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“So you’re the one who caused Cassie’s accident?”
Silence, the likes of which I’ve never experienced before, fills the air around us. My throat fills with ash, and I can’t even swallow it down to try and answer him.
I’ve just about worked my way through it, no doubt looking like I swallowed a lemon, when everything around us starts to shake. Bullets ricochet off the side of the Humvee, and Dom lifts his weapon, pointing it out toward the hills where shots are coming from.
The air around us fills with the sharp whistle of an incoming rocket, and all we can do is brace for it. Dirt mixes with blood and dust slaps me in the face as the vehicle rocks to the side and then lands with a crash on its hood. We are a tangled mess of limbs, Dom and I both struggling to get out.
But the smell hits my nostrils and everything fades away. Back to the last time I’d been in a crash. To that night, the moment my life changed. Everything about the desert vanishes, and I let the memories unfold.
For the first time, I see exactly what my subconscious has been hiding from me.
I see the other car swerve into my lane.
I see her red hair yanked back and her head slam into the dash.
I see the tears in her eyes and the way she pounds on the glass of the window until I’m sure she’ll break it with the desperation in her hits.
I see the way Casper’s sister begs for help without saying a word.
17
CASPER
An oversized, ridiculously colorful handmade sign takes up almost the entire baggage claim in the Bangor Airport.
Thirty feet long and four feet wide, it takes me almost an hour to get it hung just right.
I still needed help from security to make sure that everything is hanging in the right place and that it isn’t bent or folded anywhere.
Yes, I blatantly abused my power as a teacher and called all the parents of the students in my last class.
Yes, I coerced my mother and father to get involved.
Yes, I know that I look like an absolute crazy person as I try to get everything set up.
There isn’t a ‘but’ either.
I know and embrace every single absolutely crazy thing I am doing.
Because he deserves it.
“Do you think it looks right?” Parker asks as she comes down the escalator. “I think it looks right.”
“Yeah,” Ridley agrees as she checks from the ticket area. “I think it’s amazing.”
“Are you kidding?” My sister Kennedy questions from the car rental area. “It has to be perfect. Remy and Linc are finally coming home.”
I am already nodding and wiping tears out of the corners of my eyes. “The accident happened six weeks ago.” I choke on my words and start sobbing so hard that Parker pulls me into her arms and squeezes tightly.
“He’s alive, Casper. He’s alive.” I close my eyes, unable to stop even though I know she’s right. “He’s alive and he’s coming home.”
My fingers ache from squeezing them so tightly at my sides, and the stinging pain of my fingernails cutting into the palm of my hands is the only thing anchoring me to the present.
“Pull it together,” Ridley snaps suddenly, remorseless. “We have ten minutes until their plane is supposed to land, and you know better than I do that there’s nothing that’ll piss Remy off more than seeing you cry.”
I sniff, tears still streaking down my cheeks, and take all of Parker’s offered comfort.
“I hate you,” I mutter, wiping my nose on her shoulder. “But you’re right.”
