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“Yeah.” Max snorted as he realized how absurd he was being. “The worst part was that I asked Steph if she was having an affair with him.”
“No!” Wallis gaped at Max before frowning and asking. “Why was she in Tom’s arms?”
“I don’t know.” Max shook his head. “Steph never told me in between throwing her car keys at me, telling me to search all her messages, etcetera, and then storming out of the house.”
“I hope the kids weren’t home to hear all this?” Wallis said.
“No, they’d gone surfing,” Max told him. “I went to work thinking Steph and I would sort it out when I got home from work only to find an empty house and note telling me Steph, the boys, and Tammy had gone to Palm Beach with Hannah.”
“Wow!” Wallis gave a low whistle. “Looks like we are in similar boats, not knowing which paddle to use to get us home.”
“You’ve got that right.” Max held up the bottle in a saluting acknowledgment. “Thank you for inviting me over tonight, or I’d be a miserable heap moping on my couch.”
“That would’ve made two of us.” Wallis frowned curiously. “I know before you went to the Bahamas, you said that you felt like you and Steph had been drifting apart since the fire. We haven’t had much time to talk since then. Were things getting better between the two of you before today’s blow-up?”
“Steph and I had the most amazing time in the Bahamas.” Max lifted his ankle over his knee. “We rekindle our old spark that burned so bright before the fire.”
“Maybe burn so bright isn’t the best analogy to use in the same sentence as before the fire,” Wallis pointed out with a grin, trying to lighten the mood.
“True.” Max laughed. “But as soon as we got back from the Bahamas, the trip became a distant memory the moment we stepped foot on Marco Island.”
“You know, seeing the two of you together, not even your close family or friends know you’re having problems,” Wallis commented. “You both always seem so happy and together.”
“I was thinking the same about you and Heather,” Max remarked. “I guess the saying that nothing is usually ever as it seems is true.” He shook his head. “You told me yours and Heather’s problems started two years ago.” He pulled a face. “So, did mine and Steph’s.”
“That would’ve been right after the fire you got injured in,” Wallis remembered. “Geez, buddy, that was stressful on all of us, especially on your wife and father. It was touch and go for you.”
“I know!” Max’s voice became hoarse with emotion as images of the fire flashed through his mind, and the raw scars on his body stung as he could still feel the flames scorching his skin with its fiery touch. “I was so consumed with guilt and physical pain when I was eventually released from hospital that I pushed Steph away.”
“You’ve never spoken about what happened in the fire or how you were injured,” Wallis pointed out. “I never wanted to ask, as I figured you’d tell me when you were ready.”
“I haven’t told anyone.” Max put his empty beer bottle on the table in front of them. “It’s not a day I want to remember, let alone tell anyone about.”
“You saved a woman from a house fire!” Wallis raised his brows. “You’re a hero, my friend. I know you got severely injured. But not many people would rush into a burning house on their day off without all your protective gear.”
“Rescuing people from fire and fighting it is what I was trained for. It was my job. My calling,” Max told him. “I wouldn’t call myself a hero for doing my job.”
“But you were off duty,” Wallis stressed. “And completely unprepared to come across a fire while on your morning run.”
“I’m a firefighter. We’re always prepared for fires,” Max commented. “Just because I didn’t have the uniform on that day didn’t make me any less of a firefighter.”
“No, it made you a hero!” Wallis insisted. “An insane one, but a hero nonetheless.”
Max laughed and shook his head at his stubborn friend.
“Are you ready to tell me what happened?” Wallis put his empty bottle next to Max’s and sat back, staring at Max expectantly. “Or at least just the basic bits about how you came across the fire or why you were running near the marine center that day. Your usual route is along Tigertail beach.”
“As you know, the twins and I started volunteering at the Marine Center over the weekends. It was a nice activity for the three of us to do together,” Max explained. “Three weekends before the fire, one of the other volunteers at the center gave me a flier. It was for a fun run to raise money for the center.”
“Yes, I remember that run,” Wallis told him. “It nearly got canceled after the fire because the run went past the house that burned down.”
“When the runners signed up, they got given a map with the route.” Max rubbed the back of his neck. “I started practicing along the route every morning and night depending on when I was on duty.” He pulled his ankle, which was resting on his knee, further up his leg. “When I ran past the house that burned on the way toward the center, the house was fine. There wasn’t a hint of smoke. But twenty minutes later, when I was running home, I could smell the smoke a distance away and the screams.”
“You, being the man and firefighter that you are, naturally rushed right into the flames to save the person trapped in the house without a moment’s hesitation,” Wallis added what he guessed happened to the story.
“I did what I was trained to do,” Max continued. “I called the emergency services as I raced toward the house. When I saw the state the house was in and determined which side of it the screams were coming from, I took my shirt off to use as a mask and made my way as cautiously as I could into the house.”
“Geez, Max.” Wallis looked at him wide-eyed.
