Jeremy nodded.
“We roasted a turkey and mashed up some potatoes. That was it. We ate right over there.” He pointed to the corner of the station. “Huddled around a card table with a few folding chairs. It was nothing like this, but special nonetheless.”
“I bet it was,” Jeremy answered honestly. “I’m told Roy Burton was one of those who came that first year.” He felt a twinge of sadness that Bella’s grandfather had been alone for Christmas after his wife passed.
“It’s true.” Ed nodded. “It was the first year he’d moved here after his wife died. He’d insisted on staying in town instead of going to visit his family. That was the year we decided Roy would make a good Santa.”
“And all these years later, he still puts on that suit.” Jeremy smiled.
The two men stood in silence for a few minutes, each lost in their own thoughts before Ed cleared his throat, startling Jeremy. “You’ll make a fine chief one day, son.”
The comment was unexpected and it took Jeremy off guard. Of course, he hoped to be chief one day; it was his dream and his goal since he was a child. But at twenty-seven, he was too young for the job, wasn’t he? There’d been rumors that Ed Walker was getting ready to retire, that he was spending more and more time with a special lady and now that his daughter, Sarah, had married Brody and was settled down again, Ed might just be ready to move on.
But all of that was rumor and hearsay. Jeremy didn’t really expect the older man to walk away from his career. Not yet.
He looked at Ed, his face hard to read. “One day, sir. One day.”
Ed patted his back and smiled. “One day,” he repeated.
“I can’t do it.” Bella walked to the kitchen window and stared out at the snow-covered mountain in an effort to make sense of what Kyle was saying to her.
“You can’t—”
“No.” She cut him off. “I can do it. It’s just…”
Shit.
She took a breath and let it out slowly.
“It’s just that I didn’t realize the gig was tomorrow.” Bella dropped her head in her free hand and massaged her temples. If the gig was tomorrow, that meant…
“I need you here tonight, Bella. We need to rehearse. I told you in my voicemail.” He sighed, that long, exasperated sigh that drove Bella crazy. “I don’t understand why you’re not already here.”
“You didn’t say anything about…” She drifted away as she remembered how she’d held the phone away while she celebrated with her little dance in Jeremy’s kitchen. It was entirely likely she’d missed some of the finer details of the message. “Shit.”
“Exactly, Bella. Shit. I need you to get here right now. How long of a drive is—”
“Two hours, if the weather is good.”
“Two hours?” Bella could practically see Kyle pacing the floor of his studio apartment where they rehearsed. The vein in his forehead was no doubt pulsing.
She looked out the window again. Blue sky. “If I leave right now, I might be able to get there a bit faster.”
But leaving right away would mean missing the Christmas Eve feast. It would mean missing the holiday with Papa. The last holiday in his house. It would mean…not saying good-bye to Jeremy.
But it would also mean the biggest opportunity she’d ever had. That she might ever have.
It was an impossible choice.
“Get here right away, Bella. I mean it. No more chances after this. I—”
“I got it, Kyle.” There was no choice. “I’ll be there.”
Chapter 9
Bella had barely caught her breath when Kyle barked out the orders.
“Take it from the top!”
The top?
“Like that last song, or—”
“The top of the set,” Kyle interrupted before she could finish the question.
It was a stupid one, anyway. She’d worked with Kyle and the rest of the band for long enough to know how they worked. Hard.
It was how they’d managed to be as successful as they had been so far. And it’s exactly why they’d gotten the Christmas gig. They were all perfectionists. It was one of the things that Bella liked most about them all.
But they’d been at it for hours. It was past midnight already. True to her word, Bella had left Glacier Falls right away. She’d taken enough time to talk to Papa, apologizing profusely for leaving him when they had such plans for Christmas in the house. Just the way she knew he’d be, Papa was gracious and supportive. He insisted that she leave right away and follow her dream.
“Dreams don’t work if you don’t, Bella. When an opportunity comes up, you need to take it or you’ll spend the rest of your life regretting it.”
She’d swallowed back the lump in her throat, taken the bag of food he packed for her while she was throwing her clothes in a bag, and with one last long hug and the promise to come back as soon as she could, she’d left.
“One more,” Bella told the guys as she chugged back a bottle of water. “I need to rest my voice if I’m going to be at the top of my game tomorrow.”
“And we have a sound check at five,” Kyle added. “Which means I want one final run through at nine sharp.”
She shook her head a little as she capped the bottle and set it down. But as soon as Bella had straightened and stood up, there was a smile on her face. Her dreams were coming true. This was everything she wanted. And she was going to get it.
As they started the set list again, Bella lost herself in the music. She closed her eyes and poured everything she had into song after song, because she knew if she gave herself the space to start thinking, she’d be lost.
It was the same reason she’d turned her phone to silent and ignored all the text messages and calls from Jeremy. She couldn’t allow herself the opportunity to dwell on Glacier Falls, not even for a moment. She needed to focus.
It was the only way.
“She’s gone.”
Gone.
Bella was gone.
Jeremy replayed the conversation he’d had with Roy earlier that night at least a dozen times in his head. Maybe more. It still didn’t make any sense.
“But she didn’t call.”
The old man had simply shrugged, but the look on his face was clear. He felt sorry for Jeremy. Or maybe it was for himself.
Bella had left him, too.
But at least he’d gotten to say good-bye.
“I don’t understand…”
Jeremy knew he’d sounded like a fool. A weak, twisted up by a woman, fool but he couldn’t help it.
Earlier that day, he’d been on top of the world, ready to tell her that he was falling for her. Hard.
And she’d just left?
Dammit, he was a fool.
He’d made small talk with Roy for a few more minutes, but Jeremy didn’t even remember what they’d spoken about except for a brief conversation about how he’d pick the older man up and take him to the firehall for the Christmas Eve dinner the next night. With Bella gone, he’d need a ride and…
“Dammit, Bella.” He spoke to his empty apartment and kicked at a shoe that he hadn’t bothered to put away.