I Never Thought I'd See You Again: A Novelists Inc. Anthology

by Неизвестный

  When she reached the top, her limbs were saturated and her head hurt from the smoke. “Okay.”

  “Hell, she must be in bad shape if she let that remark go.” She recognized the voice of the man who helped bring her up. He grabbed onto her and held her close. “I got ya, babe, like always.”

  Jane removed her helmet and unbuttoned her coat — the cool air felt wonderful — then surveyed the scene. Bodies were scattered over the parking lot and grassy area behind the store. “Casualties?” she asked.

  “Not a one.” Riley put his face close to her ear. “You scared me, honey.”

  “None of that, Rye.” She looked around. “The Cap?”

  “Fine. His head’s hard enough to withstand the blow.”

  “How ‘bout the guy I was with?”

  “Alive, they say. With a wracking cough.”

  After a few minutes, Malvaso approached them. “Gallagher, the man Phillips saved is asking for you.”

  “For me? Not Janie?”

  “Uh-huh. But she should go with you.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Just do it.”

  Jane and Riley headed to where Malvaso directed them. The man lay propped up against a tree on the grass. His clothes were in tatters, now covered with smoky grime, and he sported a beard which practically obscured his face.

  Riley knelt down in front of him. “You wanted to see…” His voice trailed off.

  Janie bent over, too. The guy smelled like body odor and alcohol. He raised his dirty hand to cup Riley’s cheek. “I never thought I’d see you again, son.”

  Riley jerked back. Stood abruptly. His fists curled at his sides. “Yeah, right back at you. Which was fine with me.”

  # #

  Riley bolted up from the bed yelling, “No, no, it can’t be true.” His naked body was covered in sweat and his heart was beating double time.

  Jane reached out for him and grasped his hip. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nightmare. Go back to sleep. You need rest after yesterday.”

  He and Jane had left the firehouse as soon as they got back from the clothing store call. The night shift had come in early because battling the fire had been exhausting for her group. And two of their guys sustained minor injuries. Turning, he could see Jane’s sleep tousled form in the gray light of dawn. “I’m getting up. Sleep some more.”

  “Okay.” Her eyes closed.

  Grabbing some sweat pants and a T-shirt from the floor, he dressed in the bathroom then went out to the kitchen. They’d bought a ranch house on the outskirts of Hidden Cove eight years ago. It had been a fixer-upper and now was exactly how they wanted it. Hard wood floors. Lots of windows and natural light. Comfortable furniture. Big kitchen where they both liked to cook. Most firefighters did.

  His father had.

  “Fuck,” he said aloud, pulled out a cup and poured coffee that had been set to brew at six. In an effort not to think about his father, he looked out the side window and saw Frank, their older, half-blind neighbor sitting on his deck. Riley noticed the donuts they stopped every night to pick up for the next morning, and grabbed the smaller bag.

  He stepped outside and crossed the yard. “Hi, Frank. Up pretty early, aren’t you?”

  “My sciatica is bothering me.” He eyed the bag. “Hmm, is it jelly this time?” They always brought Frank a treat.

  “Yep, one of your favorites.” Though Riley’s mind was whirling with conflicting thoughts, he stayed and talked to the lonely man for a few minutes.

  However, when he returned to his kitchen and picked up his coffee, his mind went right back to his father’s downfall. Riley had been nearly twenty-three and still considered a young gun in the fire department. But he was treated with respect because his dad was a captain on one of the busiest engines in the department. And head of the Firefighter’s Union. Maybe that had been the worst thing because when the scandal broke and their town councilman, a local cop, and his father were implicated, the entire fire department had been disgraced. He’d never forget when his dad had revealed the truth…

  Ben Gallagher had come to the apartment Riley shared with Jane…

  “Hey, Dad.” He was always glad to see his father, as he adored the man.

  Tonight, though, his dad’s face was haggard. And his eyes were bloodshot, as if he hadn’t slept. “Hi, son. I need to talk to you and Janie right away.”

  “Janie isn’t here. Come on in.” His father lumbered into his house as if he bore the weight of five SCBA tanks. “Can I get you something?”

  He’d been shocked to see his father’s eyes well. He’d seen his dad cry a couple of times at a firefighter funeral and when a baby died in a fire, but this kind of emotion was a rare occurrence.

  “Dad, sit on the couch.” He practically led his father to the sofa, dropped down beside him and put his hand on his dad’s shoulder. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

  Ben stared at him. “I’m on my way to the police department.”

  “Why?”

  “I’ve done something wrong, Rye. Really wrong.”

  “You? I don’t believe it.” In his eyes, his dad was infallible.

  “You…” he cleared his throat “…I…it’s about the Steele scandal. You know some of the details.”

  “Yeah, everybody does. The fuckers were trying to hurt the chief and sabotaged the fire department. A lot of our guys were injured. Are you filing some sort of charge on behalf of the union?”

  Ben had shaken his head. “No, I’m a fucker, too.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I helped Stan Steele.” The councilman.

  “Dad, come on, don’t joke about this.”

  “I’m not joking. I set up some of the sabotage.”

  Riley’s heart had flip-flopped in his chest. “You wouldn’t do something like that.”

  “I did. For money.”

  “Why? Money never meant much to us.”

  “I…” His eyes turned even bleaker. “I got a gambling problem. I was in deep, Steele found out and offered to pay off all my debts if I’d help him.”

  “No, no. The cop, Ruscio, helped him, did it for the money.”

  It had taken his father a half hour to convince Riley that he’d been involved. Still, Riley had been stunned. He’d cried like a baby with his face buried in his hands.

  Janie came home just before his father left, thank God. But she’d wanted to help Ben Gallagher get through what was to come, go to the police station with him, stand by him.

  And Riley couldn’t. Something seemed to snap inside him at the awful thing his father had done to the brotherhood of firefighters. In the end, all he could do was brace himself against the shame.

  There had been backlash from others in the department, which hurt like hell and an emotional wall had shot up between him and Janie. He still didn’t know how much she stood by his father, because after several fights over what Riley should do and how Riley should feel, they’d agreed not to discuss the matter. Later, he learned his mother had tried to help his father, too, but Ben Gallagher had ostracized her and she gave up. They’d been divorced since his dad went to jail…

  “Hey, Rye, what are you thinking about?”

  He turned to find Janie had come into the kitchen. “Take a wild guess.”

  She crossed to him, kissed his cheek — God she always smelled good after a shower — and poured herself a mug off coffee. “Let’s sit down.”

  They took seats in the sleek oak breakfast nook he, Janie and his buddies had constructed when they bought the house. “You’re thinking about Ben, right?”

  “Of course. I was shocked to see him after all these years.”

  “Me, too.” She stared at him. “Was it hard for you, leaving him at the scene?”

  “No, the ambulance came. He had what he needed. Besides, I was worried about you.”

  “Aren’t you worried about him?”

  “When hell freezes over.” He would have preferred to lie to Jane, to pretend he was for
giving like her, but he was always straight with her. They promised each other they would be.

  She sipped her coffee and he noticed she’d put on the ring he gave her when they were sixteen and a cheerleader had tried to seduce him. It was a promise-of-fidelity symbol and she wore it everywhere but work. “Well, I’m worried.”

  He raised his eyes to the ceiling. “Here we go again.”

  “No, it won’t be like what happened before. We were kids when your dad got in trouble.” She picked up his hand and kissed it. “We know how to work out our issues now.”

  “Maybe. I can’t stand the thought of the bastard coming between us again.” He shook his head. “And hurting Mom and Abby like the last time.”

  She opened her mouth to say something then closed it. After a minute, she asked, “I’ll go with you today to tell your mom he’s back.” They were both off shift.

  “I’m not going to tell her. I have to protect her from him. We all thought he went to New York City after his two year stint in jail. She doesn’t need to know any different.”

  “Rye, you can’t keep the fact that he’s back from Mave. And Abby will be furious if you don’t tell her.”

  “I won’t let them be hurt by this again! He can just crawl back into his hole and we can forget we even saw him.”

  “That is so not going to work.”

  He slapped his hand on the table. “No, Jane. I’m not bringing them in on this. And this can’t come between us again. Don’t you remember how it was last time?”

  His face closed down. And her eyes turned grim. He still remembered the strained quietness of the house, spending their free time away from each other, the lack of intimacy. He’d hated the breach they’d both caused by their stubbornness. “Look, I know he was like a father to you when yours died, but what he did…I just can’t forgive him.”

  She shook her head. “After fifteen years together, I still don’t know this side of you.” Drawing back, she took a deep breath. “All right. Let’s not discuss him. It’s too painful for us both.”

  He brushed his hand down her hair. “How do you feel this morning?”

  She smiled. “Good enough for what I know you want.”

  “That’s my girl.” They both stood and he slung his arm around her neck; she slipped her hand around his waist. “I need the oblivion of some hot monkey sex.” He kissed her head.

  “I can do that for you.”

  # #

  Jane never knew what she was going to get from Riley when they made love. As they walked to the bedroom, she remembered their first time. They’d been sweethearts their sophomore year in high school but too young for sex, so it wasn’t until after the Junior Prom, when they’d rented a hotel room in Camden Cove, that he took her on their first flight to intimacy. Since both of them were novices, they’d fumbled and it wasn’t good for her, but he’d made up for it by, of all things, asking his sister for pointers. The two of them had been close, and Abby had been like a sister to Jane, so she’d given them pretty explicit instructions, some books for them to read, and a hefty number of condoms. By the time they graduated, their sex life was great for both of them. And neither had ever slept with anyone else. For a nerd and not a very pretty one, she considered herself lucky to have snagged the school football star and Prom King. The nice thing about it was he’d considered himself lucky, too, to have a smart, funny, and feisty girl like her in his life.

  “Where are you, sweetie?” he asked when they reached the bedroom.

  “Thinking about the first time we made love.”

  “Oh, God, don’t remind me. I was a bumbling idiot.”

  “Ah, but now you’re a real stud.”

  He laughed, that husky before (or after) sex laugh, and reached for the hem of her nightshirt. “Hmm. Let’s see about that.”

  What she got this time wasn’t the hot monkey sex he mentioned earlier. Slowly — too slowly — he slid the shirt over her head. She was naked beneath it. She reached for his T-shirt but he stopped her.

  “Ah, not yet. Let me touch you.”

  His hands were like a whisper of silk on her skin. He ran them all over her, and when he knelt down before her, he nuzzled his face in her mound. Kissed her. Licked her. Then began in earnest to arouse her. With tender passion, he took her to the first peak and she tumbled over with gentle but intense feeling.

  Then she led him to the bed. He laid down first and held out his hand. She took it, knelt on the mattress and moved between his legs. She ran her mouth over his pecs, down his sides, lower, kissing his thighs, his knees, whatever her lips met. He moved restlessly because she hadn’t hit her target yet.

  “Janie, you’re killin’ me.”

  “Good.” She kept up the sweet abrasion of his body for a long time.

  Finally, she took his penis between her palms and massaged him as he’d taught her to do.

  He moaned. “Jesus, baby…”

  She kept up the motions, shifting subtly, until he grasped onto her hips. “Now,” he growled.

  Smiling, she went up on her knees and straddled him. Slowly, easily, he lifted her further and settled her on him. Her pulse skyrocketed at how full and feminine she felt.

  “I love this part,” he whispered raggedly. “When I’m first inside you.”

  “Me, too.” Like most everything else, they were on the same wavelength about sex.

  She began to move. She increased the speed in tiny increments. His grip on her hips tightened and he helped escalate her movements. Groans of pleasure rumbled out of him as all his muscles tightened.

  Her body was in sync with his. She felt the spiral build and build and build until he gave one last thrust. He started first and she joined him with bursts of light, color, and sensation floating around her. The same gentle completion consumed them.

  After they’d climaxed, he pushed a few more times, causing aftershocks to rock through her. Sounds of pleasure echoed from him, too.

  He eased her off him and down onto the bed. Tugged her into the crook of his shoulder. Entangled their legs.

  Jane liked this valley as much as the peaks. She felt him kiss her hair and murmur sleepily, “There. That’s just what I needed.”

  Me too, she thought. She was where she belonged and was going to stay here, regardless of their differences.

  “Rye?”

  “Hmm?”

  “I’ll try to let you have your own feelings about your dad.”

  “Me, too. I’ll be better at letting you have yours.”

  Turning her nose into his chest, she vowed they’d get through this drama of his father’s return.

  # #

  The sound of the doorbell woke them. Riley stirred first. Glancing at the clock, he saw it was ten a.m. Not too early for company, but inconvenient as hell.

  “Who’s that?” Janie’s voice was fuzzy.

  “God knows. I’ll get up.”

  He grabbed for his sweats and T-shirt again, dressed, and headed to the foyer barefoot. Checking the front window, he saw his mother’s car in the driveway. She was always circumspect and never invaded their privacy, so he’d tease her a bit.

  Pulling open the door, he said sassily, “Do you even want to know what you interrupted, Mave darlin’?”

  His mother’s face blanked and she just stared at him.

  Uh-oh.

  “Mom, I was kidding.” He kissed her on the cheek. This was another woman he loved deeply.

  “Rye, we have to talk. And I have to say, I’m not happy with you.”

  That’s what she’d said since he was young and did something wrong. Riley Benjamin Gallagher, I’m not happy right now.

  Through his sex-induced and sleep-caused haze, it took him until she said the words to remember what happened.

  “I got a call from the hospital. How could you not tell me your father showed up last night?”

  Staring at the woman who gave birth to him, Riley tried to choose his words carefully. In the past, he’d managed to keep from her his anger an
d despair over what his dad had done and be there for her and Abby. “I’m sorry if I upset you.”

  “I don’t want an apology. I want to know why you didn’t call me right away.”

  “Janie was subbing on my group. She fell through a floor. I was busy taking care of her.”

  Mave’s eyes rounded. “Is she all right?”

  “Yes, she’s still asleep.”

  “That’s good.” His mother hesitated. “Honey, I know you had a lot of feelings about your dad you didn’t share with me in the past. But I also know my son better than you think. You suffered the most over what he did; you two were so close because of the fire department.”

  He ran a hand through his hair. “You knew? I didn’t want to hurt you with my feelings.” He watched her for a moment. “But now that it’s out, and especially now that you’ve been through with him for years, I’ll confess that I have no intention of seeing him. I assumed you’d feel the same, so why even tell you he was in town?”

  Her eyes misted. His father had hurt her irrevocably. “I had a right to know.”

  “Janie thought so, too. Maybe I was wrong. Who told you?”

  “The hospital called me. Just said your father was there and gave me next of kin.”

  “You divorced.”

  “Technically.”

  His stomach clenched. It had been in a permanent knot for months during the aftermath of his father’s admission. “What does that mean?”

  “Oh, honey, I’ve never stopped loving the man. After twenty five years of marriage, you don’t let go easily. Could you ever stop loving Jane if you split?”

  “No, of course not. But this is different.” And he was horrified at her confession. “After the shame he brought on us all?”

  “Shame is a useless emotion. What I felt was deep sadness. The shame was all yours.”

  Had she told him that before? “Fine, it was mine. And Abby’s. Her husband’s a cop, for God’s sake. Imagine what he had to endure.”

  “This is such old ground, honey.” She shook her head, her pretty auburn hair, shot with a bit of gray, moving with the motion. “And no, Abby and Aiden didn’t feel shame. They were overwrought at what he’d done but saw him as a man who’d made a terrible mistake and lost everything.”