“Yes, and by the very definition of that, I’m eccentric, addicted to antidepressant meds, and unreliable. I wouldn’t recognize my future if it bit me on the ass. Look, Summer, all I’m saying is that it’s okay not to know what you want to be. There’s no need to settle.”

“I’m not settling. And I know what I want to be. I’m an expedition leader.” She let out a long breath at his patient silence. “I know it’s not rocket science. It’s more like…brain candy. But that’s what I am. Who I am. I like it. I just don’t know where to be it.”

“Of course you do.” He ruffled her hair. “You just haven’t admitted it yet. Look, it’s simple. You want to head out of here, go. You want to stay, then stay.”

“What would you do?”

“Ah, now that’s even simpler,” he said with a real smile. “I’d run far and long and never look back.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

But that’s what she’d been doing. She’d been running for so long she thought maybe she was tired of it. It was easy to go. Even easier to stay gone.

And yet the alternative shook her to the core.

Joe had to take a taxi into work. This was because no one would pick him up and drive him there. It didn’t matter that they’d claimed to desert him out of love. “That’s bullshit anyway,” he told Ashes on the ride. “If they loved me, they’d get their ass over here.”

The cab deposited them at the fire station, where he paid a small fortune for the honor. By the time he’d maneuvered himself up the front stairs, with Ashes patiently sticking to his side, he had a line of sweat trickling down his back and was shaking like a baby.

Oh, yeah, he was in great shape. Just great.

He barged into Kenny’s office and locked his legs into place so he wouldn’t fall down. “Where are we with the Creative Interiors case?”

Kenny stroked Ashes, who’d leapt into his lap. “You look like hell.”

“The case, Kenny.”

“Nice to see you too.”

“You just saw me,” Joe pointed out. “Last night. You brought me Chinese.”

“When you admitted your doctor told you to stay off work for another three weeks.”

“Yeah, yeah. Listen, I’ve been going over the notes.” Screw it, he was still shaking like a leaf, so he admitted defeat and sank into a chair. “But I’d like to see what else we’ve got.”

“The only ‘we’ here is me and whoever the chief can spare to help me.” Kenny’s eyes flashed regret. “You know that.”

“Don’t block me out.”

Kenny swore at that.

Joe rolled his eyes.