Old Flames

Old Flames: Chapter 18

Old Flames: chapter 18

“Again!” Aaron barked at his crew.  They voiced no verbal arguments -- yet -- but he could see on their faces that he was pushing them too hard.  Halloween was two days away, and Teresa, his new EMT, needed to know how they did things here.  The practice drills had already lasted over an hour, and if he didn’t let up soon, he might have a mutiny on his hands.

But if he stopped, he’d start thinking about Lainie.

Earnest and Weasel removed their cover jackets and boots and lined them up with the others along the wall.  James, his paramedic, crawled out of the back of the ambulance, and Teresa emerged from the cab, slamming the door behind her.  Aaron winced slightly.  He didn’t need the attitude, that was for sure.  She glared at him and stomped up to plant her curvaceous figure within inches of his own stressed and annoyed self.

“I think I’ve got it,” she hissed, her pretty, perfectly made-up eyes flashing.

He leaned over and got right in her face.  “And I think we need to do it again.”

“We need a break,” she countered, giving him an evil smile.

“This is a fire station, Teresa.  There are no breaks.  We don’t get that luxury.”  He really shouldn’t have to tell her that.  She’d been working in the emergency field for several years now.  “And if you want to continue working here, then I suggest you take your fanny back to your post and prepare for another drill.”

He spoke low enough that none of his other co-workers could hear him, but their eyes watched his and Teresa’s heated exchange with acute interest.  None of the guys knew about her sexual preference -- at least, he didn’t think so -- therefore, Aaron blinked as he realized how the confrontation must look to them.  With the two of them standing so close, Teresa smiling at him like that, him crowding her to a near embrace...

Yeah, not good.

Especially when Sean cleared his throat and called out, “Hey, Captain, you’ve got a visitor.”

Aaron whipped around, a scowl clearly darkening his face, and saw Lainie holding onto Chloe with one hand and a big crockpot with the other.  Chris held onto his mama’s shirt with wide eyes as he saw the firemen still mostly decked out in their protective gear.  His curious gaze landed on the coil of hoses in the middle of the large garage.  Aaron could tell how much the little boy wanted to inspect all the paraphernalia around him, but he couldn’t get past the hollow expression on Lainie’s face.

Lainie’s gaze flicked between Aaron and Teresa, and Aaron almost groaned.  His EMT was beautiful and sexy, and the guys had a hard time keeping their eyes off her body, so as Lainie noticed how close he stood to Teresa, her chin lifted up slightly, and she said, “I don’t mean to intrude.  I’m just dropping off that chili I promised.”

“Chili?” Brody asked, perking up immensely.  The fireman closed his eyes and sniffed the air.  “Oh, yeah...that’s what I’m talking about.”

Lainie gave him a small smile.  “I’ll just put it in the kitchen so you can get back to...”  She looked at Teresa again.  “...to whatever it is you’re doing.”  And then she turned and herded the kids through a nearby doorway.  Brody trailed after her, following his nose and his stomach.

Aaron’s shoulder’s slumped.  He pinched the bridge of his nose.  The rest of the guys made inarticulate sounds and hastily departed.  Teresa shifted behind him.  “So, that’s Lainie,” she murmured.  “I can see why you’re infatuated with her.”  He heard a soft sigh.  “Very nice.  Cute kids, too.”

Aaron shot her an annoyed glare over his shoulder.  “Fine.  We take a break.”

Teresa smiled.  “Good, because I think I’m hungry all of a sudden.”  Then he watched as Teresa slowly sauntered in the direction of the kitchen.  Frankly, Aaron couldn’t blame her.  Lainie still wore those tight jeans, the legs rolled up to her shins, and that pink sweater that hugged her waist and chest with precision.  She looked great.

The kiss that they shared that afternoon reentered his thoughts with a vengeance.  He’d been doing his damnest to forget about it all day.  But there it was...always lurking in the corners of his mind...the press of her lips, the warmth of her body, the passion in her taste...

He lost himself in the memory for a moment, and the sound of two feminine laughs -- one throaty and seductive, the other Lainie’s -- jolted him back to the present.  Groaning because he couldn’t believe that Teresa was in there flirting with Lainie, he rushed toward the kitchen to salvage the situation.  Brody sat at the long table, shoveling spoonfuls of steaming chili into his mouth like he’d not eaten in weeks.  The kids munched on left-over chocolate cookies, and Lainie and Teresa leaned against the counter, smiling and laughing and talking like old friends, but Aaron thought that Teresa stood just a little too close to the woman he loved for his comfort.

Teresa was the first to spot him in the doorway, and she grinned specifically at him.  “Hey there, Captain.  Lainie was just telling me that her kids go to Flock of God Preschool over on Mississippi Street.  Ms. Linda, one of the teachers, is my sister-in-law.”

Lainie glanced once at Aaron, and then looked away.  But Aaron saw the wounded flare in her eyes before she bent to gather up Chris and Chloe.  “Kids, we need to get home.  Mr. Aaron has a lot of...things...to do.”

“But you said we could see the fire dragons,” Chris said softly, evidently not wanting to seem whiny.  Chloe had no problem voicing her opinions.

“Yeah, Mama, you promised.”

Lainie replied, “I only said that if he had time, then we could stay for a while, but he’s obviously...busy.”  Still, she did not look at him.  Aaron walked over to the kids and sat down in a chair across the table from them.  He ignored Teresa’s knowing smirk, and ignoring Brody wasn’t difficult at all.  The man only had eyes, ears, and mouth for the food in front of him.

“Actually,” Aaron said, smiling gently at Chris and Chloe, “we were about to do a practice run in the ambulance...sirens and all.  Would you like to ride in the back with me?”

Immediately, Teresa frowned and opened her mouth to protest, but Lainie beat her to it.  “Is that legal?”

“No,” he admitted.

“What’s legal mean?” Chloe asked, and Chris answered her with an important tone, “It means it’s a rule.”

Chloe turned her big, beautiful eyes to Aaron.  “Oh, Mr. Aaron, that’s not a smart choice.  We’re not suppose to break rules.  You can go to time-out that way.”  She pursed her lips in thought.  “How old are you, Mr. Aaron?”

Aaron blinked at her.  He glanced at Lainie for a little help, but she averted her gaze.  A tiny smile tugged on the corners of her lips.  Something was obviously very funny here, and he didn’t know what it was.  “Thirty-one,” he answered slowly.  Chloe’s and Chris’ eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets.

“That’s a long time,” the little girl whispered, appalled.

Aaron sat straight up.  “Well, it’s not that old.”

“Oh, yes,” Chloe argued, nodded vigorously.  “Time-out is one minute for how old you are.  Thirty-one is a long time to sit in a chair, Mr. Aaron.  Your bottom will get sore.”

Finally understanding, he threw back his head and laughed.  Oh, heavens!  To laugh like that everyday!  Chloe truly was a precious child, and Lainie was so very blessed to have her in her life.

Chris said, “It’s not funny, Mr. Aaron.  Time-out is boring.  You can’t do anything!  You just have to sit there and ‘think about what you’ve done wrong’.  Sometimes, it’s better just to get a whoopin’.”

“Chris!” Lainie gasped.  

Her son looked innocently up at his mama.  “Well, it is.  Whoopin’s don’t last four minutes.”  Aaron wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes and considered Chris’ honest, brave logic.  Another precious child.  Lainie couldn’t speak as she stared at her son.  Chris looked back at Aaron and bent forward to whisper.  “Mama only spanks us when we do something really, really bad, and I think they hurt Mama’s hand because she always cries afterward.”

Lainie covered her face in her hands and groaned, “Oh, God.”

Behind them, Teresa chuckled, and next to them, Brody finally started listening.  The man was gaping with his spoon halfway to his mouth, chili dripping onto the table.  Aaron smiled at both Chloe and Chris.  “Well, if I get in trouble for letting you ride in the ambulance, then I think I’d rather take a whoopin’ from your mama instead of time-out, too.”  

Brody’s spoon clattered into his bowl.  “That’s it...my appetite’s gone.”  He jerked to his feet and almost ran out of the room.  

“So, what do you say, Lainie?  Can the kids ride in the back with me?”

Lainie peeked out from her fingers.  She saw the eager looks on her children’s faces and sighed.  “Sure, but only if I come, too.”

Teresa grinned invitingly.  “You can ride up front with me, Lainie.”  Aaron seriously considered firing her right then and there.

The kids scrambled off their chairs and rushed out to the garage.  Lainie trailed after them, giving him and Teresa once backward, solemn glance as she rounded the corner out of sight.  Aaron stood up and faced his female employee.

“What the hell was that?”

“What?” she asked angelically.

“You offered to make her jealous.  Not me.”

She shrugged and swayed her hips emphatically as she moved toward the door.  “What can I say?  I’m lonely...she’s lonely...maybe she’s not your type after all.”

“Maybe you need to back off,” he growled, following her.  Teresa only laughed and climbed into the driver’s side of the ambulance.  Lainie and the kids stood nearby, waiting for directions.  Aaron opened up the back.

“In you go,” he told the kids with a smile.  Lainie fidgeted as she directed her kids onto bench seats along one side.  Then she turned to him.  

“Um...how fast will we be going?”

“It’s just a dry run,” he assured her.  “We’ll be doing the speed limit.”

Lainie nodded, hesitated a moment, and then got into the passenger side of the cab next to Teresa.  The other woman winked at Lainie, and Aaron closed his eyes to get a handle on his turbulent emotions.  He jumped up into the back with the kids and closed the doors.  Keying up his radio, he called the dispatch.

“Dispatch, Station 34 here, come in.”

“34, go ahead.”

“Emergency drill #16-4 commencing.  Time: 1908 hours.”

“Drill #16-4, 1908; logged.  You may proceed.”

Chris and Chloe listened with keen attention as he ran through the procedures and logged the emergency run on a clipboard behind the driver’s seat.  He smiled at them.  “Ready?”

“Ready!” they screamed in unison.  

“Okay, hang on,” he told them.  He gave Teresa the go-ahead.  Lainie glanced back, worry creasing her forehead.  He offered a calming smile.  “They’ll be fine.”

Teresa started the engine and hit the sirens and lights.  Instantly, Chloe’s face became frightened and she clapped her hands over her ears.  Chris did the same.  Lainie smirked at Aaron.

“You asked for it,” she mouthed.

*****

Lainie closed her eyes, trying to shut out the little pants of panic from the back of the ambulance.  As soon as the sirens started up, she almost wished she’d stopped them from riding along before the vehicle pulled out of the station...but a tiny part of her was glad.  The vindictive part.  She hated using her children to get back at Aaron for making her feel this way, but she also knew that he needed to see what he was doing to her and the twins.

The woman beside her drove smoothly, concentrating on the traffic and her duty, and Lainie took a moment to study her.  She was...stunning.  And Lainie felt like an old, run-down mother next to her.  Lainie saw the hot, intense way Aaron looked at Teresa when she and the kids arrived at the station.  She saw how all the other men perceived Teresa, too.

No wonder he’d been working a lot lately.

Oh, stop that, she scoffed herself, but the thought wouldn’t let go.  Earlier that day, she threw herself at him, and he turned her down.  At the time, she’d been grateful, but now...seeing who he went to work to be around...she began to wonder if there was another reason for his hesitation in her kitchen that afternoon.

He claimed that he wanted them to be together, maybe even a family, but what if it was only frustration talking?  

She glanced at Teresa again.  As beautiful and sexy as she was, Lainie couldn’t help thinking there was something off about the woman.  She was very touchy-feely, lightly placing her hands and fingers only Lainie back in the station as she introduced herself.  And standing too close for normal social conversation.  Mentally shrugging, Lainie just assumed it was her personality.  Guys evidently went for the overly friendly character, so she probably acted that way so much it was habitual by now.  

As the ambulance pulled into the drive way of a nearby hospital, Lainie sighed with relief.  Teresa clicked off the sirens and turned to beam at Aaron.

“How’d I do, Captain?”

Aaron grunted as he wrote on a clipboard.  The kids slowly lowered their hands from their ears, still wary of the absence of the squealing noise.

Teresa glared at her boss and looked over at Lainie.  “‘Great, Teresa’,” she mocked in a deep voice.  “‘You did an excellent job.  You’re the best EMT and driver I ever had’.”  Lainie couldn’t help it; she giggled.  Aaron only gave her another grunting reply.

The female driver shifted in her seat to study the kids.  “You two alright?  Was it too loud?”

Chris and Chloe only stared at her, most likely afraid she would turn the sirens on again.  Aaron hung the clipboard on a hook behind Teresa and talked into his radio, letting the dispatch know they were done with the drill.

“He always like this?” Teresa asked Lainie in a stage whisper.

Lainie shrugged because she really didn’t have an answer for that.  He was acting very different that he normally did, but she couldn’t decide if it was because he was working or if there was something else bothering him.  Right now, she only wanted to get back to the station.  She had a problem of her own on her mind, and she hoped to talk to him about it.

Did he know that his father bought her house?

She glanced at him quickly.  How could he not know?  He might not talk to his dad very much, but surely he’d know about something like this...right?

Aaron abruptly clapped his hands.  “Who’s up for ice cream?  We passed a Dairy Queen on the way here.”  He gave the kids a consoling smile.  “How about we stop and get chocolate-dipped ice cream cones?  My treat.”

Lainie rolled her eyes.  Yeah, scare the daylights out of them and soothe their fears by spoiling them.  It worked every time.

Back at the station, her children hopped out of the ambulance, hurriedly trying to lap up the melting ice cream before it dripping all over them...without much success.  They were a mess, but they were happy again and gazing at Aaron with all the hero-worship and adoration they felt for him.

The men at the station saw the ice cream, and the one named Brody yelled, “Hey! Where’s mine?”

Teresa slid out of the driver’s seat, muttering, “Please, let me slap him.”  Lainie smiled.  Despite the way Aaron seemed to enjoy looking at his EMT, she was a rather nice person with a witty humor and not afraid to speak her mind.  While at the Dairy Queen, she chatted with Lainie easily, and Lainie felt herself pulled into the woman’s cordiality.  It was hard to not like her.

“By all means,” Lainie murmured back, earning her a wicked grin.  Lainie grabbed one cardboard drink carrier, laden down with chocolate shakes, while Teresa took the other.  Together, they turned and faced the petulant scowls of the men who’d been left out.  The two women grinned as they suddenly became the center of attention and the most beautiful of all the women in the world...at least according to the male company around them.  Brody gave them each a kiss on the cheek before he scurried off, sucking heartily on his straw.

Left holding empty drink carriers, Teresa laughed heartily and threw her arm around Lainie’s shoulders.  In a wink, Aaron was there, scowling at them.  “Teresa, you need to lock down your truck and type up your report for the evening.”

Teresa sighed and let go of Lainie’s shoulders.  “You’re such a--”

Aaron cleared his throat and notched his head toward his miniature shadows.  Teresa smirked and finished, “Such a good, kind captain.”

He watched her go back to her chore, and then turned to Lainie.  “Sorry about that.  Teresa’s...well, she’s a pain in my--”

This time Lainie cleared her throat.  Aaron flashed her a smile.  “Neck,” he ended.  “I’m glad you stopped by tonight.”

Should she ask him about his dad?  Or wait?

“Something wrong?” he asked, frowning at her.  Lainie realized she’d been chewing on her lip.  She glanced at Chloe and Chris, who were stuffing the last of their cones in their mouths, and she did not want to discuss it in front of them.  Aaron understood quickly.  “Hey, Sean!”

“Yo!” The red-headed man poked his head around a nearby door.

“Power up the Wii, will you?”

Sean assessed the situation with studious eyes.  “Sure thing, Captain.”

Aaron crouched down to eye-level with the twins.  “How about you two go get cleaned up and play bowling with Sean?  He’s not very good, so you’ll have to show him how it’s done, okay?”

Lainie admired the way Aaron effortlessly herded her children into another part of the station house and her into his office.  Closing the door behind him, he turned, crossed his arms over his chest and said, “Okay, something’s bothering you.  Is it me?  Is it that kiss from this afternoon?”

He looked so good and solid and wonderful standing there, with his foamy green eyes piercing into her, and yes, she’d like to talk about that kiss.  She’d like to do more than talk about it, but she shook her head because she had bigger problems right now.  Mainly keeping a roof over her head.  “Your dad bought my house,” she blurted out.

Something -- other than surprise -- flickered in his expression.  So, he did know.  Betrayal, plain and simple, grew inside her.  “You knew...why didn’t you tell me?”

A long, loaded minute passed.  “I didn’t want to worry you,” he finally said quietly.

She blinked at him.  Slowly, anger replaced the betrayal.  “You know how I feel about him,” she said in as calm of a voice as she could manage.  “You know how I feel about what happened because of him and my mom.  You should have told me.”

Shadows formed around his eyes.  “Actually, Lainie, I don’t know how you feel.  You never told me, and I’ve tried to apologize, but you don’t want to hear it.”

Carefully, she approached him.  He stood between her and the door, so she’d have to get by him to leave.  “You attacked me, Aaron,” she told him in a harsh whisper.  “You saw our parents screwing, and instead of talking about it to me, you blamed me for it and attacked me.  You told me you loved me!  God knows, that I loved you, but it wasn’t enough, was it, Aaron?”  

He stood quietly, and she inhaled deeply.  “No, I don’t want to listen to your apology, because it won’t make how I felt that night any better.  But I’ve tried to get past it--”

“How is kissing me getting past it, Lainie?”

Hot, angry tears flooded in her eyes, but she wouldn’t cry in front of him.  She wouldn’t!  “Another thing you have to blame on me because you don’t want to talk to me about it!”

“I tried to talk about it!” he said, keeping his voice down, but she sensed an eruption just under the surface.  “I wanted to talk about us earlier today.  I’ve wanted to talk about it for weeks now, but you don’t want to hear it!”

“Fine!” she shouted.  “I’m listening now!  Tell me, Aaron!  Tell me everything you’ve wanted to say to me.”

He reared back from her outburst.  A trickle of liquid anger fell out the corner of her eyelid.  He watched it until she hastily wiped it away.

“Never mind,” she said, hiccuping to hold back the torrent inside her.  “Maybe you’re right.  Maybe I don’t want to hear it.”  She brushed against him to get to the door.  His hand snaked out, grabbing her by the wrist and jerking her around.  Thinking he was about to kiss her again, she prepared to smack him one.  She didn’t want to be kissed right now!

Aaron dropped to his knees before her, grasping her hand tightly and looking up at her desperately.  “I’m sorry, Lainie.  I’m sorry for hurting you all those years ago.  I’m sorry for not believing in us enough to trust you with my troubles.  But I’m not sorry that we broke it off...”

She gaped at him.  The audacity!  Some apology!

He smiled sadly.  “If we’d stayed together, then you would not be the woman you are today.  You would not have the most beautiful and precious children in the world, and I can’t be sorry for that.  I love you, Lainie.  I’m in love with you, all over again, and I love Chris and Chloe.  I’m not asking you for another chance.  I’m only asking for this chance.  Please, don’t walk away from us.”

He knelt there, squeezing her hand, holding onto her for dear life, and Lainie couldn’t make her brain work cooperatively enough to form articulate words.  The seconds rushed by.  Aaron’s face gradually fell and eventually, he stood up.  He let go of her hand.  She brought it up to her chest, rubbing the sore spot around her wrist.

“Lainie...”

The twins burst into the room.  Chloe was crying and babbling about Chris hitting her in the head with a remote controller, and Chris arguing that it was an accident, and he tried to apologize, but she didn’t want to listen to him and “forgive me in her heart,”and Lainie swallowed because the whole situation was so surreal and parallel to her and Aaron’s current issue.  She shot Aaron a look over the kids heads as she gathered them up to leave.  “We’ll talk...later, I promise.”