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“We’ll see about that. There’s a lot you don’t know.”
“Like what? It seems simple to me.”
“That’s because you don’t have a kid. Just wait. You never stop worrying about them. It never ends.”
“Well, that’s even more reason for me to never have a baby. It’s not in my plan, anyway.”
“Does Charlie know you’re out for his job?”
“Ha! I don’t want Charlie’s job. I want Charlie’sboss’sjob. I’m all signed up to start working on a bachelor’s degree.”
“Where and how are you going to pay for it?”
“I got a scholarship at Cal State in LA. It pays to be a woman after all.”
“How will you do it? Now I’m worried again.”
“I only work three days a week, Dad. It’s almost all done online. Just relax, please. I’ll stop telling you what’s going on if you’re going to freak out every time I do something.”
“Don’t tell your mom right yet, okay? One step at a time.”
She followed him in the house, already exhausted from doing the parent-child dance, and they hadn’t even started dinner.
“There she is, my beautiful girl.” Mary came bearing down on Geri, ready to attack, while her father grinned when she rolled her eyeballs.
“Hey, Mom, nice to see you.”
“How was it? Did your boobs make an appearance like your father was worried about?”
“No, everyone was well behaved. The coup de grace was I made your corned beef brisket for lunch the first day, and everyone loved it.”
That was just the right thing to say because Mary Angel grabbed on to it like a dog to a bone. Dinner was a pleasant affair as they talked about the firehouse kitchen, avoiding brush fires, and the sleeping arrangements made for the only female. The two important topics that she shelved for another time—college and Jake Saint.
***
Fighting disappointment when she didn’t ask him to stay over after that passionate kiss where Jake got the surprise of his life, he left her apartment and tried not to drag his feet to the truck. Overreacting, he couldn’t help his response. He just wanted her. The moment he laid eyes on her, he knew. She was the complete opposite of his mother with her bleach-blond hair and face-lift and false eyelashes, and his sisters-in-law that reminded him of girly girls who gossiped and whined and manipulated his brothers.
Geri was no-nonsense and strong enough to carry a hundred-fifty-pound guy on her back while climbing down a ladder. He’d heard Charlie tell the others in confidence that she’d passed the weight-lifting test in academy training.
Their gear weighed in at about sixty pounds, and she’d worked alongside him with everything, including a compressed air tank, on her back, digging trenches for hours without pause.
The passion was there, too. They’d decided at the zoo to take it slow, but both had sort of forgotten about it when they said goodbye.
Arriving home was anticlimactic. His younger brother, Marty, and oldest brother, Joey, with his wife and children were there for dinner along with a few other grandkids.
“I’m so glad you’re home to eat with us,” Roberta said. “You should have invited your friend.”
“She had to see her parents tonight,” Jake replied. “Maybe tomorrow?”
“Yes, invite her for tomorrow.”
Tomorrow would be Friday, a big night at the Saints’. Everyone who could came home for dinner, even sisters-in-law without husbands if they were working. The house would be full of kids and crying babies.Maybe it wouldn’t be such a great time for Geri to meet the family,he thought, chuckling. He’d play it by ear.
Dinner was ready, so he sat at the table next to Joey’s wife, Candy, who was going to be a pediatrician.
“So I hear you have a new GF,” she whispered.
“Who’d you hear that from? Bridget, right?”
