I Never Thought I'd See You Again: A Novelists Inc. Anthology (38 page)

“Yeah. Why?”

“I was hoping we could talk when we got home in the morning.”

“I’m surprised.”

“I know. I’m acting like a shit.”

“You are. I love you Riley, more than anything else, and I’ll help you through this. But you can’t make me feel like you do about your father or agree with what you’re doing to him.”

Suddenly, he saw his dad riding him around on his back, throwing football after football to him, bursting with pride at his and Jane’s Academy graduation. So he asked, “Have you seen him?”

Another long silence. Then she said, “Abby and I met for lunch and we went back to your house. I saw him.”

Huh! “Did you meet with Abby to talk about me?”

“I’m not going to answer that. I never told you before what Abby and I discussed, even if it dealt with you. I’m not going to start now.”

He sighed deeply. He’d always respected that. And he wanted Jane to have a confidant. They’d been each other’s best friend and it hadn’t left room for other kinds of relationships.

“So I won’t be home tomorrow. Be careful,” she said, as they always did when they were on shift. It was a superstition between them.

“Yeah, you too. Be careful.”

Then the line went dead.

He was just about to go inside when someone came through the gate of the firehouse yard. “Rye?”

His sister Abby.

Christ, they were all ganging up on him.

“Hi, Sis. Do I even need to ask why you’re here?”

Crossing to him, she kissed his cheek. “Sit down, baby brother.”

“I don’t want to talk about him, Abs.”

“Too bad. Now sit.” She used her
mother
voice on him. She and Aiden took in foster kids and she knew how to be tough.

When he sat, she said, “He’s sick.”

Riley’s brow furrowed. “From drinking too much?” in Chicago or New York ll and he

“He has a bad case of pneumonia.”

“Why didn’t they keep him in the hospital?”

“Because he had a place to go. And because he has no health insurance.”

“Mom said she was taking him home, but I didn’t know he was sick.”

Abby’s brow furrowed. “Didn’t Janie tell you?”

“She knew?”

“Uh-huh.”

Goddamn it.

“He’s staying in your old room, not with Mom, if that matters to you.”

“Hell, I hadn’t even thought about that.”

“No, you’re too busy being all mad and stupid about it again.”

Jane told Abby that? She had no right. He’d been careful to keep his feelings from Abby, too, a decade ago. Had Jane shared his real feelings even then?
That pissed him off.

“You’re not a firefighter. You don’t understand.”

“That’s bullshit. America’s Bravest has been my family as much as it’s been yours and Janie’s. I don’t have to walk into burning buildings to be part of them.”

He didn’t respond because he knew she was right.

“He’s our father, Rye.”

Riley remained stubbornly mute.

“I cannot believe this side of you.”

Janie had said something similar. Nastily, he added, “Sorry to disappoint you.”

“Don’t make
me
sound like the judgmental one in the family.”

For one brief second, he wanted to pour his heart out to her like he had when he was a kid and got into scrapes at school. He’d always felt better after talking to his big sister. But with this, with matters concerning his father, he just couldn’t.

So he stood. “I gotta go. We have training.” Which was true, but not till later.

She shook her head. “Fine. But I’m here, always. And so is Janie. For now.”

Her ominous last words stayed with him the rest of the day.

On the third night of the shift at the firehouse, Riley was in even worse shape than yesterday. Janie was working all day and she hadn’t called — so he didn’t call her, either — then they both worked tonight, so he hadn’t seen her for forty-eight hours. Which rarely happened. They’d never been apart for any significant length of time. Even during their Academy days, they lived and trained together.

Dinner wasn’t for an hour and Langston had KP, so Riley headed to the workout room to let off steam. He entered the large, well-equipped space to find Nick Evans running on the treadmill. Nick was personable enough, but Riley had heard that something went down in New York that made him come in Chicago or New York ll and hehere and settle into a smaller fire department. He’d made captain in record time.

“How’s it hanging, Gallagher?”

“Hunky dory.” There was a bite to his tone which he regretted. He didn’t want to spread his dirty laundry around.

The shame was all yours, Rye.

I’m not the judgmental one.

No, he wouldn’t think about his mother or sister or Jane, the three women who took sides with his father against him. In the back of his mind, something niggled at him that he was thirty, not thirteen, and he should starting acting his age. But he banished the thought.

Think of something else.

He jumped on the treadmill next to Nick and asked, “You doing good, Cap?”

“Yep. Always am.”

That wasn’t exactly true. Although Nick Evans, forty-two, was even-keeled and just a little detached most of the time, once in a while temper — and suppressed emotion — burst out of him.

But Riley wanted to keep the conversation neutral. “Heard anything about the lieutenant’s exam yet?” Both he and Jane had taken the test a few months ago. Both wanted to excel in the department by being the youngest to make officers.

“You’ll be the first two to know.” He gave Riley a brief smile. “Both of you’ll ace it. And,” he added, “A position’s opening up on Engine Four.”

“Janie’s house?” Apparently there was a lot she didn’t tell him.

“Uh-huh.”

“Openings are rare. Lots of people have to wait a while to get an officer’s spot.”

“If you make lieutenant, you might want to go to the Academy. It’s good experience to train recruits. And gets you bonus points with the brass.”

“God, I’d hate that.”

Nick slowed to a trot. “Your dad didn’t.”

“Excuse me?”

“Your father took some time off the line to train recruits. I was in his class.”

“I never knew that.”

“Well, it’s obvious you don’t want to talk about your old man.”

He started to snap at the captain, but contained himself. Officers commanded respect. “Would you, Cap? In my position?”

“When I was your age, no. Now that I’m old, I see things differently.”

“You’re a real Methuselah.” He waited. “Rumor has it something happened to you in New York, but there’s no gossip about it.”

“Which is the way I want things.” No denial or affirmation. Nick shut off the machine and grabbed a towel from the bar. “Word of advice? You can’t always fix what you broke. Some things are irrevocable. Your father was a good man.” what comes next?”y vo

Was
being the operative word.

But he didn’t say argue with the captain. And he tried to ignore that he was getting the same advice from everybody.

Jane let herself into the house about eight the next morning. They’d had a quiet night shift at Engine 4 so she was rested and didn’t need sleep. She wondered how Riley was doing. They always talked when they were on nights, when the firehouse slept. But not this time. He was falling back into more patterns than hating his father again. But then, she was doing the same.

Crossing the kitchen to the sliding glass doors, she saw him out on the back deck, staring into the yard. He had the greatest shoulders, wide and muscular. This morning, he wore shorts and a green T-shirt. Her anger at him softened by her attraction, which sparked at the worst times, she walked out onto the deck.

And found him with a can of beer in his hand.

“Little early to be knocking back the booze, isn’t it, hotshot?” The old nickname usually amused him.

“Just add it to the list of what you don’t like about me.”

“O-kay.” She refused to take the bait, and instead dropped down across from him in a chaise. “How was your shift?”

“Quiet.”

“Mine, too.”

He pierced her with a cold green gaze. “Why didn’t you tell my there was an opening for lieutenant coming up in your house?”

Wow, she hadn’t expected that! She didn’t really know why she hadn’t told him. “I’m not sure. I guess I forgot about it.”

“We talk about our careers all the time.”

“I don’t know why, Rye. Honestly.”

“Okay, then maybe you know why you didn’t tell me my father is sick.”

She felt her face flush. He must have talked to his mother or Abby. “I know why I kept that from you. I think it’s fairly obvious.”

“Yeah, it is.”

All right, she’d try again. “Will you consider seeing him now that you know that he isn’t well?”

“No.”

She watched a bird make its way across the sky and decided to change the subject. “Want to go run, since we’re both rested?”

“Not really.”

“What do you want?”

He gulped back the rest of the beer and turned to her. “I want things right between us, Janie.”

“Then we won’t talk about your father.”

“We’ve been avoiding that and still and we’re oceans apart like the last time. Do you know why?”

“Do you?”

“Yeah, you said I’m not the what comes next?”y vo man you thought I was. You and Abby both said you don’t know this side of me.”

“Rye, I can’t make that not be true. Listen, I’ll go see Jack Harrison with you. We can talk about that, how I’m helping to distance us, then you can get soming.”

“I’m not going to therapy over the man who ruined our lives.”

She stood. “Then I don’t know how to bridge this gap between us.”

She waited for him to suggest sex. They were on the same wavelength about that. Many women refused to make love when they felt distanced from their partner, but Janie agreed with most
men
— it was a good way to get closer.

But Riley didn’t suggest a trip to the bedroom. Instead, he got up, followed her inside and snagged another beer from the fridge.

Jesus, this was going from bad to worse.

“Gallagher and Duncan, get two backboards out of the Midi.”

Just the Quint and Midi — and no rescue squad — had been called to the scene because of a major accident at the lake that required all available personnel. Since McCabe, a paramedic, had been summoned out there, Riley filled in on the Midi. Though he wasn’t a certified paramedic, all firefighters were EMTs.

Ramirez added, “There are multiple victims between the truck and the Camaro.”

Riley followed Lisa Beth to the small rig. “You like EMS, Gallagher?”

“Yeah. It’s a change.”

“You?”

“Uh-huh. Except when we have to go to Memorial. There’s a doctor there who treats us like shit.”

He pulled one board out of the Midi. “Who is it? I only know the nurses.”

“Of course you do.” Lisa Beth took a backboard, too. “How’s Janie?”

“Good,” he lied.

“When are you two gonna tie the knot?”

Who knew, now? They hadn’t gotten around to setting a date. Hell, he hadn’t even bought her a ring, since she thought jewels were a waste of good money. She preferred the ring he gave her sixteen years ago.

“Let’s hustle over,” he said, ducking her question.

They hurried back to the crash site, though they both knew they’d have to wait until the Quint gained entry to the cars. “Janie and you?” Lisa Beth repeated when they arrived.

“I don’t know when we’re gonna get hitched. There never seems to be much of a hurry.”

“I hear ya. Divorce is a bitch.” He knew Lisa Beth was in her thirties, divorced and dated periodically, but not much else about her. She wasn’t as warm and open as Jane was. Or as Jane used to be.

Focusing on the rescue, Riley watched Ramirez and Langston pop each door on both sides and take them off. The new guy subbing for Langston taped the front window">
“Yep.””d of the Camaro and cracked it. The whole thing fell outward in a malleable piece.

Then Decarlo jumped up onto the hood, took the Jaws of Life from Tony and turned them on. The sound of steel hitting steel hurt Riley’s teeth. “Geez, I hate that.”

Lisa Beth had put her hand to her mouth. “Me, too,” she shouted over the generator noise.

When the cut was complete, Decarlo handed down the giant scissor-like tool, then ripped back the roof. Without help.

“Hell, Rocky’s good,” Lisa Beth said.

“They don’t call him
the Rock
for nothing.”

Since the back seat was so small, the Quint guys had literally taken the car from around the people inside so the victims were accessible.

“Go on in,” Tony told the two of them.

Lisa Beth took point and climbed into the back seat of the car. The teenagers there appeared unconscious. When Ramirez told them to get two backboards, Riley hadn’t realized three people occupied the vehicle.

Which meant the kid in the front seat was dead. Lisa Beth realized that at the same time, and froze. Then she said, “Jesus,” and turned to her charge.

Riley tried to ignore the body of a dead teenager in the front as he worked. In sync, he and Lisa Beth put collars on the two breathing boys and with the help of the others, slid them onto the two backboards. As four of the crew carried the kids across the pavement, Tony gave them another order. “Every emergency vehicle in town was sent to the lake so the Midi will take the victims to the hospital. You two go there, then come back to the house.” Luckily, the new Midi was equipped to transport victims.

“I’ll ride with the guy,” Lisa Beth said. “No offense Riley, but I’m a paramedic.”

“Wouldn’t think to question you,” he said with a grin. Jane loved that he wasn’t a chauvinist. “I’m down with driving.”

The trip to Memorial was short because the scene of the accident was close to the hospital. Riley tried not to think about the white face of the dead teen and the terrible stink of death as he stopped the Midi, bolted out and headed around back. He opened the doors, helped Lisa Beth get out one of the gurneys and set it up on the pavement, then they repeated the process. They wheeled the victims through the glass doors of the ER. A nurse and doctor met them inside.