I can finally go home.
“Dad! Hey, Dad! Look what Mr. Hammond—”
His dad reached the group before Cade could finish, but Mr. Hammond stood between them.
“Bill, you need to go,” Mr. Hammond said, his voice low. “You know you’re not allowed to see Cade, and I don’t want any trouble. Especially here.”
“You can’t tell me what to do,” he slurred. Cade could smell the whiskey from five feet away. His heart sunk. “You can’t tell me I can’t see my own son! Cade, c’mere—”
“Stay there, Cade,” Mr. Hammond said. Cade couldn’t have moved if he wanted to. “Bill, you need to go home and sober up. Do you need me to call a ride for you?”
“I don’t need any goddamned charity from you. Cade’s, his—his whore of a mother up and left in the middle of the night again. Fucking bitch—”
“You need to go right now.”
“Hammond? You need some help?” one of the crew called from the sidewalk.
“Do I?” Mr. Hammond asked Cade’s dad.
“Ah, forget it,” Cade’s dad said. “You all go on playing Captain America or whatever the hell you do.”
He began to stagger off, but Cade was stunned. Mom is gone?
“Cade, come on,” his dad said, as he turned again.
“Kids, you all go inside,” Mr. Hammond said. EJ, Aiden, and Lily raced for the firehouse, but Cade was torn.
I need to help find Mom …
His dad lurched toward him, but Mr. Hammond held him firm. “I’m going to have to call the police if you don’t—”
Suddenly, Cade’s dad lunged forward and broke free of the grip. He snatched Cade up, and the kite ripped apart between them. The stench of alcohol overpowered him. “It’s okay, son. I’m here,” his dad mumbled. “We’re gonna go to Santa Monica. The… the beach. Sounds nice, right?”
California? A shot of panic raced through him. There was no way he could leave the Hammonds. Never see EJ again—
“No!” Cade screamed. His cry came from the deepest part of him.
He felt his father’s fist against his jaw, but the shock dulled any pain. Somewhere in the distance, he could hear and see Mr. Hammond and the other firefighters as they pulled his father away.
Cade turned toward the firehouse. His head rang with yells and his father’s drunken threats.
“You’re bleeding!” Lily said as he tore into the firehouse.
Cade couldn’t speak. The tears that ran down his face blinded him, and the sobs inside filled his throat.
“Don’t cry,” Lily said. He felt her warm hand wrap around his.
Shame filled him, though he couldn’t have said why. He held her hand and cried.
Cade
2013
“Hey, what’d you get on question twenty-two?” EJ asked.
“You still trying to copy off me?” Cade asked with a laugh.
“Just trying to make sure, dude,” EJ said. “They didn’t tell us training to be a recruit involved so much homework. I should have gone into professional baseball or football or something.”
“Yeah, completely realistic,” Cade said. He finished up the last of the quiz. EJ reached his beer across the old scratched-up firehouse table and they clinked. “Cheers to another day of training done.”
“What? I could have done it. I mean, if I got accepted to be a firefighter—”
“Yeah, I think nepotism had a little something to do with that,” Cade said with a wink.
“Because my dad’s the fire chief? Nah, dude. Totally got in on sheer merit. And because they could really use a boost in the annual hot firefighter calendar.”
“I don’t think that’s a real thing in Salem,” Cade said.
“Not yet, maybe,” EJ said pointedly.
“You guys done?” Chief Hammond called from the doorway. “You’re on kitchen cleaning duty.”
EJ groaned, but they both headed to the commercial-sized kitchen and started scrubbing the chili pots from lunch.
“So, how was the date last night?” EJ asked.
Cade cracked a smile. “A gentleman never tells.”
“I know, but I was asking about your date.”
Cade laughed.
“I saw her sneaking out of our place at the crack of dawn. I’m assuming this wasn’t an innocent sleepover with popcorn and separate sleeping bags.”
“You can do a lot with popcorn,” Cade said with a smirk. “Especially the buttery kind.”
“Okay, Mr. Morningside Manwhore.”
“Don’t throw those high school names at me,” Cade said. “This is 2013, not the North Salem High days.”
“Well, the girl I saw walking out barefoot was brunette. What happened to the blonde from earlier this week? And that poor girl’s shoes?”
Cade shrugged. “She has three roommates. And probably other shoes.”
“So?”
“Well, the brunette from last night is one of the roommates. So … I assume I won’t be seeing the blonde again?”
EJ groaned.
“Hey, I could be wrong. Depends on whether or not she’s the jealous type.”
“Which one?”
“Either, I guess.”
“I’m honestly not sure if I should be proud or disgusted by having a manwhore as a best friend. And roommate.”
“Proud, probably,” Cade said. He paused and pretended to reflect into the distance. “How’s uh … Kelsey?”
“It’s Courtney. And everything’s just like it has been for the last month. Not all of us have a rotating selection of women. Some of us have just one. And she’s doing great. She’s still doing that dressage stuff—”
“You’re still jealous of that hot horse trainer, huh?”
“Not jealous. Just … you know. Concerned for Courtney’s safety.”
