Chapter 3
Three
The basketball whooshed through the air and smacked the metal backboard with a resounding clang. It dropped into the raggedy hoop.
“Woot!” Chase Neil, the most recent EMT on team three to join the station, pumped his fist into the air. He looked like an overgrown Boy Scout. “That’s game. What’s up, Doc? Usually you shatter me. Not that I’m complaining. A win’s a win.”
Natalie Fisher, Chase’s partner, scoffed. She wore her bright-red hair in a high ponytail this morning. The sun glinted off it. She pushed her blue-framed glasses up the bridge of her nose. Setting her crossword puzzle book aside, she stood and walked over to them. “I don’t believe it.”
Luke Moseborn, otherwise known as Moses, snickered. “King me.”
His partner, Amber Rhoads, groaned. “I’ll never learn this game. Why is it so hard?”
“Strategy, lass, strategy.” The Scottish accent he got from his mother marinated each word. “You can learn. Just be patient. It took me a while to get a handle on flying, but now look at me. I’m a chopper pilot in Renegade.”
Michelle Green pointedly ignored Chase’s continued bragging.
She was on her tablet, Zooming with her sister, her hands flying in American Sign Language, or ASL.
Michelle was their critical care nurse. She had also, until a week ago, been on the verge of getting engaged to Chase.
No one knew why the two had suddenly called it off, but the atmosphere was a little tense whenever they were in the same room.
Jackson shook his head. Droplets of perspiration flew. “Take the win. It won’t happen again.” He wasn’t ready to talk about the court hearing yet. His stomach growled. “I’m going to grab a slice of that pizza Trent brought in.”
Sometimes Chief Trent Keith brought in pizzas from the pizzeria his sixteen-year-old son worked at.
Mostly when they made too much or someone didn’t pick up an order.
Trent and his wife Esperanza had adopted three children after fostering them for two years.
Jordan was the oldest. His sisters, twins Julia and Jessica, would turn thirteen in October.
They’d come into Trent and Esperanza’s lives so long ago that barely anyone remembered when they hadn’t been a part of the Keith family.
“Hey, Doc!”
Jackson bounced the ball back to Chase, then jogged over to Trent. “Yeah, Chief?”
“You have a visitor. He’s waiting in the kitchen.”
Dylan! Relief flooded him. He’d tried to call Dylan last night, but Dylan’s phone had been turned off. He’d tried again when he arrived a couple of hours ago. Same response.
“Oh, thanks!” He slipped past the chief and entered the station. He paused in the large main room, blinking for a few seconds until his eyes acclimated to the dimmer light, then he headed toward the kitchen. “Hey! What are you doing here?”
Kevin Fields sat at the rectangular table, cradling a mug of black coffee in his large hands.
He wore a T-shirt that had seen better days and a pair of bright-blue running shorts with a neon yellow strip down the side.
His legs were bare. It was the first time Jackson had seen the prosthetic that began below his right knee.
“Thanks for the warm welcome. Not exactly what I expected.”
Jackson’s gaze whipped back to Kevin’s face. The same sardonic grin he’d charmed girls with all during high school stretched across his face, as if the past eight years hadn’t happened.
“Sorry.” Jackson rubbed the back of his neck. “Why are you here, Kevin? I haven’t seen you for years. Is this about what happened yesterday?”
Kevin had never been the type to gloat, but until the day Jackson had visited him in the hospital after the accident, he hadn’t known his best friend was capable of vitriol and spite either.
“Wait a minute. What happened yesterday?”
Jackson scowled. When Kevin continued to gaze up at him in confusion, he slipped into the chair across from his old friend. “You really don’t know, do you?”
Kevin looked up at the ceiling as if asking for strength before facing him again. “Just spit it out, Jackson. What am I missing?”
Jackson let out a huge sigh. “While I was in the Army, my grandfather died…”
Kevin nodded. “Sorry about that, man. I wasn’t in town, or I’d have gone to the funeral.”
“I wouldn’t have noticed. I was out of the country and didn’t even know until the funeral was over.
Anyway, my kid brother, Dylan, went into foster care.
When I got back, I immediately tried to get custody, but the state has a very long list of things you have to do first. So I did them.
Every. Last. One. Yesterday was my custody hearing. Your dad was the judge.”
Kevin sat straight up. Anger and disbelief warred on his face. “He didn’t.”
“He did.” Jackson surged to his feet, then stalked to the fridge and grabbed a Mountain Dew. He opened it and chugged half the can. Wiping fizz off his mouth, he returned to his seat. “He denied me custody, called me unfit and an adrenaline junkie, then left.”
Jackson didn’t say anything about the changed date. He couldn’t prove that it had been deliberate, and he refused to gossip.
Kevin ran his hands through his shaggy black hair. “Man, I’m sorry. I knew my dad didn’t like you since this happened”—he gestured toward his prosthetic limb—“but this is something else. What can you do?”
“I’ll appeal. I have to wait three months. Who knows how long it will take then?” He finished his drink and tossed the can in the bin. “I thought you’d come to gloat. Thought you hated my guts.”
His former friend winced. “Nah. Oh, I was hot when I lost my leg. I never would have dared to go on an extreme BMX bike trip. Too much adrenaline for me.”
“I still don’t know what happened, Kev. One minute we were laughing, and the next—”
“The next, I took a tumble and flipped my bike.”
“It’s my fault,” Jackson groaned. “If I hadn’t used a tourniquet, maybe they could have saved your leg. And your football scholarship.”
Kevin had shouted that very remark at him.
“Buddy, if you hadn’t, I might have kept my leg, but they would have buried it with the rest of me.
You saved my life.” Kevin shoved his chair back and stood.
“I can’t play football, but I did get a job I love.
Turns out, I’m a fabulous auto mechanic.
My dad isn’t happy, but I am. I really just stopped by because I saw you in town last week and realized I missed you. Thought I’d try to reconnect.”
Out of all the things that could have happened today, Jackson had never seen this one coming. He shot a silent prayer of thanksgiving toward heaven. Only two people had really known him in high school—Kevin and Mia. He’d thought he’d lost them both.
Now, he had just gotten one back. He swallowed the emotion clogging his throat.
The two men talked for another five minutes before Kevin headed back to work. They exchanged numbers and promised to get together soon.
It was a plan Jackson was determined to follow through on.
Before putting his phone away, he checked it. Dylan still hadn’t answered. He tried to look up the kid’s location, but it wasn’t showing up. Was his phone still off? He decided to give Cynthia a call.
He dialed Cynthia’s number. She answered almost immediately.
“Hey, Cynthia. I’m trying to get ahold of Dylan. He’s not answering and not responding to my texts. Is he okay?”
Her sigh came through loud and clear. “He’s not happy, if that’s what you mean. He wouldn’t say much to me. I know it’s hard, but I’d recommend giving him some time. He was very emotional yesterday.”
That wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear. “I guess I don’t have much of a choice. I was hoping to stop by and see him, maybe take him out for a bite to talk.”
“Well, honey, that’s a lovely idea, but he’s not here. Yesterday, he asked to go camping with his friend Reggie. I didn’t argue since it’s been such a hard couple of days. Besides, school will be starting next Wednesday, and he’ll have less time to hang out with his pals.”
Jackson stared at the phone in his hands after she’d disconnected. Nothing was going according to plan. What would happen next?
“Mia, honey, why were you slamming the pots around in the kitchen?”
Mia froze in the middle of stacking plates in the china cabinet and turned to Gus. Her great-aunt sat in her favorite chair, her Bible in her lap, glasses perched on the tip of her nose like a schoolmarm. She looked over those glasses at Mia.
Mia bit her lip to hold in a laugh. That look never failed to amuse her. “Sorry, Gus. I didn’t realize I was making a racket. I’m, ah, irritated with Anne Marie.” Irritated? That was putting it mildly. However, anger tended to upset her aunt. Mia didn’t want her bothered.
Gus sighed. “Yes, I’m worried about her too. She’s late. I hope everything is all right.”
“She’s fine,” Mia muttered.
“What? I didn’t hear you.”
“Nothing. I’m going to try and call her again.” Mia went to the kitchen and dialed her wayward cousin’s number. For the third straight time, it went to voicemail.
Mia stared at her phone. “Did she block me?”
She marched back to the living room. “She’s not answering her phone.”
Gus closed her Bible. “I thought she was supposed to be here every morning so you could go into work.”
“Yep. That was the plan. The school district has approved my FMLA so that when you go in for your surgery, I can have the time. But Anne Marie was supposed to already be here so I could get my class ready for the substitute. I have all of my IEP meetings scheduled this week too.”
“This is silly, Mia. Go to work! I’ll be fine for a few hours. I’m an adult. You don’t need to babysit me like I’m a child. My mind isn’t affected by my age.”
Mia walked to her aunt and sat on the loveseat next to the recliner. “I know that. But Gus, the doctor said you shouldn’t be alone for long periods of time. And I don’t mind helping you. I know that you’d do anything for me if I needed it.”
Gus patted her hand. “I would. That’s what family does.”
Not in my world.