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That right there was one of Bailey Hartwell’s greatest gifts
My childhood home seemed smaller than I remembered It was a two-story in the northeast of Everett The only reason ed to randfather died when Dad was a kid, and he and h was born Grandma passed ao months before I came into the world, so I never met her She left the house to Dad in her will
Concrete steps led up to our blue front door Dad kept the white wooden shingles clean and painted fresh every few years, and he’d told ray slate roof tiles last year Blue shutters decorated the frontand the two small s on the second floor There was a side entrance, like a miniature version of the front, that led into the kitchen, which was the largest room in the house
The kitchen had been redone, and the living roo the smell was hard—kind of a rained into the walls Furniture polish, Mom’s roast dinner, and a unique aroma that was all McGuire
Dad led h’s old room It used to smell like the boys’ locker roo on so, the floor was that badly littered with all their crap Noas a tidy guest roo
“I thought you ruff
I glanced over my shoulder at the closed door behind us It was the old roo because ere so on top of each other Then Davina went to college and Dillon and I had shared it
Dad was right I didn’t want to sleep in that room
“Thanks” I kissed his cheek and strolled into my brothers’ old room
Dad placed my suitcase on the farthest bed and turned to ood it is to have you here”
I studied hiuished with age Being a firefighter, he’d stayed in shape his whole life He’d moved up the ranks to lieutenant to captain to deputy chief, and he was now chief of District Three and had been for nearly a decade He was fifty-six and nearing retire
There was always, usually, a radiant cloud of energy around Cian McGuire He’d done a hard, dangerous job his whole life and he’d seen a lot of tragedy in his tiood humor
Now that energy seemed to have drained from him The only other time I’d seen my dad like this hen Dillon died And even then, he’d been so distracted by the ive into his heartsickness
I orried about him “Are you depressed, Dad?”
He rolled his eyes “I’m not a depressed person”