by Kathryn Shay
Mementos surrounded him; pictures of police and fire academy graduating classes, photos of rescues and shoot-outs dating back decades, firefighting posters people had contributed. Rafe caught sight of a picture behind the bar. It was there because it was special: the first Hidden Cove female firefighters’ softball team. Kate was front and center, smiling like a young girl. So much had happened to both of them since then. Sometimes, he wished he could go back to that time.
After a short wait, Seth came through the door with his briefcase. Rafe motioned him over. “Hey, bro.”
“Hi. Thanks for meeting me. I thought this would be convenient for you.”
“It is.”
Seth took a seat on the empty stool next to him and ordered a beer.
“What’s up?”
“I have something for you. You’re not going to like this any more than you did doing the DNA test.”
“You were right about that. I’m glad I know for sure that Tommy’s mine.”
“Eventually, you’ll be glad you did this, too.” He produced papers and handed them to Rafe.
“What’s this?”
“A child custody agreement.”
Rafe stared down at the documents. Read a little. Remembered two nights ago when she got indignant about Tommy attending his local school. After she’d bolted, he’d called to talk about it but she didn’t answer the phone. Pissed, he didn’t call back. He hadn’t seen or heard from her since.
Rafe raised his gaze. “Funny you should do this.” He told Seth about the schooling issue.
“That gives this idea more credence then. I decided you should have partial legal custody after I got a particularly messy case where the father was in a similar situation to yours.”
“I’m hesitant, though. I get to see Tommy whenever I want.”
“Now you do. There’s more to consider, here. What if she leaves again? Gets cold feet again? You won’t survive the loss of Tommy, too.”
“She’s not leaving. She bought a house. She’s training for the department.”
“I hate to sound like a broken record, but you don’t know that she won’t still take off. It came out of the blue last time.”
“Maybe. But it’ll alienate us even more. She’s pretty upset with me now.”
“I think Kate’s the one who needs to gain your trust. Signing those papers would show she intends to stay.”
He raked a hand through his hair. His gut told him not to do this. “I thought you missed her, Seth. You hugged her that Sunday. You aren’t mad at her.”
“All of that’s still true. But I care about your welfare more than hers. You need to be clearer about your relationship with Kate. Even if she stays you might not be able to trust her again. And when you marry Melanie, things could change between you and Kate. Wouldn’t it be best if you had joint custody?”
“Yeah, I guess so. How would we go about getting it?”
“First of all, tell her I suggested this. Like you did when we planned the DNA test. Then a bit later, give her the papers.”
He cringed. “I never told her about the DNA thing before I did it.”
His brother’s eyes widened. “Shit. Rafe. She’ll be really mad when she finds out.”
“I know, I should have.”
“Then I certainly hope you’ll talk to her first before you spring a custody arrangement on her. After she’s thought about it, get her to sign papers, then you sign the form and I submit the documents.”
“All right.” Still, he had a bad feeling about going down this road.
Rafe drank the rest of his beer then stood. Seated, Seth glanced over his shoulder and cringed.
“What’s wrong?”
“I, um, I’m meeting someone here.”
“Julianne? I thought you were finished.” Julianne was his brother’s childhood sweetheart. They broke up and got back together several times during their entire lives, right up until last year.
“Um, no.”
From behind him, he heard, “Hey, Seth. I’m early. My business in town didn’t take as long as I thought.”
Rafe pivoted. The woman was vaguely familiar with her reddish hair. She smiled at him. “Hi, Rafe.”
“I…wow, Hayley?” His long-lost cousin. But maybe not so lost.
“Yeah, it’s me.” She hugged him. He hugged her back, tight, thinking of the countless hours they’d spent together as children when her family and his had visits and parties. “We haven’t seen each other since my father’s death.”
Rafe asked them both, “You two meet like this often?”
“Yeah, Rafe. We do. But we haven’t flaunted it because Mama wouldn’t understand, neither would Aunt Bridget.”
“I’m not sure that’s true about Mama.” He slid an arm around his cousin. “I, for one, am thrilled to see you, girl. Are Finn and Ronan in the area?”
“Finn’s in New York, with me. No one’s heard from Ronan in a while.”
Rafe had only seen his oldest cousin on TV in a wildly popular cop show. After ten years, Ronan disappeared. They used to be best friends. “If you see him, tell him I’d like to catch up.”
Hayley gave him a full smile. “I feel the same about all of you.”
“What about Finn? Is he in on this?”
“No. You know how shy he is. And how attached he was to my mother.”
Rafe sighed. “Our parents’ estrangement really did us wrong, don’t you think?”
“Yes, I do.”
He stayed for a bit and talked to his cousin. She was a lawyer in the city with a big firm. Not married. No kids.
When he bade them goodbye, his upset at Seth’s suggestion was blocked out by the sadness of losing his cousins.
Both things plagued him the rest of the night and he woke up thinking about Hayley, and about asking Kate for joint custody. Before he left the house, he made a list of the pros and cons of the latter and came to a conclusion. Which he needed to implement now or he’d obsess about Kate’s reaction.
Arriving at the academy early, he caught her before his meeting and her day of training started. He walked up to her, where she was pouring coffee in the common area.
“Hey, Kate. Can we talk?”
She turned; her eyes clouded with apprehension. “About Tommy’s school?”
“We can deal with that later. Let’s go somewhere private.”
Once they were inside a classroom, she tried to make small talk. “Brick’s going home today.” Her face was full of the trust they’d built over this thing with Brick.
“I heard. That’s sooner than I expected.” He set his briefcase on the desk. “I need to talk to you about something and I hope you’ll understand. You should sit down.”
“No thanks. What is it?” She leaned against the door.
He produced the papers, but didn’t give them to her. “What are those?”
“Custody papers.”
Her coffee cup slipped but she caught it and set it on a desk. “You’re suing me for custody of Tommy?”
“No, I’d never do that. They’re for joint custody. Let’s sit down and talk.”
“I don’t want to talk to you about custody of our child.”
“You can’t make the issue go away.”
Utter silence.
“Please, Kate, just read them. Then we can talk about you signing them.”
So, she scanned the first page. Then she raised her gaze, and now her eyes were wide with distrust. “All right, it is for joint custody. But why are you doing this now? Because of the school thing?”
He shifted from foot to foot. “No. To be honest, it was Seth’s idea.” Rafe cleared his throat. “So was the DNA test I had done on Tommy. It’s stapled to the end of the custody papers.”
“You ran a DNA test? Without telling me? You knew he was yours.”
“I needed legal proof.”
She grabbed onto the doorknob. “How did you get a sample from my son?”
He told her about the strand of hair.
Briefly, her other hand clapped over her mouth. “Is this why you’ve been so nice to me? You were open to spending time at my house with the three of us so you could suck me in and then claim custody of Tommy?”
“It’s joint custody. I don’t want to take him away from you, I’m stopping you from taking him away from me.”
“You should know I’d never do that.”
“Kate, I never thought you’d leave me six years ago. And in truth, since you were pregnant, you already took him away once. You’ve given me reason not to trust you’ll stay.”
His words were cutting, even if they were true.
Again, she looked down. Her lips were trembling. The quiet buzz of people and a few bursts of laughter came from the common area. “I need to think about this. Read the papers carefully. Leave me alone now?”
“Take as long as you want. Call me when you’re ready to discuss this again.” As he passed her in the doorway, he squeezed her arm. He wasn’t surprised she shrunk for him. “Kate, please, don’t take my actions as a message of any kind about your motherhood.”
She nodded but averted her gaze. He left the room, feeling like he’d kicked a puppy.
o0o
Kate closed the door, dropped down into a desk, put her head down and let the tears fall. She never cried much. But she gave into it now. The outburst didn’t last long, and once she was done, she stuffed the papers in her purse and headed to the john. She washed her face, put on some makeup and checked the clock on the wall. Time for class. She headed down to the recruits’ classroom, more in control. She wouldn’t think about what Rafe had done to her.
Today’s lecture was based on Chapter 4 of the manual on Ropes and Knots. She took a seat on the east side of the room where the windows were open. The warm sun and a slight breeze, as well as the scent of spring, refreshed her. She forced herself to concentrate on the others filing in.
Oh, great. Just great. Stephan Klimek walked into the room. He gave her a smile, then addressed the class. She tuned out the discussion on the types of ropes but brought herself back into it when he asked, “What are the two classifications of rope? You read about them last night.”
Eleven people raised their hands. Kate did not.
He scanned the class. “How about you, Recruit Cassidy? You didn’t raise your hand. Are you shirking your reading homework?”
“Life safety and utility ropes.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Life safety ropes are purposed for supporting people during a rescue, inside at a fire, or any other emergency operations.”
“Utility ropes?”
“Let somebody else answer.” The voice came from the other side of the room.
Stephan scowled. No one questioned the teachers. “Who said that?”
Mattison raised his chin. “I did. We all know Kate’s used ropes before, she was a firefighter for years. Let those of us who are still learning participate.” Mattison’s voice wasn’t challenging. It was quite sincere. And Kate agreed with him.
Stephan apparently did not. He crossed to Mattison’s desk and shot questions at the young man. Mattison failed to answer some. At the end of class, he added, “Careful what you wish for, Recruit Mattison.” He swept his gaze at the recruits. “Now, because your cohort here was being disrespectful, I should give you all laps. Instead,” he laser focused Mattison and finished, “you’ve got one more chance with me Mattison, and if you’re rude again, to me or anyone else, I’ll cut you loose. Understand?”
His Adam’s apple bobbing, Mattison nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Absolute silence filled the room as the recruits left.
Kate waited for them to go then approached Stephan.
Before she could speak, he asked, “Do you think I was too hard on him?”
“He was rude and deserved discipline. But the other teachers don’t focus on me like you did, so they’re not used to it. And I’d prefer not to be on the spot.”
He eyes turned a cold, flat blue, chilling her. “I’ll remember that, Recruit Cassidy.” He strode out, seemingly miffed with her.
Great, now she’d made an enemy of him.
She checked the clock. She had a half hour before the next class. She’d fret all day if she didn’t face this thing with Rafe right now. She sat back down and thoroughly read the insidious papers.
o0o
As he walked into the meeting room of the whole Consolidation Committee, Rafe tried to push to the back of his mind the conversation, more like confrontation, he’d had with Kate. But an image of her disbelieving expression when she realized what he was suggesting stayed with him. She expected better from him. Her shock, her disappointment, made him regret bringing this up.
Though, maybe it was for the best. His feelings for her had been resurrected when she came back, when he’d been seeing so much of her. Too much. He’d kissed her, for God’s sake! And he was starting to worry about his feelings for her. Then Seth suggested joint custody and he went with it. He wouldn’t lose Tommy, because in truth, he bet after she had time to clear her head, that she’d sign those papers. Kate was nothing if not practical.
When Mitch walked to the front, the group quieted and Rafe was glad to have something else to think about. “Good morning,” Mitch said. “Let’s get started right away with a report for Captain Casella’s group, the one you all probably want to hear the most. Rafe?”
Rafe got up, walked to the front and picked up the remote to the PowerPoint he’d set up. “I’m going to present the facts without any editorializing. Please save questions until the end.”
The first slide read: PAY in the districts of Hidden Cove, Camden Cove, Brookdale, Jackson Heights, Wilmington and Ellenville. A graph listing the average salaries of the neighboring towns’ firefighters across the top, with ranks on the sides.
“Holy shit!”
“Seriously.”
“No way, man.”
“We can talk about this after we’ve seen the whole picture: sick pay, vacation, health care and retirement.”
When people started to shift in their seats and grumble, he shrugged. “All right, then, let’s stop here. Discussion time.”
Grady O’Connor spoke up. “I’m shocked that paramedic pay is so low in other towns. I mean, some of them are half of what I make.”
“A few of the smaller towns don’t even have captains.” Zach Malvaso had earned that rank.
Mitch stepped forward, his face grave. “You’re right, Zach. Canceling the position of captain would be a huge cost reduction measure for them. Substituting lieutenants to run the houses with battalion chiefs overseeing them would save big bucks.”
Rafe added, “Let me jump in here to say that most of the research on consolidated departments eliminates all captains, some battalion chiefs and the fire chiefs. And lest you make a joke about it only being upper ranks, they cut line fire fighters by reducing the number of people per shifts. Or closing firehouses.”
Lorelei, usually shy, raised her hand. “If they cut line firefighters, rookies will be shaking in their boots. I know I am.”
Ben Gianni stood. “May I, Rafe?”
“Can you hold on for a bit?”
“I guess.”
“You’re right to be concerned, Lorelei. But let’s keep going on the rest of the items then come back to pay.”
The meeting picked up speed after all the information was presented and a heated conversation ensued. When they filed out, Rafe heard swearing and threats. He stayed behind to talk to Mitch, Grady and Zach. “Man, what a hornets’ nest,” Zach commented.
“And guess who’ll get stung?” Rafe put in.
“Hidden Cove.”
“Sure, we’re the biggest department, and no way are small towns going to raise pay and other benefits to meet us.” Mitch again. “I wonder if the Hidden Cove town council proposed consolidation because everything will be docked for us and they’ll save money.”
“Holy hell.” Grady again.
Afte
r more discussion, Mitch checked his watch. “I have to go.” He clapped Rafe on the shoulder. “Happy Fortieth Birthday tomorrow.”
“How’d you know?”
“Are you kidding? You got a son who’s excited about celebrating with you. We went over to Kate’s for dinner last night and he couldn’t stop talking about the lunch he’s fixing for you.”
That made Rafe smile.
“Kate seemed out of sorts, though. You know anything about that?”
“I’m afraid I do.” Where Tommy would go to school. “I’m dealing with her as best I can.”
The group filed out and Rafe was shutting down his computer when someone entered the room. He looked up and saw Kate. Her expression was blank. He didn’t move and neither did she. “Are you all right?” he finally asked.
She came in closer. “I have to be.”
“Kate, sit down, we can we talk. I’ll explain about doing the DNA test and child custody request.”
“I think both of those actions are self-explanatory. You don’t trust me. I get why.” She shoved something at him, said, “Now I don’t trust you,” and left the room.
He looked down. They were the custody papers. Signed.
He should be overjoyed. Instead, after seeing her, he was more upset than before.
o0o
Kate bumped into Olive Hennessey in the hall, literally.
She asked, “Kate, are you all right? You look like somebody died.”
She gripped the strap of her backpack. “I’ve had some bad news.”
“What? Maybe I can help.”
“I, um, it’s personal. Besides, no one can help.”
“Come with me.” Olive led her office and took a seat next to her. “This is about Rafe, isn’t it?”
Kate couldn’t hold it in. “Oh, yeah.”
“What happened?”
“Olive, I don’t want to burden you with my problems. I was hoping we could keep my personal life out of my training.”
