From the Ashes (2 page)

Jesse sprayed the hose through the chain-link fence of Chardonnay’s cage and into her empty water bowl. The dog lapped like she was parched.

Next to him, the fireman spoke into his walkie-talkie. Jesse didn’t listen to most of it but caught the guy saying, “I’ll stay here,” and “Call later.”

When the dog finished drinking, Jesse looked around for a leash. The woman from Animal Control strode into the yard carrying a long stick, and Jesse gripped the cage as if he could hold her off.

“Do you know this dog?” the woman asked.

“He’s the neighbor,” the fireman answered for Jesse. He took off his yellow jacket, revealing a white T-shirt underneath and suspenders holding up his yellow pants. Jesse still couldn’t think of him as an actual person, but even through his haze of stress, he noticed the shape of the guy’s body.

About Jesse’s height, the firefighter was thicker through the chest and shoulders. His high cheekbones and rough hair pegged him as Latino.
Wow.
Under those giant, bright clothes, he was hot.

“That’s Chardonnay.” Jesse winced. It wasn’t his fault the owners had given her the stupid name. “She’s a big baby. Wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

Char barked louder, looking like she could eat another dog in a couple bites. She was a bull mastiff, and though Sid and Ladonna called her a guard dog, the couple times Jesse had snuck into their backyard to pet her, she seemed nothing but happy for the attention.

“That may be the case. But do you have permission from your neighbors to care for their dog?”

Jesse frowned. “Huh?” Sid and Ladonna had burned down the building. From what had penetrated through the haze of his terror while he was being questioned, they were going to be arrested as soon as the police could find them. How could he need their permission?

“Oh, of course he does,” the neighbor lady piped in from behind him. “They won’t mind.”

Jesse was pretty sure she had no idea what she was talking about and was fibbing for his benefit. He was so grateful he wanted to hug her again.

The Animal Control lady sighed. “The shelter’s already overcrowded, and that’s the only reason I’m doing this.” She shook her head as she pulled a form out of her shoulder bag. After fastening it to a clipboard, she pointed her pen at Jesse’s chest. “Name.”

Jesse breathed a sigh of relief and told her.

“I’m going to need an address.” She didn’t look up from her form, which was lucky. Jesse had no idea what to tell her.

The firefighter next to him rattled off an address way down south near the airport. Jesse wondered whether the guy was giving her the address of one of those long-term homestays, but the firefighter listed a phone number Jesse had never heard before, so he suspected the firefighter was giving the information for his own place.

While the Animal Control person scribbled, Jesse darted a glance at the fireman. Their eyes met. The fireman raised his eyebrows, as if to say,
Keep your mouth shut and play along.

Jesse nodded. He blinked back to the Animal Control worker, having already forgotten exactly what the fireman looked like. His brain still wasn’t functioning well enough to enter any new information and have it stick.

Still, Jesse tried to etch into his memory the guy’s name as he wrote it on the form—Tomas Perez. Apparently, as a first responder, he was able to vouch for the fact that Jesse was taking custody of the landlord’s dog.

Jesse signed some more papers, which thankfully the firefighter took for him and folded in half. Eyes on Chardonnay, Jesse counted down the minutes until he could take her out of her cage and… He had no idea what he was going to do then. Maybe call Michael and ask him for a ride to one of the hotels on Aurora. Motels with one-hour rates must allow dogs, right? Jesse opted to believe they would. A crappy plan was better than no plan at all.

“Um.” He needed to handle one thing at a time. He’d get the dog some food, and deal with his own life later. “Could I borrow a leash?” he asked the woman from Animal Control.

“Yeah, sure.” She had one attached to her belt. It was thin and maroon and looked like Chardonnay could snap it with a tug.

“Thanks.” Jesse fed the leash through the metal hoop at the end to form a collar. With a lurch of frustration, Jesse realized he’d already forgotten the fireman’s name from five seconds earlier.

The fireman put his hand on Jesse’s back.

Shit, now he wanted to roll into this guy’s arms and cry. He was a fucking mess.

The Animal Control woman gave Jesse a card, and the neighbor lady pushed a piece of paper into his hand. It had her name and phone number on it, in case he wanted to call her. Jesse had no idea what he might need from this neighborhood once he left, but he put her note into his pocket anyway.

The neighbor lady followed the Animal Control person out the gate, but the firefighter stayed where he was, with his hand on Jesse’s back. Maybe it was his job to keep standing there until he was sure Jesse wasn’t going to run in front of traffic or have a big, public meltdown. Jesse appreciated it anyway.

“Well, I should get the dog, then.” Jesse flipped up the handle on the cage and wrapped his fingers around the door’s metal pole. The tragedy of the last hour washed over him. He’d lost his home, his clothes, his furniture. Once he got Chardonnay out of her cage, he had no idea where he’d go.

Jesse bent his head and let the sobs come. They wracked his body, broke from his lips. He wasn’t a pussy, and he wasn’t weak, but he’d planned for so long to get the fuck out of his parents’ house. Two months later, he owned nothing but the clothes on his back and a giant dog.

Arms wound around him, pulling him back into a warm chest. The firefighter smelled the same as everything around him, charred and oily, but under that was the warm, spicy smell of skin and human contact. Something rich and male. A closeness Jesse hadn’t had for a long time, and then only briefly.

“Shhh…” the fireman said. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll get you and the dog set up, and it’s all going to be okay.”

Jesse wiped his hand across his face. Forcing his brain to function, he asked the firefighter still wrapped around him, “I’m sorry. What did you say your name was?”

The firefighter chuckled softly. He set Jesse away a little but kept a hand on his back. “No one remembers anything right after a fire. It’s okay.” He came around to Jesse’s front and made sure their gazes met. His eyes and hair were a brown so dark they might have been black, and his skin was the color of cinnamon. “I’m Tomas. Tomas Perez. I’m going to take care of you, okay?”

Chapter Two

Jesse leaned back against Chardonnay’s pull. Damn, she was strong. He was pretty sure no one had ever walked her on a leash.

Next to him, Tomas carried what was left of Jesse’s groceries. He hardly remembered buying them, but apparently he’d been carrying them when he got home to the fire. Now they hung off Tomas’s fists as a depressing reminder of Jesse’s lack of possessions.

He didn’t know how he’d eat the food he’d bought, considering he no longer owned a can opener or had access to a microwave. The fruit had all gotten bruised when Jesse dropped the bags, and his bottle of wine had broken. Whatever. His bottle opener was burnt to a crisp anyway.

Still, Jesse liked the feel of moving. One foot in front of the other, his limbs warm and loose from the walk. They’d left his house a while ago, though Jesse didn’t have enough sense of time to know how many minutes had passed. Fifteen minutes? An hour? Picking up his pace, Jesse hid the fact that he was walking aimlessly.

They made their way past coffee shops and minimarts, ethnic restaurants and the occasional community center or church. Stopping at a tiny grocery store, Jesse used fifteen of the three hundred dollars in his bank account to buy food for Chardonnay.

He couldn’t work up the nerve to call Michael for a ride. Tomas already knew Jesse was fucked, so he wouldn’t pass judgment. If Jesse called Michael, Michael would give him an earful about how he shouldn’t have been living in such a crap apartment.

What’s more, if he called Michael, the fire would be real. It would spill into other areas of his life, and Jesse wasn’t ready for that to happen.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to call the Red Cross?” Tomas hitched the bag of dog food higher on his arm. He moved Jesse’s groceries to his other hand. “It’s fine if you need help. Most people do after a fire.”

Jesse shook his head. “They won’t let me keep the dog.” He didn’t want to tell Tomas the whole reason.

“No,” Tomas said in a measured voice. “That’s true.”

They walked in silence for a few blocks, until Tomas spoke up again. “But they do good work.”

“I know all about the Red Cross, okay?” Jesse wrapped the leash tighter around his fist. “And I’m serious when I say I’m not taking their help.”

Sun glinted on the horizon, feeble rays mocking Tomas’s attempts to get Jesse settled for the night. In the hour they’d been walking, Jesse hadn’t so much as mentioned a hotel or a friend’s house he could stay at.

He hadn’t mentioned any family either, and that, coupled with his refusal to accept outside assistance, set off all kinds of warning bells. Tomas couldn’t be sure, but it seemed like there was a story in Jesse’s past. Given his age, it probably had to do with Jesse’s parents and their lack of acceptance of their son being gay.

Though Tomas’s family situation was completely different, he could relate. “You know, I did put my address on the form. It might be hard for you to find a temporary place that allows dogs.”

Shacking up for the night with a victim might have been way outside regulation, but Tomas didn’t care. Just the week before, he’d been called out to help a gay boy found beaten and raped behind a dumpster. No way would he let something like that happen to this one. “You’re welcome to stay at my place.”

“At your house?” Jesse wrapped his free arm around his chest—probably freezing since he was only wearing a T-shirt. “Seriously?”

“If you want.” Tomas thought about offering him his bunker jacket to wear but didn’t want Jesse to get the wrong idea.

Tomas went to clubs in Seattle from time to time and got sucked off by kids that looked kind of like Jesse, but those guys were strangers. He would never consider doing something like that to the sweet kid getting dragged by the mastiff at his side. “I’m off work now. Just have to go by the station to drop off my gear and clock out.” He paused to let that much sink in. “You’d have a quiet place to make some phone calls. Start thinking about where you can stay with the dog. Do you have renters insurance?”

Jesse rubbed at the side of his head. “Insurance?”

No surprise there. Jesse didn’t look a day over twenty-one. Few kids that age planned for contingencies. “Well, your landlord will have had some. I’m sure you can file a claim for—”

“I can’t think about that now.” Jesse tripped on a particularly rough tug from the dog.

Without meaning to, Tomas put his hand between Jesse’s shoulder blades. He couldn’t seem to stop touching the kid, even though it wasn’t anything sexual. Tomas wanted to hug him and make everything better for him.

In front of an Ethiopian restaurant, the smell of meat and roasted vegetables filled the air. Tomas’s stomach growled. He itched to get Jesse settled and fed. “How about it?”

“You live down by the airport, though, right?” Jesse scratched his nose. “I don’t have a car.”

“I could drive you in tomorrow. I’ve got a few errands to run.” He was lying, but Tomas didn’t mind giving Jesse a ride.

Slowing, Jesse shoved his hand in his jeans pocket. He stared at the concrete. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I would have thought you were straight.”

“I’m not going to hit on you.” Tomas pulled his hand away from Jesse’s back, suddenly very aware of how close they were standing. “The couch folds out at my place. You can sleep there. I’m happy to drive you to a hotel instead. Or call you a cab.” Tomas didn’t want to do any of those things, but he had to offer alternatives.

“No.” Jesse came to a stop.

“No?” Tomas frowned.

“No, I don’t… I mean I can’t really afford a hotel.” Gaze darting to the side, Jesse blushed.

“Yeah, I get it.” Even a cheap hotel would run Jesse sixty dollars a night.

“It’s not like I think you’re going to rape me or anything.” Jesse giggled nervously and bit at the edge of his fingernail. “But I don’t want to get stranded.”

Tomas nodded. “I know you’d feel more comfortable staying nearby.” That was common after a fire, the desire to stay in the neighborhood, even if the victim didn’t have a place to sleep. “And if you have a friend you can call instead…”

Jesse shook his head. “I’ve only lived here a couple months. And with the dog…”

“Yeah. I know.” Tomas knew about the Seattle Freeze. Seattle was a great city, beautiful and classy, but it could be a hard place to get to know people. Especially to make the kind of close friends who’d step in when there was a crisis.

“Really, man.” Tomas put down the groceries and took Jesse’s hand. “Please consider it.”

“So…you’re not straight?” Jesse looked at their linked hands.

“Not exactly.” Tomas let go. He didn’t know why he kept touching the kid. It was like Jesse was a magnet and his fingers were metal shavings. “I go out sometimes.” Tomas needed to be honest with Jesse, though he wished he could simply tell him he was straight. “But I’m not…y’know…”