Page 26 of Final Score

2…1…

The new year was here. As Jenner kissed me firmly on the lips, I had a good feeling what was to come. We had 4 more months left of our agreement, and I had a feeling things were about to get very interesting.

CHAPTER 14

-February-

My surroundings were clouded in fog, an obnoxious ringing echoed around my room. The further away I was pulled from dreamland, my consciousness slowly registered that the incessant ringing was coming from across the room. It wasn’t my alarm clock then. That would have been a much louder sound right by my pounding head. Fireball shots were not my favorite thing at the moment.

My cell phone. That’s where the noise was coming from. Groaning, I rolled out of bed in the darkness, scratching my chest, as I shuffled across the floor. Apparently, my sense of depth perception was still fast asleep, as a sharp pain shot across my hip. Damn desk.

Pulling the phone from the charger, I glanced at the screen. Ready to raise hell at whoever was blowing up my phone before sunrise the day before Valentine’s. I didn’t have hockey obligations and there was a gorgeous girl in my bed.

Shit.

8 missed calls from Dad.

4 texts from Mom.

2 voicemails.

Even in my tired, hungover state, I knew that something was wrong. Squinting in the bright light of the screen, I opened the call log. Pulling up the last voicemail from my father.

“Jenner, I need you to call me back as soon as you get this. There’s been an accident while we were on the job. It’s Trey, and it’s not good.”

My stomach dropped through the floor, no doubt splattering onto the kitchen counter below. From the broken, stressed edge in Dad’s tone to the emergency room noise in the background. I knew that everything I had known was about to change.

The bed sheets rustled as Kat moved, blissfully unaware of the bomb that had just gone off in my life. I checked the time, 4:30 am. Had I only been asleep for two hours? In true Seattle fashion, an intense thunderstorm rattled the windows, as thunder rolling through the room like a freight train. How fitting, as my life implodes. Mentally, I was preparing for the worst as I returned my father’s phone call.

Happy fucking birthday to me.

CHAPTER 15

It was official. I was in the world’s longest line. Waiting for coffee with 20 other weary passengers, I replayed what Dad had told me over again in my mind. It was like a bad horror movie. You just couldn’t look away, no matter how hard you tried.

Station 117 had been assigned to fight a nasty wildfire that had spread across the mountains fanned by the Santa Ana Winds. The fire had come close to several residential areas; trapping a couple who had been trying to evacuate inside their car at the edge of a cliff. Trey had helped rescue the couple, but not before getting knocked unconscious by a blast from the impending wildfire. He had taken a hard hit into the rocky cliff side. Resulting in a concussion, spinal fracture, and 2nd degree burns along the right side of his body.

He had been life flighted to the nearest hospital and placed under a medically induced coma. Dad had a right to be worried. He’d seen other firefighters take lesser hits and not make it to the other side. But Trey was the strongest person I knew, and if anyone could make it through the long road ahead, it was him.

I placed an order with the barista for two coffees, one black, and the other a mixture of sugar and syrup, as I checked my phone. 7:00 am. Even though I knew our flight would land in San Diego in a few brief hours, it wasn’t fast enough. The thought of something happening and not being there… well, that wasn’t something I wanted to think about.

I hoped I didn’t look like too much of an asshole as I accepted the coffees. Though from the restless crowd behind me, and impatient eye rolls, they all seemed to possess, I doubt I was the worst of what the barista would see today. That makes two of us. I thought as I made my way back through the terminal towards gate seven.

There Kat sat on a bench, surrounded by the luggage we had packed before rushing out of the house less than an hour ago. She had woken up as I finished the phone call to Dad, promising that I’d be on the first flight out. Once I had explained everything, she hadn’t missed a beat before asking when we were leaving. It hadn’t mattered how many times I’d told her I could go alone. She wouldn’t take no for an answer.

My girl is truly something special. I know how hard this trip is going to be for her. She’d made herself a promise to never set foot in California again, and now she was walking back into the lion’s den. For me. Lost in a mystery book she’d purchased at the gift shop, I kissed her forehead, placing her iced coffee in her open hand. She looked up at me, her eyes scanning my face for any signs of distress. Finding none, she nestled back into her chair, resting her head on my shoulder, before returning to her book.

She looked small, curled up in the chair as we waited to board the plane. Dressed in sweatpants, sneakers, and my oversized hoodie, I wondered what strangers thought when they looked in our direction. Did we look like a young couple in love?

The lines between reality and our agreement were blurring more with each passing day. For the past two months, we had spent every moment talking, laughing, and getting to know the new versions of each other. My fingers brushed across the cold metal from the bracelet that never left her wrist as I took a sip of my coffee.

We were in a good place, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about what this trip could mean. It seemed as if Kat had just forgotten about my part in her past, and now we were going back to the scene of the crime. Literally.

“Thank you.” I whispered for the millionth time.

“Jenner, stop saying that. I would never let you face this alone.” She responded, not bothering to look up from her book.

Placing a finger underneath her chin, I lifted her face to mine. “I will not stop.” Clasping her face so she knew I was serious. I felt her lean into the touch. “This. You being here. Means more to me than you know. It’s not something I take lightly.”