Page 13 of From the Flames
Kevin cleaned up as quietly as he could, not wanting to wake the kids, before slipping into bed and then listening for any sign of Willy. He heard nothing—the house was completely quiet. Rolling over, he closed his eyes, almost willing himself to go to sleep, but it refused to come, and he lay awake with his treadmill of thoughts.
“Daddy.” The sound was almost too soft to hear, but Kevin got up, pulled on his robe, and padded down to Grant’s room. The boy sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes.
“Your daddy is asleep. But I’m here. What’s wrong?” He sat on the side of the bed.
Grant continued rubbing his eyes. “Is it morning?”
Kevin kept himself from chuckling. “No. It’s the middle of the night. Go back to sleep.”
“But I don’t want to miss it,” Grant said, still half asleep.
“Miss what?” Kevin asked.
“Going to our new house.”
Kevin gently helped him lie back down. “I promise that your daddy and I aren’t going to let you sleep through it. Now go back to sleep, and Elsa will make sure everything is okay.”
Grant nodded and rolled over. “Kevin, is Elsa going to come live with us? I want her to be my dog.”
Kevin probably should have seen this coming. The kids had bonded with the dogs. “This is their home, and Elsa would miss Benjamin and Thumper and me. But you can come over and visit Elsa a lot if you like. I promise. Okay?” He hoped he had said the right thing.
“Okay. I come visit her every day.” He seemed happy, and Kevin sat with him for a few minutes before quietly leaving the room. He partially closed the door and went back to bed, proud of himself for how he’d handled things with Grant. He was going to miss them all, but it wasn’t like he would never see them again. At least that was what he hoped. Things would just be different.
Kevin rolled over and tried to sleep once more, eventually slipping into a restless slumber.
“WHY HAVEyou been such a grump bucket today?” Chase asked as he closed the plans for the apartment complex in frustration.
“Because there is nothing here that explains why the fire spread so damned fast. Even without the working sprinklers, it shouldn’t have done that. As far as I can tell, the building was up to code.”
“Maybe there’s something in the codes that should be examined,” Chase offered with a sigh before hitting him with a steely gaze. “But there’s more than that going on.”
“Willy and the kids are moving into their own place today. They were packing their things and heading over to spend the day getting the place ready.” Kevin didn’t like the way that made him feel, though he knew he had no right to be this way. Chase and the guys didn’t deserve to be around him when he was all grumpy and shit.
“That’s a good thing. They’re rebuilding their lives.” He rolled his eyes. “I know you like the guy, and that’s cool, but this doesn’t mean any of that has to change. He’ll have a place of hisown like a normal person, and those kids need a stable place to call their home again.” Kevin wanted to argue with Chase, but of course he was right and Kevin was just being unreasonable. “When are you off shift?”
Kevin checked the time on his phone. “Half an hour. The chief let me go a few hours early in case I needed to help Willy. I’m on call, though.”
“Then let’s get out of here. There are questions about this building that these plans are never going to answer. But maybe if we can talk to Willy, he can answer some of them. After all, he lived there, and he’s a smart guy. Let’s see if somehow he can provide some of the answers that we need.”
“Okay.” Kevin was more than ready to get out of here. He had been on edge all day for no good reason, so maybe seeing Willy and the kids would help. Kevin told the chief where they were going, and they headed out to Willy’s new place, which was quiet. After parking, he knocked on the door, and Willy answered it with April and Grant right behind him.
“Kevin!” Grant raced over and practically leapt into his arms. “Come see my new room.” He dragged Kevin into a small bedroom with a bed and a few toys. “Daddy says that this is all mine and I don’t have to share with the baby anymore.” He bounced, he was so excited. “I even have my own big-boy bed.” It was sparse, but the bed was made, and it looked homey.
“He’s so excited,” Willy said from the doorway.
“Are you all moved in?” Kevin asked.
“Yeah. Your aunt brought over a bunch of kitchen things that I’m just going through.” He held out his hand, and Grant took it, letting Willy take him back to the living room, where he plopped down on one of the floor pillows to watch TV in the otherwise empty room. “I found a sofa today and a chair. The sofa is a floral pattern, but I ordered a slipcover, so that will help.I also found a table and chairs on Nextdoor, but I need to pick those up.”
“You can borrow the truck,” Kevin offered. Chase cleared his throat when Kevin left him in the doorway. “Do you have a minute? Chase and I have some questions.”
“Sure,” Willy said.
“It’s about your other place,” he added softly, and Willy nodded. “Can we go to the kitchen?” He didn’t want the kids to hear them talking in case they got upset.
Willy led them into the other room, which had a number of boxes sitting on the counter with Kevin’s aunt’s distinctive handwriting on the outside. “Can you tell us what it was like living there?”
“Well, a shoebox. The walls were kind of thin, like I told Kevin. I always had to watch TV very quietly or it would wake the kids. And there were a lot of times when I could hear the neighbors. It was like there was nothing at all between the units. I always thought there should have been some sort of fire break or something to dampen sound, but there was nothing there.”
