Charity For Nothing: The Virtues Book III (32 page)

“You Dobbins?” he asked.

“Yes, Sir.”

“Great,” he stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray at his hip, “Come this way, step into my office.”

I dutifully followed him into a small office in what looked like an industrial warehouse. He had windows looking out onto the garage floor where there were several ambulances in various states of being washed, stocked or repaired.

“Now when I saw your application and résumé, I thought to myself, ‘why is a girl with an education like hers, going for a job like this?’ Care to shed some light on that for me?”

I pursed my lips and gave the Watch Commander a good once-over, “I’m going to do us both a favor and cut the bullshit,” I said and he crossed his arms, mouth drawing down at the corners, his head bobbing up and down, impressed by all outward appearances.

“That’d be nice,” he said.

“My first choice, when it comes to medicine, was to be an ER nurse,” I said.

“And you figured Paramedic would be a good place to start until you could score that position?” he asked.

“No, not exactly,” I said, and he cocked his head to the side like I’d done something interesting.

“We both know I’m over qualified for this job, and I happen to know, you’re understaffed, but what if I told you, if you hired me, that I could bring Dominic Shepard back?” He sat up as if I’d finally really said something interesting.

“What makes you think you can get Shep back in here?” he asked.

“He’s my boyfriend for one,” I said laying it all out on the line, “For two, he’s not meant to be painting houses for a living. He’s meant to be out here saving lives. It’s in his DNA.”

“Won’t argue that, girly. Shep was one of the best guys I ever got and it was a damn shame losing him.” He looked me over, mulling it over, judgment all over his craggy face, like the older white guy in
Men in Black
, Tommy Lee Jones or whatever.

“It might take me a few days, but I’m fairly convinced that I could convince
him
,” I said.

“Tell you what, I’ll give you a week. If you come walking through those doors with Shep this time next week, I’ll not only give him his job back; I’ll give
you
a job and start you
both
out at the top of the pay scale.”

“Doesn’t sound like you think I can do it,” I said with a feral grin.

“I don’t,” he conceded.

Game on.
I thought to myself, out loud I said: “Well Sir, you don’t know
me
very well, so I’ll give you the benefit of that doubt.” I stood up and held out my hand for him to shake, which he did, and I said, “We’ll see you next week.”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” he shot back and sounded as dubious as they came.

He followed me out and the paramedic who’d spoken to me the day Dom and I had saved the boy on the beach asked the Watch Commander, “What is she doing here?”

“Says she can bring Shep back.”

The paramedic scoffed, “Yeah, good luck with that,” he said, disbelieving.

“I don’t need luck,” I called back to them, getting up into the Jeep; I winked at them and with a false bravado said over the top of my windshield, “I got this.”

They both shook their heads and I put it in reverse and pulled out of the lot, heading back to Ft. Royal.

***

“How was your day?” Dom asked me back as I set a plate of food in front of him.

“Had an interview, actually,” I said and he looked interested.

“Oh, yeah? How’d it go?”

“I’m not sure, we’ll see,” I answered and hoped it sounded non-committal while at the same time, I tried not to feel awful for lying. I quickly changed the subject, “What about you? Have anything else lined up?” I asked, and he nodded, chewing through a bite of his food and swallowing before answering.

“Yeah, a few things,” he said.

“Aw, yeah? Maybe I can come help out, I’ve kind of exhausted the current application pool,” he shifted in his seat and hedged.

“Ah, yeah, sorry about it, Baby, but you can’t. I would have to buy additional insurance and sign you on as an employee and all that garbage. I’m really only covered to have one assistant and right now that’s Gator. He needs the money, and I’m always one to help a brother out.”

I smiled, understanding completely, “Hey, it’s no worries, but maybe come the weekend I can stay with you at your place. I’m getting tired of the scenery around here.”

He smiled and shifted in his seat again, and said, “Sounds good to me.”

We ended up spending a fabulous, low key evening, laying in each other’s arms in the hammock out back, watching the sun set, and the stars come out, talking in low and even tones, finding out multitudes of little small things about one another.

I found myself wondering what it would be like to live with this man for real, and let myself daydream about the possibility of working with one another, too. He held me close as if I were his anchor to the Earth and he were afraid to let go, and I liked that about him. I also liked that he held true to his promise, and was open with me, talking about what was, and what is, freely; without any fear of reprisal. I mean, he wasn’t going to get any from me.

Evening wore into night, and we retired up to my room, tucked into each other’s embrace. We skipped sex in favor of domesticity tonight, and I was okay with that. So, apparently was he. I fell asleep in his arms, his hand lightly tracing random patterns on my back. It was bliss.

Chapter 42

Nothing

“Fuck, man. I don’t know how I’m gonna do this,” I said and Lightning was laughing at me.

“Bit off a little more than you can chew, eh?”

“Yeah, just a bit,” I said frowning. The plumbing was fixed and the subflooring in, but that was seriously as far as we’d gotten today. Plumbing was always a bitch, and the simplest fixes always came with ridiculous problems one after the other, and this one had been no exception. Add like seven trips to the hardware store and I was as agitated and just generally as fucked off over the whole damn thing as one man could get.

“Look, I’m willing to stay late if you are,” Gator said and I sighed out, grateful.

“Thanks, man. I’d better call Char and tell her I’m not coming tonight, just easier to stay here if I’ve only got two days to finish this.

“Pfft, two days, that’s easy. We got this,” Lightning said.

“Hell we work through the night that should give it all of tomorrow to dry. You can stay at the Captains tomorrow night, and Saturday, if you both go out and do stuff, that’ll give it another day… it’s tight, but doable.” Gator mused aloud.

“Thanks, guys. I owe you big for this.”

“Hell fucking yeah, you do,” Lightning agreed.

I called Charity. She was disappointed that I wouldn’t be there tonight, and that my job was running late, but Hope was home, so she assured me the girls would have a night and that everything would be fine. I loved her for that, I really did. The fact that she was independent enough to
not
freak out on me was kind of refreshing. I’d loved Corrine with my all, but sometimes her anxiety had made life difficult. It was still a struggle coming to grips with what she’d done; a struggle that, for now, I could keep conveniently shoving to the back burner with how busy I was, but eventually it was going to catch up with me and I was going to have to deal with it.

“Dude, Nothing, where you at, bro?”

I looked up at Lightning, “Sorry, man. Old ghosts for a second.”

He nodded, “That part of why you’re doing this?” he asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Look, I get what happened to Charity in here was a good excuse, but you sure this doesn’t have more to do with erasing Corrine starting with this room?” he asked.

I thought about it, and nodded eventually, “Hadn’t thought of it that way, but yeah, I guess it could be.”

“Dude, that’s cold,” Gator said and Lightning swung blindly behind him hoping to connect, he did and Gator jerked back. “Hey!”

“Shut up, noob!” Lightning declared, “You don’t have the full 4-1-1, it was before your time.” Which was true, Gator was only around two and a half years involved with the club while we were coming up on four for my girls leaving me.
Except they didn’t leave you. They died.
That inner voice chastised me, and I sighed, relieved, that the reality bit, but not quite as hard as it used to.

“Come on man, let’s do this,” Lightning said, and I nodded.

“Yeah, let’s get this done,” I agreed and we attacked the monumental project in front of us with renewed zeal.

I installed a new, white shower wrap with a different, more user-friendly shelving configuration. I wish I had the time for tile, but at the same time, I was glad I didn’t because tile was an ever loving bitch when it came to getting the grout clean whereas the shower wrap wiped clean with minimal effort.

We worked on through the night, bringing in a flood light on a stand to paint the walls and ceiling, taking a break with a beer or two while the paint dried before we put in the fixtures.

We installed a new toilet; we had to with the new plumbing hookup we had to put in. The old one wasn’t as water efficient as the newer model anyways, and with luck, it should pay for its self in the form of a lower water bill every month now that the leak had been found and resolved.

Next, the lights above the vanity went in, a nice fixture, not one of those ugly round bulb things, but three tulip fluted glass ones coming out of an old fashioned metal plate backing. Classy, and way nicer than what’d been in here before. I’d gotten it on the cheap from the clearance section to boot, still, I was gonna hate my credit card bill come next month.

By the time the vanity went in, it was after midnight; by the time we got the sink hooked up and the water uncrossed so the cold flowed cold and the hot flowed hot, it was almost two in the morning. Still, by the time we’d finished laying in the floor, it was three. Thank fuck we’d had the forethought to cut the tile for the floor before the noise ordinances went into effect for the evening. We tried to be good neighbors and keep it cool with the rest of the town. We realized the importance of a symbiotic relationship between The Kraken and Ft. Royal. It was how any of the shit we got away with was going to work.

“Are we fucking done?” Gator asked.

“I think we’re fucking done,” Lightning affirmed.

“Cool, Nothing, I’m crashing on your fucking couch,” Gator moaned and dragged himself down the hall to my living room.

“Be my guest,” I said absently, casting a critical eye on the bathroom. None of the fixtures had
moved
; the bathtub, toilet, and vanity all chillin’ in the same spots as before, but the room was totally different just the same. It looked good. It looked real good. It just needed a shower curtain and the towel bars installed, but I could do that myself tomorrow – well, later today.

“Dumbass,” Lightning muttered after Gator had gone, “I’m taking your guest room,” he said to me.

“Use my bathroom, grab a shower first,” I said, and he saluted and went into my bedroom.

I leaned against the doorframe and stared into the bathroom for a real long time, pleased with how we’d banged it out. It’d felt impossible, but with the help of your brothers, the impossible was totally doable, as was evidenced by my rockin’ new bathroom. I still never wanted to do it again, though. This shit was rough.

I went into my room and dropped heavily onto the foot of my bed, staring at all the photos of Corrine and Katy around my mirror, old ghosts and betrayal stared back at me and I allowed the grim weight of what my wife had done to sink in.

I bowed my head and gripped the back of my neck, pulling to ease the tension there as Lightning stepped out of the bathroom.

“You okay, man?”

“Yeah, just fucking
tired.
”

“Well get some sleep, see you later.” He went out into the hall and swung my door shut behind him. I stood up and went to my dresser, palms flat to its wooden surface and let my eyes roam over the photos and little mementos around the mirror.

It was all bullshit; every last bit of it. Bullshit and lies. With an angry sigh I started pulling it all down, stacking it in a neat pile; I looked at the stack in my hands and with no little amount of pain, dropped it into the wastebasket between the dresser and the door.

It was time to start fresh, start new, and put the old ghosts to bed, and speaking of bed, it’s where I needed my ass to be. I got in it, and picked up my phone. No messages, but I hadn’t expected any. I opened up a text screen to Charity.

Me: Good morning, Baby. I hope you have a great day, I’m thinking about you and my bed is kind of lonely. See you after the club meeting tonight.

I put the phone down, feeling marginally better, and dropped off into an exhausted, dreamless, sleep.

Chapter 43

Charity

I woke up to the sun streaming through my blinds and sucked in a deep breath, stretching luxuriously. I picked up my phone to check the time and had a waiting message.

Nothing: Good morning, Baby. I hope you have a great day, I’m thinking about you and my bed is kind of lonely. See you after the club meeting tonight.

Aww! God, he was awesome, I stared at the text for a long time before going into my contacts and erasing ‘Nothing’ and replacing it with ‘Dom.’

Me: I miss you, too. Didn’t know there was a club meeting tonight, but yes, definitely I will see you after. I hope you have a good day, too. Call me if you get the chance, I know you get busy. –XoXo

I hit ‘send’ and lay back down, staring at my ceiling, worry gnawing at my gut. What the absolute fuck did I get myself into with Figaro yesterday, and how the hell was I going to convince Dom to go back with me?

“Ugh, god!” I said to myself and covered my face with my hands, huffing out a big sigh.

“Uh, oh! What’d you do?” Hope asked, barging through the cracked door with a cup of coffee in each hand, Faith coming in right behind her with a cup in hers.

“Oh, god. The lord bless you and keep you,” I said taking the proffered cup of coffee off my sister.

“Dude, that catholic university perverted your brain,” Hope said, making a face.