Page 55 of The One She Can't Forget

MONICA

I hugged Krystal when she showed up with Bryce. “It’s so good to see you!”

She grinned, her perfect smile reminding me why she was Faithmark’s current favorite actress.

“Hey, what about me?” Bryce’s fake outrage at being ignored made me laugh.

“Yeah, yeah. You too, doofus.”

“Is Jake here yet?” he asked as they stepped inside.

“Not yet. Should be any minute though.”

My mom came from the kitchen with her arms open. “There you are! I’m so glad you’re here.”

Bryce made a show of opening his arms in return, but Mom sidestepped him and wrapped Krystal in a hug.

“Et tu, Brute?” Bryce pretended to pull a knife out of his chest.

“Oh hush. You’re not the one who has been in California for two weeks,” Mom chided, then gave him a hug. “I’m just glad to see my favorite future daughter-in-law. Come on in, everyone. We’re out on the deck. Phil is just throwing the burgers on the grill.”

I saw Jake’s truck park under the giant oak tree hanging over the street and stepped out front to greet him as he walked across the yard. “Hey, handsome.”

Jake was in clean, dark jeans and a green button-down that made his eyes shine in the sunlight, the color of the summer grass under my feet.

“Am I late?” he asked.

I shook my head and pressed up on my tiptoes for a kiss. “Not at all.” I grabbed his hand, noticing how chiseled the rolled-up sleeves made his arms look. Seventeen-year-old me had spent entire family dinners watching Jake’s forearms as he shoveled food into his mouth rather impolitely.

Thankfully, those table manners had improved over the years, and as we sat on the back deck under the umbrella with my family and Krystal, everything was perfect. Well, other than the flies we kept shooing away from the food.

“All right, I’m ready to go inside,” Mom announced. I wasn’t the least bit surprised that she was the first one to give up on the outdoor dining experience.

“I’ll come inside too. I forgot how muggy Indiana gets,” Krystal said with wide eyes and a smile, grabbing a few mostly empty plates of food as she followed my mom.

I would have stayed outside, happy to be with my brother, my boyfriend, and my father for a few minutes, but I sensed the guys expected me to go, so I rolled my eyes and headed inside, promising myself I’d come back out in a few minutes.

“Is there anything else we can do for the wedding, Krystal? Money or arrangements we can help with?”

Krystal shook her head. “We really appreciate that, Mrs. Storm. Between Bryce and I, we have more than enough to cover it ourselves. Lily at Bloom’s Farm is giving us a great deal on Storybook Barn. It was a pretty last-minute opening, and I guess Bryce made himself a few friends at the property when he was putting out a fire.”

“Of course, he did,” I said with a smile. “Everyone loves Captain Storm. Surely you’ve figured that out by now?”

Krystal chuckled. “Yes, I believe I have. I’m pretty sure there were some people ready to chase me out of town before things worked out between us.” Mom shook her head and refilled our glasses. “Oh, come on. It’s not that bad, is it?”

“It one hundred percent is, Mom. Bryce and, to a lesser extent, Jake and the rest of the guys at the station, have their own little fan club around here. I get it… I mean, you love the guys who show up when your barn is on fire or when your mom falls down the steps.”

“Or slips on the ice,” Krystal interjected, hearkening back to what I knew had been the impetus for her entire return to Minden this spring. Her mom, Sharon, had slipped on the remains of a late-winter ice storm and fractured her back.

I pointed at her in agreement. “Exactly. I, on the other hand, get to be the mean nurse who tells them that surgery doesn’t have availability until tomorrow or that we won’t give their drug-seeking nephew any painkillers just because he said his neck hurts.”

“I hear plenty of good things about you, too, sweetie. Dolores was just tickled to have you taking care of her sister last year when she came in with that gallbladder attack. She said you were patient and helpful.”

I smiled, the memory of Dolores and her sister coming back as she mentioned it. “Thanks, Mom. I’m not really as pitiful as I sound right now. I just find it funny how some people in this town make such a big deal of these guys. They’re just normal guys, you know? Just because they’re a firefighter doesn’t mean they’ll be a good son-in-law.”

Krystal nodded. “Right? Bryce hates all the hero worship stuff. Makes him uncomfortable.”

“Exactly. Jake says the same thing. Except when it is kids,” I added, suddenly remembering a conversation we must have had before the accident. “He said that kids should have real-life superheroes because hero stories point them to the ultimate hero of Jesus.”

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