“Yeah, actually. A time machine, so I can go back half an hour and order something that isn’t going to put me back in a hospital.”
Penelope reaches across the table and places her hand on top of mine. “You don’t have to finish it. Why don’t you box up the rest and trick one of the guys at the firehouse into eating it?”
“I love the way you think. You should think about changing professions. You’d fit right in with the rest of us.”
We hold hands while I signal the waiter for a check. If this is bending her no-firemen rule, I can only imagine what breaking it involves.
The conversation flows just as easily on the way back to her apartment. Turns out, when you have plenty of chemistry, you don’t need vodka.
I walk her to the front door. There’s that awkward should-we-kiss-or-not moment, which she puts to an end to by leaning in and giving me a kiss on the cheek. “You better not disappear on me now,” she whispers into my ear.
“I won’t, I promise.”
She steps inside and I stand there for a moment feeling like the luckiest man in the world.
As I walk to my truck, it takes some serious will power not to squeal with glee, like Kailee does when she gets together with her friends.
It’s time to celebrate. I reach for the glove compartment.
9
Welcome Back
It’sMonday morning and I’m on my way to the firehouse for my first shift back since the accident.Oddly enough, everyone’s outside in the parking lot. I wonder what could be going on.
There’s Manny, Jax, Joey, Dennis, and, of course, probie. He’s pulling a 24-foot ladder out the back of the fire truck with intense concentration. He’s doing his best to walk steadily and briskly. That thing weighs 75 pounds. He makes his way over to the training tower, which we use for drills.
“Here we go, probie!” Dennis yells.
“Move that ass, probie!” Manny chips in.
Joey’s holding a stopwatch, looking unimpressed.
The probie, whose name is Chase by the way—not that we’ll be calling him that anytime soon—reaches the tower and lays the ladder on the cement. Then he walks over to the end, lifts it off the ground, and starts raising it rung by rung as he walks toward the brick wall. After adjusting the feet of the ladder to make sure it’s stable, he walks around to the backside and uses the rope and pulley to extend it farther up the wall. Once the ladder’s in place, he motions to Jax, who walks over and stands at the base of the ladder, holding onto it while the probie ascends.
“Morning, fellas,” I say.
Joey looks up from his stopwatch and gives me a head nod.
Dennis smiles, but there’s not a lot of warmth behind it. In fact, he seems kind of uncomfortable to see me. Manny doesn’t even acknowledge my presence. I guess he’s pretty invested in the probie’s performance. I wasn’t expecting a parade upon my return, but this welcome back is pretty shitty if you ask me. What’s everyone’s problem? Whatever, I’m not gonna let them get to me.
The probie movement is slow in his turnout gear. When he reaches the top, he slaps the building.
“Sixty-four seconds, probie! Too slow!” Joey shouts. He turns to us shaking this head. “What are they teaching these guys at the academy?”
“Hey now,” Dennis says, “I seem to remember a young, cocky kid who fell flat on his face the first time doing a single man ladder raise.”
“Oh, I remember that as well,” Manny says, laughing.
“It’s not how many times you fall, it’s how many times you get back up,” Joey says.
The probie comes over to us, breathing heavily. He takes off his helmet and brushes a sweaty lock of blonde hair from his eyes. “How’d I do?” he gasps, his face full of hope. Must be nice to be young, not yet crushed by disappointments and regrets.
Joey regards the probie with total disgust. “You got jizz in your ears? I told you. Sixty-four miserable seconds. And you forgot to say ‘no overhead obstructions’ before raising the ladder.”
“What? No . . . I said it. You guys didn’t hear me?”
The probie scans our faces. No one helps him out. “Wha—but I—”
