Scars

  Scars

  Avery Ford

  Copyright © 2017 by Avery Ford

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Description

  1. Caleb

  2. Henry

  3. Caleb

  4. Henry

  5. Henry

  6. Caleb

  7. Henry

  8. Caleb

  9. Henry

  10. Caleb

  11. Henry

  12. Caleb

  13. Caleb

  14. Henry

  15. Caleb

  16. Henry

  17. Caleb

  18. Henry

  19. Caleb

  20. Henry

  21. Caleb

  22. Henry

  23. Caleb

  24. Henry

  25. Caleb

  26. Caleb

  27. Henry

  28. Caleb

  29. Henry

  30. Caleb

  31. Henry

  32. Caleb

  33. Henry

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  Also by Avery Ford

  Description

  Caleb always knew that his work was dangerous. For years, he'd thrived on the adrenaline rush, the danger thrumming under his skin, the tangible efforts of his labor a secondary reward when the flames flickered away to nothing and he was able to save a building, or save a life. He'd thought that the Johnson City Fire Station 10 was his home - until he got caught in a building with no way out.

  Henry wasn't always shy and meek. As a child he'd always been buoyant and vivacious; in university he was the life of the party. And then he met Pritchard, and before he knew it he was skipping classes, flunking out, and isolated from his friends and family on threat of Pritchard's fists. Finally finding the courage to leave him was the best thing that Henry's ever done for himself - and also the hardest.

  Caleb and Henry are both trying to put their lives back together, both scarred in different and lingering ways. Henry's bruises might have healed - but Pritchard's fists had left their mark on his soul. And Caleb's body is still healing from the burns and broken bones he'd suffered in that burning house. Neither of them are looking for love. Neither of them want someone to look beyond the surface. A quick jolt of pleasure is all they need before going their separate ways again... right?

  Caleb

  HOT SALE! GET THE REST OF THIS TRILOGY FOR $1.98 FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!!

  Slander: Book 2

  Secrets: Book 3

  “You weren’t gonna try to move all your stuff on your own, were you, Caleb?”

  Caleb wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his arm and narrowed his eyes in focus as he looked toward the sound. The pressure garments he wore beneath his street clothes made even simple tasks too hot for comfort, but he didn’t care to remove them. The front door to his apartment building was wedged open, and he’d just dumped the first few packed boxes outside of it. A U-Haul truck was parked not far from the front door and behind it, another vehicle had pulled up. Despite the eye patch over his right eye, Caleb recognized every face inside.

  The guys from the station.

  “I was definitely going to try,” Caleb said as he shook his head. “What are you guys doing here?”

  “Think we’d let you go without saying goodbye?” Jacob pushed open the passenger side door and stepped onto the curb as Patrick parked the car and then Ben, Kyle, and Stewart exited from the back. “Not everyone could make it out, but all of us are here in spirit. You don’t let one of your own go without seeing him off.”

  “There was already the goodbye party.” Caleb watched as the guys approached. “I was pretty sure that you’d already seen me off.”

  Jacob passed him by, heading right for the open door. He clapped Caleb on the back as he passed. “Nope. If you think it’s that easy to shake us, you’re out of your mind.” He lowered his voice. “No one at the station wants to say goodbye, but we understand why you’re going.”

  The guys at the Johnson City Fire Station 10 had been family for as long as Caleb had been in northern Texas, and it hurt to say goodbye. More than anything, Caleb wanted to stay. Firefighting had been his passion since the first time he’d volunteered at the station back home in Blue Mountain, North Carolina, and to say goodbye to the career he’d built for himself hurt his heart so deeply it was almost physical.

  “What’s your apartment number?” Ben asked as Jacob climbed the stairs, determined to find Caleb’s apartment all on his own.

  “303, but—”

  “We’re on it.” The men swept into the lobby and started the trip up the stairs to the third floor. As they climbed, Caleb’s lifelong best friend from Blue Mountain, Dakota, headed down, carrying a stack of boxes.

  Caleb sighed and shook his head. The guys from the station meant well, but he’d wanted to do this on his own. After the accident, he was still striving to prove himself to the world. Moving his things into the U-Haul was supposed to have been a declaration that he was okay.

  Even if it isn’t true, Caleb thought bitterly.

  The accident had scarred him more than just emotionally — he had been visibly disfigured by it. Functionality of his right hand was recovering slowly, but it still wasn’t where it should be. There was no telling how long it would be before his eye recovered enough to see again…and that’s if it ever did recover.

  “Uh, guys from work?” Kota asked. He’d gone by the nickname ever since childhood, when Harry Lowe in the third grade teased him about being named after a state.

  “Yeah.” Caleb scratched at the back of his head, trying not to show how crestfallen he was.

  “They’re gonna help you move?”

  “Looks like it.”

  “You want to talk about it?” Kota set the boxes down. They were starting with the fragile stuff, loading it in the back in the protective overhang. “You’re not fooling me, Caleb. I can see right through you. You’re not happy they’re here.”

  “I guess.” Caleb crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall by the apartment’s front door. He exhaled heavily. “I mean, I’m happy to see them—”

  “But you’d rather they be somewhere else. I get it. If you guys are anywhere near as close as I am with the unit back home, then I know first-hand how annoying they can be.”

  While Caleb’s ambition lay in fighting fires, Kota had gone on to become an officer of the law. Physically fit and with a strong sense of right and wrong, he was the perfect choice.

  Kota scratched at the dark stubble across his jaw and shook his head slowly. “Listen, I’m used to dealing with unpleasant situations and ornery people. You want me to tell them to buzz off? I’ll get them to leave. I know what this means to you.”

  “No.” Caleb shook his head. “Let’s just get these fragile boxes packed up before they start bringing the heavy furniture down. It’s not worth hurting anyone’s feelings.”

  With a hard look, Kota picked up the boxes again and brought them to the back of the U-Haul. He’d always been overprotective of Caleb, and while Caleb appreciated it, he wanted more than anything to be treated like a capable, independent member of society. And that meant all of the babying had to stop.

  “Lemme take those.” Kota reached down for Caleb’s boxes as he brought them to the back of the truck. Frustration clenched in Caleb’s stomach and choked at his chest. He set the boxes down on the bed of the truck a little harder than he needed to. “Hey! Whoa, careful there. These are fragile, right?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Caleb mu
mbled. “I’m going to go up to get the rest of it.”

  While Kota stacked the boxes in the overhang, Caleb returned to the apartment building and made his way up the stairs. Ben and Patrick were on the second floor landing, struggling to angle Caleb’s couch around the corner.

  “Stewart’s manhandling your television down the stairs up there by himself,” Ben said as Caleb ducked under the couch and continued to climb. “Might wanna ask Kyle if he’ll stop dicking around and help him before he drops it.”

  “Thanks,” Caleb said, the cheer drained from his voice. “I’ll go up there and see what’s going on.”

  By the time he reached the third floor, he was out of breath. A short month ago he’d been released from the hospital, and he was still getting back on his feet. The skin grafts and prolonged stay at the hospital weren’t the only obstacles to his recovery — smoke had damaged his lungs, and Caleb experienced shortness of breath with even minimal exertion. On the landing, he took a moment to breathe in deeply and fill his chest, wiping fresh sweat from his brow. As the back of his hand crossed his brow, he felt the small patch of uneven skin that rose over his eyebrow and winced.

  It’s hard to forget and move on when my face still looks like this.

  Inside his apartment, Kyle was giving Jacob and Stewart directions as Jacob moved furniture closer to the door for easy pickup, and Stewart tried his best to get a good hold on Caleb’s television. The boxes containing fragile belongings stacked by the door went untouched.

  “Kyle,” Caleb said.

  Kyle turned to look at him. “Yeah?”

  “Come over here and take these fragile boxes down first. My buddy and I are loading up the overhang at the back of the truck and we need those to go up before the passage is obscured. I’ll help Stewart bring the TV down.”

  “Negative.” Kyle shook his head. “You go supervise down below and help those buffoons with the couch get it the rest of the way down the stairs without wrecking the place. You should have seen them try to go through the door! I’ll help Stewart with the TV, and Jacob will grab the boxes.”

  “Already on it.” Jacob moved to the stack of boxes and hefted a stack into his arms. “Let’s get you back to the pavement. Since we can’t help you unpack, you should make sure the truck’s loaded the way you want. Best way to do that is to supervise.”

  The teamwork they shared went on even outside the workplace. Every man in the department was efficient and fit into their team like jigsaw pieces. Caleb knew exactly what they were uniting to do — they didn’t want him to lift a finger. The five of them had come on behalf of the station because none of them thought Caleb was in good shape following the accident.

  They were right, but it was hard not to explode at them and give them a piece of his mind.

  Calm down. They’re here to help. They only want the best for you.

  Somehow, thinking it didn’t help.

  Upon their insistence, he headed back down the stairs and guided Ben and Patrick through their struggle with the couch through the tight stairwell. By the time they made it through the front doors, the television was right behind them. Kota scrambled to get the fragile boxes packed tight before the heavy items made their way onto the truck.

  With so many hands helping, they were going to be on the road quicker than Caleb anticipated.

  As his brothers from the firehouse scrambled in and out of the apartment, carrying all of Caleb’s worldly possessions through the door, Caleb leaned back against the wall and watched. His old and his new life collided. Kota took to the guys easily, laughing and smiling even though he shot Caleb concerned looks from time to time. Caleb’s ex-coworkers joked as they worked, their muscular bodies making quick work of even the heaviest pieces of furniture.

  Two worlds he was caught between.

  Less than an hour later, the U-Haul was packed and the apartment was empty. Kota clapped hands with Jacob to thank him for his help, and the rest of the guys approached where Caleb stood to supervise.

  “We’re all going to miss you,” Kyle said as he dropped a hand on Caleb’s shoulder and pulled him into a hug. “Sad to see you go.”

  “You ever feel like you can come back, call the chief,” Stewart insisted. “I think no matter what, we’ll always have a spot for you here in Johnson City.”

  “For sure.” Ben squeezed Caleb’s arm. So far, all of them had been careful not to touch his scars. Caleb wasn’t sure if it was because they were afraid, or if they thought the injuries still hurt. Maybe it was a little of both. In fact, Caleb was surprised they were willing to touch him at all. He was hideous. “We’re losing a good man today. The chief knows it, and he wanted to be here to see you go, but you know how it is.”

  “Right.” Caleb returned their affection when it was given, and once all of them had made their way over to give him their best wishes — Jacob included — the guys stood back.

  Caleb faced the men who’d once been his every day, one last time. His chest tightened at the knowledge that the jokes they shared and the memories they’d shaped together would eventually fade away.

  Caleb never thought he’d have to leave Johnson City, but everything had changed. Until his health returned and he was able to figure out what he could and couldn’t do with his future, he had no choice but to return to the hometown he’d left behind.

  “Keep in touch,” Patrick said as they stood by the car. “We’re all going to be rooting for you out there. If you need anything — anything at all — you call us.”

  The irritation and disappointment Caleb felt at being forced to take it easy while everyone else loaded the truck for him vanished. These were his last minutes with the men he considered family. There was no way he could stay angry.

  It was goodbye.

  “I’m gonna go wait in the truck,” Kota said. “Thanks for helping out, you guys. Won’t be so sore unpacking tomorrow thanks to you.”

  “It’s no big deal. You just make sure you take care of him,” Jacob said.

  “No need.” Caleb stepped forward as Kota waved a goodbye and climbed into the cabin. “I’m plenty capable of taking care of myself. I’m down, but I’m not out.”

  “We know.” Jacob grinned. “But there’s no harm in making sure of it. We don’t have eyes up there in North Carolina, so we’ll take all the help we can get. We know how stubborn you are. It’s what got you hurt in the first place.”

  Caleb struggled with the need to recoil as the memories returned in flashes, each of them painful.

  The heavy fire-resistant suit dragged at his limbs. Pounds of equipment strapped to his back weighed him down. Dark, heavy smoke rose up around him, and the house creaked and groaned as fire ate at the wood and weakened it.

  “Anders, get back here!” The chief called him back, but Caleb didn’t listen.

  He shook his head to clear his mind and clapped a hand on Jacob’s arm instead. “Thanks for looking out for me.”

  “Someone’s got to,” Ben said as he closed in and ruffled Caleb’s hair. “Catch you later, Anders. You’re a good man.”

  “See you around,” Patrick said.

  “On the flip side, and all that.” Stewart patted him on the back.

  The goodbyes were over, and the men Caleb had worked with for half a decade piled into their car and left. Caleb leaned against the U-Haul to watch until their car was out of sight.

  This was it. There was no turning back. He’d even sold his car two days ago.

  “You coming in?” Kota asked from the driver’s seat. Fourteen hours was a long time to be on the road, and these days, Caleb’s reflexes weren’t what they used to be. The doctors said that over time he’d see improvement, both in lung function and in neurological strength, but Caleb wasn’t able to sit around and wait for that to happen. Life went on, and he had to go on with it, but still, he wasn’t entirely comfortable on the road.

  “Yeah.” Caleb pulled open the door and climbed into the cab. When he was settled, Kota started the engine and eased t
he U-Haul away from the curb. The GPS was already set up with the route back to Blue Mountain.

  They were on their way.

  “You took that alright,” Kota remarked. He rounded the corner to head toward the interstate. “Not great, but alright.”

  “You know me too damn well,” Caleb shot back. He crossed his arms over his chest and settled back in the seat.

  “Yup, I do. It’s a consequence of being your best friend since we were in diapers.” Kota snorted. “Luckily, I also know how to make you feel better. Once we get back, Mrs. Turner’s insisting you drop by the diner. She’s baking you a cinnamon apple pie to welcome you home. I figure we can kick back with the pie and some ESPN. Ian Summult’s been really ripping it up.”

  Mrs. Turner ran the diner, and for as long as Caleb could remember, she’d been a constant source of support for him and Kota. As nice as it would be to see her again, Caleb dreaded the reunion. The last time he’d been in Blue Mountain, he’d been whole.

  Now he was injured. Imperfect.

  “I don’t know,” Caleb sighed.

  “Nah, you know.” They merged onto the interstate and gained speed. Caleb watched from the window as Johnson City faded from view. “No one’s going to care that you look different now, Caleb. Your burns don’t change who you are, and who you are is what everyone in Blue Mountain loves. You have nothing to worry about.”

  Caleb still wasn’t so sure that was true.