“You gonna stay at Abbott’s now? You still have a set of keys, I assume?” I ask Aspen and she shakes her head.
“He was actually staying at the Five Seasons most of the summer. Went back to Boston this morning for training camp. His house is being renovated. Again,” She rolls her eyes. “He doesn’t have electricity or running water right now. I’ll figure it out.”
I know exactly what she’s going to do and it’s stupid. “You are not camping out alone in your van, Aspen.”
“I won’t be alone. I’ll have Major,” she replies stubbornly. “And it’s just until the insurance gets sorted or they let us back in.”
I sigh. I can’t believe I’m doing this, but she’s pregnant and even if she wasn’t I wouldn’t let her sleep in that van she uses for surveillance work. Aspen isn’t a monster. I look her in the eye. “Clover Road. The big building right on the water.”
“You have a place already?” Aspen blinks.
“Yes. Rented it before I even left King’s Rock. Ocean Pines isn’t exactly a hot market, so it was easy to do,” I tell her. “But it’s kind of empty because my stuff is still en route with the moving company. I’ve got an air mattress and you’re welcome to it since I’ll be at the station anyway.”
She doesn’t say anything for a second. “Really?”
“Yeah. Spare key is under the door mat.” I shrug. “Unit fourteen. Top floor, left corner.”
Logan raises a curious eyebrow. I pretend not to notice.
“Thank you,” Aspen says, her defiant armor finally lowering long enough to give me a grateful smile.
She whistles and Major trots off with her toward her car. Logan keeps glancing over to me as he packs up his rig and I work on packing the fire truck back up. “It’s just a friendly gesture,” I say before he can make the comments he wants to make. “Nothing more. We aren’t a thing anymore.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Do not uh-huh me, Logan. I’m serious,” I reply, my tone unwavering. I never loved Aspen the way I should have.
“Do you think Riv really would want a dog?” Logan asks me suddenly. “Is he too young?”
“Honestly?” I say as I finish rolling the hose back into the truck. “You’re never too young for a dog. And you could use the company. It’s been a while since your family had a pet and your Ma is so great with animals. Terra loves dogs too. Finn will probably be okay with it.”
“I don’t need his permission, Jake. I’m not his freaking tenant and I’m not going to live above the restaurant with him forever,” Logan says defensively, his jaw tight. He gets so bent out of shape about his living situation. Probably because he doesn’t have his own place yet but I do. He has been bouncing around from his parents’ place to Finn’s since he got out of rehab three years ago.
“I know you don’t need permission, Logan.” I pause. “I just admire how well you adapted to being a dad unexpectedly.”
“I assume you mean after the rehab,” Logan replies and gives me a dry, humorless smile. “Because for the first year of River’s life I was going out for diapers and coming back swimming in whiskey fourteen hours later. Not exactly perfect parent behavior.”
“Yeah but that wasn’t because of River. You had a disease. You got it under control,” I remind him.
“I did and knowing I had River to raise helped me do that, but it doesn’t always work for other people,” Logan explains as he walks toward the driver’s door of his ambulance. “Alcoholism is a life-long battle that a lot of people lose. I have to think of it every day. I have to make the choice not to drink every day, and some days are harder than others. Really hard. Some people don’t get sober or can’t be good parents no matter what. It’s not a reflection on the kid, though. I know you know this.”
His blue eyes lock with mine and I think of Kelsey Grady, Ocean Pines’ drug-addicted stripper, also known to me as Mom. “You should get a dog.”
“Yeah. I am definitely going to look into it.”
“See you back at the station,” I say and climb into the truck as Logan nods gruffly and gets into his ambulance.
Luckily, back at the firehouse I’m able to get out of my gear and into the shower and then lock myself up in one of the private bunks. Perks of being a lieutenant, I don’t have to use the cavernous bunk room. I get a private room. The bed is the same single bed, and the room is a shoebox, but it’s got none of the bunk room rules like no cellphones and no talking. I drop the towel and crawl under the sheets, plug my phone in, and put it on the nightstand. I command myself to sleep, but of course that doesn’t work, so I start Googling information about paternity tests.
6
Jake
I head homefrom work at a little after seven in the morning. Our shifts are twenty-four hours on, forty-eight hours off, which is pretty standard in the industry. It means I have the next two days off, which is good because the moving company is arriving late this afternoon with my stuff and now I have Aspen and Major to deal with too.
The fire station is located on Smithwheel Road which is the road that divides Old Orchard Beach from Ocean Pines. There’s a pine grove behind us, with the turnpike right behind that and the football field at the back of the high school in front of us. To the left of the station is a small strip mall with a laundromat, a fresh vegetable market, and a Chinese restaurant. To the right, a Dunkin’, beyond which is the police station. I swear between the high schoolers and the fire department and the police, whoever owns that Dunkin’ franchise is a millionaire. I swing through the drive-thru now and order two coffees. Aspen used to love their caramel iced coffee and I used to love their coconut macchiatos. Used to because I haven’t had one in three years. King’s Rock was rural and so small it made Ocean Pines look like a metropolis. There was no chain store in King’s Rock. If you drove across the border into New Brunswick you’d get those creature comforts, but there it was Tim Horton’s not Dunkin’.
I place my order. The girl at the pick-up window looks vaguely familiar. “That’ll be five-forty.” She looks up and blinks. “Jake Maverick?”
