Burned Read online

  Orlando sighed and took a sip of his drink. “You aren’t the only one she blasted today. Lincoln is pissed, and I’m pissed at Anthony for putting us in the middle of his crap.”

  “Give me some advice, Orlando. Should I apologize to her? I don’t want her to think I approve of what Ant is doing.”

  “I wish I knew what to do. She told Regan she didn’t want to have anything to do with the wedding since I betrayed her.”

  “I’m sure she doesn’t mean it.” Nick drank half the beer in the mug and pushed it away. The shots of liquor with the beer chasers were creeping up on him. If he didn’t stop drinking now, he would need a designated driver to get home. “Yeah, well, I want to kick Ant’s ass.” Scowling he said, “He was sitting in that restaurant holding hands with Melanie not caring what it would do to Lincoln if she found out.”

  Orlando nudged him on the shoulder. “The old Nick would have punched him out. I’m glad you showed some restraint.”

  “I hate the new Nick sometimes,” Nick said. He grabbed some pretzels from the bowl, putting a one in his mouth.

  Orlando laughed. “It’s part of growing up. Hey, I have a favor to ask you.”

  Nick bucked his eyes. “No way, Orlando! It was offering to do a favor that got me in this predicament. Anyhow, who do you want me to spy on…Regan?”

  “Calm your horses. Regan and I are going to Puerto Rico next week to visit my family who can’t make it to the wedding. Lincoln has friends, but I’d feel better knowing you are looking after her while we’re gone.”

  Nick choked on a pretzel. He took a drink of the beer to clear his throat. “You’re kidding right?”

  Orlando finished his drink. “Nope. I’m dead serious.”

  “I’m not saying I will do it but, what should I do if Ant drops by while I’m visiting her?”

  Orlando raised his brow. “I have a feeling Lincoln isn’t going to jump to take him back, especially after what you told her. You don’t have to go to her place every day. Call her or maybe take her out to eat or to a movie. I don’t want her sitting in the house sulking over Anthony. And Regan won’t rest knowing her sister is hurting, and she isn’t around to comfort her.”

  Nick blew out a deep breath. “I’m not one of Lincoln’s favorite people at the moment. I doubt she wants anything to do with me.”

  Orlando poked Nick in the arm playfully. “Turn on that Italian charm—she won’t be able to resist you.”

  Smiling broadly, Nick boasted his chest and said, “Yeah my dimples do have a way with women. I’ll check in on Lincoln. However, if she tells me to buzz off, I’m doing just that.”

  “That’s fair. Well, I gotta go. I promised Regan I wouldn’t be away long or drink too much.”

  “C-R-R-A-C-K.” Nick laughed as he imitated the belt cracking sound.

  Orlando smoothed down his goatee and grinned. “You damned Skippy I am.” He eased off the barstool. “Adios, buddy.”

  Nick spun the barstool around and hopped down. “Hold on; I’m leaving too. By the way, there is a flaw in your plan to have me look after Lincoln.”

  “What is the flaw, Nick?”

  He slapped a hand on Orlando’s shoulder. “I don’t know where Lincoln lives, bro.”

  “I’ll text it to you.”

  Chapter Eight

  Lincoln’s angry stance spoke volumes. She stood against the wall with her arms folded tightly across her chest as she watched Anthony pack the belongings he kept at her apartment. She hated her apartment now. There were too many memories of him there.

  He had the nerve to pretend he was angry with her. He showed balls coming to her apartment in the middle of the night to crawl into her bed. Did he forget how his first attempt to make love to her ended? He should; it was not that long ago. For the life of her, she did not now know why he risked doing it again. Nothing had changed with her. If anything, she despised him more today than she did yesterday.

  When the weight of his body settled on top of her, it awoke her from a deep sleep. Scared for her life, she fought with him thinking he was an attacker. She punched and scratched at his face until he pinned her arms above her head and yelled out his name.

  An intense argument ensued between them and two hours later it was still going on.

  “You’re going to regret this, Lincoln,” he fumed as he packed his clothes.

  Finally, she unlatched her arms from around her body. She didn’t realize how tight a grip she had on herself until she saw the red marks on her arms from her fingernails digging in her skin. “What do I have to regret! You enter my apartment in the middle of the night and expect me to have sex with you! You’re an asshole, Anthony! I’m not sleeping with you when you’ve been with Melanie.”

  “I did not say we have had sex! You’re assuming that we have.”

  “You admitted you’ve been with her!”

  “So what!” He shouted as he shoved clothes in a garbage bag. “She is a friend of mine. Men and women can be friends without having sex. Dammit, why can’t you get that through your head?”

  “I do believe that is possible but not with you and her. God, Anthony, everyone is not lying to me. You are the only person lying. Why can’t you just tell me the truth?”

  “You are listening to Orlando and taking Nick’s word over mine! Yeah, he saw me with her but we were eating breakfast. We were not screwing on the damn table in the middle of the restaurant.”

  “Anthony, forget what Nick or Orlando told me. I want to hear it from you. Are you interested in pursuing a relationship with Melanie again?”

  “I thought I was in a relationship you. If you don’t trust me, then I don’t know what to tell ya.”

  “For the love of God, getting a straight answer from you is not going happen is it?”

  He whipped his head around to look at her. “You want an answer, Lincoln?” His dark eyes were large and filled with anger, and the scratches on his face were bleeding. “My answer is maybe we should cool it for a while. Apparently, we need some time apart from one another to evaluate where to go from here.”

  Keeping the tears at bay was a losing battle as they fell down her face. “So, you agree we should break up too?”

  “I didn’t say that. I said we needed a break. I don’t want it to be permanent.”

  Her voice trembled as she said, “It might as well be permanent. Once you go to her to heal your broken heart tonight; there won’t be any coming back to me.”

  She saw the offense he took by her comment. His nose flared. Her stomach twisted in a knot as she waited for his response, which she expected would be as nasty and hurtful as the look on his face.

  “Fucking grow up, Lincoln. You are running me away with your constant need to know where I am every minute of the day. I’m tired of the phone calls, the questions, and now you’re bringing my friends into our shit! I’m a grown man and not your kid! Call Nick and tell him to back off, or this shit is gonna get real nasty.”

  “I don’t have Nick doing anything for me.”

  “Really? It is just coincidence he follows me around the firehouse or if I’m on a phone call he just happens to be in earshot. Nick is one friend I won’t lose sleep over if he is gone. So no big deal there, but you know Orlando and Jon are closer to me and you got them doing your dirty work too.”

  She snarled. “You’re crazy! Orlando doesn’t even work with you! As for Jon, I have not talked to him or Gabby in weeks. You’re rambling like a paranoid man, Anthony. The lying will eventually drive you crazy. Come clean and clear the conscious, baby.”

  He knotted the garbage bag and threw it on the floor. “My conscious is clear. I have done nothing, and I’m tired of defending myself to you.” He picked up his jacket from the bed and tossed it on top of the garbage bag. “I came here to prove to you this is where I belong. You pushed me away. I have never pushed you away. No matter how badly my day went, I made sure to be available to you. I don’t know why you won’t believe me.”

  “Anthony, it’s not
about me believing you. My problem is I’m not good at sharing. In your own way, you are trying to protect my feelings by remaining silent about Melanie. I respect you for that. Anthony, I love you, and this is why it hurts so much for me to do this.” She opened another plastic bag and arched her brow as she said sarcastically, “I agree we should cool it, only I want it to be permanent. So let me help you pack all your stuff. There is no need for you to come back after tonight.”

  “What?” Anthony appeared stunned and slowly straightened his body to face her.

  “You seem stunned by my decision. I would think you’d be jumping for joy that I dumped you. You’re free, Anthony. You and Melanie can come out of hiding with your relationship.”

  “Well, I’m not happy about it,” he said touching her arm. “We have something special and you want to throw it away because your imagination is running in overdrive.”

  She tucked strands of hair behind her ear. “Anthony, I am not imagining anything and I don’t make snap decisions; you know that. I’m sorry, but I will not lower my standards to be a side-chick for any man and that includes you.”

  Although, she loved him, she refused to allow him the privilege of bed-hopping between her and Melanie. Her mother raised her better than that. And with the little proof of infidelity she had on him, it was enough for her to call it quits. Anthony was too weak to stand up to Melanie and declare he was in love with her and Lincoln had to protect herself while she had her dignity intact.

  “I’m done with this conversation,” he said as he knelt down to dig under the bed for more of his things.

  Lincoln cringed as his heavenly body bent over to drag another duffel bag from underneath the bed. Through her hate, her heart wept knowing this would this be the last time she would see him or hear his laughter. She indeed would miss his corny jokes and the tender way he had with her when they made love. She wanted to scream from the pain shooting from the top of her head down to her toes.

  Lincoln’s legs felt too shaky to stand, and the timing could not be worse for Regan to be out of town. The volcano had erupted, and hot lava flowed far enough to engulf her. Unlike Anthony, she had no one outside of her sister to comfort her. She was on her own until Regan returned from Puerto Rico.

  “I’m out of here,” he said, shouldering past her with his arms full of his belongings.

  She rubbed her shoulder. The sting from where it hit against the doorjamb from his passing by her radiated down her left arm. She sighed at the way he left the bedroom. He didn’t bother to close the dresser drawers and left the closet door wide open.

  When she heard the front door slam, she flipped. In a crazed frenzy, she went through the whole apartment throwing away everything of his left behind. She wanted no remnants of Anthony Jenkins left anywhere in the apartment.

  Lincoln gathered the wire hangers from the bed and arranged them neatly to place back in the closet. She closed the drawers to the dresser and stripped the bedding from the bed to wash. In the bathroom, she searched the cabinets to make sure Anthony removed his toiletries then took the towels from the rack throwing them in the laundry basket. She had to wash everything he’d touched to get rid of his scent.

  After she was done stripping the apartment of Anthony, she poured a glass of wine and sat in the living room. She made a mental note to call maintenance and have them change the lock on her door.

  She took a sip of wine. The television was off, and it was quiet. Only then, did she allow herself to cry. She felt she’d earned the right to grieve over the loss of the man she’d devoted her life to for two years.

  Chapter Nine

  It was past five o’clock in the evening, and Nick decided to go home instead of staying at the firehouse to shower or take a brief nap.

  He dragged his tired body to the parking lot exhausted and in need of some serious sleep. It had been one of those shifts at Station 30. The crew battled two double alarm fires within hours of each other only to have to assist with a triple-three alarm warehouse fire that came in no sooner than they returned to base. By the time that fire was under control, they were late returning the trucks for the next shift.

  Nick stuck a piece of chewing gum in his mouth. His mouth tasted of the foul smoke that clogged his nostrils and traveled down the back of his throat with each swallow.

  He pulled the crucifix hanging around his neck from under his t-shirt and kissed it. He did that every time he walked away from a blaze unhurt. Firefighters had their differences with each other and with other firehouses, but once they were called to work together, those differences were put aside to become one team to get the job done.

  He felt a sneeze brewing and blew it into a wad of tissues. “Ugh!” Black soot spotted the white tissue. It was normal for firefighters to sneeze repeatedly after inhaling an abundance of smoke. Hence, he kept boxes of tissue in his truck for that purpose. He checked his face in the rearview mirror to make sure soot wasn’t running out of his nose. It wouldn’t matter since his face was filthy with heavy soot already.

  He opened the glove box to get a comb to remove the debris from his hair. He heard someone say. “Good job, Nick. Make sure you get some rest, buddy.”

  He raised his head to see Jon and Anthony walking through the parking lot together and replied, “Yeah, you too.” Anthony didn’t bother to look in his direction. Since their encounter at the restaurant, Anthony avoided any contact with him that didn’t involve work.

  He quietly laughed it off as he started his truck and pulled from the parking lot. Driving down the street, he remembered he had not held up his promise to Orlando. He neglected to visit Lincoln over the weekend in order to tend to his social life. Doing a no-no, he searched through his phone while driving to look for her address. If she lived in the same direction he was going, he would make a quick stop.

  Nick pulled into the apartment complex Orlando had texted to him days ago. He’d never seen an apartment complex made up this way. It was as if he had entered a secluded village. There were multi-level apartments on the lot as well as single-level units clustered together in groups of fours. He drove slow to find Lincoln’s address. The place seemed quiet as he drove along.

  He found her address. Her apartment was one of the single units. He liked this idea. He would love to have a single unit apartment and not have anyone stomping over his head when he slept or entertained.

  He got a whiff of himself as he got out the truck. “I stink like a chimney,” he said frowning. “Oh, well, nothing I can do about it until I get home.” He walked up the walkway. Lincoln had two lawn chairs and a table sitting on a small patio. He imagined her, and Anthony would sit outside in the summer and enjoy the quiet. He looked up at the clear sky above. The sun was setting for the evening. Soon the spring chill in the air would fade to the summer warmth and the sky above would be dotted with millions of bright stars at night. He could see himself living in a place like this. And if he ever decided to settle down with one woman, he too could enjoy evenings on the patio chilling with a bottle of wine and soft music drifting from an open window.

  Nick shook the notion from his head as he searched for a doorbell. Not finding one he used the doorknocker and waited for her to answer. It didn’t dawn on him that she might be out for the evening. It was early, and she did work. Plus she could have a social life. Lincoln was a single woman with no kids. Therefore, she had no reason to rush home in the evenings.

  He started to leave when he heard the garage door behind him open. Seconds later her blue Honda pulled around the corner and whipped into the garage. The interior light of the car came on as Lincoln exited the car.

  Nick saw Lincoln was hunkered down with grocery bags, a briefcase and her purse slung across her shoulder. He trotted over to help. “Let me take those for you,” he said balancing the four plastic bags in one hand and taking the briefcase with the other hand.”

  Lincoln closed the car door with a look of surprise on her face. Evidently, she had not seen him standing on her patio when
she drove up. “Nick, what are you doing here?” she asked in a surprise voice.

  “I was in the neighborhood and decided to check on you.”

  She looked him over not making a comment about his dirty appearance. “Is that right,” she said walking in front of him and leading the way to her apartment.

  “Yeah, that’s right.” There was plenty more he wanted to say, but words eluded him. His mind went blank as his eyes fell on her shapely derriere. She was slender, but the tight dress enhanced her figure as her hips did a sexy sway as she walked in front of him. He took a deep breath to stop his body from responding to what he eyes wouldn’t move away from. As tired as he was, he was a man. He had no problem getting a rise when a beautiful woman was in his presence.

  Lincoln opened the door flip on the lights. The place was larger than he thought. “Where is the kitchen,” he asked lowering the briefcase on a chair.

  “Through that archway,” she pointed. “Just put the bags on the table. I’ll put the stuff away later.”

  Nick did as instructed. When he returned, she was sifting through mail. “So, how you been?” He was not good at small talk, especially when he felt the person did not appreciate him being there.

  She dropped the mail on the table and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m fine. I don’t believe you just stopped by though. Orlando and Regan put you up to this didn’t they?”

  He dropped his arms at his sides. “They’re just looking out for you, Lincoln. If you want me to leave, I understand.”

  “You look tired as hell and you are a mess. Did you come here after fighting a fire?”

  He ran his hand through his hair and debris fell on his t-shirt. “Yeah, I did. If I’d gone home first, I would’ve passed out from total exhaustion.”

  “Nick, I have a phone. You could have called and reported back to Orlando how I am doing.”

  “Huh. I didn’t think of that,” he joked. “I wanted to see for myself how you are doing. I know it hasn’t been easy for you since kicking Ant to the curb.”

  She took a step back as if she needed distance to maintain her emotions. “How did you know about that?”