All Fired Up (Green Valley Heroes #7)

Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

MADELINE

“ H i, honey,” Mom calls out as I drop my bag at the front door. “Did you finish studying early?”

“Yeah.”

“Come join me in here.” The sound of the TV shuts off a moment later.

I let out a sigh, not wanting to keep her company at the moment. I still can’t get Hunter’s face out of my mind as he left, pleading with me not to say anything.

“I’m pretty tired,” I tell her, peeking my head in the living room.

She waves me off. “Oh, you’re always tired. You don’t have two minutes for your mother?”

Here we go. I trudge over and sprawl on the opposite side of the couch, resting my temple in my palm. What am I going to do about Hunter? And not just about tonight, but this morning, too.

“You didn’t come home last night,” she comments, turning to face me.

I stare back at her, unsure what to say. Is she trying to play responsible parent?

“Not that you’re not allowed to,” she says on a breezy note when I stay silent. “Think of me more as a concerned roommate.”

Roommate, huh? Roommates pay at least their share of the bills.

“Sorry if I worried you,” I mumble, leaving it at that.

“Were you with Hunter?”

Is it that obvious? Then again, he’s the only person I’ve brought around lately.

“We were watching something at his house and fell asleep on the couch.”

She smiles, but it doesn’t look like she believes me. Even if it’s not the whole truth, she doesn’t know that.

“What?” I ask her, the word coming out way more aggressively than I intended.

Her brows raise. “All I asked is if you were with Hunter. You don’t have to get so defensive.”

“You’re just...always in my business.” I look away, not wanting to see the hurt on her face that’s sure to be there. I honestly don’t think she tries to manipulate me with emotions, but the effect is all the same.

“I care about you, honey.”

“If you cared, then you’d get a full-time job and take over the bills here instead of making me do it.”

The silence in the room after my outburst is deafening, and when I finally can’t take it anymore, I look at her, the shock there front and center. Behind it is distress, along with a good dose of bewilderment.

“I-I’m sorry,” I stutter. “I don’t know where that came from.” It’s like all of a sudden I went from zero to sixty. Maybe I’m on edge from everything that’s happened today.

It takes her a moment to recover her voice. “Well, it must have come from somewhere. Sounds like you’ve had that bottled up for a while.”

“Maybe,” I admit. Wasn’t I just complaining to Hunter about this not that long ago?

“Well, um...” She looks down at her hands in her lap. “Let’s talk about it, then. I didn’t realize it was an issue.”

I can’t help the sound of disbelief that escapes me. “You didn’t realize me moving back home and paying the bills for the last three years was an issue?”

“I...” She falters. “I thought we had a good thing going. I make up the difference by taking care of the house and meals. It always worked for me and your father.”

“I’m not Dad,” I say bluntly. “Or your partner or your roommate. I’m your child.”

She blinks a few times and rubs at her eye. “I know that. Believe me, I know that.”

As harsh as I’m being, maybe it’s necessary. I’ve let this go on way too long, afraid to confront her about it. But haven’t I proved lately that I can stand up for myself? I did it with Hunter, and look how that’s turned out.

Okay, maybe not the most comparable situation.

“I moved back here to help you out,” I say in a softer tone, “so they wouldn’t foreclose the house. But I can’t stay here forever.”

She nods. “I’ve been following that payment plan you set up for me to pay off my debt. I just need a little more time.”

“And then you’ll take over the mortgage?”

“Well, I don’t know if I make enough for that. And I can’t find a new job. Those kids need me at the school.”

I resist the urge to ball my hands into fists, consciously relaxing my fingers. “I get that your work is rewarding.” She works part-time as a teacher’s aide at the elementary school. “But if it can’t support you, you’ll have to look for something else.”

She makes a scoffing noise. “Honey, you can’t tell me what job I can and can’t have.”

“Fine. Then I guess you’ll have to move if you can’t afford this house. Downsize. Call Aunt Lucy and see if you can live with her.”

She blinks at me, as if I suggested she should go walking naked down Main Street. “I won’t impose on her like that.”

But she can impose on me? “So, what are you going to do?”

She smooths her hands over her lap. “Where’s all this coming from, anyway? Why do you want to leave me?”

“Please don’t try to guilt me.” I say it as kindly as I can, but also firmly. “I’m not saying I’m moving out tomorrow, but I’m twenty-five. I want a space of my own.” I think again about Hunter’s home and how he’s made it his own. I want something like that for me, too.

“You mean you want space from me.”

Yes. But I’ve already pissed her off enough for one day.

“Think about what I’ve said.” I get up from the couch. “We can talk about it more later.”

I head to my room, shutting the door softly behind me. I should be halfway through an anxiety attack after that kind of confrontation, but instead, there’s this lightness in my chest. Like I feel...free. I didn’t realize how much all of that was weighing on me. How stuck I’ve felt here hiding in this house, letting life pass me by.

I used to have somewhat of a social life back in college. But when I returned to Green Valley, Mom needed so much of me. My money. My time. My emotional support. It’s like she saved it up over the four years I was gone for college, only to spring it all on me at once when I came back. Things have leveled off now, but I never got around to connecting with others again.

Not until Hunter.

My chest aches again thinking about how embarrassed he was at the library. How ashamed he seemed of his family’s issues. Does he think I’d judge him for his dad’s mistakes?

And why wouldn’t he? Didn’t I throw that in his face the first day of the training program?

He still obviously hasn’t told them about the firefighting thing. It’s been almost two months now. I wasn’t going to be the one to let the cat out of the bag, though. Why is he so intent on hiding it from them? He’d said they wouldn’t like it, but why?

I have no illusions either that his brother was actually interested in me. More like he was trying to rile up Hunter. Guess those two are alike in that sense. And he did rile him. The way he’d said I was too good for him, all dark and serious. Did he mean that? Or was it a way to get his brother out of there?

And if he did mean it...was it intended only for his brother or him, too?

The butterflies occupying my stomach take another short flight, the same way they have whenever I think about Hunter and what we’d done this morning. It was totally out of character for me. I’ve never done anything like that in my life.

And while part of it had felt so right, it had also seemed to be happening so fast. Hunter and I aren’t even dating. Paul and I hadn’t done anything sexual until four months after we started dating, and we’d been friends for a year before that, too.

Yeah, and look how that turned out. The guy couldn’t even make me come. Meanwhile, Hunter has definitely made me come. Twice now. Would it have been even better if I’d asked him to use his tongue? The crazy thing is, he actually seemed like he wanted to do it. Like the thought excited him. It had excited me, too, but I’d been too chicken to take the chance, as usual.

The same way I’d left him this morning, refusing to sleep in his bed any longer or go out to breakfast with him. Once the lust had worn off, it was all too real. I was out of my element.

Hadn’t he said the other week there is no element, though? That I can always talk to him?

Easy for him to say. He doesn’t over obsess about everything.

I pull my phone out of my pocket, looking at it. I should reach out to him. See how he’s doing after his family drama. Plus, I owe him a conversation about this morning. I hadn’t given him a chance to talk about it at the library earlier. I’d started in right away going over our chapters for the week.

Me : Sorry about Nate earlier. Is there anything I can do to help?

Instead of a text back, my phone rings.

“Hello?”

“Hey. I hate texting. Plus, I’m driving.”

“Oh, okay.” Now that I think about it, he always gives one-word responses to my texts. I thought he was just disinterested before. Now I realize it’s the dyslexia thing. “Are you free to talk? You’re not with your brother, anymore?”

“I left him at the library after he ambushed me. He called our mom and forced me to talk to her, too.”

I hadn’t seen either of them in the parking lot by the time I left there, but I’d taken my time packing up. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not particularly.”

My shoulders drop, my ribs feeling tight. I guess it was stupid to think he’d want to confide in me.

“But I owe you an explanation after getting you involved,” he continues. “And even if I don’t want to talk about it, I will. With you.”

There’s that fluttering in my stomach again.

“Do you want me to come over?”

I shouldn’t be inviting myself over to his house late at night. Past experience has proven I’m not to be trusted alone with him there.

He sighs heavily over the line. “I don’t know if Nate went looking for me there.”

And I don’t really want to be here after that talk with my mom. “How about we go out for ice cream?”

There’s silence, long enough that I’m afraid the call may have disconnected, then he asks in a half laugh, “You want to go out for ice cream?”

I laugh, too, realizing how dumb it sounds. “I don’t know. Ice cream always cheers me up.”

“Yeah, okay. You want to meet at Utterly Ice Cream in fifteen?”

When we hang up, I turn to my closet to look for something to wear, then dismiss the idea. This isn’t a date. And what I wore to the library is perfectly fine.

When I pull up to the ice cream parlor on Main and Walnut, Hunter’s Mustang is already parked out front. Inside, the teen behind the counter is scooping triple fudge brownie into a waffle cone. Oh, I love that flavor.

When I join Hunter at the counter, it catches me off guard when the worker hands the double-scooped cone to me.

“You got me this?” I ask Hunter.

He shrugs, as if it’s not a big deal. “Yeah.”

“How’d you know I like this?”

He gives me a look like I’m ridiculous. “Come on. I know you.”

He’s right. He does know me. I don’t know why, but the simple exchange has me a bit blindsided.

He gets a peanut butter cup cone for himself, then leads me over to the tables in the corner, far enough away from the counter for some privacy.

“What else do you know about me?” I ask him.

He gives me a sidelong glance. “That you’re probably overthinking this morning.”

Damn.

“And that you want to know why my dad’s in jail.”

Also true.

Maybe best to tackle the second thing first.

“Did Nate tell you anything?”

He takes a few seconds to answer as he concentrates on his ice cream. “He wouldn’t confirm anything. But it’s a ten thousand dollar bail, so I’m assuming it’s drug-related.”

My eyes bug out. How can he say that so casually? “Ten thousand?” is all I’m able to manage.

“Yeah, but Nate only needs to put up a thousand. A bail bondsman will cover the rest.”

“And did you give it to him?”

“No.”

I take a couple of licks of my ice cream, debating what to say, but he beats me to the punch.

“You were right, you know.”

I look over at him, unsure what he’s talking about.

“About my family and the Iron Wraiths. My dad and brother deal for them. Guess Dad’s luck ran out.”

“Hunter—”

“They’re both real pieces of shit,” he continues, as if he didn’t hear me. “My dad more so than my brother. Always let me know how much of an idiot I was growing up, when he felt like paying attention. How stupid I was.”

I’m quiet, not wanting to hear this, but also desperate to. He never talks about his family.

“I just keep thinking...why didn’t anyone ever figure out the dyslexia thing? If not my parents, then a teacher or something? It might have changed...everything.”

“You’ll kill yourself with the what-ifs,” I whisper.

He nods. “Now he’s been pushing me to join the Iron Wraiths the last few years, as if I’d want anything to do with them. Nate’s followed him like a good boy, but none of them can understand why I wouldn’t want to, too.”

“Well, you have a good argument for why you won’t now.”

He rolls his eyes as he looks away. “I warned them. Mom, especially. She refused to even acknowledge they were dealing to begin with. I can’t wait to hear what kind of excuse she makes up for him.”

“I’m sorry you have to deal with all that.”

He shakes his head. “Honestly, it’d be so much easier if he wasn’t around. Maybe him being put away is a good thing. Then she’d realize what a drain he is on her.”

“Have you talked to her about this before?”

“She won’t listen. And I can’t be sure, but I think he used to hit her if she talked back. So she doesn’t talk back, anymore.”

My heart aches for him, for the way he seems helpless to protect his mom.

“That must have been difficult to grow up in that kind of dynamic.”

He scrubs a hand down his face, staring at his ice cream cone. “Shit. I didn’t mean to start complaining about all this.”

“No, I like when you talk to me.”

One side of his mouth quirks up in a smile. “You really would make a good psychologist, huh?”

I laugh lightly. “Just call me Dr. Woodward.”

He grins and works on his ice cream for a few moments. “Thanks for not saying anything to Nate. About the firefighting stuff, I mean.”

“Yeah, of course.”

“You’re lucky you don’t have siblings. They’re a pain in the ass.”

“I don’t know. I always wanted a brother or sister. Being an only child can be lonely.”

“Well, you wouldn’t want Nate.”

“Okay, maybe not him,” I agree. “He seems pretty chaotic.”

He huffs out a breath. “I’ve brought nothing but chaos to your life, haven’t I?”

The way he says it, as if he’s really down about it...“Well, a little chaos isn’t too bad. It makes life more interesting.”

“You don’t have to try and make me feel better.”

I nudge his arm. “No, seriously. Without you...honestly, I don’t know where I’d be. I can lift weights now. And run without collapsing. I wouldn’t have made it this far without you. And even besides all the training stuff...” I swallow, remembering that stuff I was thinking about at home, about connecting with others. “I’m so glad I’ve gotten to know you. I didn’t realize I’d kind of shut myself off from others for a while.”

He rubs at the back of his neck, and I swear his cheeks are flushed the slightest shade of pink. “Shit, Madeline. You trying to make me blush?”

I grin, unable to help myself.

There’s a tinkling above the door as another customer walks in and Hunter stiffens beside me. Is it Nate? His mom?

No, it’s . . . Lydia.