by Susan Stoker
The hair on her arms stood up again as the goosebumps worked their way from her neck to her wrist. Sophie shook her head in bemusement. This wasn’t what she’d expected when she took her lunch hour to come speak with Chief.
First Beth and her agoraphobia. Then Chief asking her out, and lastly his friends laughing and joking with her. She knew they’d heard what Chief had said about her purposely targeting the poor, and hadn’t been impressed, but his next words had not only reassured her, but them too. Her head was spinning and it felt as if she was in another dimension. This kind of thing didn’t happen to her. Men she had crushes on didn’t suddenly seem to return those feelings.
Chief opened the door and towed her through. Looking around the parking lot and seeing her car, he headed for it.
“The door to the s-station was unlocked. Isn’t that dangerous?”
“Fire stations are safe places…we leave the door open in case someone decides to drop a baby off, or a woman needs somewhere to go to get away from an abuser. Everything valuable is locked up, the TV is bolted to the wall, and we have cameras. If someone does get in there and decides to be an asshole, we’ll catch them. Now, if they want to take food? They’re welcome to it; they probably need it more than we do if they’re willing to steal it from a fire station.”
Oh. That was nice, and something Sophie hadn’t thought about. “That’s nice,” she commented. Then asked as he stopped next to her driver’s side door, “How did you know what kind of car I drive?”
“Soph, I live next door to you.”
“But you’re never home. I don’t s-see you that often.”
He smiled, and Sophie wanted to smack herself in the forehead because she pretty much just admitted she was sorta stalking him.
“I might not be home a lot, but when I am, I’m observant. I know that you probably need to get your car serviced because your muffler is super loud. I know that old Mr. Collins across the street watches you from his upstairs window when you’re outside, say…washing your car. The lady who lives two doors down from Mr. Collins is most likely having an affair, as she gets home way late every night.”
“That doesn’t m-mean s-she’s having an affair,” Sophie protested, not wanting to think about creepy Mr. Collins checking her out when she was outside doing yard work or washing her car. Gross.
“Fair enough. But when her husband was gone for a trip, I saw her go inside her house with a man who definitely wasn’t her husband. And before you say that doesn’t necessarily mean she’s having an affair, he stayed the entire night—and they made out in her doorway before he left the next morning.”
“Oh.”
“Right. Oh,” Chief said, smiling. “Besides, you don’t seem like a pickup truck kinda girl.”
Sophie looked around the parking lot, realizing that most of the vehicles there were trucks. “I’m not,” she said, wrinkling her nose.
Chief chuckled. “Can I have your number?”
“My number?”
“Yeah, Soph. Your phone number. Can I have it so I can call or text and arrange for our lunch?”
“Oh, yeah.” She rattled off her number while Chief punched it into his phone. She felt her cell vibrate in her back pocket.
“I went ahead and sent you a text so you’d have mine too,” Chief told her. Then he pocketed his phone and put his hands on her hips and pulled her into him.
Sophie stumbled, not expecting it, and put her hands on Chief’s chest to get her balance. He was rock solid under her palms, and she fought to control the girly squeal that wanted to make its way up her throat and out her mouth. She was in Chief’s arms. No way would Autumn and the others believe it. She hardly believed it.
“I’m sorry about assuming,” he said quietly. “I was an asshole. I let my personal experiences color my thinking. I’m proud to be Native American, and Navajo, but my childhood years growing up on the reservation affected me…and not necessarily in all good ways. I can’t promise I won’t be an asshole in the future, because I’m human, but if I am, don’t be afraid to call me on it, like you did this time. But now that I know you better, I doubt it’ll happen again, not like it went down in the bar.”
“You know m-me better?” Sophie questioned. He might think he did, but she still didn’t know much about him.
“Yeah, Soph. All it took was spending a little time around the people you call friends. Even those you don’t call friends are impressed with you and genuinely like you, except for one doctor I met, but he doesn’t seem to like anyone, so I can’t hold that against you. So yeah, I know you better than I did when I eavesdropped on your conversation in the bar and assumed shit I shouldn’t have.”
“For s-someone who your friends s-say doesn’t talk a lot, you s-sure are now,” Sophie observed.
Chief’s smile grew. “Maybe I just don’t have anything to say to them.”
“But you do to m-me?”
“Oh yeah. There are a lot of things I want to say to you, Soph.”
They stared at each other for a long moment before Chief leaned toward her and brushed his lips against her cheek, leaving them there for a beat longer than he did when he’d greeted her earlier.
“Drive safe,” he told her as he stepped back and opened her car door.
Sophie could only nod as she climbed into her Kia and fumbled for her seat belt.
Chief was there to hand it to her and waited until she’d clicked it shut before saying, “See you at home.”
She stared up at him. “At home?” It sounded extremely intimate, but she wasn’t sure what in the world he was talking about.
“Yeah. Our neighborhood. Our houses. Home.”
“Oh…yeah…home, right,” Sophie breathed.
Using one finger to tap her nose, Chief smiled, then shut her car door. He gave her a chin lift as she waved awkwardly at him.
She drove away from Station 7 with the feeling that something had just changed in her life, but not truly understanding what.
Chapter 5
“You’re freaking out,” Tory told Sophie a week later, something she was well aware of.
“I know! I can’t help it!” she moaned, putting her head between her knees in the uncomfortable wooden chair.
Quinn and Autumn laughed, while Tory tried to reassure her. “I have no idea what you’re even freaking out about. I mean, this is the man you’ve had a girlie hard-on for ever since he moved in next door. Now that he’s asked you out, you’re acting like you have to go stand before a firing squad.”
“Tor,” Quinn said softly, “if Chris Hemsworth showed up in our lab today and asked you to go to dinner with him, what would you feel?”
“Excited, horny, pumped,” the other woman said immediately. Then reluctantly admitted, “And freaked out.”
“Right,” Quinn agreed. “Sophie, just go with the flow. From what you told us, he seems to be into you. He apologized for being a jerk and talked to people at the hospital who all said good things about you. What are you worried about?”
Sophie didn’t lift her head. She stayed huddled over and mumbled into her knees, “I’ve never gone out with a guy as good looking as him. I’ve never wanted a guy to like m-me as m-much as I want him to. I’m twenty-eight and don’t have the first clue how to m-make m-myself m-more interesting. I’m just m-me. I s-stutter. I need to lose ten…or m-more…pounds; I have a s-stupid s-staff m-meeting before lunch and I’m afraid after we eat, he’s gonna s-say he likes m-me as a friend and wants m-me to continue to cut his grass.”
Quinn kneeled in front of Sophie and put her hands on her friend’s knees. “Look at me,” she ordered, waiting until Sophie did just that before continuing. “You’re beautiful. You have hair that people would die for. You’re not overweight, you’re curvy, that’s completely different. You don’t have to make yourself more interesting…you’re already the most interesting person I’ve ever met. It’s not like he doesn’t know you stutter, and if the man went to the trouble to ask you to lunch, he’s not going to
say he only wants to be friends. And if he asks you to continue to mow his grass, tell him to fuck off and get the hell out of there.”
All four women laughed, breaking the tension.
“I’m nervous, Quinn,” Sophie said softly.
“I know, but I don’t think you have a reason to be. It’s not like you have a huge-ass birthmark on your face like I do. He asked you out. You got this.”
“Your birthmark is beautiful,” Sophie insisted.
Quinn shook her head. “It’s not, but this isn’t about me. It’s about you.”
“But—”
“No buts,” she said firmly. “What’s on the agenda for the staff meeting today?” she asked changing the subject.
Sophie took a deep breath. “The normal s-stuff. But I think Dr. Kingsley wants to talk about the abandoned building.”
“Of course he does, the asshole,” Autumn muttered. “Why doesn’t he keep his nose out of it?”
“Because his parents are huge s-supporters of the hospital, and one of the nurses s-said if the city knocks it down, they’ll donate m-millions of dollars to build a new wing onto the hospital. Oh, and they want to name it after their precious s-son…The S-Shane Kingsley Wing.”
“Wow, yeah, makes it tough to not put pressure on the city,” Autumn said. “But really? Naming it after that asshole? Ugh.”
“I think that’s why the board has been resisting,” Sophie told her friends. “They know Kingsley isn’t that great of a doctor. He hasn’t done anything bad enough that they can fire him, but they don’t want to be pressured into naming part of the hospital after him either.”
“Wow. Someone just needs to get some balls and say yes to the money, but no to having it named after that ass,” Tory said belligerently.
As Autumn and Tory started a heated discussion about the merits, or lack thereof, of Doctor Shane Kingsley, Quinn leaned into Sophie and asked, “You better now?”
She nodded. “Thanks for talking m-me off the ledge.”
“Anytime. You’d do it for me.”
“Hell yeah. Any day of the week and twice on S-Sunday.”
The two women smiled at each other. Sophie took a deep breath and stood. “Time for m-me to head into the lion’s den.”
“Come back here right after lunch and let us know all about what happened with Mr. Hot-Ass Neighbor,” Tory insisted.
“Of course I will,” Sophie said. “It’s not like I’m gonna take the rest of the day off. I do have work to get done you know.”
“Yeah, but you could choose to visit people over at the hospital. Throw us poor lab rats a bone and let us live vicariously through you,” Quinn teased.
“Poor lab rats m-my ass,” Sophie mumbled as she headed for the door.
Turning one last time to her friends, she asked, “Do I look okay?”
“You look great,” Autumn reassured her. “Now go get your neighbor.”
Sophie smiled, nodded, and walked out of the lab.
* * *
Chief knocked on Diontray’s door and waited. When there was no response, he cautiously pushed it open. It was empty except for the boy lying on the bed. His eyes were open and he was staring at the ceiling.
“Hey, can I come in?” Chief asked.
The boy didn’t answer or even turn his head to see who was speaking.
Chief didn’t know where Mrs. Washington was, but decided maybe it was better he talked to the boy without her there. He wasn’t an expert in dealing with injured teenagers, but he’d told Sophie he’d give talking to Diontray a shot, so here he was.
He closed the door behind him and walked over to the chair next to the bed. He turned it around and straddled it, resting his arms on the back as he settled.
“My name is Chief. That’s not really my name, it’s a nickname, and it’s what most people call me. And yes, before you ask, I’m Native American, and no, I’m not offended by the nickname.” Chief shrugged. “Not much offends me, so if you want to tell me to fuck off, feel free.”
He saw the boy’s eyes move toward him at that, but they quickly resumed looking at the ceiling.
Chief continued to talk. “I’m a firefighter. I work out of Station 7. It’s not too far from here, on the outskirts of the city. I do sometimes get called down here for emergencies though. The job is good, I like helping people. Funny coincidence…Sophie Carson is also my neighbor. You know her, right? She’s the one who got you into the program you’re in now.”
“Yeah, help-the-poor-black-people program,” Diontray spat, still looking at the ceiling.
Chief resisted the urge to grin. He’d gotten the boy to talk; even though it wasn’t nice, he’d at least spoken. “Yup. You’re right, that’s exactly what it is.” He waited for a reaction.
“You a do-gooder too?”
He laughed out loud at that. “Me? No. I grew up with people wanting to sign me and my people up for all sorts of medical trials. Pissed me off then, and still does now.”
“Then why are you here? You sound as if you like that bitch who humiliated me and my mom.”
Chief gritted his teeth and tried to remember that the boy in front of him was in pain, and didn’t truly understand what it was Sophie had done for him and his mom.
“I do like Sophie, you’re right. I like her a lot, but that’s not why I’m here. You’re upset, and I can’t blame you, but let me tell you exactly what it is ‘that bitch’ has done for you.”
Without giving Diontray a chance to interrupt or tell him that he didn’t want to know, Chief laid it out. He told him how all the hospital bills, and approximately what they added up to, were paid for by the Burn Center lab. What the spray he had to endure several times each day was doing for his skin, and how, when he was ready, his skin graft surgery would also be completely paid for.
He finished by saying, “I get it, Diontray. You’re pissed you’re here. You’re in pain. You’re upset that your mom has to take off work to sit by your side. You’re probably pissed at your buddies who were there when this happened to you. And you’re allowed to feel all those things. But the one person you should not be pissed at is Sophie. She’s been here since the first day you were brought in, bringing your mom coffee and taking care of her. Making sure she showers and eats. She fought for you to be allowed into the program so you could heal faster, and with less pain than without the medical trials.”
“You ever been burnt?” Diontray asked, turning his head to look at Chief for the first time.
“No. Not like you were.”
“She said she has.”
Chief’s eyes widened. Granted, he didn’t know Sophie that well, but he hadn’t expected that.
“She told me about the treatment she had to go through. I thought she was probably exaggerating because I can’t imagine anything more painful than what I’m going through,” the boy said.
“I’m sorry this happened to you,” Chief said softly. And he was. He lived his life around fire, his career was based on fighting it. He’d seen people who had been burned, but hadn’t ever had more than a slight second-degree burn himself. He was lucky, especially considering his job.
“It shouldn’t’ve happened,” Diontray said, turning to look at the ceiling again.
“What? You getting burned?” Chief asked.
Diontray nodded. “We were foolin’ around in a deserted house in my neighborhood. Jamal brought the can of gas and Kevin had the matches. I told them to stop, but they thought it was funny to soak rags in the gasoline and light them on fire. They were throwing them at each other and I told them to quit. Jamal called me a baby and threw one at me. I guess I’d spilled some gas on my shirt earlier and all I can remember is this big whoosh.” He took a deep breath, then said, “And the pain. I dropped to the ground and started rolling around. Jamal and Kevin took off. Not to get help, but to disappear so they didn’t get in trouble.”
Chief took a chance and put his hand on Diontray’s arm in support. When he didn’t pull it away, he felt as if it was a
small victory.
“The fire went out, but when I looked down I could tell my shirt had melted into my skin. I crawled out of the house on my hands and knees and had to go to three houses before I found someone who would open the door.”
“You’re one tough kid,” Chief said.
“I’m not tough,” Diontray denied. “I was crying like a baby the whole time.”
“I don’t blame you. But Diontray, you could’ve just lain there on the ground and done nothing. You didn’t. You got yourself help. I’ve seen grown men who have died in fires because they panicked. They knelt in a corner or hid under a bed instead of looking for a way out and the fire just consumed them. I’ve also seen men and women scream with the pain of a second-degree burn. They had to be sedated. Cut yourself some slack, bud.”
The teenager turned to face Chief again. “Really?”
“Really.”
“You sleepin’ with her?”
“Sophie?”
“Yeah.”
“No.”
Diontray’s widened. “Why not? ’Cause she’s got scars?”
Chief held the boy’s gaze. “No. Because I was an ass and assumed she was just what you accused her of being…to her face.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah. Ouch. But I was wrong, and I told her so. I want to go out with her. I want her to tell me all about her experience with being burned and how she got into doing the job she does. I want to know what she likes to eat and how she takes her coffee. I want to meet her friends and learn about her family. I want to know everything about her.”
“You need to know all that in order to sleep with her?” Diontray asked.
Chief immediately shook his head. “Honestly? No. A lot of women will sleep with men just because. Maybe they have low self-esteem and think that sleeping with a man will give them a boost. Or maybe they want something from him, money or security. Hell, maybe they just like the way it feels. But I want to know all those things about Sophie because I like her. I want to know a woman’s heart and soul before I know her body.”
“Is that some Indian shit?”