27. October Twenty-Eighth
October Twenty-Eighth
KNOX
Kip went to Josie the next morning. Nora didn't have to say a word.
He found her at the charge desk before the shift started and told her everything.
Josie pulled him into a room, suspended him on the spot, and referred the case to administration.
The last Nora heard, he was facing a licensing board review.
Nora put the lot up for sale in the spring.
The house was gone, but the land still had value.
A developer made an offer within the month.
She signed the paperwork at the kitchen table on a Tuesday while I made coffee.
The check went into a savings account she opened that afternoon.
It was the first money Nora had ever had that wasn't already owed to someone.
Thompson put my name back on the eligibility list in July. A spot opened in mid-October, and I pinned lieutenant in Thompson's office with the crew behind me.
"Happy birthday, sweetheart." My mother opened the front door before we made it up the steps. She pulled me into a hug, then held me at arm's length and looked at my face. "My lieutenant."
"Hi, Mom."
She turned to Nora and took both of her hands. "There's my girl. Come here." She pulled Nora into a hug before Nora could answer.
My mother had been inviting us over once a month since the spring. Somewhere along the way, she and Nora had built something of their own.
After dinner, my father caught my eye from the hallway. "Knox. A minute?"
I followed him to the library. He closed the door behind us.
The photograph was still on the built-in beside the door. Me, Gage, and Beckett on the back lawn. Everyone was smiling.
My father stood by the window with his hands at his sides. He looked at the floor for a moment, then at me.
"I owe you an apology. More than one."
He paused. I could hear my mother and Nora talking in the kitchen through the closed door.
"The night you brought Nora to this house, I treated her poorly.
I listened to gossip from people who had their own reasons to say what they said, and I made judgments about a woman I didn't know.
" He looked toward the door where Nora's voice was carrying, faint and warm.
"I've worked beside her for over a year now.
She is an exceptional nurse and a good person, and I was wrong. "
I waited.
"And that brings me to the harder one." His jaw tightened. "Because what I did to Nora, I did to you for twenty years."
He looked at the photograph on the shelf.
"You were twelve years old. You were a child, and I held you responsible for something no child should carry. Your mother tried to tell me. For years, she tried." His voice roughened. "I wouldn't hear it."
He turned back to me.
"I'm sorry, Knox. For all of it."
The room was still. My father had never said those words to me. Not after Gage. Not after the beam. Not once in thirty-four years.
"Thank you, Dad."
My father crossed the room and put his arms around me. He held on, one hand on the back of my head, his breathing uneven against my shoulder.
He hadn't held me since I was twelve years old.
Nora and I started a tradition. Every year on my birthday, we visit Gage.
The next morning, Nora crouched beside the headstone and set the flowers against the base. She brushed a leaf off the stone and straightened the stems.
Gage Michael Sullivan. Beloved Son and Brother.
She stood up and leaned into my side. I put my arm around her.
"When I was a kid and I had a nightmare, Gage would hear me from down the hall," I said. "He'd come into my room, sit on the floor beside my bed, and stay there until I fell back asleep. He never said anything about it the next morning."
Nora's hand tightened on my arm.
"I think he's looking after Ian for you."
She looked up at me. "You think so?"
"Yeah. I do."
She pressed her face into my shoulder. We stayed like that for a while, standing in front of my brother's headstone with the sun going down behind the trees.
"We should add the banana split to the tradition," I said. "Gage's grave, then the diner for a banana split."
Nora looked up at me. "That sounds like a good tradition."
Travis got my birthday out of me three weeks after he came back to full duty.
He'd healed well. The burns scarred over on his neck and jaw, and the cast came off in December. He was back on shift by February, lighter on his feet than before, cracking jokes about the scar like it was a trophy. But he waited. He timed it perfectly.
We were cleaning the engine after a call when he brought it up.
"You know I went back into a burning building for you."
"Thompson sent you in."
"I went in. For you. And a dog." He wiped down the side panel without looking at me. "I got a fractured arm and a scar on my neck, and you still won't tell me when your birthday is."
"You lost the bet, Travis."
"The bet was before I almost died for you, Knox." He stopped wiping. "I think that changes the terms."
I looked at him. He looked at me. He wasn't smiling, but the corner of his mouth was doing something.
"October twenty-eighth."
He pointed the rag at me. "Was that so hard?"
"Don't make a big deal out of it."
"I would never." He went back to wiping. "October twenty-eighth. Got it."
I knew I was going to regret it.
Nora told me we were going to The Lantern to celebrate the promotion. I put on a clean shirt and got in the truck.
The crew was already there when we walked in.
"Happy birthday!"
I looked at Nora. She was smiling.
"You told me this was for the promotion."
"It is." She squeezed my hand. "And your birthday."
Travis was at the end of the table with his arm around Lori. She was leaned into his side with her drink in her hand. He raised his glass.
"To the birthday boy and the newest lieutenant at 110. Double celebration."
His arm swung wide on the toast and the beer sloshed over the rim onto Lori's shoulder.
"Oh, sorry, babe."
Lori wiped her shoulder with a napkin and didn't move away from him. Selena brought the food out in waves. Sliders, nachos, the garlic parmesan tenders with buffalo ranch on the side. Everyone dug in.
Wyatt found me at the bar while Nora was talking to Andy.
"You got everything ready for Sedona?"
"The ring's being resized. Should be back by Wednesday."
He nodded. "You nervous?"
"No."
"Liar." He took a sip of his beer. "You're going to do great, brother."