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Mom nods again. “Yeah. He asked me today if he should tell her, and I told him it was up to him. I guess he’s decided to tell her.” Mom points to Kate and Max as we all see them hug each other and turn to come back inside.
I drop the dish towel and go to Kate, as I can see the tears rolling down her cheeks. “Are you okay? Mom just told me.”
Kate nods and comes into my arms. “She asked him if he got me out first.” She says around her sobs.
“Huh?” I turn to Max.
“I told her that her mom kept telling me to go get Katie out of the house first before helping her. I was able to tell her mother that Katie was already out of the house before the floor collapsed.”
I stroke my hand down the back of Kate’s head and down her back. “Shh. It’s okay.”
“I know, but you don’t understand. I’ve always thought she was yelling at me, but she was just worried about me. I know it sounds stupid, but I feel better hearing all this. Of course, she wanted me to get out of the house, but knowing she was putting me first… it’s just…”
“I know.”
Kate pulls out of my arms and wipes her tears. “Thank you for telling me, Max. It means the world to me.” She reaches over and hugs him again.
“Holy shit. I’m crying, too.” Grace says over a laugh as she wipes her eyes.
I turn to Max and shake his hand. “Thank you for your service, sir. And for saving my Kate.”
Max smiles and shakes my hand. “I’m proud to have served. Thank you, too.”
“How about some cake? It’s chocolate.” Mom says, and it breaks the tension in the room. It’s good tension, but still tension.
There are two people in this room with me that have saved Kate’s life, and now it’s up to me to make sure she’s safe and happy for the rest of our lives.
I can do that.
I want to do that.
I’m privileged to do that.
CHAPTER 37
KATE
It’s been a month since all the excitement and I’m not sleeping well. If you listen to Hudson, I’m not sleeping at all, but I think he’s being a bit dramatic about it.
Granted, I’m having nightmares and loud noises make me jump, but that’s to be expected, right? Hell, a building blew up around me; I think I’m entitled to be a bit jumpy for a while.
Either way, he’s insisted that I need a good therapist, and I suppose he’s right. It was pretty traumatic and after the fire when I was a kid. Grandma had us both in counseling for a few years afterwards. It helped then, so I’m hoping it’ll help now.
Grace took the entire week off once they discharged me from the hospital and hung out with me and Hudson. Hudson has taken the entire month off and is going back to work later this week. I’m not looking forward to being by myself for twenty-four hours straight while he’s at work, but Grace has volunteered to have a girls’ night each night he’s working until I feel more comfortable alone.
On the days that Hudson’s will be at work, Lori and Max said we’ll hang out. They’ve become dear friends. She’ll never be able to replace my mother or my grandmother, but she takes care and worries about me. And I love her for that.
Talking to Max and finding out he was the firefighter who saved me all those years ago and then to hear my mother was only thinking of me… well, that was pretty eye opening. Both he and Lori are quickly becoming like family to me ever since.
Wilbur has permanently moved in with us. We tried to let him stay with Betty at the RV park, but it just didn’t work out. We truly thought he would be happier to stay there. She called a few days after I’d been home from the hospital to tell me he was depressed and just hung out by my old mailbox waiting for me to come home. When she told me that, Hudson and I jumped into his truck and went over there immediately to pick him up. He honked the entire way home in glee. At least I think it was glee. You can never tell with a goose.
Pepper and he now hang out by the pool area. She hates swimming but will sit by the steps and watch Wilbur swim and splash around. The pool has a screen enclosure, so it keeps them both safe from the alligators that swim by in the canal.
Wilbur doesn’t seem to miss all the socializing with the ducks or my old neighbors. Perhaps he’s happy to have a friend in Pepper and his people. I get jealous when I look over at Hudson while we’re watching television and see Wilbur asleep next to him with his neck wrapped around Hudson. But it also warms my heart, too.
Hudson has asked me to marry him once each week. At this point, it’s almost comical if I didn’t know that he’s serious. He tells me each time I tell him no, that he’ll ask me the next week until I finally relent.
I’ll take him up on his offer eventually, but not until I can stand on my own two feet. Equal footing. That’s what I’m looking for and he understands and loves me for it.
