9. Got Your Story
GOT YOUR STORY
The following Friday, Ash walked into Fire Mission, placed an order for takeout since he was craving barbecue and went to the bar for a beer to wait.
“What can I get you, Ash?”
He scanned the beers on tap on the wall over the bar. “Number three looks good.”
“Order your dinner for the night?”
“I did. Thought I’d chill for twenty minutes while it’s getting ready and chat with you. How’s it going, Will?”
He did this often, getting himself out of the house, not cooking, but not sitting here all night either.
Long gone were his days at the bar looking for action, or having some fun.
He worked too many damn hours for that now.
Instead, he was placing his dinner order at four, having his beer and would be back to his place around four thirty, eating alone with his feet up and channel surfing.
“Been a bit slow lately,” Will said. “It’s like less and less are coming out now. Lunch crowd is barely half, even on a Friday.”
It’d been like that for years and it broke his heart that so many businesses couldn’t make it.
“Maybe people are just getting ready to spend money on the holidays.”
“That’s still seven weeks or more off,” Will said.
“Have you thought about delivery?” Ash said. “Not that I don’t enjoy coming in for a beer and some conversation, but you know, this time of year or come the winter, not as many want to get out. Just sign up for DoorDash or something.”
“I guess so,” Will said. “I just always thought, get them in here for the beer.”
“The beer is good,” he said, putting it to his lips. “But the food is a plus.”
“Probably right. That chick was in here last week with a regular. Haven’t seen her before but looks like the food brought her back.”
He turned his head to the front counter for pickup, the grin filling his face, until he remembered Will said Skye had been in with a regular.
He left his beer where it was and made his way closer.
Why not?
It was like he had a death wish to get his balls shoved down his throat again.
“Hey, Skye.”
She turned quickly from where she was looking at business cards tacked on the wall. Not surprised she was in tune to those things.
“Ash,” she said. “Having a beer?”
“Waiting on my takeout. So yeah, order, have a drink and a chat, then go home and eat alone. You?”
“Food, no beer,” she said, her eyes going to the bar where he’d left his glass.
“Will said he saw you here last week.”
“Will?”
“The owner. He’s tending bar. He keeps a close eye on who is in here all the time. Said you came in with a regular.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “He’s a regular? I’m not surprised.”
Ash bit back the questions sitting on his tongue. Who? When? How often?
Yeah, best to keep his curiosity, and his balls, right where they were.
“I talked to Corbin the other day. I didn’t know you were back. Or my mother mentioned she’d known for a while.”
She smiled. Her light blue eyes full of humor, with a mixture of something else he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
“I bet that drove you nuts you didn’t know. If I remember correctly, you liked to know all that was going on around you.”
He laughed. At least she wasn’t shooting down a quick chat. “That was then. This is now. Now I’m working way too much to pay attention to those things.”
“Corbin told me. That you’re at the firehouse, then working with him and with your brother also. Sounds like a busy man to me.”
He leaned in closer, got a tiny whiff of some fruity scent on her. “Sounds as if you were asking about me.”
Her face flushed some. Just a tiny bit, but he caught it and he was thrilled. “Your name came up. I mean, you’ve been a staple in the family for years. Long before me.”
He liked how she referred to the Lancasters as her family. He didn’t think she ever felt like she belonged and wondered if that was why she’d taken off after graduation.
Or maybe it was more about the fact that she had nothing keeping her around.
“I have been. Not that I go around seeing Carrie much anymore, but I see Jim a lot.”
“You mean you don’t see Carrie in the office?”
Carrie Lancaster owned half of the construction business, running the office along with running the family.
The woman could do it all.
Just like his mother.
And maybe that was why he felt such a connection to the Lancasters. Because, at the root of it, they were a lot like his parents.
They were even friends. Not the type of friends who hung out for a drink or a chat. His parents didn’t do that with anyone. They kept to themselves after dealing with the public daily.
The Lancasters, they were a bit more social.
Even if some of the kids they’d adopted or fostered weren’t.
“I don’t go in too often. Normally just get my marching papers from Corbin or Jim via text, then send off my hours worked and get my check deposited in my account. Life is much easier now than it used to be.”
“Tell me about it. Not having to go into an office now is pretty great, but it’s easy to get lost in being a loner.”
She’d never been this chatty before, but he was going to take advantage of it. “How about a drink while you wait for your food?”
“It should only be five minutes,” she said. “I got here early. And I’m not much of a beer drinker.”
“Then a soda,” he urged. “Rather than stand here alone.” She looked as if she was considering it, so he nudged her arm. “Be a pal. Then I won’t be the loser alone with his beer.”
She laughed, the sound something he hadn’t heard in ages.
Long before her parents died.
Long before he’d heard the rumors of what was going on in her house.
“I don’t think anyone has ever thought you were a loser, but sure. A soda won’t kill me.” She got the attention of the woman behind the counter waiting on pickup orders and pointed to the bar, then followed Ash there.
“What do you want? Shirley Temple?”
“You know, that sounds good. I’ll take one.”
“You heard the lady, Will. Load her up.”
“So, I saw you at the fire on Halloween. Both of them.”
“Yep, you did. I saw you at both of them too. Seems like you got your story.”
He’d been watching for it, knowing it’d be up the next day. Even got it in the Times Union an hour away in Albany. It was now making the news. Not just the two car fires in one night, but four in a little over three weeks.
Nothing in almost a week and maybe he was hoping this was the end of it.
That there were a lot of eyes watching out for things.
“Yeah. Was the electric one really an accident?” Skye asked. “Be honest. I won’t tell anyone.”
He was lost in her eyes as she leaned closer to him.
The last thing he wanted to do was think he was being used. He didn’t think so, but wasn’t sure.
Either way, he wouldn’t put his job on the line. Not even for his best friend’s sister.
Not over a question.
“That’s what the inspector ruled,” he said evenly. “Those things happen.”
And it was a bitch to put out. The wind blowing the flames closer to the house than anyone was comfortable with, blocking off most of the street for fear they’d have a bigger blaze on their hands.
Skye studied him for a beat, then nodded. “Fair enough.”
Will slid her drink across the bar, bright red and fizzy.
She lifted it. “To not working tonight.”
Ash raised his beer. “I’ll drink to that.”
He put his beer to his lips, took a long swallow, then watched Skye sip hers through the straw and laugh. With a pang sharp in his chest, the memories of their teen years came back.
“I bet you’re a regular here too, aren’t you?” she asked. “Seems fitting with the name.”
He wasn’t sure where she was going with this. Unless maybe she wanted to find out if he knew more about this regular she met with the other day.
“I guess. I come maybe once a month, no more than that. More for the food than the drink.”
“Hey,” Will said. “What about the company?”
He flicked his thumb to the bartender. “I keep telling Will that he needs to have delivery.”
“I second that,” she said, slurping up more of the drink. “I would have gotten that rather than having to change out of sweats to walk out the door.”
His eyes ran over her body.
Her long brown hair was in a ponytail, jeans on her petite frame, a hoodie over whatever shirt she had on under it. If anything.
Sneakers on her feet.
Both times he’d seen her at the fires, she’d been dressed about the same. Even her hair pulled back.
No makeup on now and he was guessing not then either.
“Corbin mentioned you worked from home. I’m not sure I’d even get dressed if I did.”
This time she looked him over a bit more. A bit longer.
It got his blood pumping. His body tingling. His dick twitching and wanting some more.
He fought not to adjust on the stool because he was positive she’d know exactly what was going through his mind.
“In the summer I might not have much more on than cotton shorts and a tank top. I’m on the third floor of my place. Right now, it’s not bad. Heat rises. But I’m positive come summer my AC is going to be raging and it still won’t make a difference.”
“Probably not,” he said. “I’m on the second. Got people above and below me. Can’t really stand it, but I’m used to it now.”
He could have switched at some point, but that was too much work.
Her name was called before he was ready for her to go.
She slurped up the rest of her drink. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” He was trying to think of something to prolong the night. Thankfully, his name was called next. He tossed cash on the bar and left a quarter of his beer in the glass. “Wait up.”
She turned at the counter where she was handing over her card. “Yes?”
“How about we eat together. This way neither one of us is alone. You know, catch up on old times. Or you can pick my brain because I know you’re dying to.”
Didn’t mean he’d give anything more than facts. And maybe it was low of him to throw that out there, but he was desperate.
She hesitated a bit longer than he hoped for, but then said, “Why not?”