He sat at the bar and nodded to Jeb. The bartender nodded back, uncapped a beer, and placed it in front of Josh. He
murmured thanks and took a drink. A weekend apart from, and at odds with, Melody left an ache in his soul. Imagining life in Cincinnati without her—an exercise he probably should have undertaken before accepting the job—had snapped everything into focus. The prospect of a child only sharpened the view. Surprising, given he’d never pictured himself with a family—except maybe in a vague, fuzzy future—but now that circumstances had planted the picture in his head, he couldn’t let it go. Then again, she’d been full of surprises from the start.
Surprise number one? Returning to CFD held no appeal. The move represented a step in the wrong direction, even with the promotion. Transitioning to chief there meant riding a desk rather than a fire truck, and he liked action. He wasn’t ready to give up that part of the job.
Surprise number two? The town of Bluelick had grown on him. He’d slowly come to view the place as home. He cared about the fate of the department he headed and the town it served. Politics aside, he felt more needed and appreciated here than he’d ever felt in a bigger department. Would he be happy in Bluelick without Melody? Hard to say, but she was here, and he was happy. He could envision them raising a family here, building a future here.
Surprise number three? He had a lousy memory—at least according to his mother. She’d called over the weekend, and it had taken her about a second after hearing his voice to demand to know what was wrong. He’d explained about the job, Melody, the baby—all of it. She’d reminded him that when his father had been offered his position with the CFD, he’d called a family meeting, discussed the opportunity, and only accepted the job after they’d voted to make the move, because his family’s happiness and well-being had always topped his priorities. She’d assured Josh his father would be proud of him for adopting the same priorities. Then she’d made some noise about becoming a grandmother, starting planning a visit to Bluelick, and he’d gotten off the phone fast.
Tyler and Junior walked into the bar, saw him, and ambled over.
“You look like you could use something stronger than a beer, Chief,” Junior said. “I can’t imagine why. Buchanan must be singing your praises now that he knows you were right about those fires being set on purpose.”
“Yeah.” Buchanan had been forced to back off. The mayor might be banging heads with the sheriff soon, depending on how their investigation unfolded and whether they took a hard look at Justin, but Josh doubted they would. For one thing, they didn’t seem to be conducting an aggressive investigation of any suspect. For another, the kid definitely hadn’t set the fire at the high school, and given that all the fires had been set using the same method and accelerant, the likelihood of two separate arsonists was statistically low.
LouAnn and Ginny walked in, and he held his breath for a moment, hoping Melody might be with them. She wasn’t. The ladies came over. LouAnn glued herself to Junior’s side. He gave her ass a pat and planted a loud kiss on her mouth. Ginny, meantime, narrowed her eyes at Josh and visually castrated him. Yeah, Red, get in line.
“All right, then,” Junior said, and pointed to Josh. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m looking at a man on top of his game, professionally, and I’m seeing signs of trouble. This can only mean one thing. Grief from a woman.” He elbowed Tyler for consensus. “Lucky for you, I’m the love doctor, and the doctor is in.”
Jeb brought beers to Tyler and Junior. Junior tapped his bottle to Tyler’s. “Tell him, Longfoot.”
“I think of you more as a love sniper than a love doctor.” He turned to Josh. “But speaking of doctors, I stopped by Ellie’s office this afternoon and I saw Melody while I was there. She looked about the same as you, minus the beer.”
“Uh-oh, Chief, sounds like you’ve got some fast talking to do.”
“Undoubtedly,” he agreed, seeing no point in denial. “The trick is getting her to believe what I say. I need a grand gesture.”
“Well, shit, man. French’s is less than a mile away.”
“I tried that already. I need a grander grand gesture. Something that lets her know we are unquestionably on the same page regarding the future.”
Ginny drew nearer. “Are you serious?”
Because she was obviously in the know, he nodded. “The stakes are kind of high to be playing games, don’t you think?”
She sighed and took the empty barstool beside him. “I do. This is probably going to cost me a friendship, because I promised I wouldn’t say anything, but I know what your grander grand gesture should be.”
“I won’t tell her you told me,” he quickly promised.
“She’ll know, but…fuck it. There’s a little white cottage on Overlook Road—”
Just like that, everything fell into place. Simple and easy. “I know the house. She showed me.”
“Buchanan owns it, but all he’s done is fork over property taxes year after year. I’ll bet he’d give you really good terms to take it off his hands.”
He looked past Ginny to Tyler. “Got room on your plate for another project? I need that cottage move-in ready in seven months, tops.”
“Local restoration is our specialty, and Grandpa Boca was a good builder, but even if he sucked, we could rebuild the place from the ground up in that amount of time.”
Junior stared back, owl-eyed. “That’s one grand fucking gesture. Better brace yourself, Chief.”
“For what?”
“For the world-rocking make-up sex.”
…
Melody stared through the rippled glass of Roger’s living room window and watched a barge chug up the river. Moving on to some other destination. People did it all the time. For anything but plants, teeth, and her, roots were merely a metaphor.