“No one’s forcing you to be a firefighter,” Vanessa said. “You don’t have to do this. It hasn’t exactly been easy, and now Williams . . .”
“I’m not quitting. Williams already thinks I have career schizophrenia. I don’t.” Everyone looked at him doubtfully. “I don’t. People reinvent themselves. They start new careers. Theo was a schoolteacher.”
“I was a teacher in my twenties. Most people don’t take a $100,000 pay cut and risk their lives going into burning buildings. Or Freon-containing hotels,” Theo said, moving all the vegetables into the boiling pot for stew.
“I’m fine, and I want to do this. And it was a $250,000 pay cut.”
“Well,thatmakes me feel better,” Erin said sarcastically. It was more than a little frustrating that Carver nearly poisoned himself and then acted pious for taking a massive pay cut.
They waited a few minutes for the vegetables to cook while Kevin helped Vanessa divide the meat and soy into appropriate bowls. Dropping the finished stew in each bowl, the team started to eat.
Vanessa ventured a question, “Are the three of us going to that leadership thing? I’m scheduled to referee a high school soccer game on my only day off.”
“I’m not going.” Luna snuck a quick glance at Aiden. “Elias and I have plans with Uncle Matteo.”
Aiden didn’t react. Instead, he said, “Williams didn’t say ‘lieutenants.’ He said he wanted 15 to be represented.”
“He was talking to us,” Vanessa said.
“You know he was talking to the entire team. As long as someone goes from the firehouse, that should be good enough.”
“We’re going to lie to him?” Vanessa questioned.
“It’s not lying if he doesn’t ask,” Aiden said. “He hasn’t come after me yet, but I’m not a fan of any captain who’d let my team get exposed to Freon to prove a point.”
“I like this,” Luna said. “He feels explanations are excuses. As long as he hears that the team attended, he probably won’t ask too many questions about what we learned. Team building is usually really touchy-feely.”
“And he’s not the touchy-feely type,” Vanessa agreed. “So who’s going?”
“I nominate the probie,” Kevin said.
“I can’t,” Carver said immediately. “Manika and I have a thing that can’t be missed.”
D-shift, who was enjoying the company, shook their heads ‘no.’
Footsteps came up the stairway, and everyone tensed. It wasn’t Captain Williams but Luna’s boyfriend, Police Sergeant Elias Kormos.
Erin didn’t have a beef with Elias despite how quickly he and Luna had gotten together after her breakup. Elias seemed to be an all-around American boy if that boy was a police officer who also starred inMy Big Fat Greek Wedding III.He had dark hair, dark eyes, and a dark mustache. He also seemed to dote on Luna, like right now for example.
“Hey, everyone!” He was carrying and official Cleveland PD messenger bag. “Do you know your captain is still here?”
“He hasn’t gone home?” Vanessa asked, her irritation showing. “He’s supposed to go home around seven so he can come back tomorrow by eight, harass B-shift, and do it like that forever.”
“He’s on salary, so he can name his hours. He did say he was covering as much of our shift as possible,” Aiden replied, apparently not particularly upset to see Elias today, which was unusual.
“Yeah, he made me sign into the visitor’s log.” He pointed to his black uniform top. “And he gave me a visitor’s badge.”
“Why are you here?” Aiden asked. Elias had been noticeably absent lately, following Luna’s instructions to avoid the firehouse.
“I told him it was to coordinate some paperwork for next week’s upcoming in-service that Lieutenant Rodriguez and I had planned with my chief.” He smiled, showing a dimple on his chin. “I’m here because of the sugar boycott.”
“Yeah,” Luna said. “No department funds may purchase products that are high glycemic index or contain greater than twenty percent white flour or refined sugar.”
“That doesn’t say anything about me bringing contraband.” He took a pastry box from his messenger bag and set it on the table. “Three dozen freshly baked Panera cookies. Three for each of you.”
“Four because Captain doesn’t get any,” Kevin corrected him absently and picked up four cookies. “Come to Papa. They don’t hire you for math unless you can count the bullets.”
“I don’t know where you got him, but you should keep him for now.” Erin snatched up two cookies. “As long as he keeps bringing us sugar, he’s okay, even if he’s into Monty Python.”
