Page 11 of Make It Last

“You have to do that every year?”

“They sign us up every year for a refresher.”

We walked out together. She stopped beside her car and wrapped me in a hug. “Thank you for thinking of me.” She climbed into her car with a wave, and I followed her down the drive. I lived next door on the property my parents had sold to me. I built a house there, fully intending to marry my ex and settle into a life she eventually decided she didn’t want.

I love that you’re reliable and loyal, Tanner, she’d said. You take care of everyone. But… you’re a little boring. This isn’t the life I want. Maybe someday I’ll regret this, but…

She paused then, and I remembered feeling hollowed out. You’re not adventurous.

I’d had to bite my tongue to keep from pointing out that I literally ran into danger for a living as a hotshot firefighter.

I need more. Maybe I’m just trying to find an excuse. But I think you know we both need to do this.

That conversation left a mark. My parents had raised me to be reliable and responsible. My father had wanted me to take over his business, which I didn’t. We hadn’t been close. At all. Any discussion of my tense relationship with my father when he was alive was like an old pothole in the road. Just there while we all just kept driving around it.

Maybe someday I’d bring it up with my mom. Blessedly, she’d been the balm to his harshness. She was affectionate in ways he never was. But there was still something that ached for me with her. She’d never stood up for my sister or me with him.

I gave myself a mental shake. I didn’t prefer to dwell on thoughts about my father. I couldn’t help thinking about Ava as I pulled into the hospital parking lot. My mom waved as she hurried by on her way in. She was a nurse in one of the long-term care wings here.

“Hey, hey!” Holly called from the desk as I walked in. “You here for CPR?”

“Sure am,” I replied.

Holly’s husband, Nate, came around the corner with a lazy grin. “Same here. Let’s see how fast we can make the instructor blow through this,” he quipped.

Holly stopped beside him, and he leaned down for a quick kiss. These two were happily married. Nate flew support planes for our hotshot crews and had been a friend forever.

“How many of us are here today?” I asked.

Nate shrugged as he fell into step beside me. “Heard you had to carry someone for quite the hike the other day,” he added.

“Oh, yeah. Haven’t even had a chance to check how she’s doing.”

Holly called out from the desk. “Ava’s doing well, but you should go see her. She’s bored out of her mind.” Pausing, I glanced back. “The hospital is boring,” she added. “And, definitely not relaxing.”

My mother walked by just then. “It’s not boring,” she teased.

Holly grinned. “Hey, Beth, your son was the hero the other day.”

She returned the grin. “He’s always a hero.”

“Oh my God, I can’t with this,” Nate teased, picking up the pace.

I caught up to him. “All right. Let’s do this.”

The CPR class turned out to be crowded with me, Nate, Donovan, Graham, Tate, Griffin, Kincaid, Leo, and Hudson from the crews and more. When we finished, everyone filtered out slowly. I stopped by the ER desk and caught Holly’s eye. “So how’s Ava?”

“She’s doing pretty well,” Holly said. “But she’s gonna be here at least a week.”

“How come?”

“She broke both of the big bones in her ankle. They’ve got her in traction.”

I let out a low whistle. “Yikes.”

“Ankle breaks are a pain in the ass,” another nurse, Chris, added. “Weight-bearing during recovery is tricky.”

“Where is she?”