Page 14 of Nicks and Cuts

“It was something my mother said. I think it was to remind my sisters not to marry a guy who won’t eat leftovers. I should’ve paid more attention. On the flip side, though, it meant I always had lunch the next day.” And maybe it was his upbringing, but he sure as shit wasn’t throwing out perfectly good food. His mother knew how to make every meal stretch for when they were between jobs.

“Your mother and mine sound like they had some things in common. When she did a roast, it was expected to last two days. Of course, when it’s just me, it lasts a bit longer.” Dante stared at the beef as if remembering dinner with his family. “It’s always nice to have someone to share it with.” But his smile was strained as if it was about to break.

“Why don’t I set the table?”

Dante pointed to a couple of plates and some silverware on the counter. “It’s a serve yourself here and take your plate to the table situation, very informal.” He stepped back and indicated for Shannon to go first.

“You did the cooking.”

“You’re the guest. And if I did a bad job, I’ll be able to see if you die.”

Shannon laughed. “Ah, so you are a secret serial killer. That’s why you live all the way out here.”

“I’m pretty sure that if there were a serial killer in Foggy Basin, the local gossip would have it solved within twenty-four hours. There’s no such thing as secrets here.”

Shannon loaded his plate up with meat and vegetables and poured gravy on top. He was almost sure his mother had never cooked such a large piece of meat, even when serving her four teenage kids.

He sat at the table and waited for Dante to join him. Dante’s plate made his seem tiny by comparison. “Thank you for cooking. I will cook dinner before I switch to nights.”

He was renting a room, not paying for a private chef.

They ate in silence for several minutes. While he wouldn’t have described it as tasty, the meat was tender, and with a bit of extra salt and pepper, it was fine.

“Is there a gym in town? I need to stop treating the move like a holiday.” He did not want to be struggling to heft equipment and people around; plus, he liked to look good.

“Probably, but I’ve never used it.”

“Because banging metal is enough of a workout?” If that’s what it took to get such impressive arms, he needed to reconsider his workout.

“Ha!” It wasn’t a real laugh, more of a snort of amusement. “You need muscles to bang metal all day. I have a setup in the garage.” He paused and considered Shannon. “You can use it while you’re here.”

He’d seen the garage tucked beneath the house where the land sloped away and assumed it was used for storage given that Dante’s truck was parked near the workshop.

“That’s a very generous offer, but I will need to find the gym eventually.”

“It’s fine. I’m in there about four times a week, and I’m the only one using it, so you’re not going to be queuing for machines. Just wipe everything down with the wipes in there when you’re done.”

Shannon put his hand over his heart. “Do you think I’m some kind of monster?”

“It’s hard to tell by looking, and I have lived with some feral bugs. Guys who wore their socks four days straight then left them in the corner of the room and wondered why they never had socks. Or the one who decided to quit deodorant and stopped using soap because he wanted to be natural.”

Shannon grimaced. “How long did that last?”

“A week, then we manhandled him into the showers and doused him in shower gel. I half expected to see you in scrubs or a uniform or something.”

“Ew no, I shower at work before I leave, and the uniform gets washed there. You do not want me bringing that back here. After a bad day, I’m a biohazard.” The worst part of a bad day was then having to clean out the ambulance before going home. Sometimes one shower wasn’t enough, so he came home and had another one.

“That makes sense. Mom used to do much the same. I guess I just thought you’d be sitting at the front driving around.”

“Only for patient transfers; they’re usually pretty tidy. Accidents and other incidents, not so much. So far, it’s been much less hectic here, which is what I wanted, but also a change of pace I need to adapt to.”

“Like going from the freeway to a rural road?”

“Yeah, I need to learn how to slow down and breathe again instead of lurching from a crisis at work to a crisis at home…” He’d been living like that for so long that he felt as if he were forgetting something or that there was something he needed to do.

Dante nodded. “It’s the whiplash of going from a war zone to being back home.”

Shannon nodded, figuring it was much the same except the people he dealt with hadn’t signed up to be involved in five-car pileups or dragged out of burning buildings, and they were just the big events. Then there were the hundreds of tiny accidents that people didn’t see coming even though most of them were preventable. The family that didn’t put rails in for grandpa, so he split his head in the bath. The burn from boiling water, the heart attack symptoms ignored until it was too late.