. “But let’s get inside since your jacket isn’t warm enough to stay out here long.”

“Okay. It’s cold. Will it always be this cold?”

“No. St. Louis is only cold during the winter. In the summer it will be really hot.”

“Like back home.”

“Yes,” Scarlett agreed, not correcting that this was their home now. She had to admit, snow and cold weather were two of the reasons she hadn’t wanted to return. She’d delayed the inevitable as long as possible. First, she’d needed to wait until the real estate market had rebounded. She and Todd hadn’t lived on the Navy base, and the house they’d bought and intended to fix up had never quite made it to the fixed stage. She’d managed to finally sell it and not be upside down. The proceeds had been enough to hire a moving truck to bring her possessions home, but that was it. She didn’t have enough for a down payment on her own place.