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I swallowed hard at how vivid and real that fantasy was. Howeasyit was to conjure up.
Another lifetime where none of this was fake. Where I woke up so much sooner and saw what was right in front of me. Maybe Annie could have been mine from the beginning.
Maybe she already had been.
* * *
By the timethe parade was over, the buckets of candy were completely gone, though the bulging pockets of Penny’s stars-and-stripes shorts were a good indication that her sweet tooth would be satisfied.
In true overprotective fashion, Wyatt was waiting for us at the station when we arrived. Once the fire truck was parked, Penny hopped out and jumped into her dad’s arms. “Have fun?”
“The best time!” She looked back at me. “Thanks, Uncle Lee.”
“You bet, Rat-face.”
Wyatt and I shook hands, and I watched him and his little family load up into his car and leave.
Outtatowner never did anything small, so after the 5K and parade, families would go home to barbecue before meeting down by the county fairgrounds for an epic fireworks display.
I was eager to get back to Annie when a call came in. Dispatch relayed the call for a residential house fire a few miles outside of town. The firefighters on duty, including myself, hurried to gear up and get our trucks on the road.
As with any call, adrenaline zipped through my veins. We gathered as much information as we could from dispatch as we hauled ass out of town to the rural farmhouse. Before we even got there, thick black smoke was billowing above the tree line.
I hadn’t immediately recognized the address, but when we drew closer, I realized we were heading straight for the Robinsons’ property.
Sloane was a single mother with twins, and she had recently moved back to her family’s property. If the rumors were true, her ex was a bit of a psycho. A pit formed in my stomach. If this was her place, kids could also be involved. I exhaled three sharp breaths to calm my racing heart.
Whip’s fist bumped my biceps. “Get your shit together, man.”
Focus.
I swallowed hard and pressed my lips together before nodding once.
I reached back into my memory, trying to pull out details of the old farmhouse, but I came up blank.
“Hey, what did we know about the Robinsons?” I called into my headset over the blaring sirens.
Whip shook his head, indicating he knew about as much as I did.
Brooklyn called out, “Sloane is living there. She’s got twins, a boy and a girl. If I remember right, the house is two stories. She might even have a dog or a cat.”
A young, scared mother.
Two small children.
Pets.
Fuck.
Best-case scenario, the fire started when the house was empty. I prayed they had been at the parade and no one was home. Worst-case scenario—I couldn’t allow myself to think about that.
As we approached the scene, the flashing lights of fire trucks and the piercing sound of sirens added to the chaos that engulfed the typically quiet, rural neighborhood. The adrenaline surged through my veins. Lives were at stake, and I focused on the task ahead, a knot of tension forming in my stomach.
The orange glow flickered through the downstairs windows, a sign of the relentless fire raging within.
The desperate cries of a mother and the urgent voices of my fellow firefighters reverberated in my ears as I jumped out of the truck. The heat of the inferno hit me like a wave. I scanned the surroundings, trying to gather as much information as possible.
Sloane was standing outside, clutching one small child and screaming while a police officer held her back. The mother and her daughter were safe, but the young boy was still trapped inside. I couldn’t bear the thought of him, alone and scared, being consumed by the flames.
