Dax Read online

  A request was dispatched for mutual aid from nearby fire departments. It was going to be a long night.

  ~

  THE DAY ROOM filled up quickly with tired, nervous, and anxious family members contributing their time for the firemen’s return. Sitting here each time, Ava saw the true meaning behind the gatherings: support. The firehouse was like one big family. Living in the small community, each person knew their neighbour, but the connection between the families whose members worked full-time or volunteered here was different. Each person held a deeper understanding of fears as they silently prayed.

  Ava always felt blessed when the calls turned out to be false ones, or when the men were lucky enough to extinguish the fire quickly and with little damage. But tonight, she knew they wouldn’t be that lucky. Online videos were already circulating around social media showing the seriousness of the blaze. Even if she’d tried not to watch, she wouldn’t have been able to stay away. The television hanging on the wall in the living area was turned up loud enough she could watch from the doorway to the dining room. Luckily, the fire was out of town so there hopefully wouldn’t be concern about crowd control.

  “Miss A!” Ava turned to the doorway and saw Ross carrying a container with Mrs. Calvert, owner of the local bakery, following on one side, and a former student of Ava’s, Haylee Stow, on the other. Ava recognized Haylee’s parents following behind, each also carrying a container.

  “It looks like a big one.” Mrs. Calvert sent her a consoling smile as she walked by and into the kitchen.

  Sydney McAdams, now Stow, stopped at Ava’s side and turned to her husband Jake. “Can you take mine into the kitchen?” She piled her containers on top of her his and kissed his cheek. He followed the rest of the crew into the kitchen. Jake was the owner of the bike Ross had carelessly disassembled at the shop last week. Ava assumed he hadn’t mentioned it until she caught the deadly look Jake sent him before he pushed his way between Ross and Haylee.

  “Family time?” Ava asked, not remembering a time when Sydney’s husband or daughter had stopped by.

  Sydney laughed. “More like a domino effect. How are you holding up?”

  “Waiting.”

  Sydney sent her a sympathetic smile. “That’s all you can do.”

  Ava nodded towards the kitchen. “Elaborate the domino effect.” She needed something to take her mind off the men and women battling the fire.

  Sydney grinned. “We have been seeing a little more of Ross around lately. While I have complete faith Haylee will make proper decisions, Jake’s a little over protective.”

  Ava didn’t blame him. Men were pigs. Look at the outburst at the house earlier. Dax had been hitting on her within days of sleeping with another woman. Before or after her, she wondered. Did it matter? The man was disgusting.

  “Mrs. Calvert just happened to be at The Cliff House having supper when she heard about the fire.” Ava blinked her attention back to Sydney. “I decided to give Mrs. Calvert a hand and Haylee offered, too, which meant cutting their ‘not date’ short.” Sydney made air quotes with her fingers. “Ross decided to tag along and suddenly Jake was driving us all. Domino effect.”

  Ava felt herself smiling, envisioning Rowdy chasing any of Olivia’s future “dates” away with a crowbar. They had a few years before they had to worry about that, though.

  Ava heard Rowdy’s voice then and looked over at the television. Rowdy appeared on screen to provide an update about the massive fire and Ava sensed a bit of relief. “When we showed up on scene they had heavy fire on multiple floors on the far end of the building as you can see.”

  Ava cringed as the camera left Rowdy to look at the burning building, knowing Dax and every other working volunteer who’d been called in were fighting it.

  “We’ve gone to a fifth alarm on this and probably have about fifteen other communities giving us a hand. A lot of the fire is contained to the original building but we can’t tell for sure. We’ve backed all units away from the building because it looks like one of the walls might collapse around it.” Ava sighed with relief. “So it’s just a matter of using a lot of water and keeping this thing where it is.”

  Sighs and elated voices echoed through the hall. With this size of fire, they’d likely be there until daybreak, but at least no one had been injured.

  She felt a few hands squeeze her arm as they passed by her and she lightly touched them back, hardly noticing who the women were. Sydney pulled her in for a quick hug before moving to another group of people. Some would leave the station now that they’d had an update but others would stay. Ava would stay with them.

  She walked to fetch extra blankets and pillows from the closet. Once inside the small space, she felt herself fall apart. Tears poured down her cheeks and her shoulders heaved tensions released. She gave herself no more than a few minutes to lose her self-restraint before wiping the tears off her face and throwing back her shoulders in an effort to provide a strong front for the others. She left the closet and made it to the hallway before she noticed a shift in the room. It was too quiet and a thick tension strung between those with their hands covering their chests or wrapped around the shoulders of the person next to them.

  “What? What happened?” She dropped the blankets on a couch.

  A few turned to face her with tear-filled eyes, but only Sydney spoke. “There was an explosion.”

  ~

  THE ECHOING SOUND of the explosion reverberated around Dax and an evacuation horn sounded three times. All men and units had already backed away from the fire, but the hail of debris forced the firemen to scatter. Chaos erupted as paramedics and those who were conscious rushed in to help their team. Dax pumped his arms and legs, nothing seemed broken. But he’d definitely need a follow up on his shoulder now.

  Dax helped an injured fireman down to the paramedic center, where they were being treated and transported to the local hospital. He’d heard there’d been over one hundred firefighters on the scene. Some were being transported to hospitals in other towns depending on their injuries.

  Hours stretched by. When the area was once again settled, he overheard a few men shouting about giving a statement to the press. He heard one say Rowdy was not available.

  He stomped up to the lieutenant and pulled off his breathing apparatus. “Where’s my dad? Why isn’t he doing the update?”

  The lieutenant’s face hardened. “Rowdy had a heart attack.”

  ~

  AVA PACED THE kitchen at the station back and forth, back and forth. She stirred the muffin mix she’d been preparing hours ago just to give her hands something to do.

  Everything would be fine. They would be fine.

  She’d searched social media for updates after the explosion. The news wouldn’t confirm any names, but she’d seen the number of ambulance trucks who’d left the scene. Phones had buzzed and people had rushed out of the station to meet their loved ones at local hospitals.

  Ava hadn’t gotten a call. That was a good thing, right?

  Finally, she heard the reporter announce an update from the fire chief. Ava ran into the living room. Only it wasn’t the fire chief on the screen, but Lieutenant Malloy giving the update. He spoke about the unexpected explosion, injured firemen, and having the scene now under control. But where was Rowdy? Why wasn’t he giving the update?

  Her phone buzzed in her clenched hand. She looked down to see Stone’s number flashing on the screen. Stone never called her. That could only mean one thing. She swiped her phone to answer it and slowly placed it against her ear. Words wouldn’t form.

  “Ava?” Her body stilled at Stone’s solemn tone and she knew something was wrong. “Ava, answer me.”

  “What happened?” Her voice cracked as her worst fears came to the surface.

  “Rowdy was rushed to the hospital. He suffered a heart attack.”

  Her knees buckled and she fought to stay upright, her world turning inside out.

  His next words eliminated any remaining hope. “I’m he
re with Dax, and I thought, Ava…you better come…now.”

  “Is he alright?” She knew before she asked the answer would be no, but she needed confirmation, she needed to know.

  Silence awaited her.

  “Stone?” She hadn’t meant to shout, but she felt her control escaping with every shaking tremble of her body.

  “He wasn’t conscious when they put him in the ambulance.”

  The bowl slipped from her fingers, landing on the cement ground and shattering like her heart. Somewhere in the distance, she heard the women around her gasp, and heard Stone calling her name through the phone, but nothing could pull her away from the haunting memories of losing people she loved.

  Fire.

  Hospital.

  Death.

  It was happening all over again.

  Rowdy. Please, Lord, not Rowdy.

  Subconsciously, she watched one of the women slide her phone from her hand and talk to Stone. She numbly noted the strained features of the woman’s face, the horror in her eyes, and the sympathy she sent Ava’s way.

  The sympathy. She remembered that look all too well. She remembered the numerous apologies for her loss at the funeral home from townspeople who weren’t sorry and who undoubtedly snickered behind her back at the pros of ridding useless garbage from their town.

  But the woman before her now did care, understood, and knew the horror of watching her husband drive away in a fire truck. She knew this very event could occur, knew the fire could take him away—here one second, gone the next.

  Ava felt an arm slip around her back, someone tucked her hair behind her ears and she heard a whisper of soothing encouragement even if she couldn’t decipher the words. Her numb legs moved beneath her as she was ushered into the passenger’s side of a vehicle.

  Whose vehicle? She couldn’t say. She’d thought she was stronger than this now. She’d thought the past years of overcoming her grief had assisted her in dealing with loss better, but here she was, being ushered around by….

  She looked up, seeing Sydney in the driver’s seat watching her. “Buckle up, Ava.” When Ava didn’t move, the blonde-haired woman smiled at her and squeezed her leg. “We don’t know anything. Think positive until we get more details.”

  Such a request would be easier said than done if she hadn’t already lived through the aftermath of a fire ripping through her home and claiming the lives of everyone she’d ever loved.

  Her hands shook uncontrollably on her lap as she watched houses pass by in a blur. Minutes felt like hours before the car stopped at the emergency room doors of the hospital.

  Ava had considered she might not be able to get out of the car, whether from fear or that her body had, in fact, simply stopped working. However, the moment the car halted, her hands fumbled with the door, wildly shoving it open. Her feet moved like those of a marathon runner straight through the automatic doors.

  She blinked away her gathering tears, ignored the receptionist sitting behind the desk and the coverall-suited men crowding the waiting room. She was looking for only one person. She spotted Dax standing at the end of the hall and, for whatever reason, the sight of that egotistical, selfish man eased her nerves. Her mind stopped racing, her heartbeat slowed, and she felt air fill her lungs, reminding her she was still alive. Maybe Sydney was right. Rowdy would be okay. She needed that hope.

  The straps of his soot-covered overalls hung down the sides of his legs and he still wore his big work boots. Dirt smeared across his shirt and face, and his hair practically stood on end, most likely from running his distressed fingers through it.

  How long had he been here? What was the latest news? Why hadn’t he called her?

  Her steps were quick, but not quick enough. The next events played before her in slow motion even as her legs tore down the hallway. She watched a doctor walk through a set of swinging doors and stop to talk to Dax. She saw Dax’s hard face slowly dissolve into devastation as he listened. His mouth fell open, but no words came out, his chest stopped moving, as if he’d stopped breathing. The color drained from his face.

  And she knew.

  There’d be no hope today.

  Nothing.

  Rowdy was dead.

  “No!” The unrecognizable anguished sound tore from her chest as her feet stopped working, causing her to stumble. What remained of her heart shredded into thousands of pieces and she was falling.

  She didn’t know if he’d walked to her or she’d stumbled to him, but Dax’s body was there, sinking to the ground with her, arms wrapping around her, their sobs tangling together. For a brief moment, she let the feeling of his embrace allow her not to feel as alone as she knew her world would be from now on.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ~

  AVA PARKED HER CAR IN the driveway, cutting the engine and halting the warm breeze of the heater. She looked up at Rowdy’s Victorian house which he’d converted into a duplex after his wife’s death.

  The steeply pitched, historical house stood towering before her. Often, Ava had sat in this exact spot thinking what a shame it was that Rowdy had divided the interior from its original state. You’d never know about the separation from the outside. The green textured shingles gave the outer walls a smooth appearance, and the salmon-colored paneling wrapped around the full-width porch.

  Wanda had done a marvellous job of maintaining the gardens on both sides of the property, blending them together with matching colourful flower baskets hanging along the entire width of the railing. Rowdy had maintained the rest of the exterior, keeping up the stone driveway, the painting and care of the porch.

  Had maintained.

  Who would do it now?

  Likely Dax. After he gained possession of the house, he’d no doubt put it on the market for a quick sale. They were one appointment away from reading Rowdy’s will and the eviction notices for Wanda, her and Olivia, but first they had to survive the funeral.

  Tomorrow.

  The day had come around so quickly. Ava was still unable to wrap her head around his death. The one person Ava and her daughter had left in this world and they would be burying him tomorrow. He’d be gone forever.

  What would they do? Where would they go?

  She had money saved to put a down payment on a small place. Maybe she could even work out a deal with Dax to buy Rowdy’s house. The price would be way out of her price range, but quite possibly Dax would be willing to sign a rent-to-own contract with her. She knew he wouldn’t be interested in keeping his childhood home when he’d rather be living in his condo overlooking the beach and lake. In all the years she’d known him, his attachment to sentimental things seemed non-existent. She doubted this house would be any different.

  Her throat tightened. Tears she’d been holding back all morning threatened to fall as a wild stream of emotion washed through her. What she would give to have the house she’d grown up in still standing. Although, even it at the time of its wholeness, it had been in dire need of repair. Now, the property sat empty with only a crumbling barn to remind anyone of what once was. If her past didn’t threaten her future, she would consider moving back to build a house on the abandoned property.

  Tears of guilt slipped down her cheeks and she quickly swiped them away.

  Why was she thinking about her future when the man who’d been a second father to her—a better father—was now dead?

  The answer was easy enough, if she didn’t distract herself from the reality that Rowdy wasn’t waiting for her beyond that front door, and wouldn’t be home for supper, she’d never be able to hold in the tears. She wasn’t ready to let him go, but what choice did she have?

  Ava pushed open the car door and walked up the stone path, stopping at the bottom of the porch stairs and moving her hand above her head to block the sun peeking through the tree tops.

  Wanda stood at the top of the stairs and Ava blinked until she made out the woman’s sympathetic smile and warm, welcoming eyes. Her presence almost felt like home. For a split second, she
felt like everything would be alright. In that brief moment, Ava felt the warm embrace of the security she’d felt just three days ago. She wished to see Wanda bustling around with her metal watering can, grunting harmless complaints about Rowdy bumping a pot off the porch or stepping through the flower beds instead of seeing her tear-filled eyes now.

  Never again.

  How long had Wanda been standing there? How long had Ava been sitting in her car?

  “Did you drop off Rowdy’s suit?” Wanda’s voice cracked, reminding Ava she wasn’t the only one missing the old man.

  Ava nodded, forcing a smile that wouldn’t fool anyone. “I tried calling Dax, again, and sent some texts, but he’s not responding.”

  Dax had agreed to drop Rowdy’s suit off at the funeral home, and Ava had put the chore out of her mind until the funeral director had phoned to confirm the drop off. Dax had missed the appointment.

  “I just got off the phone with Stone. Dax is at Bucky’s Bar....”

  Ava rolled her eyes. While she was running around doing his work, he’d chosen to get drunk and, no doubt, hook up with single tourists. Or maybe they were married. Did it even matter to him?

  “Some things never change,” she muttered, hearing the disgust in her voice. She hadn’t missed Wanda’s tone, either, ignoring the way she left her sentence dangling to be continued. Quite frankly, Ava didn’t have the space in her head to listen and absorb anymore. She walked up the stairs, wondering how Dax could even think about anything but Rowdy right now.

  Wanda stepped in front of Ava’s door, her floor-length paisley dress swooshing at her feet, her intention of blocking Ava unmistakable. “Stone says he’s drunk.”