And Mickey being the kind of man Mickey was, he liked this least of all.

So, with Mickey the face of the business for clients, he got it at both ends: the workers angry they didn’t have time to do their jobs and more, they were pushed to overtime and weekend work, but also the clients who would contact Mickey and complain when things inevitably went wrong.

I made a mental note to look outside the county should I need any of this kind of work done, but other than that, I had little to say, except, “I’m sorry, honey. That sounds awful.”

“Yeah, it sucks,” he agreed. “But recent news, I’ve got it in me to take the risk, it could get better.”

Since his work seemed pretty dismal, and this sounded quite exciting, I leaned slightly over my empty chowder cup, hand up with my wineglass, elbow resting on the table, and asked, “How?”

“Chief told me that the town’s gonna vote on allocating more money to the fire department,” he answered. “We had a development go in ’bout five years ago. Nothin’ big, only twenty houses, but it’s still more people and more taxes. Now, the Club has asked for planning permission to build a golf course and add houses that’ll be built around that course. Members of the Club got money and pull, so this’ll go through. And that shopping place is already up and running on Mills jetty, more buildings, more trade. We got enough volunteers to cover but we all know that’s thin and it asks a lot of the guys to put their asses on the line and give the time needed, which for each of us is a lot.”

I nodded, still not liking that Mickey put his “ass on the line,” still not sharing that, instead asking, “The Club?”

“The Magdalene Club. Private bar and restaurant, moneyed, members only.”

“Ah,” I murmured.

When that was all I had, he kept speaking.

“So, the chief has gone to the town council with a proposal. Stay at part-time pay for a chief and full-time pay for a firefighter who’ll help the chief recruit, do scheduling, training, keep volunteers sharp by runnin’ drills and shit—”

“And you want to be that firefighter,” I cut him off to guess.

“No, Amy, I wanna be the chief.”

I blinked.