“It’s gassed up and parked out back. Chief wanted me to make sure you got his messages about the fire.”
My stomach dropped. “What fire?”Please oh please let him be okay.
Otto reached across the counter and grabbed my hand for a quick squeeze. “No, no. He’s fine. But he had to go to Haskell and take over for their fire chief who’s been injured along with several of his firefighters in a meth lab explosion. He said he’ll call you as soon as he can and said to tell you he put his house key on your key ring in case you want to go over there.”
At this, Otto’s eyes dropped, and I saw a blush on his cheeks. I wasn’t sure whose cheeks were redder: his or mine.
“Oh. Okay. Thanks. You, ah… you didn’t need to bring my car here though. I could have gotten Sassy to help me later.”
Otto looked back up at me with a grin. “She’s on an all-day ride. Plus, are you kidding? The chief wouldn’t leave until he was donebarking orders to all of us about keeping an eye out for you and making sure you were alright.”
I pictured big strong Chief Paige instructing the men at the fire house to look after the flirty twink at the bakery. Wonder how that had gone down.
“Thanks,” I said. “I guess. I mean, he’s going to be okay, right? Just regular work, not… not going back to that meth lab, right?”
Otto reached across again, this time to clap me on the shoulder. “He’s going to be just fine. There’s nothing left of the meth lab anyway, and most of his work will probably be done at a desk going through lab results with the investigator. But if you can’t get ahold of him for any reason, don’t hesitate to call me or come find any of us at the fire house. He probably won’t be gone more than a week anyway.”
A week?Ugh. Just when I was almost ballsy enough to ask him to take my virginity and toss it permanently onto the pile of other crap I’d kept around way too long.
I nodded. “Thanks, Otto. I really appreciate it.”
“Anytime. Stay safe, yeah?”
Watching him leave, I realized it was the first time I could remember not lusting after another firefighter in uniform.
I was fucked.
That afternoon,I went home to my place. Well, to my mom’s place which was where I lived. The same shitty-ass apartment in Valley Cross where I’d lived most of my life. Before Kade got arrested, I’d been on the verge of being able to afford my own place, but now I was the primary wage earner in our little trio. Living with my mom made me feel like a child which was obviously one of my hot buttons. I spent plenty of nights avoiding the situation by staying over at Sassy’s place or working overnight at the hospital, but inevitably I’d find myself back there if only to check on my sister, Willow, and make sure everything was okay.
Willow was on the front walkway chatting animatedly with Ariaand Ayana, who lived in the apartment building next door to ours and went to the same school Willow did.
“Hey, ladies,” I called as I walked around to my trunk to get out the surprise I’d picked up a few days ago. “Special delivery for Willow Dolores Devore,” I called out.
Willow’s violet eyes narrowed at me. She hated when I used her full name because it was ridiculous. My mother in her temporary grief at being abandoned by my asshole father had poured all of her sadness into naming the precious baby he’d left behind. Weeping Willow and Lady of Sorrows. I did not get my tendency for drama from inside a cereal box. That shit was in my DNA.
The girls sidled over to the car. “What is it?” Ayana asked. “Something from Sugar Britches?”
She loved saying the name of Nico’s bakery, and the three girls giggled as if it were a dirty word.
“Well, I brought some cookies home too. But this,” I said, pulling the slender box out of a shopping bag, “is the surprise.”
Willow took it from me, pulling the end open and sliding out the soft pink ballet slippers. The girls stared at them in awe for a beat before squealing. “Ballet slippers! Ohmygod ohmygod!”
“After next weekend I’ll have enough to sign you up for lessons with Miss Sandra at the dance studio.”
“Can she be in our class?” Aria asked. Since I was sure there was probably only one class appropriate for first graders at the small-town studio, I agreed.
“That would be great so your big sister and I can share the driving,” I told her. “I’ll text Dina before I sign up to make sure it’s okay with her.”
The girls ran off to tell Dina right away as I made my way upstairs to the apartment. When I walked in, my mom poked her head out from the kitchen. She looked just as down as usual.
“Oh, hey, kiddo. It’s just you. Thought it was the landlord again.”
Before she could turn back around, I called for her to wait. “I’m signing Willow up for dance lessons next week with the Johnsontwins. I’ll handle the cost and the driving, so you won’t have to worry about any of it.” I took a breath in hopes I’d caught her on a good day.
She nodded and muttered, “Yeah, fine,” before shuffling back into the kitchen.
Yep. Caught her on a good day. At least she was dressed and talking.
