Chapter 37
Bodie
I was trying to convince myself the stack of incident reports on my desk would shrink if I stared hard enough.
End of month paperwork always seemed like punishment for something I hadn’t done, and today it grated worse than usual.
I was itching to get out of here. I wanted to get home, get supper with Emmaline, and coax her into a walk with Rubble before bed.
Maybe a glass of that wine she liked out on the cool of the porch and some necking on the porch swing to distract her from her worries about Wesley’s parole hearing tomorrow.
And if that led to other things… well, I’d been thinking about the whole family component of our future an awful lot lately.
Waiting until probate was over and the will was fully settled was sensible.
Her getting the bakery fully back on its feet well enough to hire some additional help only made sense.
But I hadn’t realized how much I’d wanted a wife and kids until I’d barged my way back into her life.
I came from a big, messy, noisy family, and I wanted one of my own.
Probably not eight. That was a lot to put on anyone. But three or four?
I really needed to discuss this with my wife and find out what she wanted.
If she was a one and done kind of woman, I needed to work on tempering my expectations.
The thought of having that conversation made my stomach twist a little—not because I doubted us, but because I’d never wanted anything as much as I wanted a future with her.
A real future, and everything that came with it.
A sharp rap on the doorframe cut through my wandering thoughts and the paperwork that stubbornly wasn’t getting done.
Colter leaned against the jamb, one shoulder pressed to the wood like he’d been there longer than I’d noticed.
“You look about as happy as Oakleigh when she’s got long division homework, and she’s being forced to show her work.
” Dressed in the regulation cargo pants and GHFD T-shirt, his hair was still damp, as if he’d just gotten his end of shift shower.
I sat back in my chair and pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling the tension that had been building there all afternoon. “That obvious?”
“Only to somebody who knows your tell.” He strolled in with that easy gait of his, dropped into the chair opposite my desk, and stretched his legs out like he planned to stay awhile. His boots were scuffed, and I caught a whiff of smoke and sweat—the perpetual cologne of a firefighter.
Rubble rose from her bed in the corner, tail already wagging as she trotted over for pets, which Colter happily obliged. She leaned into his scratches with a contented sigh, her eyes half-closing in bliss.
“What brings you by, little brother?”
“I heard through the grapevine that the old McCready place rented.” He said it casually enough, but there was something in his tone that made me pay attention.
I’d been expecting him to ask about Emmaline, or razz me about something Oakleigh had told him. “The one off Mill Creek Road? That disaster?”
“Yep. That’s the one.”
“That place barely survived the flood. Hell, it barely survived before the flood. Roof sagging, foundation cracked to kingdom come. Who the hell would rent it?” I leaned forward, suddenly interested despite myself. That property had been on my radar as a potential safety hazard for months.
Colter shrugged, still scratching behind Rubble’s ears.
“Somebody from out of town, apparently. Word is they slapped lipstick on the pig with some quick fixes and called it good.” He reached across my desk and spun my laptop toward him like it was his personal property. “Listing’s still up. Check this out.”
I sighed but leaned in anyway, pushing aside a stack of incident reports.
He was already typing with two fingers, hunt-and-pecking his way through the search.
A second later, grainy but enthusiastic photos filled the screen.
The house looked…better. Almost charming, in a rustic farmhouse kind of way.
Except I’d seen it two months ago when we’d marked it off the hazard list, and I knew for a fact those walls weren’t that pristine white, those floors weren’t that level, and that porch definitely hadn’t been that sturdy.
“Jesus,” I muttered, scrolling through the photos. “That’s some creative Photoshopping. Check this out—they’ve got it listed as ‘charming vintage character’ when I know damn well that ‘character’ is water damage.”
“Right?” Colter’s chuckle held no real humor. “Could be some poor sucker’s about to get a rude awakening when they show up with a moving truck.”
“Could be a headache for me if it turns into a complaint. Or worse, if somebody gets hurt when that porch gives way.” I was already thinking about liability, about safety inspections that clearly hadn’t happened. Not condemned was a long way from rentable.
“Which is why I figured you oughta know.” He pushed the laptop back toward me and studied me with that big-brother-but-not-really expression he’d perfected over the years. The one that said he was seeing more than I wanted him to.
“What?” I asked, though I had a feeling I didn’t want to know.
“You look good, Bodie. Happier than I’ve seen you in… hell, maybe ever. It’s good to see.” He paused, and his expression grew more serious. “Especially since Alia left.”
The faint warm fuzzies that had started up in my chest when he’d said I looked happy paused, replaced by wariness. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“C’mon, B. We all blamed ourselves when we realized how much we’d been putting on her all these years, but you’ve been punishing yourself ever since.
Carrying around guilt like it was your job.
” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
“I was just worried you were gonna go down the same path she did before Ramsey came along and work yourself into an early grave. Seems like Emmaline’s saving you from that.
It’s a good thing—for both of you—even if it did take us all by surprise. ”
He let that hang in the air for a bit, clearly waiting for me to elaborate about how this marriage had come about.
About the circumstances that had led to Emmaline Maddox becoming Emmaline Gibson in what felt like the blink of an eye.
But the beginning didn’t matter now—the messy, complicated, desperate circumstances that had brought us together.
Only that we were solid, exactly as we needed to be.
“I am happy. And I consider myself damned lucky to be.”
My brother grinned, the expression transforming his face from serious to boyish. “So… in light of that newfound happiness, can Oakleigh be expecting a new cousin here sometime in the next year? She’s been asking.”
I fixed him with a look, one eyebrow raised. “She has?”
Colter nodded, sober as a judge, his expression so serious I almost bought it. Almost.
“Uh-huh.” I didn’t believe him for a minute. Oakleigh was smart as a whip, but she was eleven and loved being the only niece. “We’ll see. Kids are a big step.”
“They certainly are. And good on you for doing things in the usual order.” His voice softened, taking on that reflective tone he got when he talked about his past mistakes.
“I don’t regret Oakleigh for a moment, but getting pregnant straight out of the gate when we lost our virginity on prom night was so not the plan.
Especially since Lisa and I didn’t stay together. ”
Yeah, Colter had been the cautionary tale for all our siblings coming after. The reason Dad had given us all increasingly uncomfortable talks about protection and responsibility.
“At least y’all stayed friends and good co-parents.”
“Having my best friend as the mother of my kid has definitely made life easier. Could’ve been a lot worse.”
“Think you’ll do it again someday? The kid thing?”
He didn’t even stop to think about it. “Yeah. I mean, it was hard as hell doing it so young the first time, but Oakleigh’s the best thing in my life. I’d love to have more if I find the right woman.” There was a wistfulness in his voice that made me study his profile.
“You don’t seem to be in a particular hurry to find her.”
Colter shrugged, his attention focused on Rubble, who had rolled over to expose her belly for more scratches. “It may be that I’m the teeniest bit gun shy of anything serious. Not that there’s been time for that, what with everything going on since the flood.”
I wanted to call bullshit on that excuse, but that was his business. For now, anyway. Maybe when things settled down a bit more, I’d poke at him harder about his complete lack of a dating life.
“Well, since I’m one of the lucky ones who’s already found the right woman, I’m clocking out and going home to my wife.
” I shut down the laptop with more force than necessary, then started gathering up the scattered paperwork.
“If I’m lucky, elves will finish these reports by the time I show up tomorrow morning. ”
My brother snickered, getting to his feet as Rubble scrambled up hopefully. “Good luck with that. Though if you figure out how to summon paperwork elves, let me know. I’ve got some incident reports that could use the same treatment.”
We walked out together, trading easy chatter about Oakleigh’s upcoming science project on volcanoes and the latest fire station gossip about who was dating whom as Rubble trotted at our heels, her nails clicking on the linoleum.
“Hey, Chief.”
I glanced over at Sykes where he sat in the bullpen, feet propped up on his desk as he worked through what looked like a mountain of filing. “Yeah?”
“Everything okay with the missus?” He looked up from his paperwork, brow furrowed with what might have been concern.
I stopped walking, protective instincts immediately roused like hackles rising on a dog. “What do you mean?”