7. Jensen
SEVEN
JENSEN
My run was a slog, but I loaded up on carbs once I got to Brewed Awakening.
I opted for a breakfast burrito, a danish, and espresso charged coffee in Macy’s Spooky Winter Trees blend. The only shitty part was that I had to make my way home after eating. Not exactly my smartest move.
Crescent Cove wasn’t exactly big for the bus line since everything had been created for foot traffic. I was contemplating using some of my tip money for a share-ride back to my apartment when my brother slid into the seat across from me.
“Hello, little brother.”
“Slumming, Eli?”
He grinned and flicked his suit coat button open. He wore a Burberry overcoat in a dusty navy with a cranberry scarf. Elite lawyer wear which didn’t make sense since he was in Crescent Cove instead of his stomping grounds of nearby Kensington Square or Syracuse depending on his caseload. “In bucolic small-town, USA? Surely, the fair people of the Cove would be insulted by your insinuation.”
Before I could open my mouth, a brunette with a huge smile came to the table with a mug and a pair of egg bites. “Here’s your order, Mr. Turner.”
“Thanks, Clara. I appreciate it.”
She flushed and spun around to rush back to the busy counter.
“Clara? Since when do you know the people in here?”
“Since I’ve been here every day, this week and last.”
I folded my arms and sat back in my chair. “Since when?”
“Since I’ve been working on a very lengthy court case for the rights to land on the lake.” He glanced at my running outfit and arched a brow. “What are you wearing? You do realize you are in public.”
“Hey, it doesn’t have paint on it.”
He gave me a dry stare before breaking a part of his egg bite off and popping it in his mouth. He finished chewing, then he took a sip from his mug. “That’s very true.”
“Why didn’t you mention you were in town when we were at Gram’s?”
“It didn’t come up. She was too fixated on getting both of us linked up with a nice girl.” He wiped his fingers on his napkin before setting it aside. “Honestly, I thought I’d only be here for a day or so. Maitland is causing me extensive problems with my client.”
“Maitland...” The name was familiar, but I wasn’t up on town gossip.
“Arthur Maitland has designs to build a number of high-end condos, spas, and other such things on Crescent Lake. The townspeople—especially the other business owners—are not excited about the prospect.”
“I’d think that would bring more people into town.” I frowned and picked up my breakfast burrito.
“Not the way Maitland wants to play it. He wants to build his own businesses attached to the spas and such. The economic ramifications would be significant.”
“Dick move,” I said around a siracha-infused bit of sausage.
“To put it succinctly.” His tone was dry as dust as usual, but I saw his grin behind the lip of his mug.
“I didn’t realize you did real estate law.”
“It’s not my favorite, but the case is interesting.” He set his mug down. “You’re still training, I presume?”
I nodded. “Stress test is this week and the written is Monday.”
“Are you sure about this?”
I set down my burrito. “I am.”
“You don’t think you got close enough to a fire?”
I sighed. “Don’t start, Elijah.” I didn’t know how to convey that the need to figure out a fire, to learn how to beat it, was so important to me.
“I don’t understand the compunction.”
“And I don’t understand why you want to wear a suit every day. I don’t give you shit about it.” I took a sip from my coffee. “Much.”
“What’s the draw?”
“You wouldn’t get it. And it’s not like Crescent Cove is a metropolitan city, Eli. It’ll be mostly community-based functions, working with the town and that kind of thing.”
“Since when are you a joiner?”
“Since I almost watched someone die.”
Eli gritted his teeth and shut his eyes. I watched him legit count to ten.
I knew I drove my older brother crazy. We’d been it for each other since I was fourteen when our mom finally split. I was lucky Eli and Gram had stepped up or I’d have been in foster care. It wasn’t like our mother had been around much, anyway. She’d always been more interested in partying and finding a guy to take care of her.
She’d finally found one that at least wanted to take her on the road with him. Whether or not she stayed with the guy was anyone’s guess. Once she got out of Albany, I was pretty sure she just kept going.
And I really didn’t miss her.
She mostly dumped me on my Gram, anyway. Eli was just getting established at a firm and had little time for a punk teenager. I could have turned into that punk quite easily, if not for our grandmother. Our father had been out of the picture since I was a toddler. I barely remembered Joel Turner. The only thing he’d ever given me was his last name and vague memories of screaming matches with my mom.
Eli sighed, dragging me out of those old thoughts. “I know it was hard for you. And part of me even understands the vocation.”
“Then why are you giving me a hard time?”
“Because I’m wondering if this will help you move on or increase the obsession.”
I fisted my hands on the table. He wasn’t wrong. I hated that he wasn’t wrong.
I was known to fixate on things. My art had been an enduring fixation, and I often dropped off the face of the earth when I was really into a project. Becoming a firefighter had gone from a halfhearted thought to an absolute need.
“Can you just back me up, man? It’s important to me. Ever since we moved here, I’ve been keeping my head down, figuring out my life, and it’s the first thing since painting that got its hooks into me. Even before Ly—Trick or Treat.”
Eli’s eyebrows furrowed. “Before the fire?”
“Yeah. I flunked out the first time at the fire academy, but now I’m top of my class.”
“Because you’re obsessed?”
“No.” I pounded the table, and the dishes rattled. A few people looked over at me and I slid my hand under the table to squeeze my thigh. “Because it matters. I’m friends with a guy at the station. I even hang out at Sharkey’s?—”
“What the hell is Sharkey’s?”
The anger dissolved at his shocked face. “Bar owned by the captain of the firehouse’s wife. Firefighter bar, pretty much.” And it was nice to actually hang out with guys around my age. Most of them were a bit older, but I fit in.
I hadn’t fit in with people in a long damn time. Art was isolating, and most of the time, I didn’t give a shit about that because I was in the zone, but when the buzz wasn’t there, it was nice to get out of my apartment.
“The guys there are tight. And being a firefighter matters to them. I want that.”
Eli slid two fingers through the handle of his mug and slowly rotated it. He was wearing his thinking face. At least that’s what I had called it as a kid. My brother was quite a few years older than me.
Elijah Turner wasn’t quick to anger. Nothing like our mother. He was always puzzling people out.
Why he was a damn good lawyer.
But he could never figure me out—and I was good with that. We were very different people, and that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, except when both of us dug our heels in on a subject.
“Did you say you were at the top of your class?”
“All that and that’s what you focus on?”
He lifted the mug to his mouth. “I’m still annoyed you dropped out of college,” he said before he took a sip.
“Looks like I’m a good student when it counts.”
“Mmmm.”
I laughed. “Finish your breakfast. Then you can drop me at my place. I ate too much to run.”
“Sounds like a you problem.”
“Have pity.”
“Fine. But only because I have to head back to Kensington for a meeting.”
“You’re all heart.”
“Don’t you forget it.”
Because my brother was as contrary as hell, he took his sweet ass time finishing his coffee and diet plate. My brother was about as opposite as he could possibly be to me. I was greasy breakfast and high-octane coffee running through my veins, he was egg whites and spinach with exactly two cups of coffee a day.
I was chaotic workouts, while his choices were yoga and resistance training.
You couldn’t even call us the two sides of a coin. He was a centennial half dollar to my dented quarter at the bottom of my laundry coin machine.
But we worked because we were all each other had besides our grandmother.
Finally, he stood. “How is it that you look like you do and eat like that?”
I drained the last of my coffee. “Just lucky.”
“More like you’re in your twenties, jackass,” he muttered.
“Then why did you ask?”
“I just like to punish myself, I guess. Much like your highlighter yellow shirt offends the eyes.”
I grinned and slung my vest over my shoulder. “Wait til you see me in my uniform.”
“I can hardly wait.” He held the door for me.
While we’d been in the cafe, the sky had darkened with an impending storm. January was becoming a hell of a shitshow when it came to sleet, freezing rain, and buckets of snow.
I zipped my jacket up against the gusty wind off the nearby lake.
“What is that stench?”
“Sweat.”
Eli wrinkled his nose. “You’re paying for my upholstery cleaning.”
“I’ll put the vest in the trunk.”
“Oh, it’s not you?”
“Thanks, bro.”
“What? You can’t tell me you’re that nose-blind.”
“The weighted vest needs a trip to the laundromat.”
“Why on earth would you be running in a weighted vest?”
“Because I might have to haul a human out over my shoulder when they’re unconscious. It’s called training.”
That shut him up. He simply walked over to his pearl-gray Beemer and popped the trunk for me before sliding into the driver’s seat. I tucked it in the front corner of the trunk away from his leather bag. It really was rank.
When I got in the passenger side, he was quietly contemplating his dashboard, thinking face in full effect.
I didn’t have it in me to square up with him anymore, so the drive to my place was a quiet one. When we passed Trick or Treat, I glanced at him. “They expanded Trick or Treat with a showcase-style marketplace. Artisanal stuff with a focus on local small businesses.”
“Is that right?” Eli glanced at the archway with the massive raven. “I don’t understand people’s affection for horror. How would that line up with small businesses?”
“The expansion is called A Place for All. Lyric’s brainchild, I’m pretty sure. I think I’ll be doing some commission work for them.”
“I didn’t think you were involved with Trick or Treat any longer.”
“I didn’t, either.”
“More community?”
“Yeah. You should check it out when I’m done.” I felt like an idiot saying that. What was I going to do, show him my drawings like a little kid?
Eli glanced at me. “I’d like to see it.”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t get a chance to see your work very often. You don’t share it.”
Because if he saw what was currently on my walls, he’d probably have me packed up and living with Gram again. My very logical older brother didn’t understand that my art was sometimes just like a journal.
Maybe on a slightly larger scale.
His car glided up to my apartment building. “Good luck with your test.”
I figured that was about as good as it was going to get for a blessing. “Thanks. I’ll let you know how it goes.”
“Good. Be careful.”
“I will.” I slid out, snagged the vest from the trunk, and headed into my building.
It wasn’t the prettiest establishment. Even the name of it matched the utilitarian slate gray siding and black windows. Elm Street Apartments.
But it did the job.
I didn’t really care about aesthetics. As long as the laundry and the elevators worked, I was pretty covered.
I crossed the lobby to the elevators. Our community space was little more than a counter with a trio of Keurigs, a couple overpriced vending machines, and a change machine for the laundry room.
The elevator opened, and I dashed for it. As the doors closed, I was glad it was just me on the trip up. I definitely needed to wash some clothes—especially my heinous vest—and study before I met the guys at Sharkey’s.
I stepped off on my floor just in time for Adam Wolfe to come out of his apartment across from mine. His dark hair was still wet, and he was carrying a duffel bag.
“Hey, man.”
Adam gave me a flat smile. “Hey.”
“On shift again?”
“Yeah, what’s it to you?”
My eyebrows shot up. “Nothing. Never mind.” I turned to my door and dug out my keys.
Adam was pretty affable for the most part, but we all had shit days. I knew that more than anyone. He was one of the senior firefighters at CCFD, and I’d been hoping to bend his ear about applying.
He sighed. “Sorry man. Shit night.”
“Did something happen?”
“Yeah, late call at an old cabin on the lake. House was a total loss. Lost the old woman who lived inside. She didn’t have a chance.”
“Ah, shit. I’m sorry, man.”
“Happens.” Adam glanced at the vest I had slung over my shoulder. “Is that from the firehouse?”
“Yeah. Ben lent me his. I’m doing my stress test at the academy this week.”
“The Fire Academy?”
I nodded. “I’m going to put an application in at CCFD. I was hoping to talk to you about it sometime. If that’s cool.”
“Pass the exams and come talk to me. We’re looking for some new blood in the spring.”
My chest fell. Spring felt like a damn long time from now.
Adam slapped me on the back. “Just focus on getting through the academy. Cap is a stickler on that. High scores will help get you in the door.”
I nodded. “Got it.”
Guess I really would be hitting the books today.
And I’d have to work on Nolan about the murals. There was no way I’d make it through that kind of wait time without something to distract me.