Six

Blaze

“Is this too early?”

This woman was adorable.

And considering what I knew about where she was at this very moment, adorable wasn’t the only thought I had about her.

It was Monday morning, and Harlow had, at my request, called me the minute she woke up this morning. I knew it was her day off, so I thought I’d take advantage of being able to talk to her first thing when she wouldn’t be pressed to get herself ready for work.

She had been worried yesterday that it might be too early in the morning for her to call me, but I insisted. While it seemed she had no problem following through, it was clear she was concerned.

“It is not too early,” I assured her.

My reason for that had nothing to do with the fact I was already up, dressed, and nearly ready to walk out the door to head to work. I’d have taken her call at four in the morning and been just as happy about it.

Because I liked the idea of Harlow waking up and calling me before she did anything else, before she even got herself out of bed.

It was on that thought when a vision of Harlow being there now popped into my head along with a few questions. I wondered how she liked to sleep. Did she do it naked? Was she wearing just a T-shirt? Or did she wear something sexy?”

I could have asked, and I was sure she would have given me an answer, but I liked the idea of being able to find that out in person one day.

“Are you sure?” she asked. “I know it’s my day off, but my body seems to be on a schedule. It refuses to let me actually sleep in.”

I laughed. “I’m sure, Harlow. I’ve been up for at least an hour already. I’m about five minutes away from leaving my place to head into work.”

“Wow,” she marveled, a slight rasp still noticeable in her early morning voice. “So, the private investigation business gets started early?”

“There are always things to investigate. But I don’t necessarily go in at this time every day. I’ve got some flexibility,” I returned.

As the words came out of my mouth, I thought about how I wouldn’t be five minutes away from being ready to leave to head into work if I’d have spent the night in bed with Harlow beside me.

“That’s nice. So, you can sort of set your own schedule then,” she reasoned.

“Yeah, I guess so. As long as we put in our hours, the boss doesn’t give us shit about whether we’re ready to go at seven in the morning, or if we’re strolling in at ten,” I explained.

Harlow sighed and grumbled, “I wish my boss would lighten up.”

She was talking about herself. My lips twitching, I guessed, “Oh, you’ve got one of those. Is she rigid and critical of everything?”

“More like a tyrant,” she joked. “She doesn’t seem to know how to loosen up.”

I’d been leaning against my kitchen counter, but since I intended to delay myself leaving for work, I pushed off the counter and moved to the living room. As I made my way to the couch, I said, “I don’t think that’s entirely true.”

“Mmm, well, you’ll have to come in some time to meet her. She’s a different woman when she’s at work.”

“I’ll be sure to do that soon,” I promised. “So, since your boss was nice enough to give you the day off today, how do you intend to spend it?”

Without an ounce of hesitation, she said, “I think I’ll be spending it recovering from my last day off.”

Yesterday.

She was still thinking about yesterday.

I didn’t blame her, because I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it, either. Not the way she openly displayed her excitement about the ziplining while we were doing it, or the way she flirted with me as the day progressed. Of course, as much as those thoughts popped into my head, there was one other moment from yesterday that had taken up permanent residence in my thoughts—Harlow agreeing to run through the parking lot in the rain to get to my truck only to stop me from opening her door for her, because she wanted me to kiss her in the rain.

Just recalling it now, I had to reach down and adjust myself. I didn’t understand how it was possible that this woman had lived such a quiet life before now, but I knew I liked it. I liked knowing I was the one who was going to be able to give her all the experiences she hadn’t ever had, because it seemed in doing that, I was going to get a few new ones of my own.

“You need to recover from your last day off?” I asked, wondering what she would say.

“Oh, Blaze, you have no idea. It was the most spectacular day. Everything about it was absolutely perfect. The only problem is that I’ve spent every minute since then feeling terrified,” she revealed.

My body tensed. I hadn’t believed there was a single reason for her to feel afraid of anything. She certainly hadn’t indicated she was upset yesterday.

Was I so caught up in how good I felt about her that I failed to do what would be considered the basics in my line of work and not noticed how she was feeling?

No.

No, that wasn’t possible.

Harlow had a great time. She loved it. There wasn’t a chance I could have made up her reaction to what we had yesterday, especially not what happened in the rain.

“Terrified? What are you afraid of?”

There was a long pause, which only served to make me grow even more concerned. “I’m afraid that I got all the good stuff in one shot,” she eventually shared. “I’m worried that it can’t possibly always be as magical as it was yesterday, and I’ll constantly feel let down. Or, maybe, you’ll feel let down. It won’t really always be that great, will it?”

Now that I knew what was bothering her, I felt my body relax. “I’d love to make you promises, but I’m not a fortune teller. I can’t predict the future, Harlow. But I will tell you this. I love what we had yesterday just as much as you did, and I’d love nothing more than for it to always be that way. I think it can be like that more often than not. These things take work.”

Harlow didn’t respond.

The silence stretched for so long, I thought I might have said something to make her even more upset.

“Harlow?” I called.

“Yeah?”

“Is everything okay?”

“What did you mean when you said these things take work? What things?”

Suddenly, the silence I’d been met with before made sense. Though we’d had what we did yesterday and had kissed one another, there hadn’t been any discussion about where things stood between us. Now that I’d just said what I did, it indicated to her my belief that something was happening between us.

It was best to be honest with her. “I like spending time with you, Harlow. Yesterday was just as special to me as it seems to have been to you. I’d like to continue spending time with you, so we can have more moments like that. I think there can be something even better between us than what we had yesterday, and I’d like to explore it if it’s something you’re interested in as well.”

Her voice was so soft and sweet when she replied, “I’m interested in exploring.”

Nothing could have made me happier than to hear that response. And because I wanted her to know how serious I was about her, I said, “If that’s the case, I think we need to plan our next adventure.”

“Well, I loved what you planned yesterday, so I think I should leave this up to you. What do you think we should do?”

Just like that.

Harlow was content to put her trust in me. She was willing to let me take the lead and was happy to go along with whatever I decided. Trust was important, and it felt good to know she’d gotten there with me already.

I took a moment to consider what might be the best option for another day of fun together. Whatever we did, I knew I was hoping there’d be a lot more kissing involved. And that’s when it came to me.

“I’ve got an idea,” I told her.

“What is it?”

“I’m thinking we should go to the drive-in theater to watch a movie.”

Harlow didn’t immediately respond, likely taking some time to decide how she felt about going to the drive-in. I didn’t mind. I’d be happy to come up with something else.

“That sounds wonderful, Blaze,” she breathed. “Since we did something that had us getting some exercise and being active, it’ll be nice to do something that will give us a chance to slow down. I can’t wait.”

“Saturday night, again?” I asked.

“Try and stop me.”

I let out a laugh. “Perfect. It’s settled then. I’ll check the times, see what our options are, and touch base later.”

“Okay.”

Thinking it was wise to clarify something, I said, “That doesn’t mean I won’t welcome hearing from you throughout your day, if you’ve got anything you want to share.”

“You’ll be working,” she reasoned.

“So, text me. Sometimes, it helps to get distracted for a minute or two, so when I get back to whatever I’m working on, I’ve got a clear head again.”

“You’re the boss,” she returned, something light and carefree in her tone.

I continued to laugh, loving the way this woman made me feel. “Alright, Harlow. I should probably get myself into work now.”

“Okay.”

“Enjoy your day recovering from all that fun we had yesterday,” I urged her.

Her soft laughter came through the line. “I will.”

With her promise in hand, I said goodbye to Harlow and disconnected the call. Even though I needed to get myself up, so I could leave for work, I took a minute to just let all that good I was feeling after that call with her to sink in.

When I finally managed to do that, I stood and moved to leave. But I’d barely taken two steps when my phone rang in my hand. I smiled, believing Harlow was calling me back, because she’d forgotten to tell me something.

Unfortunately, when I glanced down at the display, I was disappointed to see it wasn’t her. Instead, it was the office.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Good morning, Blaze. It’s Avalon.” Though her words indicated something pleasant, the sound of Avalon’s voice told me things were not good.

“Yeah. What’s going on?” I asked, feeling concerned.

“I’m not sure if you’re already on your way here, but if you are?—”

“I was just getting ready to leave my house. What do you need?”

“Right. Well, would you be able to head over to Short and Sweet instead of coming here? Leo is already there and will meet you,” she said.

My brows pulled together. Short and Sweet was the tiny home community that Leo’s woman, Hanna, owned. It essentially acted the same as a hotel did, but instead of traditional rooms in a single building, guests could stay in a tiny home during their stay in Steel Ridge.

“Of course. Did something happen?”

“He’d barely walked through the front door this morning when he got a call from Hanna. Based on what he could gather from Hanna, who was frantic, one of the houses caught on fire,” Avalon explained.

Shit.

That was awful.

“I’ll head over there now. I assume they just want some extra hands, right?”

“Probably, but I can’t say for sure. Before he ran out of here, Leo just asked me to get someone else to head over there,” she answered.

“Got it. I’m on it.”

“Thanks, Blaze.”

“No problem. See you later.”

Avalon and I said goodbye and disconnected. The next thing I knew, I was in my truck and on my way to meet up with Leo and Hanna.

When in pulled up near Hanna’s place of business, I wasn’t surprised to see multiple fire trucks, police cars, and Leo and Hanna amongst a crowd of people.

I got out of my truck and made my way toward them. Leo had his arms wrapped around Hanna, who was devastated. Her face was red and splotchy, a result of the tears she’d been crying.

Leo saw me making my approach and jerked his chin up at me. Once I was standing in front of them, he said, “Hey man. Thanks for coming.”

“It’s not a problem at all. What happened?” I asked.

“One of her houses went up in flames.”

“Was anyone hurt?”

Shaking his head, he replied, “No. Nobody was staying in that house.”

That was strange. “Was it just a single house that caught fire?”

Hanna nodded against Leo’s chest, strands of her hair stuck to her tear-stained cheeks.

Even though she was lucky not to lose all the homes she had, I didn’t think mentioning that would make the situation seem any better. “Do you know how it happened yet?”

“It was intentional, but we don’t know who it was,” Leo shared.

“What? You’re telling me someone purposely set this fire?” I pressed, feeling more than slightly alarmed.

He nodded. “Hanna saw them as they were running away from the property. Two masked men. Somehow, they managed to stay out of view of the camera.”

“Two of them?”

“That’s all I saw,” Hanna rasped.

My eyes shifted to Leo. “You think they could be connected to what happened at the pub?”

“It’s certainly possible,” he said.

I thought on it for a moment. “If that’s the case, it would rule out someone having an issue with the owner of the pub. I hate to say this, but two completely random attacks might mean that another one isn’t far behind.”

“Oh, no,” Hanna worried.

Sending an apologetic look her way, I said, “I’m sorry. That was insensitive.”

Just then, two officers and the fire chief made their way over to us. Shaking his head, the fire chief sent a solemn look in Hanna’s direction and said, “I’m sorry to say it looks like a complete loss there.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks. Leo did the best he could to comfort her, but I could see the wheels spinning in his head. There was no doubt he was frustrated and had a loose hold on his emotions.

For the next few minutes, I alternated between listening to the discussion Hanna and Leo—mostly Leo, since Hanna was far too distraught—had with the officers and the fire chief and watching the way Leo handled it.

Maybe someone else wouldn’t recognize it, but I could easily see the war he was waging inside his head. But no matter how frustrated and angry he was about what happened at Short and Sweet, he managed to balance that emotion with the strength and love Hanna needed.

I found myself thinking about Harlow in those moments, believing I’d be feeling something similar if I had been in Leo’s position and Harlow in Hanna’s.

Once the officers took off, Leo looked at me and said, “Hey, I’m going to be focused on the helping Hanna get through this nightmare for the foreseeable future. I know we’re not officially working on this case just yet, but I can’t sit back and do nothing about it now. Do you think you’d be able to?—”

“I’ve got you covered, man. You do what you need to do to help Hanna rebuild here, and I’ll do what I can to try to find some answers as to who is responsible,” I promised.

“Thanks, Blaze.”

I shook my head. “Don’t mention it.”

After spending another half an hour with Leo and Hanna at the tiny home resort and seeing just how horribly the fire impacted not only the tiny home but Hanna as well, I wound up leaving and got myself back to the office.

And throughout the day, all I could think about was that I hoped I’d never find myself in the same position as Leo. Seeing Harlow the way I had this past weekend, and talking with her this morning, she’d been so carefree, fun, and happy. It would kill me to see her as devastated as Hanna had been.

It was on that thought I realized Harlow was going to be much more than just a passing fling.