Page 5 of Anchor Point

“I still think they should’ve given it to you, Captain,” Burgess called from the corner.

“Quit sucking up, Rookie.” Nate pitched a wadded-up ball toward him. Then immediately jumped from his chair and tossed the trash into the large bin between the bay doors.

I grunted my appreciation for his following my number one rule: Keep My Station Clean.

It was times like these that I enjoyed the most. All of the crew just hanging out at the station in between calls, when we were all kicked back, the hard work was done, and we were able to relax a bit. Time when we could forge the bonds that made it so we trusted each other when our lives depended on it.

Twenty-four hours spent in each other’s space meant we had to make things work and get along. We didn’t have to be friends for the forty-eight we were off, but most of this crew was tight even outside of the department.

Hopefully, if the call-gods were kind to us, it would be a quiet night, and we’d get some dinner and rest.

I ran my station in a way that allowed the guys to relax when we could. We worked hard early so we didn’t have to work hard all day. We never knew when shit would hit the fan and we’d be up all night.

Luckily, our call volume had declined after a record number of structure fires in the last year. We were due a break. Except for the fact that the son of a bitch who’d started them all had gotten past his security detail while he’d been laid up in the hospital and had fled.

It was just a matter of time before the bastard showed up again. I felt it in my bones, as sure as I could tell that it’d be raining within the next twenty-four hours.

“Hey, Captain? You ever hear any more about that TikTok?” Thoren asked mid-shuffle. He was nonchalant, but I wasn’t buying it.

“I don’t do social media. You know this.”

To his credit, Thoren flushed the tiniest bit. “Yeah, but Kylie is on me to try to find out if you’ve made contact. You gotta give me something.”

The guys under my command were exceptional men with exceptional women in their lives. Over the summer, they’d taken to having cookouts and bonfires and inviting me to join them. At one of those cookouts, Thoren’s girlfriend, Kylie, had stumbled on a TikTok post that had sent me into a tailspin of warring emotions.

Floating around on social media was a fifteen-year-old photo from a perfect week in paradise.

I’d gone to the island on my should’ve-been-honeymoon, intent on nursing my broken heart. Instead, I’d met the most beautiful, most complex, most responsive woman. The funniest, kindest woman I’d ever known. Our chemistry sparked the moment we laid eyes on each other, and by the end of that first night, we’d fucked twice. By the end of that week, we’d explored every fantasy either of us had ever had. I knew her body better than my own.

The caveat of our week-long fling had been not sharing any personal information, only first names. It was one wild, anonymous, nothing-but-fun fling.

By far the best week of my life.

I’d thought about Livvie over the years, wondering where she was—how she was. If she still remembered that week as fondly as I did. If she missed me like I sometimes missed her.

It didn’t pay to think too hard about what might’ve been if we’d shared anything other than first names. Hell, she might not have even given me her real name.

I’d been such a wreck before arriving on that island. My whole goal had been to forget. To drink my way through a blissful week, driving away the heartache and disappointment, along with that memory of standing solo at the wedding altar while my world fell apart.

But by the end of that week, I’d been half in love with Liv. I’d been in no shape for a relationship, determined to end the fling on a high note rather than allow it space and time to grow into something real before it crashed and burned.

My mistake.

Because over the years, Livvie had become the one who got away. Though I’d gotten over her, Liv had always been in the back of my mind. She was the standard I held other women to.

And the social media post confused the fuck out of me because it was made by a teenage girl looking for her father.

And that thought turned my insides to jelly, no matter how hard I tried to pretend otherwise.

I pushed aside the turmoil and focused on the facts. This was an old photo of me with Livvie. That’s all. The kid could belong to anyone else.

I pushed off the engine and straightened. “No.”

He squinted at me, unsure. “Is that ‘No, I didn’t make contact’ or ‘No, I don’t gotta give you anything’?”

I stuck my toothpick back in my mouth, chomping down, the mint flavor doing little to curb the nicotine I suddenly craved, and let my glare be my answer. Then, to escape further bullshit, I stalked out of the bay.

Thoren yelled after me, “Oh, come on, Capt. Kylie’s gonna keep hounding till she gets an answer. You know that.”

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