Thomas opened the door and put a finger to his lips. From upstairs, the faint sound of a lullaby drifted down. Carly must be trying to put Teddy to sleep. Making as little noise as possible, they tiptoed out to the redwood deck. It had a view of the lake, if you squinted past scrub pines and eelgrass. Laundry hung from a line strung from an upstairs window to one of the deck posts. It seemed to be filled exclusively with tiny onesies.
“Good to see you, man,” Thomas said once they’d both settled into Adirondack chairs on the deck. An old apple crate served as a footrest. “Tell me something good. I need a distraction.”
Jason cut right to the chase. “Is there any reason Kendra Carter shouldn’t apply for the town manager job? She doesn’t want to waste her time if she doesn’t have a chance with our board of town fossils.”
“No reason, if she really wants the job. Why would she?”
Jason shrugged. “She likes being in charge of things. She’d be good at it.”
“If she likes pushing boulders uphill, she should go for it.”
Jason texted that to Kendra, then looked up to find Thomas’ penetrating gaze on him.
“How about you? Rumor has it you’re considering going for my old job.”
“Yeah. I might. I mean, I am.” God, why was he stammering? It felt strange, saying out loud that he was aiming for fire chief. “I, uh, just filed the application this morning.”
Thomas stretched his legs out and crossed them at the ankle. “What took you so long?”
“I know, I know. Took my time deciding, what can I say?”
“I’m serious. It’s a serious question. What held you back? The aldermen are going to want to know if you really want it. They don’t want to do a new search in a year.”
Well shit. That wasn’t the welcoming reaction Jason had expected. “I wasn’t sure I was the fire chief type.”
“And now you are?”
The edge in Thomas’ voice made him draw back. “I hope so. I’m a good firefighter. The crew respects me. The community knows me.”
“They know you as a friend. A jokester.”
Jason drew in a breath. Maybe mentioning this to Thomas had been a mistake. He started to rise to his feet, but Thomas stopped him with hand on his arm.
“I’m giving you a taste of what you might get from the board of aldermen. They usually hire laterally, you know. They like people who already have some leadership experience. You’re going to have to convince them you have what it takes.”
He sank down onto the chair. This close to the lake, the earthy scent of thawing mud surrounded them. He had his mud boots with him in his truck; maybe he should get out of here and go cast a line. Stick to the simple stuff.
Thomas shot him a curious look. “Seems like you might have to convince yourself first.”
He shrugged. “Maybe. I’m not like you. I’m just a guy.”
“Bullshit.”
That quick response took Jason by surprise. “Huh?”
“No one’s ‘just a guy’. But especially not you.”
While Jason was trying to figure out how to respond to that, Thomas switched gears. “How are your parents doing?”
“Good. Yeah. Business is booming. Lots of hipsters in Minneapolis wanting to learn swing dancing and conga.”
“You used to work for them, didn’t you?”
Jason squirmed in his seat. He hadn’t had a choice. His parents had needed him to play dance partner when there weren’t enough men signed up for the classes, or an uneven number, or they simply wanted someone younger to help out.
Not that he didn’t like dancing. He enjoyed it, and those skills had actually helped when it came to firefighting. Firefighting had an element of choreography to it, as well as coordination and controlled movement.
“Yeah. Until sometime in high school, when I didn’t have time anymore. Why?”
“You could have taken over their business. That would have been the easy route. Becoming a firefighter ain’t exactly easy. Especially with a learning disability. Makes the exam a lot harder.”
Jason froze. A sense of shame flooded him. He’d tried so hard to hide it. He knew how to compensate. Some things, like reading, just took him twice as long. The upside was that once he’d read something, he knew it. There was no such thing as skimming for him.
“How did you know?” he managed.
“I just figured it out after a while. Don’t worry, it’s your business.”
“Then why…why even…”
“Bring it up? Because I kept waiting for you to throw your hat in the ring, and you didn’t. I wondered if had to do with your learning disability. I just want to point out that you became a firefighter by working twice as hard as most people. I admire that. You underestimate yourself.”
Now he sounded like Kendra.
Thomas lifted his eyebrows, and Jason realized he’d mumbled that out loud. “Well, she’s usually right. You should listen to her.”
Jason let out a sigh and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. Kendra knew a lot of things, but nothing about being a firefighter. She didn’t know about his learning disability, either. He would have rather died than tell her.
“Seriously, Cooper, you think I can do the job?”
“Yes. But things would change. You’ll have to cut back on the pranks and all that shit. You can’t be one of the guys anymore. You have to set the tone. That’s what leadership is all about. Some people are just natural-born leaders, but other people have to work on it, like a skill. I’m not sure which one you are. My theory,” he squinted at Jason, “is that you’re a leader in hiding. There’s something holding you back.”
A cry floated through the air. As they both looked up, an upstairs window was flung open. Carly poked her head out. She held a tiny black-haired baby against her chest. “I need a break,” she called down to Thomas. “It’s either a break or some vodka, and since I’m still breast-feeding…”
“On it.”
Thomas leaped to his feet. Carly lifted a hand from her baby’s back to give Jason a wave. He felt an almost proprietary concern for her little guy, because he’d been the one who took her to the hospital. She’d nearly fainted at the hardware store. He’d been picking up supplies for the firehouse, but abandoned that job and whisked her off to the hospital. It turned out that she was already in labor, and she’d been so busy wrapping up loose ends at the Blue Drake that she’d ignored the contractions.
“I’ll show myself out,” Jason called after him.
As he headed for his truck, he realized his gut was roiling with anxiety. He hated talking about his learning disability. And Thomas’ mention of the dance studio…he hadn’t thought about that in a long time. His parents had been so disappointed when he’d told them “no” to their offer.
“Querido, we really wish you’d reconsider. This business is perfect for you. It’s entirely physical. You can hire someone to do the parts that are hard for you. You can hire an accountant, a front desk clerk, someone to keep records. All you have to do is spin around the room with one girl after another.” His mother demonstrated with one of her graceful moves.