Page 30 of His Greatest Treasure

“We have the dog, Lieutenant. Exiting now.”

“Copy that. Fire is contained to the back left quadrant, but stay cautious in case of sudden spread.”

“Copy.”

Hart advances, and I follow, antsy to finish this. By the time the last of the fire is put out inside, my arms ache from the weight of the hose. I tighten my hold and take a long sweep of the kitchen before pulling my team out.

Station 8’s captain is outside when we exit. She directs her team to head back inside for another sweep of the controlled fire, and I roll my eyes. I wouldn’t have pulled my team out without finishing the job, but when it comes to the other stations, they don’t share the same trust in me that my team does.

I hand off the hose to Jacobs and rip my mask and helmet off before rounding up my team and giving them all pats on the back. We head back to the station soon after, and it takes everything in me not to let my eyes drift shut.

We’ve moved onto a two-on-two-off shift, and I’m grateful for the break from the hell that was four on four. The first week of September is here, and with it, fall has teased its company.

The heat isn’t as scalding, but it’s nowhere near cool yet. And I’m grateful for that, considering the massive pool I have arriving today. It’ll take up the majority of my backyard, but the look on Avery’s face when she sees that I’ve purchased it just to one-up her will be so, so worth it.

By the time I make it out of the station, my shift is long over. Paperwork has been filed, I’ve showered, and the sun is bright despite it being the late afternoon. The drive home is long, exhaustion wearing heavily on me like normal. It’s more common to be half-awake at this point than it is to be well rested.

I pull the SUV up my driveway today instead of leaving it on the street and sigh while tugging the keys free. My musclesresemble noodles as I slip out and grab my bag from the back seat before starting up the sidewalk.

A moment of weakness has me glancing to the street in front of Avery’s house in search of her car. It’s there, and I drag my tired eyes to the front door as if I’ll be able to see through it.

From everything I picked up from the Hutton house this past weekend, I know that Nova started school on Monday, but she’s done at three thirty every day.

I toss the keys in my hand and catch them before stalling as I go to unlock my front door. An itch grows on the back of my neck, an inkling that something isn’t right.

One look at the grass in my front yard and I’m tossing my head back, laughter bolting out of me.

The perfectly patterned lines in my lawn have been decorated with two that are cut so low to the dirt you’d think I’m regrowing the grass. They spread from the edge of her lawn right across to the sidewalk that separates my front yard. It smells like fresh-cut grass still, meaning she couldn’t have done it that long ago.

Laughing again at the sight, I stare at how perfectly cut her front lawn is. It’s almost like she did it on purpose to spite me. Fuck, she definitely did. There’s not a goddamn weed in sight either.

This is her attempt at payback for me not recognizing her, and I’ll give her the kudos she deserves. Attacking my yard was fair game, but now the score is even.

I adjust my bag and bring it higher up my shoulder before unlocking my door and stepping inside.

She may think she has the upper hand here now, but I’m about to rain on her parade.

It takestwo hours to get my pool set up in the backyard. Thankfully, I know a guy who did me a favour and brought awater truck over to get it filled quicker than it would have taken with the hose alone.

Avery left shortly after I got home and hasn’t gotten back yet. I’ve wasted the entire rest of the afternoon that I should have been using to relax, but there was no way I was going to relax enough to do that with the ideas running through my head.

The terrible excuse of a fence between our backyards was easy enough to climb, but the real struggle was finding enough Jell-O cups to fill her kiddy pool. I bought out three stores’ worth before I had enough, and the scooping of each one? I’m never doing that shit again.

It’s easy to keep myself busy as I wait for her to get home. I inflate the pool floaties I ordered and toss them in the pool before slipping on my swim trunks and grabbing a beer on my way back out.

The sun is hot on my skin as I climb into the water and hop onto the inflatable green lounge chair. I’ve finished off my beer by the time two car doors shut out front.

“Can we go to the spray park?” Nova asks loudly enough for the entire neighbourhood to hear.

Avery’s voice follows. “No. If you want to play in the water, we have a pool. We’re going to have dinner soon.”

I’d feel guilty for ruining pool time for Nova if I didn’t have a plan for that as well. I’ve thought of everything and even surprised myself with all of it, considering how half out of my mind I am with the need to shut my eyes and sleep for a week.

A handful of minutes later and their back door is sliding open. I keep my eyes pointed up at the sky and smirk when the anticipation in my chest gets to be too much to ignore.

“Are you coming in the pool with me, Mom?”

“Unless you don’t want me to, then yes.”

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