The Men of CLE-FD updated Read online

  Chapter Eight

  Regan lay on the bed eating a bowl of low-fat cottage cheese with sliced fresh peaches and watching the small 20-inch flat screen television Lincoln had loaned her. She couldn’t stand being cramped in the bedroom, but the furniture she’d purchased had not been delivered and there wasn’t a place to sit down stairs.

  She demanded the furniture store deliver the furniture within seventy-two hours or she would request a full refund of her purchase. The store promised delivery of her furniture the next day.

  The doorbell rang. She sighed placing the half-eaten bowl of dessert on the night table and paused the television show she’d waited all day to see. She fingered her flat hair sticking to the back of her head from lying on the pillows and slipped on her bedroom slippers. Whoever was ringing the doorbell became impatient with her slowness.

  Skipping down the stairs, she opened the door—it wasn’t opportunity knocking. Her jaw hinged leaving her void of words—not words per se but mannerly words. “What do you want?” She barked.

  “What the hell are you doing in my house, bitch!”

  Regan removed her earrings putting them in the pocket of her pants. If this woman was itching for a fight, she had caught her in the right mood. The weekend ended on a bad note, and the week had not begun any better.

  Regan cracked her neck giving Maggie a warning. “I’m giving you the chance to walk away.”

  “I cannot believe that sonofabitch moved you in my house. The nerve of that bastard,” Maggie cursed.

  “Stop it right there. I’m not going through a round of immature silliness with you. You’re pissed because Orlando and you are done and he is with someone else….get over it.”

  Maggie’s glare bore a hole through Regan as she stood against the door with her arms folded defiantly holding her position. “You don’t know a damn thing about me and my husband.”

  “I know you are divorced and that spells over.” She sucked her teeth. “That dream world you are living in makes you seem crazy….not a good look on a woman if I may add.”

  Maggie drew in a ragged breath and shook her head slowly. Tapping a pointed-toed shoe on the walkway, she said clearly, “I want you out of my house in forty-eight hours or I’ll have a sheriff physically remove you.”

  “I have an executed lease with Orlando Torres’ signature as the landlord. Your name, sweetheart, is nowhere to be found so good luck with that.” She slammed the door in the woman’s face resting her back against the warm wood. She scrunched her nose and thought standing there wasn’t such a good idea. If Maggie had access to a gun, she’d blow her guts clear into the kitchen.

  Regan peeked out the window to see if Maggie was still outside. She didn’t see her anywhere in the front yard. Going into the kitchen, she checked to make sure the back door and windows were locked. It wasn’t that she was afraid of Maggie, but her mental state scared the hell out of her. The woman was obsessed with Orlando, and she feared for her safety.

  She went upstairs taking her phone from the table with her and dialing it. The phone on the other end went to voicemail. “Hi, I need to talk to you so, if you could call me when you get this message, I’d appreciate it.”

  Dropping the phone on the bed, she turned off the light. Going to the window, she looked out. The street was quiet except for a single dog barking. She pulled down the shade and returned to the bed to sit down. She hadn’t talked to Orlando since their blowup. The sound of his voice on the voicemail revived the memories of better times. She missed him.

  She lay back on the bed staring at the ceiling fan circling slowly. Her body came alive as she thought of Orlando’s strong hands heating her skin, pinching her nipples between his fingers. Her hand rubbed across her breasts as the thought of him engulfed her. Closing her eyes, she imagined his lips on her neck. The flustered sensation curling her toes were real, the man supplying the foreplay was only in her imagination.

  When the phone rang, her eyes shot open causing the adrenaline to rush to her head making her dizzy and weak. Feeling on the bed for the phone, she answered. “Hello.”

  “Hey, I got your message, is everything okay with the house?”

  The timbre of hearing his voice again knotted her stomach. He didn’t sound angry or oafish but glum—not a way she remembered. She swallowed to remove the erotic-hazed tone from her voice. “The house is fine,” she said not understanding why the levels of her voice rose.

  “Regan, what’s wrong with you?”

  She sat up crossing her legs. “Nothing is wrong with me. I thought you should know your ex-wife paid me a visit tonight.”

  “Maggie came to the house?”

  “Yes. She served me a verbal eviction notice. I have to be gone in forty-eight hours.”

  “She can’t evict you, Regan.”

  “I told her that. I guess it wasn’t important after all, Orlando. I’m sorry I bothered you.”

  “No, I’m glad you let me know. I will take care of her.”

  “She was pretty upset you moved your bitch into her house.”

  She heard his exasperated sigh. “She is driving me crazy with this nonsense. I’m sorry, Regan; I’ll set her straight so she’ll leave you alone.”

  “Thank you. So how have you been?”

  “I’m here. Well, is that all you had to tell me?”

  She hesitated but remembered his sermon about being blunt. He liked people to say what was on their minds. “Orlando, I miss you. I miss talking to you.”

  “That was your choice.”

  “It was a stupid choice. I’ll never forgive myself for the way I hurt you. I don’t like myself for what I’ve done to you.”

  “I’m a big boy and will survive. Thanks for warning me about Maggie.”

  Her cheeks flushed. He might hang up on her, but she would do whatever it took to reach him. “Don’t hang up, please. I don’t want this animosity between us anymore. I can’t stand not talking to you or seeing you.”

  “What are you saying, Regan?”

  “I’m saying I made a mistake. Why don’t you come over and let me make it up to you?”

  “Regan, I’m working. Anyhow, I met Doug tonight. He seems like a nice guy. Maybe you should keep your options open before settling again.”

  The sting of his comment shocked her through the phone but did not bother her. “I don’t want to go through with the date.”

  “You’re committed to the date and Doug is excited about meeting you.”

  “Do you want me to keep the date, Orlando?”

  “What you do is not my decision. Remember, you gave me the boot.”

  “If you tell me not to go, I won’t. Orlando, you can’t have stopped caring about me so soon. You’re mad at me and you know you can’t stay mad at me,” she said hoping her alluring charm would melt his heart.

  “I can’t tell you what to do.”

  “If I go I won’t enjoy myself and will be thinking about you all night.”

  “Regan, I’m curious as to what has changed your mind?”

  “Will you come over after your shift so we can talk? I want to explain everything to you.”

  “You know what, I need to change clothes. That house fire was a battle and I’m dirty. I’ll call you back when I’m done.”

  “All right. Orlando, be careful, please.”

  “I’m always careful. I’ll talk to you later.”

  *****

  Orlando sagged back into the depths of the chair tapping the end of his phone against his chin. What was that about? The strange conversation he’d just had with Regan didn’t seem real but a dream.

  He put the phone on the desk and dragged a hand over his hurting shoulder. His shirt was slightly damp. Rolling his shoulders to ease the burning, he ignored the pain and the dampness. There was so much water flowing he was surprised he wasn’t soaked to his underwear.

  Returning to thoughts of Regan’s phone call, he thought maybe the debris hit him harder than he thought and he was hallucinating. Had
Regan in a roundabout way asked for a second chance? And, did he tell her to keep her options open? He sat on the end of the bed untying his shoes and kicking them off.

  He sighed, standing up to unzip his pants and shoved them down his hips. He grabbed a clean pair from the locker-size closet pitching the filthy pair in the laundry basket. Stretching out on the bed, he closed his eyes exhausted. He was not in the mood to talk with Regan about their relationship tonight. He needed to be well-rested for that.

  The apartment complex fire was a brutal fight and involved a fatality and many people hurt. Some of the injured were children. People seemed to forget firefighters were people too and emotions ran high when lives could not be saved due to circumstances beyond their control.

  Firefighters took exceptional risks to save lives no matter what the situation. There were instances where intense flames or the structure became too dangerous to enter. With this particular fire, the roof, caved in. The Chief gave the order for his men to vacate the building. They were able to rescue the majority of the occupants of the 20-unit complex but there was a victim trapped under the rubble that they could not reach in time. By the time they were able to reenter the building to search for him, he’d expired from his injuries.

  Orlando turned on his side unable to rid the image of the woman beating on his chest with her fist begging then demanding he go back inside to save her husband. He attempted to choke back the tears threating to fill his eyes, but failed. He didn’t shed tears often, but some tragedies left him no choice but to get the cry out so he could move on.

  A light knocking on the door had him wiping his face with the edge of the blanket. “Yeah, come in,” he answered sitting up. Being an officer his door was always open. He figured someone would want to talk about tonight.

  Allison entered his quarters. She was one of the two women cross-trained as a firefighter but primarily served as a paramedic. “Lieutenant, I’m sorry to disturb you, but I was concerned about that gash on your shoulder. Mind if I look at it?”

  He rubbed the tender area forgetting it been hurt by falling ceiling debris. “I’m okay, Allison. Thanks for offering.”

  “Sir, I can’t with good conscious let your injury go untreated. I lied telling the Chief I’d looked at you when I hadn’t.” She wiggled her fingers. “Off with the shirt and let me do my job,” she said placing the triage case on the floor opening it.

  He relented instead of debating with her. The banging headache that started at the base of his neck spread over the top of his head and across the bridge of his nose. He wished to be alone to gather his thoughts. However, that wasn’t going to happen and under Allison Truex’s watchful eye, he undressed.

  Allison didn’t bother to place gloves on and placed cold fingers on his bare shoulder touching around the injury that began to throb in tune with his headache. “This looks pretty bad but fixable,” she said reaching into the triage case. She and Lindsey Fields would be leaving the department at the end of the month since the merger didn’t pass to integrate the two departments.

  “Just slap a bandage on it, Allison.”

  She shook her head. “That won’t work, Lieutenant. The wound has to be cleaned to avoid infection. I’ll dress it nicely for you.”

  “Thanks, but you can make it pretty tomorrow, I want to get some sleep before the next alarm goes off.”

  She applied layers of gauze to the wound after cleaning it thoroughly. “I’m done, sir. Are you current with your tetanus shots?”

  “Yup,” he said fishing a clean shirt from the drawer once she had moved away from him. Allison got up from the end of the bed but did not leave his quarters. “Is there anything else?”

  The pink flesh of her cheeks darkened to a rosy hue. “Sir, I hope I can say this to you without facing insubordination.”

  He scrunched his face. “Spit it out, Truex.” He didn’t speak any differently to the women as he did to the men. When it came to the firehouse, he treated everyone equally.

  “Well, as you know, I will be leaving CLE-FD soon. I was wondering if you, um, would like to get together for a drink or dinner one evening when we’re both off shift. I mean it doesn’t appear you are dating anyone and neither am I at the moment.”

  He didn’t want to hurt her feeling but honesty was his way of doing things. If there was anything he missed about being in a relationship, it was this part; it was much easier to admit being involved than blurt out he wasn’t interested. He released a flattered smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Allison, I am sort of seeing someone. It’s new so I haven’t talked much about it.”

  Allison cleared the trash from the floor and headed to the door. “Thank you for not laughing at me. I hope everything works out with your new relationship.”

  He perched his hands on his hips. “What? Why would I laugh?”

  Allison didn’t fit the stereotype of female paramedics portrayed on television. She was thickly built, never wore makeup and her hair was cut short and neat. However, she was agile, strong, and not afraid to tackle an emergency with aggressiveness. Around the firehouse, she was friendly and knew her way around the kitchen. He would miss her meals when it was her turn to cook.

  “Well, I know some of the guys think I’m not into guys.”

  “Whoa, what are you talking about? If you are being harassed, why didn’t you let me know?”

  “Not all of them are whispering about me, but some. You never showed any disrespect and treated me and Lindsey fairly.”

  “I didn’t know about any of this, Allison. I will look into it. After the prank they pulled on you and Lindsey, I told those guys to put an end to it.”

  “No, please don’t say anything. My approaching you has nothing to do with that. Besides, my line of work doesn’t call for me to dress in heels and ball gowns.”

  “I know that, Allison. You also don’t have to change for those knuckleheads.”

  She ran her hand through her short blonde hair. “And I won’t. Anyhow, outside of work, my appearance is different. Well, I’ll let you get some sleep. Goodnight, Lieutenant.”

  “Goodnight, Allison.” He lay on the bed and turned off the light. Closing his eyes, he prayed the alarms stayed silent for the rest of the night.

  Chapter Nine

  Three days after the horrible fire, Orlando sat on the weight bench, assessing the accuracy of the weights he’d applied to the machine. Catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror, he shook his head. The last several days had been pure hell; along with everything else, he was missing Regan. He needed to get this woman out of his head and his system soon.

  Being apart from Regan was killing him. He felt like a damn school boy when he was around her. He was giddy and excited on the inside and fighting to maintain a somewhat normal appearance on the outside. He had to keep the smokescreen going because he sure as hell didn’t want to seem whipped by the guys at the firehouse. He would never live that down.

  Maintaining a macho attitude was important. If it took walking away from Regan to keep his manhood intact, then so be it. She had other plans that didn’t include him, and he had to accept that.

  He returned his mind to the workout. He was pushing himself harder than normal in order to be ready for the competition. Sergio sat on the bench next to him. “What’s going on?”

  “Da nada,” Orlando said straining his leg muscles to push the heavy weights. His heavy grunts indicated that there was too much on the machine, and he needed to make an adjustment to avoid injuring himself. The race was for fun, not to risk injury while training for it.

  “I missed you at the festival; we had a large turnout this year. But, thanks for sending over Anthony and Jon. They had a lot of young people asking questions about the fire department.”

  “Sergio, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it, but my work schedule has been crazy. I’m covering for another lieutenant who's serving on jury duty. Also, I'm getting in training whenever I can for the charity event I entered.”

  Sergio nodded. “
I understand. So the young lady I saw you with a few weeks ago is not hindering you as you juggle all of these obligations?”

  “Nope, because that is over.”

  “Are you trying to convince yourself that it’s over, or is it truly over?”

  He dropped the weights and sat up on the bench. “Sergio, you don’t even know her, so why are you on my ass about this, man?”

  “I've heard word on the streets about the lady you are keeping company with. Hell, I saw the whole exchange of words between Maggie and her the last time you were at the gym.”

  “Like I said, Regan and I are done.” He got off the weight bench to make the required adjustments.

  “Ah, her name is Regan. That is a pretty name.”

  “Well, it is befitting of a beautiful woman,” Orlando stated.

  “You are like a brother to me, Orlando. You can talk to me about anything, and I’m here to give whatever advice I can offer, so tell me, why is it over?”

  “We had a difference of opinion.”

  “Differences of opinions can be resolved. Have you made the first step to doing that?”

  “Why should that be up to me? She decided to step back because she wants to pursue a career. I can’t come between that.”

  “Okay, Orlando, you’re not exactly known as the relationship type of guy. Shoot, you don’t even remember the damn names of the women you used to lay back in the day. But look at you now! Maggie came along, screwed you over, and put you through this damn change. Seriously, what man do you know—and I’m talking about you—who can score all the free sex he wants, but goes celibate instead? You let that ratchet woman break you down.”

  “Sergio, you crack me up—ratchet? Anyhow, that shit was getting tired. I’m older and can't go through life being a playboy hopping from bed to bed. Maggie did play my ass, but it woke me up and made me take charge of me.”

  “You are right. You can’t go through life spreading your wood from woman to woman. However, I believe you feel strongly about this particular woman. Orlando, how could you give up having anything with her over a difference of opinion? That’s a cop-out and too easy for you,” Sergio said, continuing to do his leg reps.