Page 5 of Penance (Rising From the Ashes #2)

Tanner is still crunching on his cereal and scrolling through his phone, ignoring my presence, which means I’ll have to pull out the big guns.

In a few minutes, I’ll head to bed while he heads out for his summer job.

It’s the first day of summer break, and with our schedules, we won’t see much of each other.

I would like to have one good conversation before that happens.

So, I go for the shock factor. The one thing I know will grab his attention.

“That’s good, son. My night was good, too. I filled out some paperwork, watched some television with the guys, and—oh yeah, responded to a fire at the community building and saved your principal out of a tree.”

“YOU WHAT?” The sound of his phone clattering against the counter makes me smirk, but I shove a bite of cereal into my mouth to hide it. “Dad, you can’t just say something like that and then not explain. Is Ms. Carson okay? What happened? Why didn’t you start with that?”

I chuckle, the sound coming from deep in my chest. Tanner’s frosty demeanor vanishes, and a little of my weariness slides away with each question he asks.

“If you’re really sure you want to know,” I say, dragging out each word, “I’ll tell you—”

“Of course, I want to know,” Tanner interrupts. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Well, you weren’t very talkative when I came in. I figured you were looking for some peace and quiet.”

I continue to eat my cereal, trying to keep this conversation on the right path, but that’s hard to do when it continuously feels like I’m walking on a tightrope.

Tanner ducks his head, the tips of his ears turning a brilliant red. “I was texting Bella.”

Bella is a girl at Tanner’s school. She was a freshman this last year while Tanner was a junior. They spent a lot of time together during the school year. Tanner claims they are just friends, but I have a feeling he sees her as more.

“Are you dating that girl yet?”

“Dad….” He says my name with a sharp clip. I’m always toeing the line of losing with Tanner, and I never know what will push me over the edge. I lift my hands, pleading innocence, and change the subject.

“Ms. Carson is fine. She’ll be a little sore, but she’s fine. But the community building—”

A sharp knock at the front door interrupts me. My jaw tightens, and I try not to let the flash of irritation running down my spine show. It never fails. Every time Tanner and I have a moment of connection, something interrupts it. Usually, it’s my ex-wife. She has a knack for ruining things.

“I’ll get it,” Tanner says, standing and putting his bowl in the sink. “It’s probably Coach. He said something about dropping off the summer workout plan today.”

My grip tightens around the spoon. Hayes Miller is the bane of my existence, but I’m also grateful to him for saving my son. So I put up with him for Tanner’s sake.

Tanner darts out of the kitchen, and I scarf down the rest of my cereal, suddenly more exhausted than I was. Keeping my back to the living room, I walk to the sink. I don’t have the energy to fake a smile with the man today.

I hear the front door open, and Hayes’s voice rumbles through the room. I take my time scrubbing out my bowl—to the point I’m surprised the thing doesn’t break in half.

“Dad?” When the door closes and Tanner calls my name, I sigh in relief. Hayes will always have my respect for what he’s done for Tanner, but there are only so many times a man can take having the fact that his son has a better relationship with someone else rubbed in his face.

“Yeah, kid?” I yell, drying my hands on the dish towel before hanging it to dry.

With the coast clear and the football coach gone, I spin around, resting my aching back against the counter, only to find Hayes Miller and his partner in crime, Campbell Richards, sitting at the bar, eating out of my cereal box.

“Coach wants to talk to you,” Tanner yells from somewhere deep in the house.

“Yeah, kid. I got that,” I yell back while simultaneously glaring at Hayes, but the man is unbothered by my glare. He hands the cereal box to Campbell, leans his chair back on two legs, and places his hands behind his head. I silently hope that he falls.

“Cool. I’m heading out.”

Without waiting for my goodbye, the garage door slams, and then he’s gone.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I deepen my scowl as I stare at the two men across from me. Now that Tanner is gone, there’s no need for pretenses.

“What can I do for you, gentleman?” I ask, kicking out my legs and crossing one ankle over the other.

“Well, I, for one, could use some milk to go with this cereal,” Campbell says with a mouth full of food. “My mouth is a little dry.”

I press my lips together, irritation thrumming beneath my skin.

Hayes reaches out, smacking his friend on the back of the head. “Focus, you idiot.”

Campbell rubs the back of his head and looks thoroughly admonished.

“We heard about last night. We wanted to check on you.”

I scoff. “You wanted to check on me, or you wanted to decipher gossip from truth?”

Campbell winces and leans in close to Hayes. “I told you he would be suspicious.”

“Shut up,” Hayes hisses.

“Okay,” I say, clapping my hands and standing tall. “It’s time for you two to go. I just got off shift. I’m tired, and frankly, I don’t want to deal with you.”

“Well, that’s kind of rude.”

“Yeah,” Campbell echoes Hayes. “What he said.”

Walking past them, I grab each of their shirts and drag them behind me. They are both wearing their police uniforms—another reason to dislike them.

Who chooses to be a policeman over a fireman?

“Wait,” Hayes protests, digging in his heels, but I don’t stop. “Is it true that you saved Lily from the burning building, jumping from the second-story and landing on your own two feet?”

“That’s not what I heard,” Campbell says, standing on his tiptoes to see over my head with his shirt still clenched in my fist. “I heard he swooped her up bridal style when she passed out and woke her with a kiss—like Sleeping Beauty, but with fire.”

I roll my eyes. It’s not even been twenty-four hours since it happened, and the rumors are already out of hand.

“You two have to stop getting coffee with those old geezers at the diner at the crack of dawn. You’re starting to turn into them.”

“Hey,” Campbell cries. “I’m not like those old men. I still have a head full of hair. Hayes, on the other hand—”

I see the punch coming before Campbell has time to move. It catches my chin and follows through to Campbell’s arm. The room goes deathly quiet as I let go of each of their shirts and jerk open the front door.

“Out,” I say, pointing outside.

Hayes shakes out his hand. “Dang, Theo. I knew you had a hard head, but I didn’t know it was that hard. That kind of hurt.”

Jutting out my chin, I work my jaw. “Serves you right. Now, goodbye.”

Campbell is the only one who listens, saluting me before walking through the door and hopping off the porch.

“That man is an overgrown child,” I grumble, and Hayes chuckles.

“Maybe. But he’s loyal.”

I turn to face him. “That goodbye was for you too, you know.”

Hayes shrugs. “I know. I was ignoring it.”

I’m trying. I really am, but I’m tired, and my patience is running thin. “You have until the count of three before I throw you out myself.”

“I’m going. I’m going,” Hayes says, lifting his hands. “But first, I need to talk to you about something.”

The look in Hayes’s eyes sends a sense of foreboding skittering over my skin. Whatever he wants, it can’t mean anything good for me.

“You have two minutes, so talk quickly. If you aren’t gone in two minutes, I’ll physically remove you.”

Hayes’s smirk says he doesn’t believe me, but he doesn’t know me. I have limits. It may take me a while to reach them, but once I do, that’s it .

I look down at my watch, starting the timer, and Hayes’s mouth drops open.

“One minute forty-five seconds, Miller. Better start talking.”

Waving my finger back and forth, I mimic the ticking of a clock.

Hayes narrows his eyes, but when the timer reaches a minute thirty, he finally blurts out what he came for.

“I volunteered you to be head baseball coach for the school’s travel team this summer.”

“You what?” There’s danger in the timbre of my voice, but apparently, Hayes’s flight or fight is broken because he only takes a step back with a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

“Tanner said you played in high school—that you were good enough to get a college scholarship. Seemed like an obvious solution to a problem. Plus, if you are coaching, I didn’t figure you could say no to this next part.”

My jaw ticks, and my hands fist beside my leg.

“What next part?” I ask Hayes between clenched teeth.

“The part where I tell you that your kid really wants to play baseball, but he’s too afraid to ask you. So he asked me if I would, and here we are.”

The man might as well have taken a sledgehammer to my chest. There’s a void inside me now where faint hope had been earlier this morning.

“Why didn’t Tanner ask me himself?”

Hayes shrugs like it’s no big deal that he’s standing in front of me, asking instead of my kid. “He’s afraid you’d say no.”

“And what do you think, Miller? You think I’ll say no?”

The man holds my gaze when he says, “I think you’ll do what’s best for your kid.”

My jaw tightens again, and I’m not sure how the bones haven’t shattered under the pressure. The timer pings on my watch, but I don’t reach to shut it off. I keep my eyes on Hayes, letting the silence settle between us. To his credit, he doesn’t back down.

Outside, Campbell blows the car horn, dissipating some of the tension in the air.

“Time’s up,” I say, leaving no room for argument.

Thankfully, Hayes doesn’t argue. He just dips his head my way before stepping toward the door. Only he doesn’t walk through it. Hayes stops, placing his hand on the door frame and letting his head hang for a second before shoving off it and turning to face me again.

“Look,” he says, all traces of humor gone, “I know we aren’t friends—and whatever you decide with Tanner is ultimately your decision—but I think you should remember that the kid is seventeen.

You have one more year before he makes decisions for himself.

Ask yourself if this is the hill you want to die on. ”

I have to physically bite my tongue not to respond. Hayes is trying to help, but I don’t want it.

“And–uh—Theo, keep us in the loop about that fire. We drove by and saw the damage last night. The community building is old, so it’s possible it was faulty wiring, but with the string of fires happening across town recently—I don’t know. My gut is saying it’s something more.”

Lifting my arm, I rub my hand across my jaw. A headache is forming behind my eyes, and work is the last thing I want to think about, but Hayes is right. Something wasn’t right about the way that fire burned last night.

“I’ll let you know what we find out, but it will take a few days.”

Hayes nods, stepping out onto the porch, but stops again when he’s standing just outside the door.

“Theo,” he says, his voice still serious. “However it happened. Thanks for saving Lily. We aren’t as close as we used to be, and I understand why she distanced herself. But she’s a good person, just a little hardened.”

It’s irrational, but a streak of jealousy slashes across my chest. Lily and Hayes were friends before Hayes’s fiance, MJ, came back to town.

It’s no secret that Lily wanted more. She never had a chance, though.

MJ is, and always has been, the love of Hayes’s life.

But even though Lily and Hayes were never going to be more than friends, he knows more about her than I do.

I would die before letting Hayes know that bothers me, though.

“It’s my job.”

There’s a knowing glint in Hayes’s eyes when he says, “Yeah. Just a job.”

He smacks the back of his hand against my chest, chuckling as he turns and hops off the porch the same way that Campbell did.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I call after him, but he only lifts his hand and waves.

I really dislike that man.