An annoying, jealous feeling crashes over me when I consider his dating life.
Jess, even knowing my history with the man, falters the same breathless way.
“You can stay with me a while,” Caleb announces.
His stoicism makes it hard to know what he’s thinking.
“Both of you.” He looks at our son and finds it in himself to smile.
“Ummmm…” I trail off, knowing this is not a fucking good idea. Me and Caleb in the same house? With the son he doesn’t know is his? Sounds like the recipe for a disaster. One even bigger than the fire. “I don’t think that’s…”
Jess elbows me forcefully in the side and presents a positive smile at the man who still has the entire coffee shop at his mercy.
For us small-town locals, this is a big deal. Caleb shouldn’t have many fires to put out in an uneventful town like ours. People in Maple Crossing work, eat, sleep, and occasionally socialize when in the mood. Nothing dramatic ever happens. Houses stay intact.
So do panties, because there’s never a good enough reason to rip them off.
But for Caleb, women of all ages would do the latter in a heartbeat.
The bedazzled look on people’s faces suggests that nobody’s seen him around. And why would they? Maple Crossing is a safe town where nothing ever happens. When Caleb’s not on shift hiding in the fire station for hours at a time, he’s probably taking hikes.
I’m still unable to bring myself to go on one, even nine years later.
The fuckwit tainted the very pine trees we used to walk through. And now he’s tainted my workplace.
Fuck. Him.
“It would make sense for you and your boy to stay with Caleb for a while,” says a new voice. “Seeing as though the two of you have already been acquainted.”
Another man appears behind Caleb—not as tall, but with a face rigid enough to scream authority. “Ryan Keller,” he says, producing a firm hand for me to shake. “Chief officer at Maple Crossing Fire Station.”
I awkwardly take his hand and offer a smile, hoping that locker-room talk doesn’t exist at the fire station. If Caleb has gone into bedroom details with his friends the same way I did with Jess when I described the “six months of eroticism” he and I spent together, I’m screwed, and have lost both dignity and my house.
“It would make perfect sense for the two of you to stay with me,” Caleb adds after another beat of silence. “You have nowhere else to go.”
“That’s not true,” I say, grabbing Sonny before he ventures too close to the fireman he seems awestruck by. “I can stay with Jess.”
Jess snorts. “On an old couch that will break your back? I don’t think so.”
I fold my arms and raise a subtle eyebrow at my friend.
But Jess waggles her eyebrows excitedly in response, flashing me a cheeky grin. Turning back to Caleb and Ryan, she says, “Your generosity won’t go unnoticed. Thankssomuch for offering to take in my best friend. She’s super clean and respectful, and Sonny”—she scrunches his hair—“is the best boy you’ll ever meet. I promise you won’t regret it. Free coffee on us!” she cheers, rushing over to the coffee machine to get started on the drinks.
To that, Caleb smiles sincerely, which gets my ovaries trembling.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place, I flick my gaze between Jess and the one man I once considered a future with…
And flee the coffee shop.
“That man is the one who saved us yesterday,” Sonny states when we make it back outside.
“Yes,”I feel like responding. “And he’s also your father. The one who took off all of a sudden and left me to realize I was preggo with you a week later.”
I settle for an unproblematic reply that’s more fitting for the circumstance. “Yes, he’s one of the firefighters from yesterday.”
I tousle Sonny’s hair through my fingertips. The brown color is the only feature he inherited from me. The onyx-brown eyes are from Caleb. So are the straight chin and angled nose.
I look out to sea and watch the yachts undulate gently in the harbor. Bells ring softly through the summer breeze. It’s apleasant, balmy day, and the ocean that stretches out in front of us is a beautiful shade of blue—made more vibrant by the shining sun.
