Chapter 4
CHAPTER
FOUR
Kendall
I’d debated for most of the past two days if I should text Francis, but once I’d pointed my truck toward home after work, I practically did a happy dance in my seat at the thought of being closer to him.
Whether or not this was a good idea didn’t seem to matter. I texted him back as I exhaled.
Saucy Neighbor: Be there in five?
“Thanks, guys,” I said to Rog and Arnie as they were leaving. “I know we had a rough shift—”
“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Rog said. “We can’t have these guys getting lost.” He patted Greta Garbo on her shell.
I’d ordered some cinderblocks to create a better barrier for the tortoises, and they’d offered to come help me load them at the landscape supply in Miller’s Point.
Berto had called while I was on shift, and John Wayne had gotten out again.
This tortoise was a menace, yet I couldn’t bear it if something happened to him.
I didn’t think Francis would be too happy having regular visits.
What if John Wayne fell in the pool? Or ended up stuck in the marshy terrain around the lake?
I needed to be sure that he was warm at night, not chillin’ under the moonlight.
Rog, Arnie, and I had only needed a half hour to get the blocks unloaded from my truck and stacked in the corridor where Jay Dub kept getting out.
I’d spend the day tomorrow finishing up, making it permanent, and then I needed to put some options together for replacing the fence.
Which meant talking to Francis. Which I was nervous about, for some reason.
We’d had several calls today, including two medical emergencies, one of which was from a semi-regular, Mr. Horner.
He had Parkinson’s, and it was getting harder for him to handle his basic needs.
Mr. Horner’s daughter Erin lived two towns over and came out to her father’s as often as she could, but she was working full-time as an administrator at the hospital and raising two teenagers.
I felt for her. I’d been in a similar boat in the years before I moved here.
Today we’d had to take him to the hospital after he’d had a bad fall. He’d nearly broken his hip this time. Erin struggled with the news from the ER doctor that her father was going to be in the hospital for a few days and, when he was discharged, she’d need to arrange full-time care for him.
I’d held her hand while she processed the news.
I hadn’t had anyone to help me make the decision about my father.
When he had his stroke, then was hospitalized with pneumonia, I’d decided it was time to move him in with me and get help on my work days.
My daughter, Shay, was still in high school at the time, and my son Tyson was in boot camp.
I was already separated from Susan, my ex-wife, by then.
She’d had her hands full with her own parents, and our peace had been tenuous.
Things were already strained… and then we’d lost Tyson.
There wasn’t enough of our relationship left to build on, to support each other. We gave everything we had to Shay and went our separate ways.
Our divorce had been amicable, but I knew Susan carried some lingering resentment over having to handle the kids on her own so much when I was deployed or once I went reserves and had shifts at the fire department.
When you’re young and in love, you think you can handle anything, but having a husband who was gone for days, weeks, or months at a time with work was hard.
The kids were a lot. Her parents and my mom helped when the kids were little, but she’d had to handle most kid stuff on her own.
I must have been tired. I could usually keep that shit locked up, but the day’s events had me off balance.
“I appreciate you guys coming out.” I hugged both of my teammates then followed them out to their truck.
“Arnie’s working at Knots and Pies tomorrow, but I’m around. Let’s get this shit finished so you can relax. When was the last time you got a full night’s sleep?”
I raised an eyebrow at Rog and that was all the answer he needed.
Arnie was furiously texting with a shit-eating grin on his face, and he let out a whistle. He elbowed Roger. “Babe, he said yes.”
Roger clapped his hands together. “Hot damn. Kenny, baby, I’m serious. I’ll help tomorrow, but tonight, we’ve got plans.”
I shook my head and laughed. “Who’s the victim?”
My teammates grinned at each other. “Derek Chang,” Arnie said. “He finally agreed to go out with us.”
“Francis’s cousin? Aw, man, you guys better behave with him.”
They both held their hands up. “We swear. It’s a date, honest. He’s been gun-shy about it, but he finally agreed.”
Rog and Arnie were a package deal, and they liked to share.
However, they spent more effort on plotting their exploits than they actually had them come to fruition.
There was a grad student in town for a summer doing an internship at Queen Gaming, and then there was the one guy who worked at Blue Star Café, but bless their little polyamorous hearts, they hadn’t found the right guy who could handle them, and I’m not talking merely in a sexual manner.
They were looking for more than hookups.
They’d had those alone, they’d had those together, but they wanted a permanent third.
Seemed like a lot of work to me.
“Yeah, he’s over at Francis’s, and he’s going to meet us at the park. Oh, man, I can’t wait.”
“I’m, like, nervous all of a sudden.” Roger rubbed a hand over his face.
“What’s there to be nervous about?” I was talking out of my ass. I sure as hell would be nervous. “It’s what you guys want, right?”
Arnie and Rog looked at each other with googly eyes.
“We do. And he’s perfect for us.”
“He’s so cute,” Roger said.
“Well then, go easy on him, and have fun, kids. Cover up for safety.”
They snickered as they climbed into Arnie’s truck and made the three-point-turn to leave my driveway.
I looked toward Francis’s place and took a deep breath.
I hadn’t even had time to shower, and I was a dirty, sweaty mess.
This was not how I wanted to see him again, but he’d cooked for me.
I had enough gas in my tank to thank him for the food and carry on a conversation.
Hopefully he’d be up for making plans, preferably when I was clean and a bit more rested.
I took off around the side of the tortoise yard and caught sight of Francis making his way across the field between our houses.
I wondered if he had a riding mower or if he was going to hire a service.
Someone had been mowing about once every couple of months before Francis bought the place, but it tended to grow tall pretty fast.
“Hey there,” he said. He held a bowl in one hand and two covered containers in the other.
He stepped over the broken piece of fence and handed me the two containers stacked on top of each other.
“I thought if you liked it, you could have some for tomorrow. I love to cook. It’s kind of in my DNA.
Grandparents owned a restaurant, my aunt and mom grew up working there, and I spent a lot of time there as a kid.
It’s a stress reliever and a self-care thing and—okay! I’m chatty tonight. This is happening.”
His nervous laughter made me smile so wide. I was already into his saucy side. He seemed so cool and confident, the way he’d taken me on at the Pride festival, that I hadn’t anticipated he’d have a nervous side. It made him even more attractive, and God help me, I hung on his every word.
“Thanks for this,” I said, holding up the containers. “We skipped lunch today.”
“Oh, here.” He pulled out a fork from his pocket and smiled at me. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted company. Totally fine if you just need to crash. We can always…”
I took the fork from his outstretched hand, making sure to brush fingers.
I was a romantic kinda guy. I’d studied the moves in all the rom-coms and read the books.
I loved to add in all those romance-novel gestures.
My wife had loved it. It was probably what kept her around even when my absence drove her crazy.
The men and women I’d dated after we got divorced enjoyed it, but I grew cautious about sharing that side of me.
Too many people loved the attention but weren’t willing to give me grace when I needed it.
Would Francis?
The fact that he’d cooked for me gave me hope.
I set one of the containers on the fence post and opened the other, taking care not to drop the fork into the high grass.
“You love to cook. I love to eat. This is a positive portent for us, I think.” I tried not to shovel in the food like the starving man that I was. Thankfully it was dark, but I didn’t hold back my moan.
“I didn’t know if you liked—”
“I like. I very much like.” I ate another couple of bites as he watched, and then he picked up his own fork.
We ate in the quiet of the night, smiling at each other over the broken fence.
When I thought maybe I could string semi-intelligent words together, I set down the container for a second.
“I was going to talk to you about the fence. There are some local crews that do fences and are reasonable. I’d do it myself, but it might take me a while. ”
“Oh, no, you have more important things to do. Like, you know, saving people, undoubtedly looking hot while you do it, and let’s not forget wrangling your… collection.” He lifted his eyebrows and bit down on his lower lip.
Saucy? Sincere? Sexy as hell.
“Well, being hot is part of the job. We’re required to be handsome. Takes people’s minds off being scared or in pain. Dopamine hit.”
“And he knows it,” he said, gesturing to an invisible audience. “All right. As for the fence, I’m happy to pay for it—”