Page 71 of Call You Mine
And something worse than guilt settles deep in my bones.
Something much more dangerous and so much more terrifying.
Hope.
Because if this is fake—why does it feel so real?
CHAPTER 22
ANDERSON
It’s beenthree weeks of living under the same roof as Ava and Georgie.
And I think the only time the three of us have been home at the same time is when we’re all sleeping.
Between Georgie being at school for most of the day—followed by either soccer practice, piano lessons, or hanging out with her friends—and Ava working a good sixty hours a week at Hey Honey’s between barista shifts or her managerial stuff, I’ve barely seen either of them during any of my forty-eight hours off.
There are reminders of them, the only details that have me remembering that they’re here.
And everything has a place—an order Ava keeps. One I’m trying to learn as quickly as I can.
When I’m home, I always see Georgie’s lunch packed in a brown paper bag on a shelf in the refrigerator when I check for a midnight snack. Every morning, I find Ava’s toothbrush sitting in the glass next to the sink in the bathroom we share—right next to mine. Their shoes by the front door, their coats hanging over the chairs in my kitchen. A note from the two ofthem on the counter when I wake up, telling me what time they’ll be home.
Traces of them are everywhere.
And when I find these traces, I get this weird sense of conflict—I find myself almost giddy at the thought of the two of them under my roof, but somehow I miss them at the same time.
There’s also been a handful of home visits and court hearings for the adoption, but I haven’t been able to attend any of them due to work. We were worried it would hurt our case, but all the updates Ava has given me have been good.
It sounds like things are moving the way they’re supposed to.
We just need that marriage certificate.
“And don’t forget,” Jack’s voice cuts through my thoughts. Our shift is finishing up, and he’s filling in for our crew’s captain for the next few weeks since he’s out on leave. The incoming crew is about to start their shift this morning at eight o’clock. “The construction and road closures getting on to I-94 eastbound are starting today. Exits from 35th Street to 25th Street are closed most likely until this fall.”
Members of the incoming crew nod their heads, listening to the Lead Firefighter as he continues with today’s briefing report, discussing how our crew’s last twenty-four hours went. He hands things off to the captain, Raven Summers, who’s leading the crew for the next shift.
As she replaces Jack at the front, the rest of the crew and I, finishing up for the day, make our exits.
I’m walking out with Jack, physically taxed, mentally exhausted, and still feeling the adrenaline from one of our early morning calls coming down, when I hear my name from the chief’s office.
“Sonny!” His arms crossed as he leans against the door frame of his office. Damn, I hate that the nickname has stuck—and made its way to the chief. “Got a second?”
Jack gives me a curt nod in goodbye, and I give him one in return before heading toward Chief Sanders. While I’ve known my Uncle Artie—his solid, square jaw, his deep-set eyes, his neatly combed salt-and-pepper hair—since I was a kid, when we’re at the station, he’s my boss.
That’s it.
“So,” the chief starts, closing the door to his office behind him. “How are you?”
“Good,” I answer, but it sounds more like a question. I sit down in the chair across from his desk, stifling a yawn. “How are you?”
He doesn’t answer my question. Instead, he jumps right into what he wants to talk about, and I appreciate the way he doesn’t beat around the bush. “How’s that girlfriend of yours?”
I lift a brow, confused by his question as he rounds his desk and takes a seat.
Does he know? That my relationship with Ava is fake?
Uncle Artie has been the only father figure I’ve had since my dad passed. He lived two hours away, so he couldn’t always be there, but he visited whenever he could to check on me, my brothers, and his sister. He was always busy, working his way up through the ranks at the station, until he became the chief he is today.
