Inspirational Christian Fiction Boxed Set: Embers and Ashes Series (Books 1 - 4) Read online

  “I’m okay now. I just need to sleep, boys,” I replied.

  “Airplane!” Bradley shouted as a lingering jet overhead could be heard.

  I smiled. “Yep, that’s an airplane.”

  Megan brought over my plate of Micah’s famous Chicken Alfredo. My taste buds jumped with joy as the plate got set in front of me. Over the last few days, Megan had been so busy with dentist appointments and doctor visits that she was not able to make a single homemade meal. The frozen TV dinners and corn dogs were not really hitting the spot for me. “Thank you,” I said.

  “Don’t thank me, thank your friends,” she said with a bit of an annoyed tone.

  “Why are you upset? They know you’re overwhelmed with stuff at home.”

  “Overwhelmed? This is my job, Cole.” She said as she wiped Bradley down of milk. “I’m not overwhelmed… this is my life.”

  “Look, they were just trying to help.” I picked up my fork and shook my head. As I began to eat, Megan cleared her throat at me. “What?” I asked.

  She looked over at Justin and said, “Let’s pray. Go, Justin.”

  Setting his fork down, he folded his little hands and said, “Der Je-us. Dank you fo this food, bess it to our bodies, bess da cook, amen.”

  Brad shouted from his high chair, “Amen!”

  I smiled as I began eating my food.

  “I’m sorry,” Megan said suddenly with a sigh. “I shouldn’t have gotten upset about the guys coming over. That wasn’t right of me.”

  “It’s okay.”

  “I’m going to try harder to make more home-cooked meals,” Megan said, nodding.

  “Okay,” I replied. “I’m fine with whatever, Honey.”

  She smiled at me. “Did you want to watch that movie tonight after the boys go down? You know the one with the princess who runs away from her castle or whatever?”

  “Defiance?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Yeah, that’s it!”

  “I don’t know… I’m pretty tired.”

  “Oh, okay… You need your rest. Just forget it. It’s fine.”

  “Thanks for understanding.” Glancing over at my wife as she smiled, appreciation swept through me. She did it all and then some. She cooked, took care of our kids and loved me no matter how able-bodied I was or wasn’t. I could tell she could see right through me with the boys the last couple days. She knew I didn’t have the most patience in the world with them and she worked around it, making sure they didn’t bother me too much during the day while I lay in bed. She was absolutely the best thing that ever happened to me in my life.

  CHAPTER 3

  Poker nights were a time for some of us guys from the station to hang out without the demands of the job and the pressure of our wives or girlfriends. It was just us guys. We started poker night back last year when Kane went through a bad break-up and needed a couple of us to come over and talk to him. He took it pretty hard as it was one of the only serious girlfriends he ever had. Ever since then, we’ve had poker nights at Kane’s every Tuesday at seven o’clock. The last few Tuesdays since my big surgery, I hadn’t much energy to sit up for more than twenty minutes, let alone stay seated for hours while tossing cards around the table.

  “Look who made it,” Kane said as he opened his front door with a big smile on his face.

  “Taylor!” Ted shouted over at me as he stood up at the table and reached over it to shake my good hand. “Micah said you’re getting that cast off next week? Right?”

  “Yep,” I replied with a grin. “That’s the plan.”

  “That woman of yours let you go out in your condition?” Rick asked looking up at me.

  “Pshhh… Of course! She knows how important poker night is!” I said, taking a seat at the table.

  Kane got into his fridge and asked, “Cola?”

  “Yeah,” I replied. “Micah in the can?” I asked.

  Bringing my soda over to me, Kane shook his head, “Nah… He didn’t come tonight.”

  I nodded. I knew Micah wasn’t one to come every poker night and play. “What we playing?”

  A knock came from the door.

  Kane’s eyebrows shot up. “Wasn’t expecting anybody else to show,” he said on his way over to answer it. Opening the door, everyone was surprised to see it was Micah. “Thought you weren’t coming tonight?”

  Micah smiled. “Denise decided to go try out a new Bible study, so I figured I’d drop in.” Micah stepped in and made eye contact with me on his way over to the table. “How’s it going, Brother?” he asked, patting my good shoulder.

  I nodded up him and smiled. “Pretty good, you?”

  He nodded. “Good,” he replied, taking a seat at the table. “So what are we playing tonight?”

  “Seven card stud,” Rick said as he shuffled the cards and set his cigar down in the ashtray next to his beer.

  “Okay. What’s the buy-in?” I asked, reaching for my wallet.

  “One Mr. Benjamin Franklin,” Rick said as he grabbed his cigar and took a puff off of it.

  “Dang, little more than what I recall we play for,” I replied.

  “Wow, that’s my entire entertainment fund for the month!” Micah said. “I’ll pass on playing tonight,” he said as he stood up and went into the kitchen.

  “It is a little more than we usually play for,” Kane said patting my shoulder. “I figured we’d make things a little more interesting since you’ve missed out a few weeks in a row!”

  Shaking my head, I said, “Game on. What charity we playing for tonight?”

  “Valley Orphanage,” Rick replied.

  I nodded and pulled out the crisp hundred dollar bill and tossed it over to Rick.

  Kane was not only confident, but also cocky when it came to playing cards. The best part of poker was being able to read the guy with ease. He switched between several different tells during a game. If he had a good hand, he’d sniff and brush his index finger across the base of his nose. The other tell he had was when he was flustered and his cards were bad, he’d take two drinks of his beer. Not three, not one, but two.

  We played through the evening and eventually switched over to my favorite game, Texas Holdem. Rick was the chip leader as we started in on the eleventh clock hour. He was followed by me, then Kane and then Ted. Ted was a dangerous poker player and would buy cards all the way to the river on a hope and dream. He was bad at poker, but sometimes would get lucky in the end.

  The first hand of Texas Holdem got me a pair of pocket aces. Most people would be thrilled at the sight of the set of red and black little A’s, but not me, I never won with bullets in the hole.

  Everyone matched the ante, and then Kane upped it to four black chips, the most expensive chip on the table. I had to call him even though I was most likely doomed. Ted called also and Rick folded.

  The flop came and it was an ace and two queens. I glanced over at Kane and spotted his beer. Come on… reach for it, tell me you don’t have anything, I thought to myself. Then I noticed his beer was gone, it was an empty bottle that he hadn’t replaced yet. Sneezing, Kane wiped his nose and confused me. I turned my eyes back on the ladies on the flop. Does he have a queen? If he does… I have him beat. But if he has an ace and a queen… Ted tapped the table to indicate he was checking.

  “Raise,” Kane said, tossing out another couple black chips out. Peeking at my cards again, I glanced over at Ted and then Kane.

  “Call,” I said, tossing the chips in, depleting the last of my black chips in my stack. I still had some other chips left, more than either one of them, but I still felt a little uneasy with the two aces in my hand. I hadn’t won with them, ever.

  “Raise,” Ted said, tossing ten red chips in, only leaving behind a medium stack of blue and a few stacks of white.

  Kane and I both shot looks over at Ted. “He ain’t got nothing!” Kane said with a laugh.

  Ted shrugged. “Maybe I do, maybe I don’t. You gotta pay to find out.” He smiled. Ted was one of those guys who didn’t real
ly have much of a smile; it was more of a smirk and you wanted to backhand him whenever you saw it come out.

  Kane pulled up the edge of his cards for a moment, checking them again before making a decision. “Call,” he said, grabbing a mixture of red and whites to make the call. Kane looked over at me and grinned. “What say you Gimps?”

  Bullets never win, I thought to myself. But I have two pair ‘as is’ on the table right now. I’m going for it, I thought to myself as I grabbed ten reds from a stack and tossed it in.

  Gus, one of the engine guys I didn’t click very well with, was there that night also. Instead of being around the table, he spent most his time texting on his phone or in the kitchen cooking. “Try one of these,” Gus said, lowering a tray to my face suddenly from over my shoulder. Glancing over the rim of the plate, I saw little smoked sausages with toothpicks drilled through them.

  “Yum,” I said, setting my cards down, I grabbed a couple off the tray and placed them on the paper plate that sat beside my empty cans of cola.

  “Try it, right now,” he insisted as I watched a four of clubs come on the turn. Glancing up at him, I tilted my head.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “It’s a new recipe I’m trying out.”

  Grabbing one of the smoked sausages from my plate as I kept my eyes locked on Kane, I couldn’t help but smile as the treat hit my tongue. “That’s really tasty and delicious man.”

  “What’s that?” Rick asked, poking his head up.

  “A new sauce recipe I’ve been working on for my sausages,” Gus said as he walked around the table letting everyone sample his treat.

  “You’re like our housewife without being one,” Kane said with a laugh.

  “Laugh it up McCormick,” Gus snapped at him. “If I can win the contest I’m entered into, I’ll walk away with an easy two G’s.”

  “No way,” Kane said, sitting up straighter. “Two grand for making some food?”

  “There’s over a hundred entrants, but yeah, two grand. Last year I came in second and got five hundred bucks. For seriously like ten minutes of work, if that.”

  “Dang, maybe that cooking thing ain’t too bad of an idea!” Kane said as he took a bite of the smoked sausage. “This is friggin’ delicious man!”

  “Good idea, McCormick. Then you could contribute something around the station other than pizza from Craig’s Pizza Parlor once in a while,” I said, smiling over at Kane.

  “Shut it,” Kane replied.

  “All-in,” Ted interrupted, instantly breaking up the conversation around the table.

  “Woah. Buddy!” Kane said, leaning across the table. “You sure you already want to head home?” He looked over at the clock on the wall. “Pretty early.”

  Ted laughed. “Sure,” he replied with a grin. Ted was a bad poker player, but he was impossible to read. Sometimes he had amazing hands, other times he’d lose all his money over stupid things trying to bluff his way to the finish line.

  “I fold,” I said, tossing my bullets to the discard pile.

  “That’s too bad,” Kane said, grinning at me. Eyeballing Ted from across the table, Kane leaned in more and said, “You’re bluffing.”

  Ted shrugged and set his hands up above his head.

  “Will you show me what you have if I fold?” Kane asked.

  “Nah… You gotta pay to see,” Ted replied with a sinister grin on his face.

  “Fine, call. Flip your cards,” Kane demanded as he flipped his own two cards over to reveal a King and a Queen.

  “Nice,” Ted said.

  Kane stood up and fist pumped. “Tripps!”

  “I have Tripps also.” Ted flipped over pocket two’s.

  Kane stopped and looked over at the table. “Why you buying cards Ted? You made this too easy!”

  Rick flipped the river card over. It was a two of diamonds.

  “What? Four of a kind?” Kane shouted as his face went red and he smacked the table with his fist. “You got to be kidding me!”

  Kane stormed out of the room. He went down the hallway as Ted began pulling the pot of chips over to himself. “Such a short fuse,” Ted said with a laugh. “You’d think after getting that bakery chick to agree to see him again he’d lighten up a little.”

  “I didn’t hear about that,” I said.

  Ted paused and looked over at me. “Why would you? You aren’t around the station anymore.”

  Rick smacked Ted in the shoulder. “Shut it, Ted,” Rick said.

  I stood up and went to find Kane. Pushing open the already cracked bedroom door, I saw him sitting on the corner of his bed. I came in and said, “You’re acting like a little kid about losing, Dude… What’s going on?”

  He shook his head as he looked away. “It’s not about poker man, it’s my mom. You know how the other week I went up to Colville?”

  I nodded.

  “I went up there because she’s sick. I found out earlier today she has cancer.”

  Sitting down next to him, I put my hand on his shoulder and said, “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  He raised his hand up to his face, I could swear I saw a tear in the corner of his eye, but he removed any sign of it with a brush of his hand. “It’s fine. It’s whatever. It’s just rough…”

  “I know…” I replied with a soft tone.

  “That’s right… you lost your Dad a while back from it,” he said, turning to me.

  Nodding, I replied, “Hardest thing I ever been through.”

  “I’ve just been on edge ever since I found out…” He sighed. “I can’t shake this feeling of uneasiness. Not knowing what’s next… It drives me nuts.”

  “Just focus your mind elsewhere… That’s what I had to do.” I paused for a moment. “So you have a second date lined up with that bakery chick?”

  He nodded. “She’s a nice gal…”

  I patted his shoulder. “See, that’s good. Having a gal by your side is good when you’re going through some difficult situations in life.”

  He nodded. “I don’t know her that well yet, though… and besides, my mom could pull through. She’s strong.”

  “Don’t forget God,” Micah said from the doorway.

  I nodded and said, “I relied on God when I lost my Dad… I totally agree with Freeman on this one.” I gave them both a nod and headed for the door to leave them to talk.

  “You can get through this,” Micah said, stepping closer to Kane as they sat down on the bed. I left the room and returned to the kitchen to continue playing poker with the other guys.

  As I sat down and nodded to Rick to deal me in next hand, I thought about Kane. I was glad Micah ended up being here tonight. Kane needed Godly advice and help right now. Micah was the go-to guy for difficult situations. Micah has a way of calming people down when their lives are flipped upside-down. He helped Hillman, one of the old timers that are not here anymore, a long time ago deal with the loss of a daughter in a school-bus crash and Jamison –the other old timer— in dealing with the loss of both parents in one night. Micah was a rock we all knew we could fall on in times of need and heartache.

  CHAPTER 4

  The moment Dr. Reed cut the cast off my arm a week later I felt my hope come flooding back into me. My arm felt like it could finally breathe again without that hard exterior. I tried to move my arm around, but Doctor Reed was quick to touch my arm and lower it, stopping me.

  “Be careful, Cole,” he said as he inspected my arm. He looked at the wound.

  “Careful? It feels amazing,” I replied as I smiled.

  “Maybe. But you aren’t healed up yet and you are still far too heavily medicated to use your arm regularly without injury. There’s quite a bit of this journey left for you. You can stay out of the sling as long as you feel comfortable, but keep it on if it’s bothering you. There’s no shame in having it.” The doctor turned around to the counter and grabbed a piece of paper. Handing it over to Megan who was by my side, he said, “Turning Point is an excellent physical therapy faci
lity.” He looked over to me as he continued, “You can start going there. I already made the call and set up an appointment with Dr. Callan. She’ll take good care of you.”

  “Thank you,” Megan said, folding the paper in half and placing it in her purse. She swung around and grabbed Bradley from the bed. He was attempting to pull a crayon away from Justin’s hand.

  “No problem. And thank you for what you do, Mr. Taylor,” the doctor said, patting my good shoulder and shaking my hand.

  I smiled as I replied, “Thank you for the work you do here and all the help you’ve given me.”

  On the drive home, Megan asked, “How’s your arm feeling? I know it felt good back at the doctor’s office… but I’m wondering if it’s still feeling good.”

  “It’s completely fine. I don’t get why I can’t just go back to work,” I replied, glaring out my window at the passing city blocks.

  “The paper said you cannot even hold as much as a cell phone, let alone an axe, Cole.”

  I sighed. “I just really want to get back out there… I feel like I’m letting everyone down at the station.”

  “I know you do, but they understand you got hurt and need time to get healed up,” she replied.

  “Maybe…” I responded. Looking back out my window as the kids were trying to sing along with the radio from the back seat, I watched the cars pass by our truck. Where’s everyone going? I wondered. It seemed like everyone in the world had somewhere to go or something to do besides me. I hated it.

  Getting back home around noon, Megan fed the kids and put them down for a nap while I sat idly on the couch. As she came down the stairs from putting them down, she grabbed onto the banister slightly, letting her hand fall as she continued into our living room.

  “The guys wanted me to go hit the greens with them.”

  “You can’t golf, love,” she replied softly with a smile.

  “I know that, but I could tag along and watch.”

  “Oh, then why haven’t you gone lately? I know you’ve missed them…”

  “It’s March… hasn’t been the best weather exactly. They wanted to tee off the season when my cast came off.”