He’d feel worse if she lost her job.
He had to talk to Uncle Theo again.
* * *
The sum total of callouts at the fire department the next day was three false alarms, one “heart attack” that turned out to be indigestion after a chicken-wing-eating contest, two lost cats, and a little boy trying to burn the edges of a “treasure map” with a magnifying glass who instead succeeded in lighting the lawn on fire.
On Linc’s drive home, his phone rang. His sister’s name on the screen made him wince. Linc had only discovered she and their other sister had moved to Wilmington six months earlier, after he’d accepted the job at the SFD. He hadn’t expected them to be so close, but then he would have known they’d moved if he spoke to them more often.
He let the call go to voicemail this time too, but as soon as the phone went silent, and he breathed a guilty sigh of relief, the ringer picked up again.
Call from Lacey Scott
That couldn’t be good. He was still a few minutes from home, so he pulled over on the side of the street and took the call.
“Hello?”
“They’re letting him out.”
Good thing he stopped, because his whole body went on alert. His mind raced and his fingers went numb on the wheel, while his heart pounded in his chest and his tongue went thick.
“Hello?” Lacey’s voice was annoyed.
“I—I’m here.” He struggled to get even those words out.
“Did you hear me?”
He nodded, swallowing hard, then remembered she couldn’t see him and said, “Yes.”
“Yes? I call you to tell you our shithead father is getting out of prison, and all you say is yes? What the hell is that, Lincoln?”
If she was using his full name, he was fucked. She had always been the mother figure in their little trio of feral siblings.
“How—” He had to clear his throat again. “How did you find out?”
“Smug bastard called me.” The phone filled with the familiar snap of a gum bubble popping. Linc hadn’t seen her in years, but that sound said she was working on her gum like an angry beaver on a log.
“Just like that?” His stomach turned. Their father’s sentence had at least a few more years to go.
“Good behavior or some shit, I don’t know.”
Good behavior. That fucking sperm donor wouldn’t know good behavior if it folded his laundry and brought him breakfast in bed.
Linc had tried that so many times as a kid. None of it helped.
Get your hands off my goddamn son, you pervert!
The only time Linc’s dad ever tried to be a father was the worst day of Linc’s life.
“Does Lilah know?”
“No.” The word dripped with sarcasm. “I called you first because I love talking to your voicemail, rather than speaking to the person who lives in my house.”
“Well, fuck, Lacey. It was just a question.” Sometimes he felt guilty for not calling more. Other times, she talked to him as if he were a five-year-old, and he didn’t feel so bad after that.
The phone crackled to silence. The gum snapped. Lacey sighed. “Sorry. I’m a little freaked out. I haven’t ever told the kids about him. I just said he lives somewhere else. What am I supposed to say now?”
“Tell them you’re adopted.” He’d wished for that so many times.
