Page 5 of Single Mom's Firefighter SEALs
She’d been turning toward the kitchen, but she immediately pivots back to me, her eyes wild as they search my face. If she remembers seeing me, it was with shorter hair and no beard. Regardless, she recognizes my name, and the look on my face must confirm the connection.
She moves behind the armchair that backs to the hallway, instinctively putting herself between me and her son’s room. She looks like she’s seen a ghost, but unfortunately, I’m not one of our team who left this world.
CHAPTER 3
ELENA
“Buck Brennan?”
The man sitting in my living room, who I thought was a stranger, nods.
“Lieutenant Brennan? Tyler’s team leader?” I work at keeping my voice level.
He nods again. “It’s just Buck now.”
“What are you doing here?”
“In Moon Ridge? I live here. I’ve been here a couple of years.” He says this gently, like he’s trying to soften the blow. “I grew up a few towns away.”
“You’ve seen me around town. You knew who I was.” It’s not a question, and his face immediately shows his guilt.
I’ve noticedhimaround town plenty, but apparently I was too busy checking out his broad shoulders and thick, dark beard to realize he was my husband’s SEAL commander.
“I need to tell you I’m not the only one here,” he says, and as soon as the warning sinks in, I prepare for another blow. “Weston Monroe and Calder Black work with me at the fire department, and they also served in my platoon with Tyler.”
It all seems like too much to be a coincidence, but as panic ripples through me, I remind myself Buck Brennan was living here before I arrived. The first time I saw him, within a few weeks of my arrival, he was wearing a Moon Ridge fire department t-shirt. I’m embarrassed to admit how vividly I remember the way the navy blue shirt stretched across his impressive chest and hugged his big biceps.
Back in my old life, I’d probably only ever seen the man once or twice, and one of those times was at the funeral, where my memories are patchy.
We’re over a thousand miles from the naval base, and as my mind races, trying to figure out how we could have all ended up in the same small town, I remember the reason I chose this area. I’m in Moon Ridge specifically because of my job, but I chose the region because Tyler used to talk about it as a plan for our future. He said someone in his platoon told stories about growing up in the mountains, and Tyler thought it would be a great place for T.J. to live. Buck must have been that person.
“Why didn’t any of you tell me?”
I’m pretty sure I know exactly who the other two men are, because something is different about their eye contact when I see them around town. Silly me, I thought I was catching the attention of a fewhot firemen because they might have thought I was attractive. Turns out, they just recognized me as a Navy widow.
Buck looks down at his feet for a moment before his dark eyes meet mine again. “I came up here to get away from the past, and I assumed you did the same. I didn’t want to reopen a wound.”
His jaw is firm and his spine is straight as he sits in the chair, but the man still looks tortured. I believe what he’s telling me, but I guess he doesn’t realize the wound may never close.
“So why are you here tonight,‘off the record’?”I start for the kitchen. “I’m going to have tea. Are you sure you don’t want anything?”
“I’ll have a cup if you’re already making it,” he says. His expression tells me he’d prefer something stronger if I had it.
When I return to the living room a few minutes later, Buck’s still sitting with the same erect posture. He almost looks too big for the room. As I hand him the mug, I swat away a stray thought of how nice it is to have a man in my space again, even though the circumstances are troubling.
After I settle into the other chair, he says, “I suspect the black sedan you saw a few weeks ago is connected to the administration building fire. Have you seen the car before or since?”
My skin prickles. “A few times.”
“Have you ever seen the person driving the car?”
I shake my head as I wonder how much to tell him. Though Buck seems earnest, I don’t know him personally, and I’m not sure whether his SEAL connections make him more or less trustworthy. I don’t have much to lose, however, now that trouble’s found me in this little town. I don’t have any other good options, either.
“Do you think the person might be connected to the school?” he asks.
Again, I shake my head. “I think he followed me here from San Diego.”
Buck goes still except for the arch of a brow.
