Stephenie Meyer owns the Twilight parts.
In Memphis, firefighters are also paramedics. They work as well in ambulances as they do on fire trucks. :)
I listened to the "Best of Percy Sledge" album while writing this. I may have played the song "Cover Me" about a dozen times.
Thanks to Iris for cleaning this up and to M and Nic for pre-reading. Any mistakes left are mine.
"I'm thinking about taking Mom with us to Heber Springs for a long weekend in July. She and Rachel both say it's been too long. Do you want to bring Mack?"
"That sounds good." If Jane is going to be there, Mack will want to be there, too. "Let me know when, and I'll start working on the time off. I'm taking on as many extra shifts as I can until she gets here. I'll have a few favors to call in." I lean over to tie my boot, clutching the phone between my head and shoulder. "I'm working the bus today, so I've got to go. I'll talk to you later this week."
"Be safe, man."
Those words became the motto of our family long before my brother decided to carry a gun for a living. Our mother would always say them to our father before he walked out the door to go to work. I'm sure they were the last shared between them.
"You, too."
Working the ambulance is a busier day than sitting around at the station. The first call comes five minutes after I clock in. I follow Renata out to her rig and wait for her instructions. When you're covering for someone, it's best not to step on toes.
"You feel like driving?" she asks.
"Sure." She tosses me the keys and opens the passenger door.
The day starts with a possible heart attack, and ends with a fender bender and a stretcher on Front Street. The calls are standard, time passes quickly, and at the end of my shift, every person I've met today is still alive. That's a good day.
Twelve hours at home means about six hours of sleep and then back to the station for my regular shift. After a week or so, the days start to blend into each other, and when I finally get a full 24 off, I crash so hard that the entire time is spent at my apartment.
Mack calls a couple of times, and the closer it gets to June, the happier she seems on the phone with me. She's excited about seeing Mom and her cousins. And me, I guess… although she doesn't come out say it.
The barbeque contest sneaks up quickly, and before I know it, I'm spending my second day off in two weeks helping Jasper finish up the Silky's team tent the day before the festival starts.
"Damn, dude. You look like shit," he says, setting up trophies from the last several years on a table in the back corner.
"I feel like it, too." My neck and back are killing me, and I can't remember the last time I had more than six hours of consecutive sleep. "If I can get through tomorrow, I'm free for 72. I'll kick it off here Friday night. We should be able to toast at least one win by then."
"Oh, we'll be toasting, alright. We'll be throwing down." He digs in the pocket of his cargos and pulls out his phone. "You feel like lunch? Alice and Bella have a break at one. We could pick them up and get something in Midtown…"
I haven't seen Bella since my brother made a jackass of me in front of her friend. There hasn't been time between working and sleeping. "Anything but barbeque."
"Amen to that."
We're going to have more barbeque than we could ever eat of the next few days. Jasper is staying on my couch until the competition ends. He'll be partying too late and too hard to make the drive to East Memphis in the few hours he'll have free.
The other team members brought coolers and lunch. They're content to stick around and finish up. Jasper doesn't want to lose his parking spot since he'll be here well into the night. I offer to drive, because I need sleep soon. I've been helping carry shit for him since nine this morning.
Traffic is heavier than normal, but we still make it with a few minutes to spare.
He sends a text to let Alice know we're here and parked across the street. Instead of stepping out to burn one, I stay in the car, chewing a stick of terrible, minty gum and hoping I don't smell like an ashtray. Alice and Bella walk out a few minutes early, and Jasper climbs into the backseat with his girl. Bella slides into the passenger seat, showing a flash of thigh before she has a chance to adjust her dress.
"Hey," she says. "Where've you been?"
"Working." I turn onto Madison and head toward Midtown.
"All week?"
"I think there was one night off somewhere in there."
"Molly's?" she asks. The red on her lips today matches the shade of her dress exactly, and I can't see the stud, but I miss the silver ring.
"Sure." I glance at Jasper in the rearview mirror. "Molly's okay?"
"It's cool," he says.
Leah is working, and she seats us right away at a table near the back. Bella sits next to me without hesitation and doesn't bother to open the lunch menu.
"Sweet tea and vegetarian enchiladas," she says, pouring salsa into the small bowl in front of her.
"Like I couldn't have guessed that." Leah looks at Alice. "Large cheese dip, Dr. Pepper, and shrimp tacos, right?"
Alice nods. "Right." She offers to split the cheese dip with us. Jasper and I have been working in the hot sun all morning, so we opt for cold longnecks with our meals.
Bella must have been well-liked here, because everyone who sees her makes the trip over to our table to say hello and ask how she's doing. They leave us alone once our food is delivered. She wasn't kidding about loving the salsa. She pours it over her enchiladas and moans after her first bite.
I shift in my seat like some fucking sixteen-year-old kid trying to hide his boner in science class. Everything about this woman sets me on edge. I stare at my plate and count the number of times I chew each bite of my burrito. It helps keep my mind off her noises and the way her teeth occasionally pull on the left side of her lip, looking for metal that isn't there.
"Are you going to be around tonight?" she asks. "Alice asked me to come to the park with her to hang out for a while since Angela can't cover for me until Saturday."
"I doubt it." I shake my head. "I've been going nonstop since I got off at 8, and I have to work tomorrow morning."
"Oh. Yeah, you definitely need to go home and get some sleep."
"After that, I have 72 to recover, but I've already committed two nights of that to him," I nod at Jasper. "Well, to the team really. I give them moral support in exchange for free booze and food."
"He sells his soul to me the third week of May every year," he says.
"It's worth it."
"I've never been," Bella says. "I always heard that you could only eat if you were invited by a team. Why bother if you can't eat? That's cruel and unusual punishment."
"Yeah, you're in for a real treat," I say. "Saturday night is the one you don't want to miss. It's the close of the contest. Lots of celebrations. I wouldn't drive, though. Parking is going to be impossible."
She nods. "I'll catch the Madison trolley to get there and then cab it home."
"Can I park at your house and tag along?" Alice asks her.
"Of course."
I like this plan. There's safety in numbers.
"What time should we plan to be there?" Bella looks at me for an answer, but it's Jasper who replies.
"The gates open at ten."
He'll be there prior to that, but I plan to be hugging my pillow until well after noon on Saturday, especially if Friday night turns out to be the party I'm expecting.
The ladies have to get back to the clinic to finish out their afternoons, so we pay and leave. Bella looks surprised when I walk around to unlock and open the passenger door for her and Alice.
I shrug. "It's almost an antique."
"Yeah, but nothing sounds like a 302 engine," Jasper says, tapping the roof of my car. "When are you going to sell me this thing?"
"Never." My dad helped me buy it from a used car lot when I turned sixteen. Not even Charlotte could convince me to get rid of it. I don't know why Jasper thinks he stands a chance. If I have my way, I'll drive it until the wheels fall off. Like he said, nothing beats the sound of a 5.0.
"I've never driven a stick," Bella says, watching as I shift into second once we're past the bulk of the traffic.
"Really?" I shake my head. "How is that possible?"
"Charlie isn't a patient man," she laughs, glancing over at me. "The one time he tried to teach me didn't go well, so he bought me a used Tempo with an automatic transmission. It was powder blue and hideous, but it lasted through my third year of college." Her fingers trail over the shiny black dash in front of her. "I can't imagine how well you must have treated this car for it to still look so… good."
"How's your brother doing, Edward?" Alice asks from the backseat. I catch a glimpse of her small smile in the rearview mirror. Bella seems oblivious to the nudge, so maybe Alice didn't share Jared's opinions with her.
"Fine, I guess. Haven't talked to him since last week."
"Is he going to make it this weekend?" Jasper asks.
"I doubt it. I think he's working. Paul said he might stop by, though."
"That would be cool," Bella says. "I haven't seen him in forever. How are the twins?"
"Grown. They'll be driving next year."
She shakes her head. "Wow. Time flies."
"I guess it does." I pull over to the curb across the street from SCO, and let the car idle while the ladies get out and Jasper takes Bella's spot in the seat next to me. He's not nearly as nice to look at.
"See you Saturday," Bella says.
"Have fun tonight."
"Will do." She waves and crosses with Alice when the light changes.
I wait for the doors of the clinic to close behind them before pulling away.
"Does the age thing ever bother you?" Alice is younger than Bella by two years, and Jasper is one year old than me.
"Why would having a 25 year old girlfriend bother me?" he asks. "The longest relationship I've been in was with Maria, and she was six years older than me. I don't give a shit about age." He takes one of the Marlboros from my pack. "Alice is smart." He pauses to light it and crack the window. "She's quiet, and I don't know… sweet?" He shakes his head. "She's cool."
"I wasn't judging, man."
"I know. You were overthinking. You have been for a while."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You like Bella, right?"
"This isn't high school, Jasper. It's not about liking her. It's complicated."
"You're into her. It's not that complicated."
"She doesn't date."
"A technicality. Give it time."
"You know why…" Bella may not talk to him, but Alice does. "Did Marcus… Did he hurt her or something?"
"No, he didn't." He exhales and stares out the window. "It was nothing like that."
"But you're not going to tell me why."
"I don't tell your business, Edward." He doesn't. It's one of the things I appreciate most about our friendship. When my life was falling apart, he listened and consoled me with beer and food at Silky's more times than I can count. Unlike my brothers and their wives, he didn't tell anyone the dirty details of my marriage's demise. "I'm not going to try to pretend to know why women do the things they do."
I drop him off near the park entrance and head over to Harbor Town. Even though I'm exhausted and can't keep my eyes open, I can't fall asleep, either. Seafood judging is tomorrow, so Jasper is doing a practice run tonight on shrimp and halibut. Bella will be there. Beer and Bella and probably a dozen guys closer to her in age and… everything else, too.
Sometime after four, I finally fall asleep.
The clock is glowing green in the darkness, 4:56, when I wake, only it's AM. Every channel is running infomercials, so I slip out onto the porch to watch the sun come up with a pack of cigarettes and my phone for company. For once, I'm early for work, making coffee for everyone else as they drag their sorry asses into the station.
Two house fires and a complete evac of Booker T. Washington High School fill the morning hours. The worst part of the day is a car fire on the Memphis end of the Hernando Desoto Bridge. The calls keep coming, and we don't catch dinner until after 9 or a nap until almost 3 in the morning.
By the time I get off at eight, I have to fight traffic since everyone is trying to get a good spot for day two of the contest. Senna fits me in for a trim, making small talk about how happy she is that Memphis in May is almost over. She's sick of the traffic clusterfucks like the rest of us.
Between her shop and home, I kill a breakfast combo from Burger King. I make it to my room, trying to ignore Jasper's shit all over my apartment, and then knock out after shoving out of my boots.
It's dark outside when I wake up with a sore neck and dried drool on my cheek. My stomach grumbles, upset that I slept through lunch. And dinner. There's a shit ton of barbecue waiting for me at the other end of Riverside Drive, so I force myself into the shower to get moving.
I don't feel like walking over to the trolley stop, so I call for a cab and then dress quickly so I can be waiting by the gate when it arrives.
"Get me as close to Tom Lee Park as you can," I tell the driver.
"No problem."
He passes Riverside and turns on Front, instead. It's a smart move, since traffic is at least moving in the right direction. When we get to Beale, he looks over his shoulder. "This close enough?"
"It works." I pay him and exit the cab.
It takes a while to get through the gate and make my way to the Silky's tent. There's a huge crowd of people outside the Christian Brothers booth, rubbernecking and trying to get a view of the pole dancers.
Jimmy Van Zant is playing the main stage, but I'm more interested in food than anything else at the moment, so I keep going until the familiar green canvas comes into view.
Felix spots me first, pointing and waving me over to where he's standing with Jasper.
"I thought you were bailing on me, man," Jasper says, holding up a new second place trophy. "We placed in seafood, yesterday."
"Sweet."
He gives me a chance to sample today's goods: ribs with dry rub, chicken grilled with Jasper's signature sauce, corn on the cob, and more shrimp than Forrest Gump could put away. Tanya dishes up sides for me, piling on baked beans and slaw.
Jasper sits next to me while I eat, trying to break the sealer wax and fight the short cork on a bottle of Black Maple Hill. At a buck twenty-five per bottle, this is the stuff he reserves for special occasions, like winning a second place trophy in a field of 115 teams.
"Aha, fucker." He holds it out for me to breathe before pouring two fingers for each of us.
This is one of the few bourbons smooth enough to enjoy without ice. It smells like molasses and brown sugar, two of Jasper's favorite ingredients in his sauce. The man knows his barbeque and his alcohol. It's sweet, like maple syrup with a tinge of honey left on the palate after each swallow.
He invites Felix to join us, and the three of us kill the bottle over the course of an hour, listening to the faint sounds of the band rocking down closer to the river. Emmett is disappointed when he shows up a little after ten and there's barely a swallow left. He introduces us to his new girl, Maggie, and her friend, Heidi.
Tanya produces a bottle of tequila from the largest cooler in the tent, and the party kicks into high gear. Heidi seats herself between me and Jasper after a couple of shots and a small plate of food.
"You work with Emmett, huh?" she asks, flipping her long, brown hair over her shoulder and angling toward me in her chair.
"Yeah."
"Were you there the night Mags tried to set her apartment on fire?"
I glance at her friend again. It is the same girl, the nurse in the towel from a few weeks ago. "Well, I'll be damned. I didn't recognize her with her clothes on."
Heidi laughs, leans forward to steal the shot glass from my hand, and downs it. "Thanks," she says. She tries to return the empty, but I'm already digging in the cooler next to me, looking for a longneck. I give her one, too, to prevent further thievery.
She's a nurse, like her friend, with an endless supply of funny stories about fucked up things she's witnessed working at Methodist over the years. Emmett and Maggie drag chairs over to get in on the conversation, because we see some crazy shit when we're working as paramedics, too.
Jasper comes and goes, greeting members of other teams who stop by to chat and showing off his trophy to friends from Beale who show up to see how things are going. Tanya's husband, Jason, arrives, still in his MPD uniform, scaring a few of the partiers who don't know him. He's a good friend of Paul's from my brother's days working North Precinct before he was selected for TACT.
It's been a while since I've seen him, so I stand and make my way over for a handshake to see how he's been. Heidi's glances are heavy on my skin, tugging at that need buried deep down to touch and be touched. When she comes over to invite me to leave with her, Emmett, and Maggie and move the party over to Club 152, I pause, staring at the exposed tanned skin of her neck, knowing how salty it would taste if I ended the night with her back at my place. That's what she wants. I can see it in her eyes.
But they're the wrong shade of brown.
Fuck.
Beale Street is the last place I need to be tonight, drunk like this, with Bella invading my head.
"I'm whipped," I say, trying to let her down easy. She's beautiful and funny, and if I weren't already so wrapped up in something impossible, I'd take her up on it and maybe even call her after the fact. "I've been working extra shifts for the last week, and I have to be back here early tomorrow."
"Oh. Okay." She nods, faking a small smile. "Maybe some other time."
"Maybe."
Tanya brings me another beer as I watch a perfectly good woman walk away without even asking for her number. "Have another, loverboy," she says.
"What the hell am I doing?"
"Getting wasted."
"Yeah."
Jasper and I stay until everyone else is gone and security is sweeping the park, looking for stragglers. He babbles about missing Alice and wanting to go to Silky's to say hi, but I hail a cab and tell the driver to take us to my place instead. Jasper started celebrating long before I showed up tonight. He needs to pass out. There's still one more day to go.
It starts early. Too much sleep on Friday means I'm wide awake and out of the shower before the alarm on Jasper's phone goes off, echoing down the hall at eight in the morning. I call for a cab and make coffee while he catches a shower in the guest bathroom.
He takes a travel mug from me on our way to the door. "Black." He winces after a small sip but nods. "Thanks."
"You going to make it?" I slap him on the back before locking up.
"I don't know, man. I'm getting too old for this shit."
"I'm going to remind you of that in a few hours when you try to pop a top."
He grins over the roof of the cab. "I'll stick with beer today and leave the hard stuff to you, Iron Gut."
I don't feel nearly as bad as I should, considering how much I put away last night. We have the driver drop us off a couple of blocks away from the gates of the park. A few members of the team are already at the tent, firing up the coals. Tanya and Jason are back with an insulated bag filled with hot breakfast burritos wrapped in foil. A full stomach and a coffee refill take care of my only complaints.
Bella and Alice wander into the tent a few hours later in time for lunch. Red might be my new favorite color. It's on her skin, in the swirls of flames on her arm. It's the shade of the loose, silky material of her tank. Her lips…
Jesus, those fucking lips.
Instead of following Alice over to Jasper at the grill, she walks in the opposite direction and stops in front of my chair. "Hey."
"Good morning."
"Barely," she says, stretching on her toes and covering a yawn with her hand. "Sorry. I overslept this morning." She points to the empty seat next to mine. "Can I sit with you?"
I wave at the empty seat, and she sinks into it. "Tanya has a thermos of hot coffee. Do you want some?"
She lifts her sunglasses, finally giving me the full effect; little to no makeup, eyes like Tennessee whiskey, and tiny freckles across the bridge of her nose. "I had some on the way here, but thanks. How did it go last night?"
"Crowded, but there was good food and even better booze, so it was worth it. How was Beale?"
"Awful. Alice and I texted each other all night about how much we wanted to leave and come down here."
"You should have."
"I know. I know. But there's this pesky thing called rent, and I have to pay it every month."
"I still can't believe you've lived here seventeen years and never been to BarbequeFest."
She stares at passersby in hog attire and costumes before looking at me again. "Why don't you show me around, then?"
"We'll lose our seats." The tent is filling up quickly, since it's close to lunchtime.
She shrugs. "I'm okay with that."
"Give me a sec."
I walk over to Jasper to find out what time the winners will be announced and promise to meet him and the rest of the group over at the stage a few minutes before.
"How do you feel about hot wings?" I ask when we're finally away from the tent.
She pulls the sunglasses down and over her eyes again. "I love them."
We make our way toward the river, checking out tents as we go.
"Jared has a buddy on this team." I point to the Suspicious Rinds tent, and she laughs at the Elvis impersonator greeting people at the entrance. "Laugh all you want, but they took a third place trophy in wings Friday."
"Let's go," she says, tugging my hand to hurry me along.
She lets go when we get to Elvis and glances at me. "Is Mitchell in there?" I ask.
"Come on in," Elvis says. "He's back there somewhere."
We push our way through the partiers until I find my brother's friend. I congratulate him on the win, and as expected, he offers us samples. Bella likes it hot, and she puts away wings until her eyes are watering and her nose is running. I'm in the same boat, only bottled water doesn't cut it for me, so I accept a longneck when Mitchell's wife offers one. We sample their slaw and ribs too, and hang out for a while. On our way out, Mitchell invites us back for the party later tonight.
"We'll try," I tell him. "Stop by the Silky's tent if you have time. We've got shrimp. If I'm not there, ask for Jasper."
"You got it. Good to see you, man."
We still have a few minutes to kill, so I show Bella some of the larger tents, which aren't really tents at all. Some of these teams are serious business and build two-story collapsible structures that are decorated with team flags and memorabilia with dance floors/party areas up top.
When it's time, we head over to the main stage for the crowning of the Grand Champion. There's a general audience section in the back, but we head over to the area reserved for the teams.
I flash my Silky's lanyard at the security guard and place my other hand on the small of Bella's back. "She's with me." He steps aside, letting us through the gate, and she doesn't move away from my touch even after we've caught up with Jasper and the rest of the crew.
The pork categories are more competitive, with more than 250 contestants in each. Jasper is happy and gracious when he's called to the stage to receive an honorable mention in the shoulder contest, and everyone cheers when the Sweet Swine O'Mine team takes the championship.
It's hot and crowded when the awards ceremony disperses. Percy Sledge is scheduled to take the stage later tonight, and his guys start moving equipment around before we get to the gate.
Rosalie and her boyfriend are back from their trip and waiting at the tent with other friends and fans of the team. An honorable mention calls for another celebration, and Jasper pops the cork on a bottle of champagne while Tanya passes out plastic glasses for a toast. It takes three bottles to make the rounds, but Alice makes sure everyone is full before Jasper toasts the team, Silky's, and everyone who came out to support them over the last few days.
We eat and celebrate until the sun begins to set and the distant rumble of sound check starts.
"Are you going back for the concert?" Bella asks, pulling her hair back and twisting a rubber band from her wrist to hold the ponytail. She's fanning herself with a folded copy of the Memphis Flyer that someone left on the cooler next to our seats.
"Yeah. We normally skip the drunks and sit down on the riverbank to listen, but I'll go to the stage with you if you want the full experience."
"I don't care about that part. I would like to hear the music, though, and we're too far away back here."
Several of the guys decide to stay behind to keep an eye on things and start wrapping it up. Bella falls into step next to me when I follow Jasper out of the tent. There are other people down on the bank, but there's room to sit and spread out. The breeze coming off of the water is cool and refreshing after being in the hot sun all day.
I'm finally introduced to Rosalie's boyfriend, Royce, and get to hear all about their trip home while she fills in Bella and Alice on how she's spent her break so far. Shortly after the sun disappears behind the Arkansas tree line, Percy takes the stage, and the opening chord of "The Dark End of the Street" rings out, echoing in the night.
Song by song, we lose another couple to the moonlight. They've made a makeshift dance area on the hard-packed sand just past the edge of the lawn. Bella sits next to me, silent and staring at the ripples in the water with her legs bent and her arms hugging them loosely.
"This is amazing," she says. "God, the view…"
The bridge is lit in the distance, and there are tugboats steaming in our direction.
"My friends and I used to drive down here when we were in high school. Before this was a park, there were sand dunes here. We used to jump off of them for kicks." I point to the left. "Those condos were a Holiday Inn. It was easy to get fake IDs in the nineties. A guy in our class sold them for twenty bucks a piece. There weren't as many cops on Beale back then. Hell, there were hardly any."
"I remember when the city added the substation and put the curfew in place."
"I was legal by then." She rests her head on her knees, facing me and watching me talk. "We would pile into cars and ride the strip. Sometimes, we'd come early and bring our boards. The art exhibits outside the Convention Center made great skate ramps."
"You were a skater?"
"Hey, I can still ollie better than my fifteen-year-old nephew." Jasper may be right. We may be getting too old for this shit, but I've got a few good tricks left in me.
Her lips turn up at the corners. "Sorry. I didn't mean to offend you."
"You didn't. I still have my old board somewhere in my mom's attic. It's beat up, with decals of grunge bands peeling off the bottom of it."
"You weren't like your brothers," she says. Having met them both now, she can see it already. They've always been clean-cut do-gooders, and I've always been the wild card.
"I'm still not."
She stands, brushes the dirt from her jeans, and holds her hands out to me. "Come here," she says. I let her think she's helping me up, and when she steps closer, I rest my hands on her waist. "I like this song."
She inches closer until her chest is against mine and her head is on my shoulder. It's the end of our conversation, but I'll take the silence since it comes with her arms wrapped around me.
We dance until the music stops almost an hour later.
"Thanks," she says when she pulls away.
I want to thank her. The last physical contact, real contact, I had with another person is the kiss on the cheek outside the men's room at Silky's weeks ago. The words aren't adequate.
"You're welcome."
It's the last peaceful moment of the night. When we get back to the tent, it's almost closing time. The guests have to go. We've got a team of people ready to tear down so we can get out of here before the park is locked down. Royce offers to give Alice and Bella a ride back to Midtown. I hate to see her go, but I'm grateful they won't have to cab it.
"Will I see you this week?" Bella asks, hanging back for a second while the others wait outside the tent for her.
"I'm not sure yet. I might be picking up some extra hours. I won't know until Monday."
"Okay." She pauses at the exit. "Well, be careful, okay?"
"I'll try."
She steps outside, and Jasper starts barking orders. I tune him out and go through the motions, helping where I'm needed and hauling crap to trucks parked on Riverside. When it's all done, we finally get Jasper's FJ and take it back to my place so he has a way home in the morning.
He doesn't say anything until I'm heading down the hall to crash.
"I told you, man. It's not that complicated."
And for the first time, I agree.
A/N – We take our barbeque seriously in Memphis. The Memphis in May World Championship Barbeque Cooking Contest is ranked (by USA Today) as America's number-one barbeque contest. Teams come from as far away as Alaska and Norway to compete. The food is amazing.
Thanks for reading!
MSC