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“Pranks are a time-honored part of being a firefighter. They release tension, create unit cohesion, boost morale.”
Holly clapped her hands together. “You’ve been prepping for your fire chief interview! Yes! You’re going for it!”
“I still haven’t decided,” he said quickly. She’d been pushing him to apply ever since he first mentioned the possibility.
“See? If you really took things seriously, you’d already have that job. How do you expect someone like Kendra to want to date you—I mean, one girlfriend from now—if you don’t even apply for a job that’s perfect for you?”
“That’s easy. I don’t.” He shrugged. Dating Kendra wasn’t on his agenda. Or it hadn’t been, until tonight.
“Booo.” The three girls heckled him as he put his water glass in the sink and dodged around Kayla toward the stairs. “Scaredy-cat”… “cluck cluck”… “don’t be a pussy” … “Girl, pussy should be a compliment”…
He tuned them out as he hit the stairs.
But Holly had given him something to think about. If you want to date Kendra…
Did he?
Damn, he did. He really did. She was beautiful and brilliant and big-hearted and he found her absolutely fascinating. She thought he should apply for fire chief too. But would that really make a difference to her? He’d still be a small-town, simple-life guy. That wasn’t going to change. If he wasn’t good enough for her as he was…
Just do it. Push yourself. Take something seriously. Go for it. All the way. Prove to yourself you can do it.
Shocked, he stopped at the top of the staircase. That thought hadn’t come from his sister, or from Kendra. It was all him.
Damn. He was going to do it. He was going for fire chief.
On his next day off, Jason went to visit Thomas Cooper, the former fire chief. He’d lost his job in a confrontation with the board of aldermen, then turned around and run for an open seat on the board—and won. He knew all about Lake Bittersweet town politics.
Thomas opened the door and put a finger to his lips. From upstairs, the faint sound of a lullaby drifted down. Carly must be trying to put Teddy to sleep. Making as little noise as possible, they tiptoed out to the redwood deck. It had a view of the lake, if you squinted past scrub pines and eelgrass. Laundry hung from a line strung from an upstairs window to one of the deck posts. It seemed to be filled exclusively with tiny onesies.
“Good to see you, man,” Thomas said once they’d both settled into Adirondack chairs on the deck. An old apple crate served as a footrest. “Tell me something good. I need a distraction.”
Jason cut right to the chase. “Is there any reason Kendra Carter shouldn’t apply for the town manager job? She doesn’t want to waste her time if she doesn’t have a chance with our board of town fossils.”
“No reason, if she really wants the job. Why would she?”
Jason shrugged. “She likes being in charge of things. She’d be good at it.”
“If she likes pushing boulders uphill, she should go for it.”
Jason texted that to Kendra, then looked up to find Thomas’ penetrating gaze on him.
“How about you? Rumor has it you’re considering going for my old job.”
“Yeah. I might. I mean, I am.” God, why was he stammering? It felt strange, saying out loud that he was aiming for fire chief. “I, uh, just filed the application this morning.”
Thomas stretched his legs out and crossed them at the ankle. “What took you so long?”
“I know, I know. Took my time deciding, what can I say?”
“I’m serious. It’s a serious question. What held you back? The aldermen are going to want to know if you really want it. They don’t want to do a new search in a year.”
Well shit. That wasn’t the welcoming reaction Jason had expected. “I wasn’t sure I was the fire chief type.”
“And now you are?”
The edge in Thomas’ voice made him draw back. “I hope so. I’m a good firefighter. The crew respects me. The community knows me.”
“They know you as a friend. A jokester.”
