Page 84 of The Dating Charade

Silence.

His hands shook as he sat up. As he pulled Timothy up to eye level.

With relief beyond words, he watched Timothy open his mouth as the blood-curling screams began.

People pulled him up, but Jett just fell to his knees beside Dakota. He searched Nick’s face for any clues, then dropped his head to Dakota’s chest, his ear pressed to her heart.

He felt it.

The quiet rise.

The quiet fall.

Sirens closed in on them as the minutes passed. But he just sat there on the ground, one arm wrapped around Timothy, the other hand clasped around Dakota’s small fingers.

Watched as two stretchers made snaking paths through the crowd.

As the boots of those in uniform circled Dakota and stopped.

As they lifted her.

The second stretcher passed carrying Trina. His eyes strained to take in his sister’s injuries, then ripped away, unable to bear the pain of seeing them all. Another man in uniform walked beside the limping truck driver clutching his arm. Two more covered the body of another with a white sheet.

“Make way,” a woman said, gripping the stretcher with one hand and waving as it began to move.

Holding tightly to Drew and Timothy, his own chest ripped and bleeding, he followed.

23

Cassie

It was the most incredible thing she’d experienced in her life.

Driving along the highway, mind halfway on the same muddled, melancholy thoughts she’d had the past month and a half since she’d walked away from Jett, since the girls had walked away from her, since everything she’d clung to collapsed. Brain suddenly snapping to attention as she noticed the car several vehicles ahead. The car swerving like an ice skater, gliding back and forth across white and yellow lines without regard. Swinging close, dangerously close, to the edge of the road. To the creek. Cassie had exhaled just about then, started to consider reaching for her phone to call the police.

Her foot eased on the gas, giving space between herself and the cars ahead.

She could recall holding the phone in her hand when she watched the car suddenly pass over the lines again, this time not stopping as it swerved into an oncoming truck.

An echo of screeches followed down the highway as she and everyone else slammed on their brakes. She heard the unmistakable collision of cars around her. But none of it matched the terror of seeing the looming semi swerve, tilt, and, almost as if in slow motion, topple across the highway. She could never erase the sound of what must have been eighty thousand pounds crashing, skidding until its mighty wheels dug into the side of the mountain.

Silence. Terrible silence followed.

Her legs had begun to quake so much she threw her car into Park, unable to trust her foot on the brake. She pressed her hand to her mouth, eyes widening as she saw the small car being crushed underneath.

She and everyone else, it seemed, waited. Motionless. Hearing the sirens growing in strength every moment.

And then, quite out of nowhere, there he was. His jacket whacked against her window as he ran past.

Without even realizing what she was doing, she gripped her steering wheel, watching him rip off his helmet. Saw the sweat of his forehead sparkle like crystal dewdrops. Heard the window cracking. And before her next breath he was pulling out a toddler, a little boy hardly more than two or three. The boy was thrown into the arms of another firefighter as Jett reached in again. She held her breath, eyes unblinking. The roof was crumbling before her very eyes as her grip on the steering wheel tightened like a python. The bloody little girl in her pajamas, her head against Jett’s chest, limp legs. Barefoot toes. And then, one more time, unbelievably, he dove inside.

Her eyes jumped from the precariously perched cab to his legs, terrified, dreading every second he didn’t move. There was a flurry of activity all around them, the fire truck at her ears now screaming at her to move, and she threw her car into Drive. As she pushed her way to the embankment, her eyes never left the scene, bated breath starting to make her head swim.

And then, with the shakiest intake of air, she saw Jett emerge. Watched feet so small they could fit in the palm of her hand kicking.

One minute later, the cab crushed the backside of the car entirely.

Jett was a hero.