The River Burns by Trevor Ferguson Page A

thought about it before but it occurred to him that he was more his mother’s son, in many ways, than his father’s. His brother Denny, on the other hand, was so noticeably his father’s son. Wild, in his way, untamed, impetuous.
    â€œSo who’re you dating?” Alex asked him.
    Ryan was being poked. So he poked back. “An hour ago, give or take, a pretty girl stepped off the train.” He whistled.
    â€œThat good-looking?” Alex was interested, as he hadn’t actually heard his son say boo about a girl in years.
    â€œTake your breath away. Mine anyway. Good thing it wasn’t you seeing her. She’d take your life away. You’d have a heart attack.”
    â€œSo what’re you doing here? Off that train, she’s in town for about four hours, no?” Ryan made a gesture, and his father detected his regret, which he understood. “The uniform,” Alex figured.
    â€œDoesn’t help,” Ryan agreed. “But if you don’t see me again, you’ll know why. That one, a man could follow to the ends of the earth.”
    Alex was flabbergasted. “For God’s sake, Ryan, take the day off. I haven’t seen you this smitten since high school.”
    Ryan sighed heavily, released a slow gush of air. Alex interpreted that response as well.
    â€œDon’t sell yourself short.”
    â€œI won’t. I don’t. But, whoa. Another level. Know what I mean?”
    Instinctively, Alex wanted to buck him up, counter his perspective. Yet he murmured, “Mmm.” He knew what Ryan was talking about. Some women did seem to exist on another plane. And Ryan was a cop, which in his experience meant that the women who were attracted to him specifically because he was a cop were women he didn’t particularly want around. While others were repelled, or possessed wiser instincts. As well, Ryan had endured misfortune in love. Only natural for him to hesitate.
    â€œWhat about you?” Ryan asked. Time had passed since his last visit.
    â€œWhat about me?” Alex was genuinely clueless, until he saw his son’s slight grin. “Get off it.”
    â€œWhat? You’re a man. You always liked women. Even Mom knew that.”
    â€œWhat do you mean even Mom knew that?” Alex picked up the plates to help him escape this situation, but as he stood his son retrieved his gun belt and followed him back into the house where he snapped the belt back on.
    â€œEverything’s about petunias and jackmanii vines now?”
    â€œFor God’s sake.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI’m not older than Moses but I look it.”
    Ryan grinned. “Deception. That’s your ploy. Always has been.”
    Alex put the plates down in the sink. “Whatever you think you know, I don’t want to know you know. So bite your tongue.”
    â€œDone. But seriously. Are you going out? Staying in? What?”
    â€œGo. Chat up your beauty queen off the train. If you want to double date, give me a holler.”
    Ryan took a glance around the house. His father wasn’t old yet, although he knew that simple tasks were physically demanding for him, that stoically he suffered his aches and pains. So he was pleased to note the state of the rooms. Tidy. The man was tidier now than when he had a wife who cleaned up after him, that was for sure. Ryan’s job took him into other people’s homes at the worst of times—compared to his peers in similar circumstances his dad was doing well. Hanging in there. Keeping it together. He should see him more regularly, do more things with him, yet somehow that simple notion was fraught with difficulty. As if spending time with his dad underscored that he himself remained alone in the world, not only as a bachelor but dateless, in a dry spell following a losing streak on the heels of what he referred to as a bad breakup, if he made any reference to that time at all. With most people he avoided the