Page 41 of What We Brave
"Busy," I say. "Picked up extra shifts. Joined a book club that meets every other Thursday. Jamila and I have been doing sunrise yoga twice a week now on top of our regular Saturdays."
"Sunrise yoga." He winces. "That sounds painful."
"It's peaceful. The studio's mostly empty at six AM. Just me, Jamila, and this seventy-year-old woman named Gladys who can bend herself into shapes that defy human anatomy."
"Gladys sounds terrifying."
"She is. In the best way." I shift against the doorframe. "What about you?"
Reid leans back in his chair, and I notice the lines around his eyes. Deeper than they used to be. He looks better than he did in that fire station parking lot—healthier, more present—but the past few months have left their mark on him. You can see it if you know where to look.
"Working," he says. "A lot. Tony finally convinced me to stop picking up every available overtime shift, so now I'm down to a merely unreasonable number of hours instead of an actively insane one."
"Progress."
"Baby steps." He runs a hand through his hair. "Blake and I have been working on the house again. Insulated the garage last weekend. Started talking about maybe converting it into a proper workshop for him, something with better ventilation and actual insulation."
The mention of Blake lands in my chest like a stone dropped into still water. Ripples spreading outward, disturbing the surface.
"That sounds like a big project."
"It would be. Doubt It'll happen. He likes the workshop. But it gives us something to do together that isn't—" He stops, searching for the right word. "Isn't loaded. You know? We can argue about lumber dimensions and electrical codes without arguing about anything that actually matters."
I do know. Haven't I been doing the same thing, keeping busy with extra yoga classes, extra shifts and lots of unnecessary trips to the grocery store?
"Do you think you'll start back up at Pine St?" Reid asks, and the question catches me off guard.
"I…yes. I'm sure I will." I miss everyone there like crazy. And I'm kinda ticked off with myself for staying away so long. It was self preservation at the time. But now? I'd really like to get back to my life.
"I stayed away too," he says quietly. "After I—after I realized what I was doing. Following you, I mean. I stopped going to Pine Street because I figured you might go back eventually, and I didn't want to take that from you."
"So neither of us went."
"Neither of us went." He laughs, but there's no humor in it. "Danny probably thinks we both fell off the face of the earth."
"Margaret asked about me. Apparently." I cross my arms tighter against my chest. "Joyce ran into Danny at a community health fair last month. He mentioned that Margaret keeps asking when 'the nice nurse' is coming back."
"Margaret." Reid smiles, and this time it's genuine. "She still hoarding all the good blankets?"
"Probably. That woman has a system."
"She does." He shakes his head. "James asked about you too, through Danny. Said the new volunteers don't know how to take blood pressure without making it feel like an interrogation."
"That's not—" I start to protest, then stop. Because actually, that does sound like James. Gruff and particular and secretly softhearted beneath all his military stoicism. "Okay, that's probably accurate."
"Very accurate. Danny said James scared off two volunteers in one night last month. Something about them treating him like a 'charity case instead of a human being.'"
I can picture it perfectly. James in his worn army jacket, arms crossed, glaring at some well-meaning twenty-something who approached him with too much pity and not enough respect. James doesn't want your sympathy. He wants you to look him in the eye and treat him like a person who's been through some stuff and come out the other side still standing.
"He's not wrong," I say. "There's an art to it. Meeting people where they are without making them feel small."
"You had that art." Reid's voice is soft. "Have it, I mean. You still have it."
The compliment wraps around something tender in my chest.
"I was thinking about going back," I hear myself say. "To Pine Street. I've been thinking about it for a few weeks now."
Reid sits up straighter. "Yeah?"
