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“We tried really hard last year,” Erin reminded him. “Guns, appendixes, domestic terrorists.”
“Then do better this year,” Theo said.
“Thank you, Jefferson... Theo.” Noah put one ring on his hand and the other on Erin.
“Speech!” Captain Williams cupped his hands over his mouth. “Speech! Speech!”
Unruffled, Noah gave Williams a hard stare. He kissed Erin’s ringed hand and said, “Thank you for coming.”
Then he sat down.
The rest of the team roared with laughter, and the night went on.
Chapter 9
As it got darker, the party wound down. The drinking stayed pretty light since they were on shift tomorrow, and people slowly accumulated inside the house and then started to depart. By nine o’clock, Theo found himself alone with Captain Williams, Erin, and the Chief.
Great, two widowers and their two sort of best friends chilling together in the living room.
Theo needed to find something to say because his job was keeping the conversations light. There seemed to be plenty of unfinished business between the Chief… er, Noah… and Williams.
After examining the room for a few minutes, he found what he hoped to be a safe topic. Theo pointed to the guitar stand in the corner by the TV. “Do you play?”
“Of course he plays,” Williams answered instead.
“Sorry, my repertoire is a little bit old,” Noah said with an odd expression. He was actually focused on Williams, not the guitar.
“And eclectic,” Erin said and sat down right next to him. She flicked the sparkly decoder ring on his ring finger.
“You want to play something for us?” Theo asked.
Noah exchanged glances with Williams and then with Erin. “I can play if she sings with me. Her voice is—”
“I have heard her sing before,” Williams cut him off.
Oh, not so great. The only time Williams had probably heard Erin sing was at Captain Mateo Soto’s funeral.
“She does sing. And sometimes the girls will dance, too,” Theo said, steering away from a painful topic.
“They dance?” Williams asked, distracted by the non sequitur.
“Mostly on the bar,” Theo admitted, "Wait till you see what happens when Vogue comes on. We might have to restrain Glenn, because he’s gonna be in trouble then."
Noah had already gotten out the guitar, tuned it, and addressed his words to Williams. “I still mostly know old Aerosmith songs.”
Williams’s eyes looked weird—kind of glassy. “Do your worst.”
Noah started playing, and Williams sat up. Theo recognized the song as “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith.
Williams muttered, “He sang this at our wedding for Dre’s and my first dance.”
Theo filed away that information. Erin had told him once the schism between Baker and Williams had been over the death of Alexandra Williams during a bank robbery.
The Chief started to sing with a clear, baritone voice. Nothing particularly amazing, but there was a lot of heart in it. Theo would have been fine if he heard this being sang at a bar or karaoke night. Williams seemed to be doing okay for the first verse.
After the chorus, Erin joined in, and the timbre of the song shifted. Her voice was exquisite, beautiful, powerful, and elevated the song to another level. Their voices blended, her skill smoothing over his less skilled one. Even more intimate was the way she and Noah looked at each other, wrapped in their own little world. Their serenade was raw, transparent, and beautiful. If you really believed that music joined people's souls together, it was probably happening right then in front of him.
Both of their voices briefly faltered on the line about ‘feeling your heart beating,’ Theo was caught by the absurdity of this situation. He was on the Fire Chief’s couch watching him vocally make love to his wife with Williams’s special wedding song. All the while, the Chief was wearing Theo’s ring from Leo on his neck.
