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“I am one of the parents,” she replied, and Isaac’s heart slammed into his rib cage.
“Huh?” He must’ve looked as confused as he felt because Hannah rolled her eyes and jerked a thumb toward the dining area.
“My son’s a Cub Scout and his entire den is out there right now, wondering if these pancakes are going to cook themselves.”
“You have a son?”
Hannah could see Isaac Jones’s hazel eyes shifting back and forth as his brain made calculations. She hadn’t seen the man in ten years—since before he became a man, really—but some habits were hard to break and she could clearly see that his penchant for jumping to wrong conclusions was one of them. “Yes. His name is Samuel.”
“Is he...? I mean, uh...how old is your...um, son?” Isaac stammered. No doubt that he was expecting the age to coincide with the date they’d last been together and Hannah wondered if the guy’s ego knew no bounds.
Of course, with those wide shoulders and that perfectly warm brownskin with bronze undertones, he was definitely handsome enough to have an ego.
Instead of answering, though, she focused her trembling hands on the task of opening up the only box of pancake mix she could find and dumping it into a stainless steel bowl. After the way Isaac had once broken her trust and her heart, he didn’t even deserve to ask her about the weather, let alone such a personal question.
But her enjoyment at letting him squirm was short-lived because Sammy came into the kitchen at that exact moment. Hannah’s heart melted at her six-year-old’s hesitant steps and his round, wide eyes under the stiff blue cap. Straightening his gold neckerchief, she quietly asked, “How’s it going out there?”
Sammy tugged at her apron and Hannah bent down so she could hear his whispery, soft voice. “Those people sure eat a lot.”
“I know.” Hannah stroked a hand along the boy’s smooth ebony cheek. She’d read all the books and talked to countless other families about the transitioning effects of cross-cultural adoptions and children relocating overseas, especially for a child who had spent most of his life in a village orphanage in Ghana until he’d moved into a small cottage on the same premises with Hannah. “But don’t worry. We will have plenty of food for everyone. Do you want to help me mix up more pancakes?”
“No, thank you,” her son replied a bit more loudly, his accent making him sound almost British. “Uncle Luke said I could help him count out the change in the box. My cousins told me I need to learn how much the coins are worth so that the other kids at school won’t steal my lunch money and buy pudding cups with it.”
Hannah scrunched her nose. Her twin nephews were already proving to be a horrible influence on Sammy. But at least the nine-year-olds were coaxing the shy boy out of his shell and attempting to protect their newest family member. She gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze and tried to ignore Isaac’s blatant stare from the other side of the kitchen as Sammy walked out, only slightly more confident than he’d been when he entered.
“Was that your son?” Isaac asked, his voice even deeper and smoother than it had been when they were teenagers.
Stiffening her spine as straight as it would go, she turned to confront the man she’d stupidly fallen for all those years ago.
“I adopted him while I was in Africa on a Teachers Without Borders program.”
He slowly nodded and she watched the relief drain over his face. Then one side of his full lips quirked up, immediately reminding her body of the way his mischievous smile had always had the ability to draw her in. “So you became a teacher after all.”
Hannah grunted, choking down her outrage. How dare he take pride in the memory of their late-night talks sitting on the tailgate of his Uncle Jonesy’s old, rusted-out pickup truck? The conversations where she’d told him about her ambitions and her dreams and he’d told her that she was going to make the world a better place. She cracked an egg so hard, half the shell fell into her mixing bowl.
Luckily, she was saved from having to make any further casual small talk when his uncle swung through the door, balancing a sack of pancake mix in each gnarled hand. “Look what I found! No thanks to Freckles over at the Cowgirl Up Café, mind you. That ol’ gal cursed me up and down a blue streak for not knowin’ that her flapjacks were made from scratch.”
“So then where’d you get these?” Isaac stepped away from the stove to relieve Jonesy of half his load.
“One of the ladies from that quilting group over at the community church brought them over, saying we could borrow theirs as long as we replace it before their homeless outreach breakfast next week.”
Hannah wanted to ask if they’d had a sudden outpouring of homeless people relocating to the touristy mountain town of Sugar Falls. When she’d left two years ago, there’d been a handful of regulars stopping by the shelter for an occasional hot meal, but that was usually only in the snowy, winter months.
However, she kept her lips firmly clamped, not sure if she was ready to find out what else had changed around here since she’d been gone.
As she whisked, Isaac turned to the stove and she tried not to peek at his back. He’d always had those slim hips and long legs, but when had his shoulders gotten so broad? Probably around the same time that his jawline had gotten more chiseled.
Stop it, she commanded herself. This tingling sensation under her skin wasn’t because she was still attracted to Isaac, it was simply her body’s way of responding to the shock of seeing him after all these years. In fact, she hadn’t even recognized him at first. Maybe because she’d been so successful at blocking out all thoughts of the one guy who’d ever broken her heart.
Of course, his curls were gone and his hair was now cropped close. Plus, Hannah never would have expected to see him wearing pants, since she’d only spent time with him during the summer months. Actually, it was a bit jarring not to see him in a pair of board shorts and dressed in a shirt with sleeves that hadn’t been cut off. What wasn’t unusual, though, was to see him in a Sugar Falls Fire Department tee since his uncle had always run the volunteer department.
Why hadn’t anyone in her family warned her that Isaac was visiting this fall? Not that her brothers didn’t have their own busy lives, but they should’ve known that she would want some advance notice that she might run into her ex-boyfriend. While they’d both joined the Navy two years before that fateful summer, they had to have seen the grainy footage of that video someone had taken of Isaac and then posted on the internet.
Her body shuddered at the suppressed memory. Despite the fact that it had been taken down twenty-four hours later, everybody had seen it. The entire town had heard his recorded accusations and she’d never been in such a hurry to return home to Boise.
In fact, after college, Hannah had initially hesitated to take the teaching position in Sugar Falls. She only accepted when she’d been convinced that all the gossip about her had died down. It’d helped knowing that during Isaac’s irate monologue online, he’d told the person holding the video camera that he was leaving for good and would never come back to Idaho for as long as he lived.
Looked like that was another promise Isaac Jones had broken.
Channeling all the old hurt into her whisk, Hannah made bowl after bowl of pancake batter, refusing to think about the man standing only a few feet away from her. She kept her attention focused on the pass-through window and on the boys approaching in their Scout uniforms. She hoped Sammy was fitting in with them and wasn’t overwhelmed by all the new faces. Maybe she shouldn’t have signed him up for extracurricular activities so soon. But he’d be starting a brand new school on Monday and she knew how rough the first day could be for a transfer student who was already accustomed to American schools. It would be twice as awkward for her son.
After a tense hour of Hannah and Isaac each pretending that the other wasn’t there, Sammy rushed into the kitchen wearing a big grin, revealing two missing teeth. “We made four hundred and twenty-eight dollars. How much is that in cedis?”
Hannah had an app on her smartphone that would convert US dollars into Ghanaian currency, but she couldn’t remember where she’d left her purse. She was about to say as much to Sammy when she heard an older boy in a tan Scout uniform snicker. “That’s worth two goats and a water buffalo where you come from.”
Anger flooded her and she was about to admonish the mean-spirited kid when Isaac called out, “Hey, JP, since you seem to know so much about livestock, why don’t you go help Scooter Deets fill up those slop buckets he brought over from his ranch. He needs someone to sort through the trash for any leftover pancake bits that might’ve gotten thrown out. I’m sure his hogs will appreciate it.”
“But that’s disgusting,” the bigger boy said. “Those trash bags are covered in syrup and junk.”
Isaac’s only response was a steely scowl that didn’t invite any more back talk. Hannah should learn how to imitate that expression, since it might prove useful in her classroom full of fifth-graders this school year. JP pivoted with a huff, muttering under his breath as he shoved past a smirking eight-year-old who hid a box of plastic gloves behind his back. Apparently her son wasn’t the only boy who’d been picked on by this bully.
“Kids like that are jealous of worldly guys like us.” Isaac finally turned toward Sammy and gave him a wink. Worldly? Maybe. But guys like us? Please. As if her ex-boyfriend was anything like her sweet son. However, before Hannah could say as much, the man continued. “When I was younger and first came to Sugar Falls to visit my Uncle Jonesy, some of the other boys in town didn’t know what to think because I was new and different. But my uncle kept a close watch to make sure nobody messed with me. So if JP gives you any more problems, let me know and I’ll set him straight.”
“I will.” Sammy nodded as he approached Isaac, curiosity apparent in his expression.
Hannah felt her heels press back onto the ground, her calf muscles relaxing as the fight drained out of her. It wasn’t like she could get mad at the person who’d just defended her son. Then again, it was her role as Sammy’s mother to be his number one protector. After all, it wasn’t like Isaac would be around in the future to take on all the bullies of the world.
“Why are you making them so fat?” her son asked as Isaac poured the last of the batter onto the griddle.
“What do you mean, big guy?” Isaac asked, and Hannah tried to steel her heart against the sweet tone of his voice. Sammy was a few inches shorter and much thinner than the other six-year-olds in his den. So his smile lit up even more at being referred to as big guy.
“In Ghana, our pancakes are real skinny. Like pieces of paper.”
Isaac knelt down to speak to the boy and Hannah strained to hear his reply. “I’ll tell you what. If you get the recipe for me, next time we have a pancake breakfast, we’ll make them your way. I had some like that once when I lived in Morocco and I bet everyone in town will love ’em.”
Something tugged low in Hannah’s belly. Isaac hadn’t said that he’d make Sammy his own batch, which would only have made her son feel more different and out of place. Instead, he’d had the perfect response, offering to bring a piece of Sammy’s old life to share with everyone in his new life.
It was too bad Isaac Jones never kept his word.
Chapter Two (#u73a701db-5802-58f8-942c-af238c2f3d4f)
The strident bell pierced Hannah’s eardrums and she frantically looked around the classroom for her son, who’d been helping her staple the words Happy Halloween to the bulletin board that had belonged to Mrs. Fernandez before the teacher had gone on maternity leave. Sammy dropped the stapler and had his hands covering his own ears. His pupils were wide but, thankfully, not filled with terror.
“It’s just the fire alarm,” she told him, using her calmest teacher voice. “Come on. I’ll show you where we line up.”
She reached for his hand and, though his expression was filled with a mix of curiosity and tension, he immediately latched onto Hannah and followed her out to the nearly empty hallway lined with student artwork from earlier this year. His head pivoted in every possible direction and he asked, “Where is the fire?”
“There probably isn’t a fire, sweetie. Otherwise, we’d smell the smoke. My bet is they’re just testing the alarm to make sure it works.” A few other teachers—who, like her, must’ve come in on a Sunday to catch up on lesson plans and grading—trickled out of various rooms and toward the front door. Some of the tension left Sammy’s fingers as he saw that nobody else was concerned about the constant peal of the bell. Hannah raised her voice to be heard over it, as well as the siren on the fire engine pulling into the drop-off lane. “At the beginning of the school year, the teachers show all the kids what we do during a fire drill. But since we’re both coming in a little late this semester, we’ll get to figure it out together.”
It might’ve sounded like a grand adventure, except Hannah was pretty sure she hadn’t yet explained about fire drills to Sammy. Actually, there was a lot she hadn’t explained to the boy, but she hadn’t wanted to overwhelm him with information. There’d been classrooms at the children’s home where he’d lived and he was excited about attending school. Although he had an accent from growing up in the Western region of Ghana, the orphanage had been founded by British missionaries. There wouldn’t be much of a language barrier, just a cultural one. Besides, he was a smart child. Not everything was new and different, so there was no need to be patronizing. Her plan was to stick close to him and try to explain things as he experienced them for the first time.
Hannah basked in the sheer awe on her son’s face as she realized that this was the first time Sammy had seen an American fire engine up close. But that shared excitement gave way to an unexpected wobble in Hannah’s stomach.
Speaking of firsts, she’d also never before witnessed the sight of Isaac Jones in turnout gear. Well, at least, in the yellow pants and red suspenders. It was still unseasonably warm and neither he nor the other three people exiting the huge red truck wore their jackets.
Whoa. It was bad enough that he’d broken his vow to never visit Sugar Falls again, but since when did the city allow tourists to ride around in the fire engine? Not that he was a typical tourist.
Still. Isaac had been a summer kid, like her, and since it was now closing in on November, it should be well past time for him to be going back to...where? Where did he live now?
Mrs. Dunn, the school nurse, bustled past a stunned Hannah and greeted the firefighters. “Sorry you guys had to come out again, Chief. I thought the alarm company had fixed everything yesterday.”
Who was she calling chief? Certainly not Isaac. Grabbing onto the metal handrail on the stairs in front of the school, Hannah racked her brain for the slightest scrap of recollection about their brief, and extremely awkward, conversation yesterday morning in the Grange Hall kitchen. Last night, she’d gone over every word, facial expression and movement he’d made that day. Had she missed something?
The blue T-shirt he was wearing was very similar to the one he’d had on at the pancake breakfast. The one she’d assumed he’d gotten from his uncle who led the volunteer crew. Although, this time, Hannah’s eyes zeroed in on the words Chief Jones stenciled in white letters over one of his well-formed pectoral muscles.
Oh. No.
Isaac paused only for a second when his gaze landed on her. If Hannah hadn’t already been gawking at him, she would’ve missed it. But he was quick to recover and turned all of his attention toward Nurse Dunn. “You might want to call them out again. In the meantime, have everyone stay here while we go make sure the building is clear.”
Hannah’s palms were cool and clammy, which must’ve made it easy for Sammy’s fingers to slip out of her hand. Before she could pry her stunned mouth open and stop him, he was bounding down the stairs and sprinting toward Isaac.
She should’ve expected it. Her son loved big trucks and he loved running every time he got the chance. But she was still in a state of shock.
“Can I come with you?” Sammy asked, further surprising Hannah. Her son normally didn’t warm up to people very quickly and he was always way too shy to ask for what he wanted.
Isaac smiled at the boy and bent down. “Not right this second, big guy. But as soon as we make sure that there isn’t a fire inside, I can let you climb up into the engine and pull the switch for the siren.” The man’s hazel gaze flickered over Hannah and he amended, “If you’re still here when we come out.”
She sucked air through her clenched teeth. What was that supposed to mean? Did Isaac think she was just going to run off at the mere sight of him? If so, he had another thought coming. She marched down the steps and recaptured Sammy’s hand, forcing a tense smile at her son, but refusing to make eye contact with Isaac. “We can wait.”
The truth was, she couldn’t leave, even if she wanted to. Her purse and car keys were still inside her classroom. Two teachers she’d known from her previous years at the elementary school were huddled with the nurse on the front sidewalk. However, their whispering stopped when Hannah looked their way. Not that she could blame them for their curiosity at seeing one of their recently returned coworkers suddenly confronted with the reappearance of an old flame. But it still made Hannah’s nerves twist.
She let out a sigh when Sammy tugged on her hand, pulling her closer to check out the fire engine. While she definitely did not share her son’s enthusiasm for the monstrous vehicle that had brought her ex-boyfriend literally screeching back into her life, at least Hannah now had an excuse to avoid any conversations where she might be asked about why her skin had gone as red as the truck the second Isaac appeared.
Unfortunately, her relief was short-lived because the incessantly loud ringing came to a sudden halt. In fact, in the echo of the fire alarm’s silence, she could hear her pulse picking up tempo. That meant Isaac was coming back this way and now it was Hannah’s internal alarm bells going off.
“All clear,” one of the other firefighters—the driver—announced and Hannah was surprised to see that Nurse Dunn and the other two teachers had already left. Hannah’s car was the only one remaining in the lot and she again silently cursed herself for not bringing her purse and keys with her. The female firefighter came out next and Hannah found herself hoping that one of them could quickly show Sammy the fire engine so they could sneak back to her classroom before Isaac arrived.
But there was no such luck. Isaac, looking way more confident and smug than he had a right to, came loping down the steps. He passed a clipboard to the fourth firefighter and said, “Write up the report, Rook. I have a junior officer here who needs to learn how to drive the engine.”
Isaac gave Sammy a high five and then the boy sprinted after him toward the driver’s side of the big red truck.
“No problem, Chief,” the baby-faced young man said before smiling at Hannah. She looked at his nametag. Clausson. He didn’t look familiar to her. In fact, she realized as she scanned the other firefighters’ faces, she didn’t know any of them.
“Apparently, the volunteer fire department is finally recruiting people under the age of fifty-five.” Hannah’s forced chuckle sounded more like a nervous giggle and the younger man lifted one dark eyebrow at her.
“Don’t worry. Jonesy and Scooter and the rest of the elders are still around picking up volunteer shifts. But now that the city also has a paid department, our full-time crews are a bit...oh, shall we say...less seasoned.” Clausson gave her a wink, but her heart was already rioting inside her chest, so it didn’t have the flirtatious effect he might’ve intended.
“You mean you’re not a volunteer?” she asked, though she had a feeling she already knew the answer.
“None of us are today, miss.”
So if Isaac wasn’t a volunteer, this wasn’t just some short-term gig for him. Which meant that he wasn’t here temporarily. Hannah forced herself to breathe deeply. She was seriously going to throttle her older brothers for not warning her.
Young Clausson leaned closer and lowered his voice. “If you want to come by the brand-new station, I can arrange to give you, uh...a private tour.”
“Hey, Rook.” The female firefighter walked between them and tapped on Clausson’s clipboard. “If the chief catches you putting the moves on his ex-girlfriend instead of writing that report, you’re going to be on laundry detail indefinitely.”
Clausson’s whiskerless cheeks turned a shade of pink as he muttered a four-letter word and scrambled away so quickly that Hannah choked on the sudden cloud of overpowering cologne left in his wake.
Well, she was either choking on the scent, or on the female firefighter’s unexpected statement. Hannah looked down at the woman’s nametag—Rodriguez—then cleared her throat. “I’m not really Isaac’s ex-girlfriend, you know.”
“Sorry about that.” Rodriguez transferred her helmet from one arm to the other and gave a sheepish grimace before extending her hand. “I’m Olivia. I’ve only lived here for eighteen months and I’m still learning how to navigate small-town gossip.”
“Hannah Gregson.” She swallowed, returning the handshake. “There’s...uh...gossip? I mean, obviously there’s gossip, but I just hadn’t expected it already.”
She was dying to ask what people were saying, but she closed her eyes and gave a brief shake of her head. Nope. Hannah didn’t care back then what people thought and she certainly didn’t care now.
“The talk is why I assumed something was going on between you two,” Olivia explained and Hannah’s fingers curled into her hipbones as she twisted the fabric inside her jeans’ pockets.
“I guess, technically, we’re exes, but it was more of a summer fling when we were in high school.” She attempted a casual shrug but her shoulders were too stiff to properly execute it. “Maybe two summer flings. But it wasn’t like we had an ongoing official status or anything since it was strictly only a part-time, seasonal kinda relationship. Really, things didn’t get all that hot and heavy until after graduation...oh, my gosh, I need to stop talking.”
Hannah pinched the bridge of her nose, squeezing her eyes shut so she wouldn’t have to see Rodriguez’s response to her long-winded ramblings. “Anyway, it was all so long ago, I hardly ever think about it anymore.” She gave the woman a tense smile. “I should go check on my son.”
Her legs were trembling with a combination of embarrassment and annoyance as she walked toward the cab of the fire engine. Embarrassment that she’d just spilled her guts to a complete stranger who also happened to work for Isaac. And annoyance because Hannah hadn’t been better prepared to deal with suddenly having the man back in her life.
Watching the fire chief put his helmet on Sammy’s head as her son held on to the huge steering wheel, pretending to drive the truck, she felt a wave of tenderness battle against the rest of her raging emotions. Unfortunately, her irritation won out and she her rib cage expanded with each frustrated breath.
Hannah had never expected that the arrogant, rich teenager she’d once known would leave his perfectly mapped-out life on the East Coast and return to Sugar Falls, let alone move here permanently.
And who in the world had thought it would be a good idea to put someone like him in charge of the fire department, responsible for saving innocent people?
Indifference would have been Isaac’s first choice of reactions to seeing the woman who’d once held his teenage heart in her hands. Annoyance, or even anger, would also have been an expected response to seeing Hannah again, though, most of the aching bitterness he’d held on to throughout college had dissipated. Instead, Isaac found himself filled with a weird sort of curiosity about her and hadn’t stopped thinking about her since she’d showed up yesterday. And the last thing he wanted was for someone—especially her—to mistake that curiosity for renewed interest. He’d had ten years to grow wiser and thicken his skin. There was no way he’d fall under her spell a second time.
He looked over Sammy’s head at the woman standing on the opposite side of the cab of the fire engine, her lips twisted into a tight line while she eyeballed the two of them. Really, it wasn’t as if he was going toss her son into a raging inferno the second she took her eyes off him. Would it hurt Hannah to take a step back and maybe not frown quite so much?
Her blond hair was twisted into another messy bun secured to the top of her head with two pencils, and Isaac had to admit that her face was still as striking as ever, with strong, high cheekbones and aqua blue eyes that never used to be so guarded. So wary. Scanning past her faded flannel work shirt and down the length of her, he noticed that her legs were still long and lean, but her hips were just a little fuller. Everything about her was the same, except more. More mature, more compelling, more...arousing.
“Can I turn on the siren?” Sammy’s voice was soft and tentative, as though he was afraid to ask for what he wanted. Despite his reserved manner, amazement glowed out of the boy’s eyes and Isaac knew the kid was a goner. Just like Isaac had been the first time he’d visited his Uncle Jonesy and toured the old volunteer station.
Isaac stayed with his uncle the summer after his parents’ divorce and then returned every June through August after that. One would think that he and Hannah would’ve bonded over their status as “summer kids,” but she was more of a social activist than a socializer. It wasn’t until after they were sixteen that Little Miss Do-Gooder had come out of her shell and spoken more than a sentence to him at an impromptu car wash fund-raiser she’d organized to raise money for a local animal shelter.
It was also the first time that he’d ever seen her in a bathing suit and he would never forget the way she’d—
“Sammy, we should probably let the firefighters get back to work,” Hannah called through the open passenger door, interrupting Isaac’s steamy memory.
“Okay.” Her son’s shoulders slumped, but he didn’t let go of the steering wheel.
“Wait,” she said quickly. “Would you guys mind if I took a picture of him sitting there with the helmet on and everything?”
