10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Mars

I woke up Friday morning determined to make things right with Samuel. I’d climbed into his lap like a needy dog in heat, and that hadn’t been acceptable. He’d apologized last night like he was at fault, but I was the one to blame, not Samuel, and after he’d been kind enough to offer me a place to stay, too.

I rolled out of bed and headed straight for the kitchen, but Samuel wasn’t sitting in his usual spot. Fuck . Seriously kissing me was so bad the man couldn’t even be bothered to eat breakfast with me the way he had every single freaking day since I started saying here?

At least he’d made coffee before he left. I stomped over to the coffee pot. My earlier thoughts about making things right gave way to annoyance. How was I supposed to apologize and make things right if he avoided me?

The cup I’d been using each morning was sitting on the counter like normal, but today, there was a piece of paper underneath it. I moved the cup to the side and picked up the paper.

Mars,

I had to go into work early today. Your breakfast is in the oven.

Sa muel

Had to go into work. I rolled my eyes. Sure he did. It just so happens that the one time he gets called in early is the day after he kissed me, freaked out, and left. Whatever . I thought about ignoring the food in the oven, just to prove a point, but the question was… what point? It wouldn’t hurt him for me to skip breakfast, and I’d gotten kind of used to eating first thing.

I opened the oven and used a potholder to take out my plate. “Stupid delicious-looking breakfast,” I grumbled, and Kismet looked up at me and cocked her head. “Seriously, look at it.”

She didn’t seem overly impressed since she went back to grooming herself. I added my cream and honey to my coffee and ate the food. And, of course, it tasted as good as it looked.

Normally, I would’ve done my morning meditations, but I didn’t want to today. It would make me feel better, but the problem was I didn’t want to feel better yet. I wanted to wallow in my misery for a little while, so I skipped my morning routine and got ready for work.

The shop didn’t open for a couple of hours, but I’d been ignoring some of my least favorite tasks since the fire, so this morning would be a good time to get them done, and work would be a good place for me to put all this nervous energy.

By the time Ziva showed up, I’d restocked all the incense, candles, and resins. I’d also taken all the crystal pyramids and spheres off their shelves, dusted everything, and put them all back. I was in the middle of rearranging the shelves in the front room to make them look more inviting to customers.

“Wow, someone’s been very productive today.” Ziva tossed her purse under the front counter, put her hands on her hips, and looked around.

“Yeah, I was pretty far behind on a lot of stuff since the fire.”

“Well, you’ve had a lot going on,” she said with a shrug. Which was nice of her because we both knew I was always running behind. The fire was just a good excuse.

“Yeah, but with Samhain coming up, I really need to make sure everything’s ready. But for now, it’s time to open. Will you flip the switch on the open sign, and I’ll unlock the door.”

We were fairly busy that morning, which was a good thing because that meant I had less time to think about what a mess I’d made out of everything. During lunch, Ziva ran and picked up Chinese take-out for us to eat, and I grabbed my laptop so I could look and see what rental properties I could find.

I’d found two that were possibilities, but I wasn’t crazy about the location of either one. They were both on the south side of town, which was a bit more of a drive than I was used to.

“Any luck?” she asked when she came back in.

I shrugged. “A couple on the south side but nothing close to the shop, but right now, I’m more focused on lunch. That smells fantastic.”

“I know. I had to smell it all the way from Sunset Chinese to here.”

She dug around in the bag and handed me a container. “One order of Moo Shu Pork for you, and here are your spring rolls.”

“Perfect, thank you, Ziva.”

“You’re welcome. Now let me see the houses you’ve found.”

We spent the next half hour eating and flipping through property management listings. The chime on the door let us know we had a customer about the time we were finishing up.

“I’m in the tea room,” I called out. “If I can help you, just let me know.”

“I’ll take the trash.” Ziva stood and started cleaning up our mess.

“It’s just me,” Mika said, coming around the corner. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your lunch.”

“Don’t worry about it. We were all finished.”

“I’m off work today, so I thought I would come by and see what you’ve been up to.”

“Not much, just trying to replace all my stuff. Today, I’m looking at rental houses to see if I can find a place.”

“Oh cool, any luck?”

“Maybe. This one doesn’t look too bad.” I turned the computer around to show him a little bungalow-style house. “It doesn’t have a fenced yard, which I prefer, but it’s just me and Kismet so that isn’t a deal breaker.”

“I’m dreading doing this when my lease is up after the first of the year.”

“Oh, are you planning on getting a different place?”

“I am. The roommate thing is getting old.”

“So far, this one’s the one I’m leaning towards.”

“It’s not too bad. No garage or carport, though. We should take a drive by after you get off and see it in person.”

“Why don’t you two go now?” Ziva said. “I’ve got this covered.”

“Do you want to?” I asked.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Mika said with a grin. “We can take my car since it’s parked out front.”

“Okay, let’s go. Do you know where Ware Road is?”

“I don’t, but I’m good at following directions.”

We got in his car, and I pointed to the left. “Head that direction until you get to Twenty-seventh Street, then make a right.”

“Hopefully, this place will work out, but at least you have a place to stay so you don’t have to rush it if this one doesn’t work.”

“I kissed Samuel,” I blurted out.

“Woah, you kissed the sexy silver fox?”

“I did.” I sighed, and my shoulders sagged. “You can’t tell anyone about this, okay?”

He made a criss-cross on his chest and then mimicked zipping his mouth shut and locking it.

“Now tell me everything.”

“I don’t know. There isn’t really much to tell. He had a rough day, so I gave him a shoulder massage, and then we kind of had a moment. We kissed, and then he left. Then he was gone when I woke up this morning.”

He cringed. “Yikes. So what do you think happened? Gay freakout?”

“I guess. I mean, I don’t know. But he’s been so nice, and I shouldn’t have done that.”

“You had a moment. What does that mean exactly?”

“I don’t know. I was standing behind the chair, and he grabbed my wrist or maybe my hand, I don’t remember. Anyway, he pulled me around to the front of the chair, and I just crawled right up on his lap like I had a right to be there.”

“But he didn’t push you off?”

“Not until after the kiss.”

“Okay, so you were on his lap, and then you, what? Just kissed him?”

I thought about that for a second. “Or maybe he kissed me. I’m not sure who kissed who, to be honest, but what I can tell you is it was the hottest kiss of my whole life. And then he said he was sorry and left.”

“He said he was sorry for kissing you?”

“Yeah, I don’t know. He said something about me being too young and being a guest in his house.”

“Ah, so he was trying to be honorable.”

“Maybe, but I wasn’t wanting honorable in that moment. I wanted another kiss, ‘cause, damn, it was even better than I’d ever imagined.”

“So what are you going to do?” he asked.

“This”—I motioned to the road ahead—“I’m going to find a place of my own before things get too awkward.” He put his blinker on and turned on 27th Street. “It should be just a couple blocks up, and you’ll make a right.”

“I don’t know, Mars, the neighborhood’s a little sketchy.”

“Yeah, I’m not really familiar with this area, but it does seem a little iffy. Maybe it’ll get better when we turn on Ware.” I tried to sound hopeful, but it wasn’t looking good at all. Sure enough, things got worse instead of better after we made that turn.

Most of the houses had peeling paint, and the yards were unkept. The little house for rent wasn’t in horrible shape, but the one beside it had a car up on blocks and a collection of old lawnmowers sitting around the yard.

“So you want to stop and peek through the windows?” Mika asked.

The house was obviously vacant, but I shook my head. “I think I’ll keep looking.”

Samuel

I’d planned on talking to Mars at breakfast. I felt bad about leaving like that the night before, but I was holding on to my control by a thread, and I needed a little time to get my shit together. Unfortunately, the call I got from Ford changed those plans, so I had to settle for leaving Mars a note.

I wasn’t sure if Fox had slept since the fire at the Majestic, but he’d called me early this morning because he’d found something he wanted me to see. They’d cleared what was left of the building so he’d been able to get in and dig around.

He was waiting out front for me when I pulled up, and he jogged over to my truck to meet me. “Morning, Chief.”

“Morning, Fox. You found something?”

“I did. I don’t know if it’ll be the break we need, but it’s something.”

“Something’s better than what we have so far. Why don’t you show me?”

We started inside while Fox explained what we were about to see. “So we knew what fuel he was using, but up till now, the incendiary devices have been destroyed in the fires. So we weren’t sure exactly how he was starting them.”

“Right.”

“Look out,” he said, shining a light on a piece of debris hanging from the ceiling, and I ducked under it. “But this time, he used more than one device to make sure the whole place went up. Turns out, he’s using the old cigarette and matchbook trick where you put a cigarette in a matchbook and light it. Then you can just walk away. The cigarette burns down and until it lights the matches. It’s simple, but it works. Or at least it does most of the time.”

“I thought cigarettes now were designed to burn out if left unattended,” I said.

“They are unless you roll them yourself.” He grinned at me. “And our guy does, as you’ll see.”

I followed him down the stairs to the basement where the concession counter was located. Unlike the rest of the theater, this area was largely still intact.

“I’m surprised this area wasn’t where everything started.”

“I had the same thought, which is why I was digging around down here, and look what I found.” He pointed his light towards the corner behind the counter.

“Wow.” In order to keep with the look of the old theater, the wall of the concession area was covered with a heavy stage curtain, and right at the edge of the curtain was a pile of rags with what looked like a homemade pinecone fire-starter sitting on top.

“Looks like the cigarette didn’t burn down far enough to ignite this one. But here’s the main thing.” He bent down and used a pair of tweezers to pick up the intact matchbook that was nestled into the scales of the pinecone.

He turned it over so I could see the familiar logo of a Dalmatian wearing a fire hat. “The Spotted Dog.” I sighed. Dammit . That was the most popular bar in town for first responders to hang out.

“The Spotted Dog,” he said in a resigned tone.

“This doesn’t mean the arsonist is a firefighter.”

“It doesn’t, but it’s something we need to consider.”

I looked back at the pile of rags and shook my head. “I don’t know what I expected, but something more sophisticated than this.”

“It’s simple, but it’s effective. He can soak the rags in just about any accelerant he chooses, and they’re easy to place under extremely flammable things like these curtains.”

“This was a good find, Fox. I hope it helps.”

“Me too. I’m going to bag this up and take it to the lab.”

“Sounds good. I think I’ll stop at Sugar Rush Sweets and grab some donuts for today’s crew.”

“Donuts are always a morale booster,” Fox said with a grin. “Just save me one with sprinkles.”

I tried to stay busy the rest of the day, but working on the schedule and reading reports wasn’t enough of a distraction to keep me from thinking about that damned kiss or the fact that I left without talking to Mars about it.

I swear I could still feel his body pressed against mine, and damn if he hadn’t fit there perfectly. Which didn’t mean he was right for me. I didn’t even know if he was a boy or if he knew I was a Daddy. Not to mention the fact that he was literally young enough to be my son.

Speaking of my son, a notification pinged on my phone, and I flipped it over to see that I had a text from Steven.

Steven: Hey Dad. Me: What’s up? Steven: Nothing much. Just thought I’d see how things were going.

I really hoped that Mars hadn’t called him about the kiss. Not that I cared if Steven knew. I just didn’t want him to find out I was bisexual second-hand. I took a deep breath. I also didn’t want Mars to think he had to keep secrets from his best friend, which meant there was only one thing for me to do.

Me: Do you have time to take a break and meet me for coffee? Steven: Yeah, I can meet you at the coffee shop down the block. Is everything okay? Me: Everything’s fine. I’ll meet you there in twenty.