Letters of Love (Green Division Series Book #3) Read Online Free Page A

from hysterical to depressed.

“These boys are good.  They’ll do everything they can to save them.  It looks like they are getting control.”

“It’s all my fault.  I can’t believe I forgot that fucking space heater.  Stupid.  So fucking stupid.”  She hid her face in the crook of his neck.

“You’re not stupid.”  He found his sympathetic tone.  “It was an accident.  Accidents happen to us all.”

“Have you ever accidentally burned down a building?”

No.   “Not yet.”

“I’m just—” she sniffed.  “I can’t believe this.”  
     
    She fully cried.  She was progressing through the stages of grief at a rapid pace.

Ben played therapist once again.  It would be more profitable to be a therapist than work as a trooper, maybe that was his calling.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized.

“Don’t be sorry.”  Ben had held out on returning her embrace, but gave in.  “I’m sorry it happened to you.”

“Me too.”  She gasped for air between crying.

“It’s okay,” Ben said in a soothing voice.  “It’s going to be alright.”
     
    *****
     
    Aubrey felt like it all was a dream.  And prayed to wake up.  But, she didn’t.  It was real and the reality was, her business was gone.  A complete loss.  She was too embarrassed to look up at the stranger who held her close without complaint.  He brought her comfort and security, two things she very much needed.  The voice sounded familiar, but she didn’t care.  It wasn’t a concern of hers at that moment.  What mattered was the bakery and it was gone.

“Aubrey!” Jill yelled from a distance.  

Aubrey raised her head from the strangers shoulder and looked for Jill.  She was on the sidewalk behind a fire truck blocking the scene.

“Jill!” she yelled back.  It was then she saw the Good Samaritan’s face.  Only it wasn’t a Good Samaritan.  “You?”  

Aubrey’s eyes doubled in size and she gasped at the sight of him.

“You—”  She let go of him and stepped back as though he was a leper.  “Why?  What—”
She couldn’t find the words to express her confusion.   Why was he holding me?  That was the question on her mind.  Every time something went wrong, there he was.  

She pried herself away from him, shoved his jacket into his chest, and jogged to the sidewalk into Jill’s arms.  

“Hun, I’m sorry.”  Jill stroked her hair.  “I’m so sorry.”

“I guess I’m not going out with you tomorrow,” Aubrey tried for a joke.

“We’ll be wherever you are, doing whatever you want to do.”

Aubrey turned around and looked at the flames jumping from the roof.  And then to Trooper Asshole.  

“Come over to the house and you can cry with me.”

Jill wiped the tears from Aubrey’s face.

“We’ll bring a bottle of wine and the tissues.”  

“You better bring more than one box of tissues.”  

Jill smoothed her bangs from her face.  “We’ll make it two bottles of wine too.”

Hours later Aubrey was released from the scene.  Home.  Bed.  Stare at ceiling.  Sleep was not in the cards.
     
    *****
     
    Ben stared at the ceiling above his bed.  Why did he care?  Toad was...Toad.  He shouldn’t have her on his mind.  

“Aghhhh, go to sleep.”  Ben wiped his eyes.  He couldn’t get her off his mind.  It wasn’t because he was worried about her.  He wasn’t.  No way in hell was he worried about her.  He was...too tired to sleep. That was it.  
 

CHAPTER FOUR

Saturday.  Aubrey didn’t want to get out of bed.  If not for a training session with one of her patients in the early afternoon she wouldn’t have moved until Jill and Taylor were to come over.  Even then she might not have budged.

RING RING

“Hello.”

“Aubee honey, you should have called!” Aubrey’s mother said very dramatically.

“I wasn’t going to wake you up, there’s nothing you could do.”

“How are you doing?”

“I’ve