Page 22 of Dandelions and Smoke

“Pinky’s been through a lot. These past few months included,” he exhales, the fight fully draining from his expression, replaced by something more tender.

“Pinky?” My brow twitches down, and I tilt my head at the nickname he’s still using for her.

A small grin pulls at his lips, his expression filled with a familiarity that sends a quick pang of jealousy through me.

“Whatever reasons she has for avoiding you,” he pauses, considering his words carefully. “They have more to do with her than they do with you.”

My gaze drifts away as if the thought needs space to land. Whatever reasons she has, I want to know them.

“It sounds like you know her pretty well,” I say, trying to be nonchalant, but my pinched expression gives me away.

“Don’t worry, Chief,” Billy chuckles. “Pinky and I are close, but only in that ‘you’re the sibling I never asked for’ type of way. She’s still yours.”

His words surprise me. “Yeah?”

“If you ever get out from behind this desk? Yeah, I think so.”

I roll my eyes, but his words give me hope.

“Ah, shit. One more thing,” I say to Billy before he leaves my office. “Exactly how mad do you think this is going to make Blake and her cousin Lucas?”

Billy doesn’t answer me. Instead, his face breaks into a smile, and his laughter fills my office, following him as he walks out the door.

For the next month, I stop by the Cozy Pines Cafe every chance I get. I wasted six months not putting myself out there. Now, if she’d stop hiding every time I show up here, that would be amazing.

“Sorry, Chief,” Ainsley murmurs, her big blue-green eyes looking at me like sad saucers as she fixes a flower falling from her hair. “She’ll come around.”

Every time I come in, she tells me the same thing, but today something feels different. I look over her shoulder and see pink hair through the back door window. Ainsley turns, seeing it too, and gives me a sympathetic half-smile.

“Maybe next time,” I tell her.

“Maybe,” she mutters, a curious look on her face. “You should come to our Friendsgiving celebration.”

“Should I?” I tilt my head and raise a brow.

I appreciate her invitation. I’ve overheard the guys all talking about what they’re making and how Tris threatened them to give it their very best effort. It’s going to be one of the only Thanksgiving celebrations that some of them have. If I go, it will be the same for me.

“Yes, I’m officially inviting you,” she grins.

“You’re as bad a meddler as Billy, you know that?” I smirk, thinking about how he’s been trying to get Rory to talk to me.

Her cheeks turn pink, and she waves me off.

After another failed attempt at talking to Rory, I’m back at the Turtle Bay Fire Department. I apologized to Mark and Levi after I got my shit together the other day, but I still feel bad about it. I’ve been doing my best not to let my emotions get in the way of my job ever since I became chief, but that’s exactly what happened.

I was captain when my ex-wife and I lost our first baby. I didn’t know how to handle a loss like that, but what was worse was that I didn’t know how to be there for her when I was avoiding my own grief. I couldn’t see how miserable I was or how it affected my crew. They walked on eggshells around me, worried that anything might set me off. Since becoming the chief, I promised myself things would be different.

“Are you still in here beating yourself up about the other day?” Billy says as he marches into my office.

“You ever heard of knocking, Billy?” I hum the words under my breath, dry and pointed, but grin when I meet his gaze.

“You may have mentioned it once or twice.” He shrugs.

“Try closer to five hundred times,” I grumble, but the fact that he’s right has me loosening my grip on the guilt I’ve been drowning in.

“Lighten up, Chief. It’s all good here. We all know you’re a good guy. One of the best of us, really,” he says, picking up the pink plushie lion with blue eyes that he got me as a joke six months ago and tossing it between his hands. “Besides,” he says, pausing to toss the lion to me. “There’s a call that’s come in that I think you’re perfect for.”

My gaze shifts slowly between him and the lion, my curiosity piqued. “What kind of call?”