AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Only if you want,” Liam said casually. “Not trying to guilt you into a date just because I saved your life.”
Alyssa blushed. She probably didn’t come here expecting to get asked out, and Liam was a good-looking, charismatic guy. He glanced at me with an unmistakable expression: say the word and I’ll back off.
I shot back a stubborn look. Liam shrugged almost imperceptibly.
“Sure,” she said. “I’d love to get dinner with you. We can catch up.”
The two of them exchanged numbers while I sat very still.
“Anyway, thanks again. I owe you my life. All three of you. Enjoy the cookies.”
Liam hugged her, then Mateo did the same. She lingered a moment, waiting to see if I would move in for a hug. My body ached to embrace her, to fold her into my arms and hold her tight like that day at the pool party eight years ago when we were all alone. But I couldn’t make my feet move.
Alyssa gave an awkward little smile, then left.
“She is very pretty,” Mateo said.
“That’s what hooks you,” I muttered. “But like I said: she’s bad news.”
“I don’t actually want to go out with her,” Liam explained. “I only did that to prove a point. I didn’t realize you were too stubborn to flinch first.”
Mateo chuckled. “I have known this since the first day I met him.”
“Okay,” Liam admitted. “I knew he was stubborn, but not that stubborn. I don’t want to cross any lines, bud. Say the word and I’ll back out.”
“Go ahead and take her to dinner. I don’t even care,” I replied. “I’m going to go see about those hoses now.”
But as I left, I knew nobody in that room believed my lie.
Alyssa fucking Ford.
5
Alyssa
Jack freaking Franco.
Never in a billion years did I expect to see him standing there in that fire station. Yet the longer I looked at him, the more it felt right. Growing up, he always said he wanted to help people for a living. It made sense that he would become a fireman.
And it did feel like he was the man who knocked my door down and carried me out of the house, even though I was wrong about that.
I was already in a strange mood after getting out of the hospital. I had experienced a traumatic event, and my childhood house had burned down. Who wouldn’t feel weird after that? But seeing Jack out of the blue made me feel even stranger. Like I had been transported back in time, with all the same emotions and baggage from high school, yet with all the adult knowledge I had accrued in the eight years since.
Why did he have to see me like this? I thought, looking down at myself. The hospital had given me a baggy sun dress and a pair of sandals to wear, since my pajamas were more smoke than fabric. It wasn’t even close to flattering.
I called another Uber back to the house to meet Brandi. The sight waiting there made me go numb. The right side of the house where the garage had been was now a pile of rubble, while the left side of the house was like a skeleton. The front-facing wall of my bedroom still stood, but looked like it might collapse from the first strong breeze that blew in off the ocean. My suitcase full of belongings was almost certainly destroyed. My rental car was still parked in the driveway, but the front half of it was burned black, and the tires were melted flat. The back of the car looked intact though, including the trunk…
I must have stood there for a while, because suddenly my sister’s car was skidding to a stop in front of the house. She came running around to the driveway, wrapping me in a tight hug while sobbing.
“Alyssa, oh my God Alyssa, I can’t believe it. You almost died!”
“I’m okay. Just a little smoke in my lungs.”
Rather than calm her down, she sobbed even harder. “If anything had happened to you, my sister, my twin… I can’t lose you. Not a week after losing our mother.”
I smiled. “Are you saying those are equivalent losses?”
Brandi gave me a sisterly shove. “Shut up. You know what I mean. Mother’s death is an inconvenience, but I would be devastated if I lost you.”
