We Wish You a HappilyEver After (Ever After, #5) - Elena Aitken Page 0,3
oven. Maybe she’d just order takeout?
“Don’t worry about it.” Jeremy put a hand on her arm and instantly, her body reacted the way it had earlier when he’d stopped her from falling. “But I do think we should talk about all the other calls we’ve had to Roy’s place lately and—”
“Jer?”
An impossibly young woman dressed in matching fire gear appeared in the doorway.
“We gotta go.”
Jeremy nodded in her direction. “Busy day. But we should talk later, okay? Are you in town for a bit?”
Bella nodded.
“Great.” Jeremy squeezed her arm one more time before he turned and left the room.
She heard him say good-bye to her grandfather before he left. Then the door closed with a thunk, and Bella was left feeling lonely and oddly excited all at the same time.
Chapter Two
Bella.
Bella Hoff—Burton. He mentally corrected himself. It did have a nice ring to it.
Bella Burton.
What were the odds?
Jeremy shoveled another load of snow from the drive of the firehall and tossed it over his shoulder. It had been snowing for the last two days straight, which wasn’t unexpected for December in the mountain town of Glacier Falls, not at all. But it never failed to take some residents, and particularly some of the tourists, off guard and cause some very busy days as Jeremy and the rest of the crew responded to a never-ending list of fender benders and cars in a ditch.
Fortunately, none of the incidents he’d responded to had been very serious and staying busy wasn’t so bad.
Unless you had other things you wanted to do.
Like talk to Bella Burton again.
And he very much wanted to do that.
And not just about her grandfather, although discussing Roy Burton’s memory loss was also at the top of his list. Particularly because Ed Walker, the fire chief, had asked him more than once about Roy’s status. Ed and Roy were old friends, which was part of the reason Ed wanted to take a bit more of a hands-off approach—he didn’t want his feelings about Roy to compromise the decision—and also because Jeremy was certain he was trying to give him more responsibilities. Perhaps in preparation to taking over as chief one day. Either way, Jeremy wasn’t the only one who was concerned about the old man’s wellbeing.
Obviously, if Bella was in town, Roy’s family must also have concerns. Not that they’d been to visit him in…well, probably since the last time he’d seen Bella.
Bella.
Jeremy shook his head with a low whistle.
Who would have thought she’d grow up to be so friggin’ gorgeous?
He would have.
At least, when he was in his late teens, he used to daydream about how she’d turned out. And he’d had some damn good guesses. She’d been sixteen the last time he’d seen her. He’d been fourteen. Barely more than a child. But old enough to experience his very first, very strong, crush on a girl and experience his first kiss.
And his second.
For almost three years, when he was a kid, he’d been obsessed with Bella Burton. Old enough to notice that Bella was…Bella.
When he was a kid, her parents would drive her out to Glacier Falls and drop her off as quickly as they could before jetting back to the city to spend a summer child-free while Bella ran wild in the woods with her grandfather, and whatever kids her age were available to play. Which, for at least a few years, included Jeremy.
His summers with her were some of his fondest memories, and not just because of the kisses on that last hot August night before she’d gone home for school. In the time before the internet and texting, they’d exchanged a few phone calls, and only one or two letters—turned out, Jeremy wasn’t much of a pen pal—but it had fizzled out and when she hadn’t come to visit the next summer, he’d gradually forgotten about her.
Mostly. Not entirely.
She’d always been at the back of his mind.
An unanswered question.
And now…here she was.
Finally, after thirteen years he could—what?
What could he do?
Jeremy couldn’t help but laugh at himself because obviously his fantasies had gotten the better of him. They’d been kids last time they’d seen each other, playing kids’ games.
A first kiss at fourteen was a whole lot different than—well, everything else. And just because his imagination had spun elaborate stories of what could have been didn’t mean that was reality.
No.
The reality was that Bella Burton may be back in town, but they were virtual strangers to each other. A few shared summers when they were kids