Done (Harmony Haven #1)

Chapter 3

Chapter Three

JESSE

“Get away from him!” I yelled, not caring that the towel I had wrapped around me was barely hanging on.

I scooped Max into my arms and held him against me as I backed up toward the bathroom door I had just exited. When I moved into the dilapidated home, I knew it would require some work, but the doors locked, and the neighborhood seemed quiet and safe. I never imagined someone entering while I was in the shower and trying to…

“You’re a firefighter?” I suddenly realized as I saw the gear the man was wearing, along with his helmet. I stopped backing up and stood straighter, tilting my head to get a better look at him.

His eyes were wide, and he stared at me as if I were the one who had entered his home uninvited. But in a flash, they darkened, and his face twisted as he took several breaths.

He kept his eyes on mine as he moved closer to my bed. Somehow, the way he stared made me too stunned to ask him what he was doing or why he was there. But my questions were answered once he leaned down, grabbed my phone from the floor, and put it to his ear.

“This is Lieutenant Brooks. The call is a false alarm,” he said professionally, then flashed the screen to me so I could see he was talking to an emergency number. “All clear.”

Without another word, he tossed my phone onto my bed and took a step backward, raising his hand in a placating manner. “We got a call about a fire,” he explained. “No one answered the door and?—”

Suddenly, I could hear more footsteps on the staircase. Lieutenant Brooks stopped talking, looked toward the open doorway, and yelled toward the noise. “Stand down, dammit. False alarm. Don’t step foot inside this room!”

“We didn’t get a—” Someone said outside my bedroom before being cut off by the man I now knew was Lieutenant Brooks.

“I hadn’t had the chance, but don’t you dare enter this room. Head back to the rig and wait for me.”

Their grumbling got quieter as they heeded the warning. Meanwhile, I stood there with Max in my arms, looking like a deer in headlights. There was no longer a sense of fear or distress, just confusion.

“Ma’am,” he nodded, trying incredibly hard to keep his eyes on mine. He looked almost robotic in my dimly lit room. “I’m sure you’re wondering what happened, why I’m here, and when I’ll leave. And I promise I want to explain all of that to you. But the only thing keeping me from seeing all of you is the kid you’re holding, and I’m not sure I can?—”

My squeal cut him off as it finally dawned on me that I was haphazardly wrapped in a towel and nothing else. My first and only instinct had been to grab my son away from the stranger, and everything after that was forgotten in an instant.

Backing into the bathroom, I shut the door and set Max on the floor, then grabbed my robe from the hook and wrapped it around me. Max just looked up at me with a quiet smile and a look of satisfaction on his face. He was only three and didn’t speak much, but I always seemed to know what he was feeling.

“Did you call a fire truck?”

He nodded and giggled, then clapped his hands together as I scooped him back into my arms. With my body covered and clearly aware that a strange man in fireman’s gear was standing in my room, I opened the door confidently and in control.

“Now,” I started toward the bed to set Max back down where I had left him sleeping before my shower. “What’s going on here?”

“Ma’am,” Lieutenant Brooks smiled and pointed toward Max. “I think he, um…” he scratched the scruff on his face and then wrapped a hand around the back of his neck before continuing. “I think he accidentally swiped right to call emergency services from your locked phone. We got a call from a young boy yelling for a fire truck and assumed he was calling to report a fire. I tried knocking, and when no one answered, we had to enter to ensure there wasn’t an emergency. That was when I walked in and saw him holding the phone. You walked out after that, and you know the rest of the story.”

“Geez,” I moaned, feeling slightly embarrassed.

Max was still looking up in awe at the fireman in our house, but I patted the bed and tried to get him to lay back down. Lieutenant Brooks quietly motioned that he’d be downstairs, and I nodded, hoping Max would go back to sleep so I could think clearly.

It took a few minutes, but he dozed back off, and I made my way downstairs. Lieutenant Brooks turned when he heard my feet on the steps. His eyes ran down my body as he tucked his helmet under his arm and cleared his throat.

“Sorry to make you wait.”

“That’s no problem.”

“Max must have woken up while I was in the shower and tried to play with my phone. I’m incredibly sorry for the false call.”

It wasn’t easy being a single mom, and the luxury of showering and even trying to bring myself pleasure backfired. He may not have known where my thoughts were, but the whole scene made me look incompetent, and the last thing I wanted anyone in my new town to think was that I couldn’t handle being a single mom.

“I’m just glad we found everything safe and sound,” Lieutenant Brooks smiled, making my heart skip a beat with his sincerity.

“He doesn’t speak much, but he loves fire trucks. I’m not surprised that was all he said when someone answered the phone.”

“He and I have a lot in common, then. I love fire trucks, and I don’t speak much either.”

Without meaning to, I blushed and turned away to hide my smile. He didn’t need to know that with one sentence, he made me feel less ashamed of everything that had happened.

“I guess it's safe to leave,” he spoke up behind me.

“Of course,” I spun around and stepped forward, finally feeling brave enough to look into his eyes again.

The light in the living room was brighter than it had been in my bedroom, and I could see how blue Lieutenant Brooks’ eyes were. He had scruff on his face and short brown hair that was disheveled in a sexy way. It was as if he had taken his helmet off, and the short strands got to choose individually which direction they wanted to face.

Sexy .

Shit, other than my inappropriate fantasy about Chris Hemsworth, I had almost forgotten that word existed. It had been so long since I had looked at someone and thought they were anything more than just there . My whole body was buzzing, my brain started to scramble back up , and I knew I needed to get the firefighter out of my house before I burst into flames.

As he turned and strolled to the door, I followed behind, deciding to make sure the lock was turned when he left. There would be no more surprise visitors in my bedroom. If there really was an emergency, it was safe to assume the door would fall right off with very little force anyway.

“Oh,” he turned around right as he crossed the threshold. “My name is Easton.”

He held his hand out, and I looked at it, scared to touch him while I felt so vulnerable. But when I looked back up into his eyes, my hand moved into his without my consent. As Easton squeezed tightly and shook, I whispered, “Jesse Olsen.”

“Nice to meet you, Jesse. Welcome to Harmony Haven.”

Without another word, he dropped my hand and turned around, carefully leaving the porch and jogging toward the fire truck still parked out front. The back door opened, and he jumped in, closing it behind him quickly. The truck started to pull away, and I closed the door, locked it, and then leaned against it as I shook my head in disbelief.

“You’re stupid, Jessica,” I scolded myself. “But you get a pass because it's been a long and lonely three years.” Not to mention, I had left myself hanging in that shower.

But the pass was fleeting, and I stood straight with a new resolve in my heart. My life revolved around Max, and that night had been a perfect example of what could happen when I took five selfish minutes.

Never again.