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"Busy. I just closed a case where a guy ran two sets of books for six years and thought nobody would notice." He flipped a burger. "People always think the money won't talk."

"And it always does."

"Every time." He pointed the spatula at me. "You want cheese on this?"

"Yeah."

He laid a slice on the patty and pressed the lid down. "It's good to have you here, Alex. Erin misses you."

The evening went the way these things go. People ate, talked, refilled their drinks. Kids wore themselves out chasing each other across the yard and ended up in laps. I ate my burger near the grill and answered the same three questions about the fire department from parents I'd never met.

My eyes kept drifting toward Janine and her daughter. On the porch steps with her daughter curled against her side. In the kitchen doorway, laughing with another mother. Near the swing set, pulling her daughter's jacket on.

I wondered where her husband was. What he'd think when he heard that a firefighter kissed his wife on stage tonight like he meant it.

"Do you want another one?"

I didn't know when Janine had walked over.

"What was that?"

"I said, do you want another one?"

I looked down at the empty bottle of beer in my hand.

"No. I think I've had enough."

I set the bottle on the table beside me.

"Erin talks about you a lot. I wasn't sure you'd ever actually show up to one of these."

"Someone has to stay at the station." I crossed my arms and leaned against the fence. "How long have you been on dispatch?"

"A couple of years. I dispatched in Ohio before we moved to Boston."

"What made you trade Midwestern peace and quiet for the chaos of Boston?"

She looked across the yard to where her daughter was playing with Holly near the swing set. "Needed a fresh start."

"You could be doing anything. Why choose to sit in a chair and listen to strangers scream?"

She laughed. "My father collapsed at home when I was nine. I was the only one there. I called 911 and a woman talked me through keeping him alive until the paramedics came." She looked at her hands on the fence rail. "She saved his life with her voice. I decided that I was going to be that voice for other people."

"That's a hell of a reason to do what you do," I said.

"It's cheesy, I know." She turned to me. "What about you? You could also be doing literally anything else. Why choose to run into burning buildings?"

"Maybe I just like to suffer."

She laughed.

We ended up talking about the job. What a shift looked like from her side, what it looked like from mine. When I looked up, the party had thinned out. Most of the families had left. I'd been standing at this fence for over an hour and I hadn't noticed.

"Your daughter is adorable." I looked across the yard to where she was sitting in the grass with Holly and Jordan. "Your husband couldn't make it to the play?"

"No. It's only ever been just me and Hazel."

No husband. I'd been worried about overstepping into another man's life all night, and there was no other man. I didn't know what to do with how relieved that made me.