Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

C olson

Fucking Danny had his arm around Tully. I saw it happen plain as day through the glass portion of the door. I didn’t even know how I made it into the bay, but somehow my feet brought me there just in time for my ears to hear Frank proposition her like the dirty bastard he was.

The whole thing about “my wife” just kind of slipped out.

Old habit, I guessed.

I vaguely noticed Frank and Danny backing off and leaving the bay. The silence left behind was thick as the smoke from a grease fire. Honestly, I couldn’t really look anywhere but at Tully, cataloguing the way time had changed her features. She looked the same as she stared back at me. Same, but also vastly different.

“Colson.” Her lips moved as she said my name, but the sound came from down a long tunnel. Her eyes held a thousand flickering emotions, probably the same reflecting back from me. I knew this woman inside and out once upon a time. Knew her better than myself. Now she was a virtual stranger.

I wanted to get closer. Wanted to take her hand in mine and trace the vein on the back of her hand like I used to do when we watched movies together. I also wanted to yell at her. Scream out every ounce of frustration she left me with when she decided I wasn’t enough. That this life here in Blueball that we’d spent years planning for wasn’t enough for her. I also wanted to turn right back around and march out of here, showing her that she meant nothing to me anymore.

I did none of those things.

Tully suddenly lifted her nose in the air and walked toward me, a sultry siren in a blue pantsuit and heels. She’d filled out a bit over the years, her slim figure leaning more toward an hourglass shape that must have turned heads in the nineteen years since I’d known her. Her hair was still long, but those curls had been flattened, destroyed by some chemical or hot iron because women always wanted the hair they didn’t have. She stopped two feet from me, her hands twisting in front of her waist. Her nails were painted fire-engine red, an irony that bounced around inside my skull when I should have been trying to form a coherent sentence that wouldn’t make me look like an idiot.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, gaze darting down to my mustache and back up.

That was ironic, coming from her. “I live here. What are you doing here?”

Her lashes were so damn long. I’d almost forgotten that about her. How could I have forgotten that? She blinked repeatedly, to the point I wondered if something was in her eyes.

“I, uh, was asked to be the celebrity spokesperson for the fire department’s fundraiser.”

My mouth gaped open. No. There was no way Captain did this to me. “Excuse me?”

She frowned, but not much moved. It was more like a scrunching of her nose instead of eyes and mouth getting into it. That was new. Pretty sure Tully had dipped her face into a Hollywood med spa once or twice too many times.

“I was hired to?—”

I held up my hand, and she snapped her mouth shut. “I heard you. I just couldn’t believe you’d come back to Blueball for something like that.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” she snapped right back.

My eyebrows nearly went into my hairline. She was starting to piss me off. “Because you hate this town and were in such a hurry to leave it? Wouldn’t this little fundraiser be a little below you now, Tully Starling ?”

The emphasis on her Hollywood name had her huffing out her nostrils. “What I do with my career is none of your business!”

I took a step closer to her, my feet finally working again. This? The fighting? This was familiar territory. “You made damn sure of that, didn’t you?”

Tully’s eyes went positively feral. Her finger found its way into my face and she opened her mouth to let me have it, but got cut off by Captain.

“Hey, Ms. Starling, I’m Captain Charlie Larson.” Somehow Captain had entered the bay and moved right beside me without either of us noticing.

It was almost comical to watch Tully transform from a pissed-off female to a sultry siren with an easy smile. It wasn’t even her real smile. This one was all sparkling white teeth and zero eye scrunch. I shook my head as the two shook hands. I stepped back and made myself take a deep breath.

“Lovely to meet you, Captain.”

Captain let go of Tully’s hand and waved toward me. “I see you’ve met Colson Wolfe. He’s the one organizing the fundraiser. You two will be working closely together.”

Tully looked over at me, fake smile still in place. I had to hand it to her. She didn’t falter even the slightest. The woman could fake her way through anything.

“Great,” she said with fake enthusiasm.

I smiled back at her, hoping she saw the crazy in my eyes. “Just great.”

Captain clapped his hands and we both looked at him. “Colson will run you through the dates and times we need you, and if you have any questions Colson can’t answer, please feel free to reach out to me at any time.” He lifted a shoulder and let it drop. “I’m actually a huge fan, so I’m stoked you agreed to help us.”

Tully put her hand on Captain’s arm. I zeroed in on it and wondered if it would be weird to bump into him and knock her hand off. I didn’t like seeing her touch anyone like that. Tully leaned in closer and moved her hand up and down his bicep. I narrowed my eyes, seriously considering starting a fire to break these two up.

“It’s so lovely to hear that!” Tully cooed. “If you have a second, I can come back in your office and sign a few things for you.”

I coughed. Loudly. “We, uh, actually have a meeting to go over important fundraiser items.” I nudged Captain’s arm. Tully’s hand dropped, thank Christ. “Can’t wait, actually. Sorry, maybe some other time.”

Tully narrowed her eyes just slightly, studying me like she knew exactly what my issue was. Sadly, I didn’t even know what my issue was. I just didn’t need to see my ex-wife flirt right in front of me. Was that too much to ask?

Captain shook Tully’s hand again and we both watched her walk out of the bay and over to the snobbiest-looking white Range Rover I’d ever seen. Of course she drove a fancy SUV. She didn’t bother waving as she left the parking lot.

“So, what are those items we need to go over?” Captain asked.

Fuck. I didn’t have one damn thing I needed to discuss with him. But if there was one thing I was good at, it was thinking on my feet. Maybe not where Tully was concerned but she’d always been my kryptonite.

“Listen, I know we assigned which guy would be for each month of the calendar, but I think you need to talk to Frank about dieting. He’s put on some weight recently and that won’t cut it for this photoshoot.”

Frank might have been the most fit out of all of us, actually. If I hadn’t been so spun out about seeing Tully again, I might have burst out laughing, ruining the whole thing. But that fucker needed to be taught a lesson.

Captain frowned, crossing his arms across his chest. “Really? I hadn’t noticed, but I’ll say something to him.”

I smiled. “Thanks, Captain. I just want this shoot to raise a lot of money. Speaking of which, I think we can do it without the celebrity appearance. You must have had to agree to a pretty penny to get that woman and I think the money is better spent elsewhere.”

Captain pursed his lips. “Actually, she agreed to do it dirt cheap. Probably because she’s from here. Did you know she grew up here?”

Danny chose that moment to join our chat, slapping me on the back rather forcefully. “Yeah, Captain. She and Wolfe used to be married.”

Our unflappable Captain nearly choked on his own spit. He turned wide eyes on me. “You and Tully? Really?”

I elbowed Danny away from me. The fucker had loose lips. “Yeah. But that was a long time ago.”

Captain tilted his head left, then right. “I’ll be honest with you. We need this fundraiser to bring in as much money as possible. If you can’t work with Tully, I’ll have to replace you.”

As the new guy, I couldn’t afford to get pulled off this project. I didn’t need my neck on the chopping block if budget cuts hit. “Nah, we’re good. Totally fine.”

Captain studied me for a moment, then nodded before heading back to his office. I turned on Danny and jabbed him in the gut, lightning quick. He doubled over, even though I pulled that punch. He came back up laughing. “Fuck, that was entertaining.”

I scrubbed a hand over my face. My skin felt too damn tight. I tried to tell Dad coming home was a mistake, but would he listen? Fuck me, this was bad. The whole rest of our shift, Danny kept looking over at me and bursting out laughing. Frank, on the other hand, glared at me every chance he got. When he uncharacteristically turned down the brownies one of the other guys made when we were bored and no calls were coming in, I knew why he was out of sorts.

Served him right for flirting with Tully.

Mom called as I was driving home from my shift, tired as crap and not prepared to spar with her.

“You caught me right before I’m about to fall into bed in a sleep coma.”

“Oh goodie. You’re easier to deal with when you’re dead on your feet.”

I rolled my eyes and focused on the winding road out to Sofia’s place. “Thanks, Mom. What can I do for you?”

“Well, I heard you’re spearheading a new fundraising firefighter calendar, and while it’s a little disconcerting to know my son is going to sell his body, I do think you should think about including animals.”

I screwed up my face and turned on the bouncing dirt road that led to the carriage house on the back of Sofia’s property. “What?”

“Animals!” she repeated loudly. “Like Bessy and Cleveland and Thistle. I mean, can’t you just see little Pookey in a calendar with local beer in his saddlebags?”

I groaned and put the truck in park under the huge oak tree that provided shade, juggling the phone against my ear. Hayes let out a bark from inside the house. “You really have to stop letting Georgia name your farm animals.”

I spoiled the hell out of Georgia, being that she was my niece, but naming a miniature donkey Pookey the Beer Burro was ridiculous. Almost as much as Mom naming her two white geese Honk Solo and Ryan Goosling.

“Come on, think about it. What do women love almost as much as hot men?”

Leaning my head back against the headrest, I felt a headache coming on. “You’re asking the divorced guy? Who the hell knows what women want.”

“They want animals, dummy!” Mom’s face was next to the definition of tough love, I was sure of it.

“That’s a terrible idea.” I could just see all of Mom’s hobby farm animals roaming around a photoshoot, terrorizing everyone.

“Fine,” she sniffed. “Then let’s talk about the fact that Tully’s back.”

My chin dropped to my chest. “How do you know about that?”

Mom made a disgusting noise with her mouth. “This is Blueball! Gossip travels fast. Heard you two already got into it.”

“I’m gonna kill Joey.”

Mom chuckled. “Tell him Gabi left her milk jug. I got so excited about the news, I forgot to send her home with some of Bessie’s milk.”

I felt like there was a band around my chest, squeezing tighter and tighter the more I thought about Tully. “I’m glad my torture is entertainment for you.”

“Oh, pish-posh. You know your father said to move home and settle things with Tully. Now’s your chance! It’s like Willy’s up there whispering ideas in God’s ear. He must be responsible for getting Tully fired.”

That had my head popping back up. “Tully fired?”

“Didn’t she say? She got fired from her show! Just like that! Such a shame. Tully is an incredible interior designer, replaced by an absolute airhead. That poor new girl doesn’t know a nail gun from a nail salon.”

My thumb tapped a rhythm on my steering wheel. Tully had conveniently left that out earlier. I still couldn’t make heads or tails of why Tully would come back to this small town when she was in such a hurry to leave. “Hey, Mom. I gotta go. I’m home and I need sleep. I’ll call you when I wake up.”

“See that you do, son. We have things to discuss.”

On that ominous note, we hung up and I headed inside my cottage. I really did need to sleep. I needed my wits about me to figure out what to do about Tully. Because now that I’d seen her again after nineteen years, one thing was for certain.

I was still infatuated with my infuriating ex-wife.

Hayes got all the love for three straight minutes before I poured food in his bowl. I didn’t even bother changing. I just toed off my shoes and socks, slid my pants off, tossed my shirt on the floor, and flopped face-first down on the bed in my underwear and fell into the kind of deep sleep that doesn’t allow for movement.

Except something pulled me from this glorious sleep just a few hours later. Hayes was snuggled up next to me, which made me happy. He’d been so against using the rudimentary ramp I’d built him, but his fourteen-year-old hips weren’t letting him jump onto the bed anymore. My head popped up and my eyes couldn’t focus. It had gotten dark in here while I slept. There it was again. A thud not far from my cottage. I rolled to sitting and tried to clear the cobwebs. We had animals on the property on occasion, but they were mostly of the squirrel and rabbit variety.

Another thud, followed by a splash, echoed through the trees and I was on my feet. I couldn’t see shit out the back window, but a loud whisper had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.

Someone was out there.

I shoved my feet in a pair of flip-flops, told Hayes to hold down the fort, and snuck out the back door in my underwear. Thieves might think little old Sofia lived on this property by herself, making her an easy target, but I was about to teach them a lesson they’d never forget.