Chapter 12
Twelve
Colter
Sasspatch Society Group Text
Delilah:
Ladies, our girl has MOVED IN next door to our delicious firefighter
Bea:
Oh honey, the universe is ALIGNING
Glory:
I spotted her walking into town this morning wearing HIS JACKET
Monique:
Stop it right now, I’m deceased
Delilah:
The jacket! THE JACKET! This is happening :GIF of Michael Scott from The Office:
Bea:
We need to facilitate proximity. Organic encounters
Glory:
Nothing organic about what I’m thinking, Bea
Delilah:
GLORY.
Glory:
What? I’m just saying dinner invitations, game nights, accidentally locking her out so she needs to knock on his door...
Monique:
You’re diabolical and I’m here for it
“Dad!”
It didn’t matter what had happened in the previous forty-eight hours, the absolute best thing about getting off-shift was getting to see my little girl.
Although she was far less little as she shot off the porch of her mother’s house like a rocket and launched herself at me. I caught her on the fly with an oof and spun her in a circle. At almost twelve, I knew these unreserved greetings were numbered, and I treasured every single one.
“Hey, Twig. You and Ludo been good for Mom and Faith?”
Oakleigh wiggled until I let her down. “Duh. I’m always good.”
This was… mostly true. Although sometimes her definition of “good” got creatively bent around circumstances. Which just meant she was a Gibson through and through. My siblings and I were absolutely the same.
I trailed her into the house. Ludo lumbered up from where he’d been stretched out near a heating vent and came over for love.
“Why is your fur damp?”
“Because your hundred-fifty-pound son needed a flea bath,” Lisa informed me.
“A flea bath? He doesn’t have fleas.”
“Correction. He didn’t have fleas. It seems the furry visitor you evicted for us left a very unwelcome present. If pest control can’t sort it out, we’ll have to get the house fumigated.”
I winced. “Ouch. Do y’all need somewhere to stay?”
“Possibly. We’ll see. Faith’s about to be out of town for a long work trip, so if we do, it’ll just be Twig and me.”
“You know you’re always welcome.” Like Oakleigh, Lisa would always be a part of my family. Not everybody knew how to handle that since we were still close friends.
I wandered over to the fridge and grabbed one of the bottled ginger beers she kept just for me. “Twig, you packed?”
“Just about!” She scampered off to do just that, Ludo plodding after her.
“How was your shift?”
I popped the top and took a sip of the sharp, sweet drink.
“Pretty quiet after the McCready place. Only had callouts for a few minor medical incidents. Well, and a deep fryer fire that got out of hand when Leonard Barkley decided to go ahead and get started on trial runs for next year’s turkey.
Seems there were insults heaped upon him by his brother-in-law at this year’s gathering.
Apparently, none of the recipes he’d been consulting mentioned how the turkey wasn’t supposed to be totally frozen when it went into the oil. ”
“Good lord. Is Leonard okay?”
“Thankfully, he managed to hurl himself out of harm’s way. But the deep fryer, half his firewood, and a good quarter of his porch were torched before we arrived to put out the fire.”
“I bet Heather was ready to tan his hide.”
“Let’s just say I’m grateful I’m not the Gibson who signed up to intervene in domestic spats.”
My primary concern was that we’d gotten there before the flames could spread to the massive amount of deadfall remaining from the flood.
We’d been working overtime for a full year to clear brush and cut wood in the name of mitigating our fire risk, but there was always the chance of a single spark landing in the wrong place and setting the whole area alight.
As such, fines had been established for those who didn’t keep up with fire mitigation on their property within town limits.
It was a pretty empty threat. Too many people wouldn’t have it to pay if they did get busted.
But it emphasized the seriousness of the ordinance, so more often than not, people dealt with things themselves or put their properties on a waiting list for the volunteer crews who helped out where folks didn’t have the physical means or tools to do it on their own.
Oakleigh came clattering back down the hall, a backpack over one shoulder and a rolling suitcase dragging behind her. “Ready!”
I ruffled her blonde hair. “Where are we on homework for the night?”
“Almost done,” my daughter announced.
“We’re down to diagramming sentences,” Lisa informed me.
Oakleigh and I both grimaced.
“You know I hate the crap,” I complained.
My bestie offered a smug smile. “I know. I figure she gets her hatred of it from you, so it’s only fair that you be the one who gets to tackle it.”
“Thanks for that. You’re lucky I love you.”
She blew me a kiss. “Y’all have fun. I’m headed out. Miss Glory is teaching a tae bo class down at the community center, and I’ve got a mind to kick some butt.”
“Right. Home we go, kiddo.”
Well used to this pattern of back and forth, Oakleigh and Ludo loaded into my truck for the short drive back to my place.
She had her own room at my house and at Lisa and Faith’s, so she only had to transfer her bookbag and whatever essentials she didn’t want to be without for two or three days at a stretch.
These days, that was usually a high volume of books.
She loved to read and hadn’t bought into the ebook craze.
It was paper or nothing for this kid, and she insisted she couldn’t decide what she would be in the mood to read at any given time, so she had to bring a sizeable chunk of her “emotional support library” along.
That had just gotten more pronounced since the library in town had been forced to move onto the bus for renovations.
A big chunk of the kids’ and teen section had been wiped out.
I spotted an unfamiliar Nissan Rogue parked in the extra space in front of the house. A visitor, or was that Swayze’s new ride? Between family stuff and work, I hadn’t seen her in several days. I hoped she was settling in okay.
“Whose car is that?” Oakleigh asked.
“Not sure. New neighbor, maybe.”
“We have a new neighbor?” Delight had her bouncing in her seat.
“We do. I ended up renting to the lady who rented the McCready place.”
“Good. She needed somewhere nice to go after all that.” On that pronouncement, Oakleigh hopped out of the truck, hauling her backpack to the door.
That left the ton-of-bricks suitcase for me.
I followed close behind, letting us inside.
Ludo made an immediate beeline for the backdoor, so I set the suitcase by the stairs and let him out, expecting him to dash for his favorite potty spot.
Instead, he made a brief sniff of the ground before his head whipped up and he bolted toward the other side of the house.
“What the—?” I hurried outside and realized that Swayze’s backdoor was standing wide open. Ludo was barging straight through it at what could only be described as freight-train speed.
“Crap.” Preparing an entire array of apologies in my head, I rushed after him.
A massive peal of laughter rang out through the open doorway, which was a hell of a lot better than the bloodcurdling scream I’d been bracing for.
When I got inside, I found Ludo stretched out across the sofa, his entire top half draped shamelessly across Swayze’s lap, belly up and exposed for maximum rubbing potential.
Even as she was clearly wheezing from lost breath after being bowled over by a hundred-fifty pounds of enthusiastic canine, her face shone with pure delight, and her hand rubbed at his furry belly with enthusiasm.
She glanced up at me, and the brilliant smile on her face punched me square in the gut, knocking the wind out of me more effectively than Ludo had done to her.
“I live here now. Permanently. I am one with the sofa, with the sole purpose of petting this adorable mountain of floof for the rest of my natural life.”
Was I wheezing now? Because it seemed like oxygen was getting considerably harder to come by all of a sudden. And words. There were some I was supposed to be saying. Important ones about boundaries and apologies. What were they? Oh right.
“Clearly he’s made himself at home. Sorry about that. I didn’t realize your door was standing open, or I would’ve grabbed his collar.”
“I was enjoying the brisk weather. It’s gorgeous out this afternoon.”
“Dad, where did Ludo get off to?” Oakleigh wandered in behind me, ducking under my arm to get a proper look at Swayze and our wayward dog. “Hi! I’m Oakleigh.”
The smile didn’t fade in the slightest as Swayze registered the “Dad” coming out of my daughter’s mouth, but she definitely blinked a few times in what I recognized as surprise. Yeah, I got that reaction a fair bit. People didn’t expect me to have a daughter her age when I was only thirty.
“I’m Swayze. It’s nice to meet you.”
“I’m sorry about the fire and everything that happened to you and your stuff.”
Her face softened. “Thanks, sweetie. I’m grateful your dad was around to save me from the worst of it.”
“Yeah, he’s good at that kind of thing. Saving people, I mean.”
Since I apparently wasn’t required for this particular conversation—the two of them seeming content to chat over Ludo’s prone form—I glanced around the room.
A few framed photographs sat out on the side tables, and I spotted a glass vase with some kind of greenery stuffed into it, along with a hand-thrown blue pottery bowl I didn’t recognize that she’d filled with pine cones and set on the coffee table beside a tidy new laptop.
Back near the pitiful excuse for a kitchen, a new compact rolling island added some much-needed additional counter space and storage, and a magnetic knife strip with professional-looking knives that definitely hadn’t come with the place was mounted to the wall.
“You’ve been busy.”
Still lavishing affection on Ludo, who looked like he’d died and gone to heaven, Swayze just smiled up at me.
“My credit card has been getting quite the workout, and the rental company dropped off my new ride yesterday, so I’m slowly but surely settling in and making this place feel more like home. ”
“You need any help moving furniture or anything heavy? I’m happy to lend a hand.”
“I probably will once I decide on a proper desk for the loft space up there, but I promise I’ll let you know when I’m ready for that.”
She was settling in at a level I honestly hadn’t been expecting when I’d agreed to rent to her.
I’d thought perhaps a few weeks or a couple of months at most. But would she be investing in actual furniture and kitchen equipment if she didn’t plan to put down some kind of roots here in Gibson Hollow?
I didn’t know her well enough to say for certain, but I found that I genuinely wanted to.
And as it had been longer than I cared to remember since anyone had caught my interest like this, I wasn’t quite prepared to do anything about that realization.
“Well, I’m sure you have work to get back to, and this one has homework waiting for her.” I caught Oakleigh in a friendly headlock, ruffling her hair.
“Dad! Stop! It’s bad enough I have to do sentence diagramming without you messing up my hair.”
“Would spaghetti for dinner make that assignment less heinous?”
She stopped struggling and glanced up at me with sudden interest. “With extra meatballs and cheesy garlic bread?”
“Obviously. What do you take me for?”
“Then yes, it would definitely help.” She ruthlessly aimed for the ticklish spot along my ribs, and I just barely managed to hold in what would’ve been a completely unmanly yelp and twist away from her attack.
My kid looked way too proud of herself for that successful escape as she turned back to Swayze, her face lighting up with an idea.
“You should come to dinner with us. Dad cooks at the firehouse all the time, and our family is huge, so he doesn’t know how to make small portions. There’ll be plenty of food.”
Swayze’s hazel gaze flicked up to me, obviously gauging whether I’d try to shut down the invitation or if it was genuinely welcome.
“Do you like spaghetti?” I asked.
“Obviously. What do you take me for?” she echoed my earlier words with a teasing smile that did dangerous things to my pulse.
“Then I agree. You should absolutely come to dinner.” I glanced pointedly at where Ludo had gone boneless with pure contentment in her lap, his eyes half-closed in bliss. “It might be the only way you get feeling back in your legs anytime soon.”
On a warm laugh that seemed to fill the whole room, she leaned down and kissed Ludo’s snoot. “Then yes, I would love to come to dinner. Thank you for the invitation.”
“Okay, then we’ll see you in, say, an hour? That should give me time to get everything started.”
“Sounds absolutely perfect.”