Page 67 of The Fireman and the Flirt

“Notice how nobody ever wants to lock up their sons?” I arched my eyebrow. “It can be a cruel world out there, but there’s good people. Jolene will find her crew. She’ll be all right.”

Derek peered at me with his dark, intense eyes. “How did you get through it?”

It wasn’t until he asked me this question that I actually thought about it. All we knew how to do was move forward, letting one day turn to the next. “I used to be terrified of getting made fun of. There’d be this constant knot in my stomach. I was closeted and not the butch kind of closeted like you. I wanted to blend in. But then the whole gearhead shit happened, and all my worst nightmares came true. And you know what I realized?”

“What?”

“They weren’t nearly as scary as I imagined.”

A faint flicker of relief washed over his face for just a second, then it was gone. Maybe that was what being a parent was all about. Very temporary moments of relief and joy interspersed with persistent fear.

“I went through hell with gearhead. Laughed at, stared at, whispered about. After a while, it started to roll off my back. I developed callouses. I survived hell, which means it actually wasn’t hell. Or that I’m secretly a witch.”

I also had the enormous good fortune to go to high school before the age of social media. But even with that, I had a good feeling Jolene would be okay. She wasn’t Derek’s fragile little girl anymore. She was stronger than he knew. We all were.

“You know, you were right before. About having the courage to let someone else tell you no. Because there’s something I want to ask you.” Derek reached for my hand, intertwined his fingers with mine. The stars provided romantic lighting.

He kept looking at me, then looking down. I could feel the nerves coming off him. I knew what was coming. And it caused me to panic. I could hear the beeping in my head that my car makes when I’m about to crash.

Those closest to you can turn on you.

“There’s a house I want you to see. It’d be perfect for you and Jolene. It just came on the market.” I turned on my most professional voice, the kind I used when I gave a presentation at a real estate conference. “We’ve seen a lot of houses, Derek. There’s a good one in there. If you see too many houses, then you’ll never make a decision.”

Whatever sweetness and hope crested on his face melted off in real time. My heart sank at his reaction.

“Yeah, sure. Let’s go see it,” he said in a mumble.

“Great! I actually need to get home.” I hopped up and dusted off my pants. The beeping alarm in my head wouldn’t subside until I was in my car, driving away.

“Wait! I’m just about to find Mars,” she said.

“Can we take a raincheck on Mars?” I asked.

She nodded yes, but shades of disappointment ringed her eyes.

“Next time,” I promised.

That was the thing about calluses. They made us stronger. They helped us survive the harshest parts of life. But they never went away, no matter how hard you pumiced.

21

DEREK

Iwas so busy on my next shift that I had no time to think about Cary and the awkward moment we ended on. The roads were slick after a freeze, causing a few accidents, and an elderly woman tried to light her cigarette on an electric stove and caused a small fire in her kitchen.

By the time I saw Cary next, he was showing me a house that was supposed to be my dream house. He seemed adamant that I lock down a house soon. I didn’t want to be looking forever. I wanted to close and move in with minimal disruption to Jolene’s school schedule. But did buying a house mean I wouldn’t see Cary again? That was the weird vibe I thought I’d picked up while stargazing with him.

He was definitely allocating way too much time to my search, and he did have a business to run with other clients. It wasn’t like he was waiting for all of them in bathtubs in the nude.

I pulled up to the house and parked behind Cary’s car. This house wasn’t in a new development. It sat on an older street where the houses had larger front lawns and giant mature trees in the yard. I’d driven by this street a million times when I used to live here. It was another anonymous road on my way to somewhere, but it turned out to be a winding path of hidden gems.

It was an older ranch with a brick exterior and blue shutters. A little rundown, but nothing that some TLC couldn’t fix. Cary liked to say that all houses had personalities. I hadn’t seen that with the new builds, but here, I could tell this beauty had a story.

“Welcome,” Cary said from the front door. Fully clothed, it should be noted. “Did you find it okay?”

I wanted to lean in and kiss him hello, but I stopped myself for some reason. Blame the awkward moment rearing its ugly head.

Cary held open the door for me. I caught a whiff of his citrusy cologne before being enveloped in the scent of the house, which could only be described as homey: the smell of going over to your friend’s house and his mom is cooking dinner, the quasi-stale smell of your grandparents’ house that made you feel safe.

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