Taking Chances: Tangled Up Part 27

Looking into a face she knew as well as her own, her heart ached. She wanted him. But he didn't want her the way she was. He wanted a version of her that she wasn't even sure existed. She had never been romantic.

She needed some ice cream.

She needed a lot of ice cream.

"I'll see you at the site tomorrow?" she asked, starting for her car again.

He didn't stop her this time or balk at the change of topic. "At the update meeting, probably."

Right, the morning strategy meeting in the mayor's office.

"Right. I'll be there."

"After that I'm starting at the school," Max said. "Then probably heading back to the farm. I need to check on the Wilson place, too."

"I'm up for it," she said. "Whatever. But I don't want you to dump me on someone else."

She might not be able to give him what he needed in the relationship department, but he would give her what she needed in her emergency-management training. Dammit.

"I'm not dumping you, Bree."

There was something in his voice that made her feel like crying again, but she wasn't going to a.n.a.lyze that. Didn't matter.

Nothing had changed. They were still them. Still friends. Still fellow adventurers. She still did, by G.o.d, give him things no one else did.

And if she was suddenly noticing a bunch of really tempting things about him, well, that was tough. She and Max were perfect together in almost every way.

Almost was going to have to be good enough.

It didn't matter that almost was one of her least favorite words.

Almost making it to the top, almost nailing the landing, almost making the curve-those didn't work in her world.

But maybe she was going to have to get used to being almost the perfect woman for Max.

Friday morning started off the same way Thursday morning had. They were in Frank's office where everyone gathered for updates on how things were going. Max and Bree were acting like friends who were also professional colleagues and not like two people who had screwed their brains out in the boys' locker room at the school.

"Morning, everyone."

Bree turned in her chair in front of Frank's desk to watch as Jake strode in with a huge smile.

"Morning, Sunshine," Max said drily from where he was leaning against the wall.

"How are things around town?" Jake asked Avery as he handed her a folder.

"Um, great," she said. "But you know that."

"How's the mental health of our fair city, Doc?" Jake asked Kit.

Kit looked from Avery to Jake. "Fine. For the most part."

"Great, good job." Jake handed Dillon a folder. "And the physical health?"

"Improving." Dillon lifted an eyebrow at Jake but took the folder.

"How about the public safety?" Jake asked Bree.

"Everyone's safe and sound, Sergeant Major." Bree gave him a little salute, and she got a grin, and a folder, in return.

She was glad someone could be upbeat.

"Mr. Mayor, our fearless leader." Jake handed Frank a folder. "How are things looking from your perspective?"

"Couldn't be better, Jake," Frank said happily. He clapped Jake on the shoulder. "You've all done a h.e.l.l of a job so far."

Jake stepped in front of Shelby. "And my beautiful, sweet, caring, impetuous cousin. Are you happy?"

She gave him a funny look. "You're acting weird. What's going on?"

"I'm here to tell Frank the idea he and I were kicking around the other day is going to go."

"The idea?" Shelby looked at her husband.

Frank's head came up quickly. "Really?"

Jake nodded. "I've been thinking about it a lot, and I think we should do it."

"When was this?" Shelby asked.

"We were talking about it Tuesday morning," Frank said. "I was with the reporters, answering a million questions about how it felt to get hit for the third time in a row, what I thought about this area getting hit ten times total, all those stupid-a.s.s questions, when one of the reporters asked me what advice I would give to other communities."

"It occurred to us that our tornado epidemic has made us the experts in preparing and recovering from them," Jake said.

"A training center?" Max and Dillon asked at the same time, looking up from their folders.

Bree quickly flipped hers open as well.

Sure enough, Jake had just handed them all an outline for an emergency-management training center in Chance.

"It's perfect timing," Frank said to Max and Dillon. "We can get your input on everything."

"What do you mean?" Dillon asked.

"Everything from our warning systems to our posttrauma care has been tested over and over," Frank said. "And, if I do say so myself, we're d.a.m.ned good at all of it. We can use our knowledge and experience to train other communities. Take the negativity of our repeated hits and turn it all into something good."

Bree looked up, her heart knocking against her sternum. Holy . . .

Jake continued the commentary. "Small communities like Chance, and ones smaller, don't have the resources bigger cities do. And preparation and recovery in a rural area is different than in a metropolitan area anyway. Small towns are, as you all know, dependent on volunteers mostly. This resource-and-training center will focus on those areas and people. We'll give them specific hands-on training they can take home and implement immediately."

Bree's gaze flew to Max. He was looking at Jake, but as if he felt her eyes on him, he looked over. His expression was hard to read.

Had he known about this? Did this have anything to do with him talking her up to Ashley? But he couldn't have known Ashley would come to Bree. Ashley had been pretty obviously enamored with Max. And he definitely couldn't have known all the thoughts that had gone through Bree's mind with Ashley's request for mentorship. He couldn't have known that the idea of training and teaching would excite her. She hadn't even known that.

Of course the idea of instructing skydiving students had given her a little thrill. Sharing her pa.s.sion and knowledge with people who were drawn to something she loved would be fun. Exciting, even. Had Max known that about her? He clearly felt that way himself.

But she knew he would want to be a big part of this. Max loved teaching and training. It was a lot of what he did now in Oklahoma. But the training center would make it possible for him to do it here.

He'd said the other night that he wanted to come home.

Was the training center enough to give him a full-time position?

Bree forced herself to breathe. She could not hyperventilate in the middle of a meeting in Frank's office.

"We want the city departments involved," Jake said, and Bree realized the rushing in her ears had made her tune out a lot of what he'd been saying.

"It's one thing to go in as an outsider to a community that's been affected; it's another to be from the community," Jake went on. "You can all offer a fantastic perspective on what it takes to rebuild from the inside and to work as a team. Typically we pull in specialists from all over to lead a summit or training session. This will be unique in that people will be learning from a team that works together all the time. Our students would be coming here. They will see up close and in person what it's like in a community that's been rebuilt, how the town prepares, the immediate action plan, the long-term efforts, everything."

The word team made Bree look around the room. She would get to work on this with Avery and Kit, and Jake and Max. Maybe even Dillon. They really did represent a h.e.l.l of a team for this. And a surge of excitement managed to make it past the panic.

She loved working with all of them, and the last few days working with Max had been awesome. Yesterday had been a little awkward, but once they'd gotten to work, it had been good. She'd found herself impressed with him again, and intent on learning what she could from him.

This training center could be an exciting step in her career, too. If the idea of working with Ashley had seemed fun, this was a thousand times more so.

Bree felt a little flutter in her stomach at that as well. Chief Mitch.e.l.l wanted her doing more. Had he known about this plan? Teaching other cops how to handle emergencies in their hometowns based on her experience in Chance?

"Yes, yes, we'll want all of you involved," Frank agreed.

"We're going to share everything we know," Jake said. "From the off-season education and preparations to what happens on the day of a storm to what's happening the next day, the next week, the next month. And we won't need a specific building. We can set up the headquarters here at city hall and use the conference rooms. But we'll take our students all over town-to the police station and the fire station to witness some reenactments of what the day of a storm might look like, to some of the businesses and even homes that have been hit and rebuilt. The whole town will be like a living, working resource center."

"Avery and Bree, we would want you to walk other departments through the various stages of preparing and recovery," Frank said enthusiastically. "You can cover what your departments need to know, your roles before, during, and after the storm. All of that. Jake will be happy to help you, I'm sure."

Bree liked the sound of all this. It would be a new challenge for her.

"We've done this before, without Jake," Avery said.

"I'm sure Avery and Bree will do a great job," Jake said. "Though if you'd like some input, all you have to do is ask."

Bree couldn't help but look at Max again. She needed to step up her training with him over the next few days. She wanted to know everything she needed to know. If she was going to be teaching others, she had to be fully prepared.

"I'd be happy to consult on emergency medical preparedness," Dillon offered. "We could run some drills. Maybe have some past injury victims talk about their experiences."

"Good idea," Frank agreed. "That would be good for those survivors, too, to focus on the positives."

Kit nodded. "I like that idea."

Bree glanced at her friend. Wow, Kit was saying Dillon had come up with something good? Things really had shifted in Chance.

"This is so great," Shelby suddenly gushed.

Everyone looked at the bubbly blonde. She was practically bouncing up and down.

"All of this is part of the overall message we want to send-to the people outside Chance and to the people who live here," Shelby said. "We want everyone who lives here to stay and feel safe, and we want people to not be afraid to visit or consider moving here. So we'll focus on expecting the unexpected."

"Expecting the unexpected?" Bree asked.

Shelby nodded. "Tornadoes aren't unexpected here. Neither is the damage or the cleanup needed afterward. That's our message. We know the storms will come, but that doesn't change our happiness. We live our lives fully in spite of knowing the rain will come again. We plant flowers in spite of the certainty of hail. We rebuild our churches and schools even though we know they could get knocked down. We appreciate the sunny, warm days more because we know not every day is like that."

The room was quiet for several long moments. That was all really nice. And true. Bree felt a swell of pride for her hometown.

No, it wasn't exciting all the time. At least not in the sense that jumping out of a plane was exciting. But she felt a definite thrill at the idea of working with her best friends, people she admired, on something that would show off their town and help other communities. It was a different kind of excitement. It was like what Maggie had said the other day about life with her husband and kids. It was a deeper kind of excitement. More of a steady buzz rather than an acute rush.

It was a good feeling that could be sustained. The only way to keep getting the rush from a skydive was to keep jumping.

This felt more . . . satisfying.

"We pull together," Shelby went on. "The storms remind us what's important and who is important." She gave them each a beatific smile.

"Nicely said," Jake finally responded.

"And June will be our big month," Frank said. "We'll train all year, but we can invite people to Chance in June to see us in action."

All year.

Yes, this could definitely be complicated. But this could be good for both of their careers, and Max wanted to come home. How could she be okay knowing she was the reason he wasn't in Chance where he wanted to be?

They went on for a little while about their ideas for the center, a museum about Chance and their tornado history, various drills they could run, and how to involve multiple city departments.

"It's perfect," Shelby gushed. "This is our opportunity to put a positive spin on everything. Pun intended."

"Hey, we could do a camp for the kids," Max said. "The kids could spend time learning about meteorology and storm tracking, how tornadoes form-"

"They could make their own tornado in a bottle," Shelby said. "Have you seen that? It's like a science experiment where you have water and food coloring and you tape the two plastic bottles together?"

Bree couldn't help but grin at the way Max's eyes lit up at the thought of making tornadoes in plastic bottles.

"We could go over tornado drills and stuff with them, too," Jake added. "Each kid can leave at the end of the week with a supply kit and safety plan for his or her family."

Bree was impressed, she had to admit. Avery even offered an idea for using some of the storm debris to build a sledding hill for the winter.

Bree looked at Max again as they wrapped up the meeting with promises for more brainstorming soon. Her heart thumped at the look of pleasure on his face. He wanted to be a part of this. He should be a part of this. For his sake and for everyone else's-the team here in this room, Chance, the people who would come for training. She couldn't handle the idea that he might not do this because of her. Because he didn't think they could live in the same town full-time.

And she wanted to be a part of this. A part of something great for her hometown, working side by side with these people who she liked and admired, and above all else, working with Max on something he was this happy about.

Chasing storms put that look on his face, too. That was one of the reasons she liked going out with him. Skydiving, white-water rafting, zip-lining-all of the things they did together-were fun for her in part because they made Max look like that.

Kissing her in the ditch had put a similar look on his face.

She wanted to be a part of anything that made him look like that. That made him feel like that.