Page 45 of Silver Fox Firefighters Next Door

CHAPTER 36

Eve

I snuck out of the cabin the next morning with massive sunglasses covering my swollen eyes and enough shame to weigh down an elephant. I felt like an idiot for trying to make the guys be something they weren’t. They’d given me every chance to be smarter with my heart and I hadn’t bothered to do that at all. As much as I was angry at them, I knew I was at the root of my anger. I’d walked right into another heartbreak. I only felt like it wasn’t healthy to go through two serious heartbreaks in a single year. That couldn’t be good for someone’s health.

I drove into town and parked behind The One and Only since there wasn’t enough space anywhere else. The park was especially full for the third and final day of the battles. I hadn’t been keeping up but I was pretty sure no one had been keeping up with the wins. I was also pretty sure Margaret and the Mayor were hoping for a baby boom in Harmony Valley. I couldn’t say it was the worst city planning I’d ever heard of.

My body felt like lead and all I wanted to do was hide in bed until my neighbors moved away, but I’d given my word about showing up for the third day. The loser singles that kept getting added to the couples’ battles were running low and I was needed to keep up appearances. I’d pretended to be a part of five different battles. Five different couplings I got to watch ignite. If I wasn’t given some kind of sainthood when everything was said and done, something was messed up.

“Eve!”

I looked up and saw Vera jogging towards me. Forcing myself to look and act like I wasn’t miserable, I smiled back at her. “Hey, Vera. What’s up?”

She stopped right in front of me and grabbed my hands. “I met Billie. I love her. She’s perfect for my idiot brothers. You have great taste in friends. Where have you been, by the way? I expected you to come back to my place after a day or two. I didn’t mean to kick you out forever. Come back over. I have ice cream for us. I have to go back to Texas soon but I have a feeling I’ll be back before too long. The Hellstones reproduce big time once they settle down. I think it’s a genetic thing.”

Most of the time I felt like I had whiplash when Vera talked but with my response time slowed from crappy sleep, I struggled hard to sort out what she’d said. “Um…you’re leaving?”

She laughed and threw an arm around my shoulders. “Not for a few days. We have time to bond even more. Plus, I have a story idea I want to run past you.”

Work. I could talk about work. “Sure. You could tell me now. I’m all ears.”

She shook her head. “No way. I’m not missing this circus today. I heard those older ladies talking at the diner and there’s going to be some kind of ceremony? I heard something about a pie. I don’t know. Also, I heard something about a club for dolls…care to explain that one?”

I looked around and was about to explain Doll’s Club but Margaret stepped into my line of sight and wagged her brows at me. I was feeling pretty mortified about going to her about the guys so I flashed a quick smile and tried to turn away. It wasn’t going to work on her, though.

“There you are! I need you, Eve. We’re about to announce the last few matchups of our first annual Battle of the Sexes and I need you close by. Your friend can participate too, if she’d like. I’m sure I can fit her in somewhere.”

Vera stepped closer to Margaret, not sensing the imminent danger the older woman presented. “I heard something about pie.”

Margaret laughed and grabbed Vera’s arm. “Come on, you two. It’s time to show these men what we’re made of.”

Vera got roped into participating in a real battle and I watched from the sideline as she, Janie Fort, and Bianca Givens battled to see if women or men were better at building a blanket fort. Janie, with her last name, gave the women street cred but they were no match against the three soldiers they went up against, especially with Bianca eying up the men the whole time. Vera wasn’t the greatest sport and when she lost, she flipped off the soldiers and marched over to me.

“I’m going to eat that ice cream now. I can’t believe I lost at building a fort. I think it was rigged. They gave us broom sticks and a silk sheet. What kind of fort material is that?” She hesitated and then winked at me. “I’m not really mad. I just have to get out of here before that woman puts me to work again. No amount of pie is going to make me do physical shit when it’s hot out. Come see me later.”

I scoffed and stared after her with a hefty dose of jealousy. I wanted to be like Vera when I grew up so I could get out of situations I didn’t want to be in. Instead, I found myself sitting back, watching several couplings blossom in front of my face, and waiting for my turn to do whatever it was I would need to do.

“Okay, folks! This is the last battle!” Margaret stood on her makeshift stage with Mayor Stevens. “After this, we’re going to tally up the score and announce the winner of Harmony Valley’s First Annual Battle of the Sexes! And we’ll find out who’s going to be Mayor!”

I winced. No way were the two of them going to actually step up or down in the office of Mayor based on a bunch of set up battles. That was crazy, even for Harmony Valley standards.

“Alright, for the ladies! We’ve got Hannah H, Hanna R, and Eve!” Margaret met my gaze and winked before casting a long look at Hanna R. That was the cue. Hanna R was going to find her forever, maybe.

I tuned out Mayor Stevens announcing the men competing and instead watched Hanna. She stood with her arms crossed, glaring at the men who joined her. One of the guys said something which softened her expression, though, and it was clear she cared about them from just that one interaction. As I moved into place next to her, Hannah H and I both pretending like we were going to be racing through an obstacle course with her, I felt my chest tighten and ache. She was going to get her forever. I was going to go home just as alone as I’d arrived at the park.

The whistle blew and I stood there, not even bothering to put on a good show. I put my hands on my waist and stared down at the ground, wishing I’d never left the city. I didn’t want to be with Mark, that ship had sailed, but I wanted to have never met the guys. They were wrong. It wasn’t better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. What I was feeling, the overwhelming sense of loss, was so much bigger than I thought it would be. I’d lost the sense of who I was when Mark married someone else. I’d never built a new sense of me when it came to the guys. We just…existed. I hadn’t had time to plan out the future. I’d been too scared to. I was only losing them and that somehow hurt as much, or more, than what I’d lost with Mark.

“Eve?” Margaret’s laugh echoed through the park and when I looked up at her she was waving her hands like she’d been trying to get my attention for a while. “There you are. You didn’t hear me, but I said we have one more surprise battle that I need you for.”

I swallowed down the urge to scream and nodded. “Okay.”

“This is the true final battle, ladies and men whom I will not call gentlemen. Our Eve is going to battle three men you’ve probably seen around if you started a fire or dialed emergency services lately.”

Mayor Stevens clapped his hands like he was announcing the next Olympic wrestling team. “Nash, Tate, and Aiden!”

CHAPTER 37

Eve

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