Chapter 5

Liam shuffled his feet on the porch of a classic Rhode Island-style house with blue shutters and a stone-end chimney, marveling at the difference between small town and big city life. If he'd mentioned to a hotel proprietor in Boston that he wanted to visit an old friend, they'd have given him a look that said, So what?

Monica Watson, however, had given him Dominic's address.

"Tell them I say hi!" she'd told him as she waved him off happily.

As he stood there, however, Liam wondered if he should have asked for Dominic's phone number, instead. Was it weird, showing up like this? Or was it some small-town quirk that was accepted here?

Either way, it was too late now. If he spent much longer lurking on the porch without knocking, it would definitely become weird. He drew in a deep breath and raised his fist to knock on the door.

Instantly, there was an avalanche of sound from inside.

"We'll get it!" A childish voice called out, seconds before the door opened to reveal two small children and a dog.

"Oh," Liam said. "Hello." He blinked. Didn't Dominic only have one child? And yes… as he looked closer, the girl did look like she could be Dominic's daughter, Adeline, although it had been several years since he'd seen her and kids just grew so darn fast.

The kids looked at him expectantly and Liam realized that he absolutely, one hundred percent, was being as awkward as he'd feared. "Is your dad—uh, Dominic Reeves here? I'm a friend. Liam. My name is Liam."

"Daddy!" the little girl yelled over her shoulder. "Some man is here!"

Liam winced inwardly. Well, that was the precise vibe he had hoped not to convey.

A few seconds later, the familiar face of his old friend Dominic appeared in the hallway behind the children.

"Addie, what did we say about using our polite words? Oh, Liam! Hey, what are you doing here?" Dominic's face broke into a wide grin and Liam felt a rush of relief course over him.

"Hey, man," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "I hope I'm not imposing, showing up like this."

"Oh, no way! Come in, come in," Dominic urged. "It's freezing out here. Addie, Lucas, can you and Milo back away from the door, please?"

The kids, who were watching this interaction with great interest, tugged the dog back gently. Liam entered and Dominic shut the door behind him, cutting off the gust of freezing air.

"Who is it?" came a woman's voice from inside the house. A few seconds later, a very pretty, dark haired woman with sun kissed golden skin entered the entryway, a kitchen towel slung over one shoulder.

"Okay, okay," Dominic said with a laugh, flapping his hands at this growing crowd. "Let's move somewhere where we have some breathing room, huh?"

Liam could already feel the happiness coming off his old friend in waves, and he felt a brief pang of jealousy that was quickly followed by shame. He wanted his friend to be happy, of course, and he knew Dominic had faced his own struggles when he'd lost his wife, Susannah, to a tragic accident. But Liam couldn't help but wish that he had some of the man's obvious peace for himself too.

He followed the assembled crew into an open living room, which was decorated in a clean, elegant fashion but still dotted with signs of life, including a facedown paperback, a scattering of kids' toys, and a dog bed.

"Liam," Dominic said. "This is my girlfriend, Charity, and her son, Lucas. And you know Addie, of course," he added, ruffling the little girl's dark curls while she pretended to be annoyed. "Everyone, this is my friend Liam from Boston. He's a firefighter."

Liam fought another wince.

"Cool!" The little boy, Lucas, bounced on his toes. Liam had faced this attitude before, since it seemed like almost all little kids thought firefighting was cool, but given his current complicated relationship to his job, the child's enthusiasm felt impossible to match. "Do you save cats from trees?"

Okay… Liam did crack a smile at that one. "Once or twice," he said. "But cats are actually pretty good at getting themselves down from high places. I did once rescue a dog who had fallen into a big hole, though."

Addie threw her arms around the dog's neck with a scandalized gasp. "Don't worry, Milo," she whispered none too softly into its ear while the puppy preened under the attention. "We'd never let you fall into a hole."

Charity laughed and exchanged a fond glance with Dominic as if to say, kids, huh? Then she extended her hand for Liam to shake. He flashed, for a quick moment, back to the woman he'd saved from falling in the parking lot, but made himself focus on the present. He wanted to make a good impression.

"Nice to meet you, Liam," she said. "I'm Charity. Do you want to join us for dinner? Dominic made a lasagna."

"Oh, no," he protested instinctively. "I couldn't impose."

"Don't be ridiculous," Dominic said, clapping a hand on Liam's shoulder. "Unless you have other plans?"

"I don't," he admitted.

"Then it's settled," Charity said. "Kids, can you come help me set another place for Mr. Liam?" The children skipped off to the kitchen, followed by four scrambling puppy paws. "I think we'll be ready in about ten, fifteen minutes," she said, before shooting Dominic another affectionate look and leaving the two men alone.

"Sorry about the fanfare," Dominic said with a laugh, leading Liam over to where an armchair sat across from one end of the couch. Liam took the chair. "It's always a bit chaotic over here in the evenings." He said this with the tone of a man who loved every minute of this chaos.

"No way you're apologizing," Liam said. "Not for that. They all seem really great, although I can't believe how big Addie is getting! Are we getting old?"

Dominic wiped a hand over his face. "You're telling me, man. She grows an inch like every other day, I swear. I can hardly believe that she used to be that tiny baby who was only as long as my arm. And now it's been long enough that I can see the same sorts of changes in Lucas too. Makes me feel ancient."

"I hear that only gets worse when they're teenagers," Liam joked. "So enjoy that. Does this mean that things are serious between you and Charity, then?" He lowered his voice for this question, so that nobody else could overhear.

But Dominic just beamed. "Absolutely. She's amazing and so is Lucas. They actually live next door, although if I have anything to say about it, we won't be in separate houses for too much longer." He shrugged. "We're making sure we don't rush the kids, since it is a lot of change, especially since Addie and I already had a big change this year with the move. But they're acclimating well to the changing relationship between me and Charity and they already act like brother and sister. For my part, I'm totally, completely set. When you know, you know, right?"

"That's amazing, man," Liam said. "I'm so happy for you. You guys seem like a wonderful little family. Although, seriously, I'm sorry for just showing up like this," Liam reiterated. "I'm staying over at Literary Stays, and Monica Watson gave me your address."

"Oh, you're staying at Monica's place? She's one of Charity's best friends. But don't apologize; I'm glad you came over. I'm actually sort of used to people just popping by at this point… it must mean I'm fully ‘small town-ified,'" he joked. "I'm not sure anybody ever thought I'd get to this point, especially not Charity. We might have butted heads a few times when I first arrived." His smile grew absent as he reminisced. Then his expression grew thoughtful. "Speaking of, what are you doing in Whale Harbor?"

Liam grimaced. He'd known there was no way getting around this conversation with Dominic, but he still wasn't looking forward to it. At the last minute, he decided to remain vague. "I'm taking a short leave of absence from the FD, actually," he said. "I was looking for a place to get out of town, and when I saw Monica's BB on a list, I recognized the town name because of you, actually." He shrugged. "It seemed as good a place as any to take a break."

Dominic's brow was furrowed in concern. "It's a great place for that," he said slowly. "But is everything okay? It doesn't seem like you to want to take a break out of nowhere."

"It's… been sort of hard," Liam admitted. "It's…" He trailed off, not sure how to put it. Dominic waited patiently for him to speak. "There was a call one night that was really rough," he said finally, still not wanting to get into the details. "I'm having a hard time shaking it off. I'm hoping some time away will get me into a better headspace."

Dominic nodded slowly as he considered this. "Yeah, okay, I can see that," he said. "But I also want to remind you that I know you, and I know how firefighters can be. You're all pretty hard on yourselves and that's mostly a good thing. It saves lives, both yours and the lives of the people you serve. But sometimes you can also take on too much. You're not superhuman. So even if something bad did happen, I can't believe that it's because you did something bad."

Liam shrugged. He'd heard all this before. Rationally speaking, he even knew it was all true.

He wasn't really sure why the house fire that plagued him had shaken him up so badly. Nobody had died, thank goodness, and it wasn't as though Liam had never made a mistake on the job before. It was impossible to be perfect in a high-stress job like firefighting, where circumstances could change in an instant and first responders had to react just as quickly.

But making a single wrong decision, making one error in judgment could prove dangerous, even deadly.

Dominic was looking at him, the worried expression still on his face.

"You're right," Liam said. "I know you're right. I think I just need some time to really accept that, you know?"

"I get it," Dominic said. "Emotions are difficult things. After Addie and I lost Susannah, I had all kinds of feelings that were tangled up. Taking space is a good way to get those knots unraveled."

"And I think this town might be a good place to get that space," Liam offered. "I'd heard good things from you, of course, but now that I'm here myself, I like it. I think the quiet is good for me; the hustle and bustle of Boston wasn't exactly helping me relax."

Dominic chuckled in commiseration. "Hey, you don't have to tell me. Looking for a quieter life is why Addie and I headed out here in the first place. And look at us now!"

Liam raised an eyebrow. "Okay, okay, slow down there, buddy. I'm not looking to start my life over or find some great new romance. I'm just going to find a part-time job doing something normal and not too stressful until I get my thoughts straight, then I'll head back home."

Dominic held up both hands in an innocent gesture. "I hear you. But you might want to remember that Whale Harbor loves a new arrival, and they love to matchmake."

"Not here for romance," Liam repeated, although once again, his mind's eye flickered to the woman in the parking lot.

Dominic pretended to lock his lips and throw away the key.

"You've been spending too much time with little kids," Liam told him dryly, and they both laughed.

"In any case," Dominic said, "I'm always here if you need to talk. And I'll keep an ear to the ground to see if anyone is hiring and ask Charity to do the same. She owns the local coffee shop, so she hears a lot of what's going on around here. In the meantime, you might want to ask Monica to connect you with her husband, Braden. He's a local contractor who also does some work at his late father's fishing business, so he might have something that he needs help with."

"That's a good tip," Liam said, although he thought back to his conversation with Monica about freezing early mornings on the water and privately hoped that Braden needed help with his work on land rather than out on the boat. "I'll ask her to introduce us."

"We'll find you something," Dominic promised. "Whale Harbor is that kind of place."

Just then, Charity stuck her head into the room.

"Dinner's ready!" she announced.

The two men stood.

"Come on," Dominic said, "come enjoy the circus that is dinner with this whole crew, huh?"