Page 96 of Rising Heat

I glance immediately at Tyler.

He’s suddenly very interested in something happening several feet above my head. Beside him, Mack has apparently decided silence is the safer option.

“Good things, I hope?” I ask.

Carmela’s smile only deepens.

“Interesting things.”

She gives my hand a warm, deliberate squeeze before letting go, the kind of gesture that somehow feels like it means something without making a production of it.

Their father steps forward and extends his hand.

“Jim.”

His handshake is easy and welcoming, the kind that makes me feel like I’ve accidentally wandered into someone’s backyard barbecue and been handed a drink before I could object.

He asks how I’m settling into the neighborhood, and I manage to string together a few coherent sentences about the South End while Tyler and Mack drift into easy conversation with him about the parade, who they’d seen from other fire stations, and whether someone named Trick had managed to behave himself this year.

“Does he ever?” Tyler says.

Jim nods like he’d expected that answer.

“Figured.”

“Oh, leave the poor boy alone,” Carmela says, though she’s smiling as she reaches up to straighten Tyler’s collar where it’d folded over beneath his jacket.

“You’ve had all morning to tell me about this,” Tyler protests.

“I’ve had all morning to watch you ignore it.”

“It looked fine.”

“To who?”

“To me.”

“Well, there’s your first mistake.”

Jim laughs into a shake of his head while Tyler sighs with the long-practiced resignation of someone who’s learned this argument is unwinnable. Her attention then shifts to Mack next, brushing an invisible piece of lint from the front of his jacket.

He doesn’t even look down.

“Ma.”

“What?”

“There’s nothing there.”

“There was.”

He lets out the smallest breath through his nose—the closest thing I’ve ever seen him come to rolling his eyes—and stands in place while she smooths his lapel anyway.

Neither of them seems really bothered by it. I don’t know why that gets me.

“Nice meeting you, Darcy,” Carmela says before her and Jim disappear back into the crowd.

Tyler turns beside me.