She plucked my phone from my hand. “Limited screen time. I’m surprised Chip let you sit here with this glaring in your face. Should you be having headaches still? Maybe we should call the neurosurgeon that workers comp set up that appointment on Thursday with.”
“Headaches are normal. The hockey game was just too loud. It’s fine. Also, in defense of Chip, I only took this out after he left because when he was here, we were kissing.”
“Well, that sounds like you two. Fine. No more screens for the rest of the morning. I brought over some jigsaw puzzles for the three of us to work on.” She then dumped four puzzle boxes on the table. “They’re all small. Just three hundred pieces, but they say doing puzzles is good for the brain when it’s healing. So, do we want to do the farm critters, the dog in a bonnet, the old truck parked by a lake, or a man and grandson fishing?”
“Are you sure you didn’t hit your head too? There are only two of us here, Mom.”
The doorbell rang. “There’s our third!” Mom popped out to open the door. Eli’s voice rang through the house in a cheery greeting. My neighbor had been keeping Chip and me well fed during my convalescence with dishes of homemade meals that I was sure would find me five pounds heavier once I was cleared for a return to duty. “Eli brought some donuts!” she announced as she hustled back into the kitchen with the good rabbi following.
Make that ten pounds I’d have to work off.
“They’re nothing too special, not like sufganiyot, but they’re filled with some of that jam that Mrs. Milcher gave me last summer. Raspberry. Very tasty but very seedy. Did you and Chip like the chicken and dumplings that I brought over yesterday?” he asked while removing his thick sweater and draping it over the back of a chair. His yarmulke for the day was a pink one with blue peace signs on it.
“We did. It was delicious.”
Eli beamed as he sat across from me. Mom poured us all coffee to go with our donuts before sitting on Eli’s left. Eli smiled at her as if she hung the moon. She gave him a shy little smile that could have been seen as a little come hither. Huh. Wouldn’t that be something? She couldn’t find a nicer man to go out with if you asked me.
“Good. Good. Nothing makes a body heal better than food made with love,” Eli replied as he gazed at my mother. She blushed. Wow. I’d not seen color on her cheeks for years. Good for her. She’d been alone far too long. Her boys were grown; her house was empty. It was time for her to find a gentleman friend.
“So.” Eli clapped. I winced slightly. “Oh, sorry. Your head is still touchy, I see. That’s to be expected. When I fell from a tree to free a kite, I gave myself a nice goose egg and a concussed brain, so I know the pain lingers.”
“You were a child, though. Young kids heal quicker,” Mom said after picking the grandpa and the boy fishing for us to work on. Guess she was antsy to get puzzling.
“I wish I could blame youth on that misadventure. No, this was about eight years ago.” We both gaped at him. Eli laughed. “Yes, I know. A man my age should know better than to shimmy up trees, but it was my favorite kite. A sleek red one with a shark on it. The tree wasn’t too tall. Just a young elm, so I did my best impression of a squirrel and up I went. I grabbed the kite then down I went. The trip down was much faster than the trip up.”
My phone rang. Mom gave me a look when I held out my hand. She passed it over with a whispered warning about rest being my priority today. Seeing that it was Sully, I rose to take it in private while Mom dumped the puzzle out.
Slipping into the living room, I tapped the green button and held the phone to my ear. The ringing had eased up now, so yay for small things.
“Hi,” I said to open things up.
“Dane, how are you feeling?”
“Good. I have a checkup with a neurosurgeon on Thursday, and I’m hoping they clear me to return to duty.” I sat on the sofa and toed a tennis ball across the room. Sable did love to fetch balls for Chip, and I kind of wish she were here right now.
“Excellent. Don’t push yourself. We want you back, but only if you’re a hundred percent.”
“No worries, my mother won’t let me go play without a doctor’s note,” I said with just enough volume to be sure she heard it.
“I heard that,” Mom called from the kitchen.
“So, other than checking up, I wanted to call to let you know that I just heard from IA and they’re going to be calling you and Chip in tomorrow morning at nine to give your testimony relating to any possible misconduct.”
“Shit.” I knew they’d investigate it. They had to, and I was fine with that, truly. Everyone in a position of power needed oversight. I had just been hoping they wouldn’t summon Chip because it was going to be stressful for him, I was sure. “Do we know who’s sitting on the panel hearing the testimony?”
“Ralph Biggens, a member of the city human resources committee, and Tyler Kirk.”
Two of the highest-ranking firefighters in our town. Ralph was the fire chief of Rochester. Kirk was one of the deputy chiefs. I knew them both. Good men. Honest. Fair.
“Okay, they’re open-minded.”
“They are. I don’t think you’ll run into any homophobic problems with them. They’re both sound allies for the LGBTQ community in our city. The HR person is a wild card, but I’ll be coming in to give my character testimony after you and Chip speak to them. I’ll make sure they know what an asset you are to this station as well as a respectable man in general.”
“Thanks, Sully. I did my best to ensure that our relationship was?—”
“I know. You don’t have to convince me. I’ve known you since you were knee-high to a grasshopper. You should be getting an official email soon with times and directions like we don’t know where the RFD main office downtown is located.”
“Well, they want to make sure we can’t say we didn’t know. Thanks, Sully. I appreciate the heads up as well as your support in this. I know it’s a headache you don’t need.”
