Of course he does. And of course he declined my offer. Wandering into town and offering to look after his kid after a conversation about the Spice Girls isn’t exactly how responsible adults make childcare decisions.
But there was something in the way he’d looked at me that I understood far too well. The kind of caution people mistake for coldness when really, it’s just what happens after life teaches you to guard the what softness you have left.
I take another bite and let the icing melt against my tongue. “What about her mom?”
“Left a while ago now… It wasn’t good. He’s all she’s got now.”
I can relate.
I sit there for another minute, watching the last of the foam slide down the inside of my cup. The espresso machine hisses behind the counter, and Rose moves around me in easy circles, clearing cups and wiping tables.
My gaze drifts to the door again, and I catch myself thinking about small towns and pop music and men who build high walls around their lives.
Then I straighten.
“Well,” I say, brushing my fingers together, “if I’m going to make questionable life choices, I may as well start with the bar down the road.”
Rose’s mouth twitches. “Tell Gwen I sent you.”
“I will. Thank you, Rose.”
I step outside, and the door swings shut behind me with a soft thud. The street stretches in front of me, and I glance toward the corner the firefighters disappeared around.
Then I square my shoulders and pivot toward Neverland with a determined inhale.
This was still a good life decision, Penny. Definitely.
And cocktails can’t possibly be harder than a firefighter’s questionnaire.
Chapter five
She takes penguins very seriously
Evan
The station never really goes quiet, even in the late afternoon. Even when we’re between calls and the reports are mostly filed, there’s still that hum of readiness under everything.
Radios sit docked and blinking, the trucks are reset and gleaming, and our turnout gear is clipped and ready in our bay lockers.
If the tones drop, we’re moving in seconds.
The bay doors are cracked open just enough to let the last of the daylight stretch in across the concrete. It throws long shadows under the tires of Engine One and turns the dust in the air visible.
I wander back through to the dining room to take a seat at the long table. We had three more callouts after our trip to Flora’s earlier. One was for breathing trouble, another a minor car incident. The third was a suspected gas leak, which turned out to be nothing.
Fletch has the microwave running, leaning his forearm against the counter while something red spins behind the glass. Ghost sits at the other end of the table, scrolling his phone like he’s half here and half somewhere else. Colt’s talking quietly with Beck near the whiteboard, low enough that it doesn’t carry.
“All I’m sayin’, Ev, is she offered.”
Fletch doesn’t bother easing into it. He never does. Which is why I don’t bother looking up from the paperwork in front of me. “Thanks for the reminder.”
The microwave beeps, and he pulls his container out and peels back the lid. “And you just said no.”
“She just got here.”
“So?”
“I don’t know her.” I stack the pages in front of me and slide them into the file. “That’s not how this works.”
