22. Bridget

TWENTY-TWO

Bridget

The door to my mother's house slams behind me as I get Mia and myself inside. My mother darts in from the kitchen, holding out her arms to take Mia.

The poor girl is so confused, and I've been doing my best to just tell her that we're going for a visit.

I haven't mentioned the fire, and I won't. I mean, hell, she's not quite three. Mia doesn't understand.

When my mom has Mia in the kitchen watching her little tablet and happily oblivious, I go back to the front of the house and pull open the drapes.

Even from here, I can see the massive cloud of black smoke looming over the town. The fire started just like that. Wildfires are like that. I remember Mason saying how dry and hot it would be today. With all that kindling, it wouldn't take much to start a fire.

And I had no idea it was happening until Mason called.

And…he's out there fighting it.

My heartbeat is too quick and erratic. Fighting a fire is a dangerous job in any circumstance, and this is one of the worst.

A blazing wildfire on a dry day? Yeah, it's going to take all the resources the town has to get it out, and the risk of harm to the firefighters is so much higher.

I need to take my mind off of this. I don't know how I'm supposed to do that, but I can't freak out Mia.

Hell, I can't stand here freaking out for myself either. I'm liable to give myself a panic attack.

"Hey, honey. Here."

I turn around to see my mother offering a cup of tea. It's the classic move when either of us is stressed.

"Thanks."

I offer her a halfhearted smile, accepting the cup and taking a sip.

"Now, I know there's no stopping you from being worried. But how about we put on a movie so that we can try to distract ourselves from the fire? Okay?"

Sighing, I close my eyes briefly as I let out the long exhale. As I walk over to my mom, I wrap an arm around her and pull her in for a hug.

"Thank you, Mom. Really."

She smiles, and my chest pinches just that little bit more. She's doing the mom thing, taking care of her kid.

And damn, have I missed it.

I sit down on the couch next to her, and Mom throws on a dumb movie. I'm not even really sure what it is, but the lighthearted humor does enough to distract me for a few minutes at a time.

Invariably, though, my eyes flick to the window, watching that black smoke soaring high.

"Honey," my mother cuts in, "he's going to be fine."

I can't look over at her, my eyes pinned to the window. "It's just…Mason lost his dad to this."

Hearing the hiccup in my mom's breath, I turn to face her, and she nods solemnly.

"Oh, that's right. I'd…well, shit, I'd forgotten that Mason lost his father to a wildfire that hit town."

Nodding softly, I look over at Mia, who's playing on the floor with a few of the old toys my mom keeps lying around for when Juniper visits.

She's so happy and innocent. I can't stand the thought of her losing her dad, too.

"I don't remember much about it, to be honest," I reply. "Just that he was a firefighter for that big one when Mason was a kid."

My mother hums in agreement. "He did. Now that the old memory is jogged, I can remember that day. The fire ripped through the town. They hadn't been able to stop it at the forest. The entire department was out there fighting it, including Mason's dad, James. I think Mason wanted to be a volunteer firefighter because James was."

That ache in my chest gets worse, and I vaguely recall Hudson mentioning Mason's absence from school. They were in the same grade, but I was too much younger than them to understand.

"Red Lodge owes James Hayes a lot. He was a hero that day."

I turn back to the window, that plume of black still clouding up the sky.

"Mason doesn't talk about him. I think I can count on one hand the number of times he's mentioned his dad."

"I can understand that. But Mason knows what happened. His mother told him. Poor thing, now she's gone too."

My eyes burn, and again, I look at Mia. When I speak again, my voice cracks.

"What, umm, what made him a hero?"

Nodding, my mother looks down at the floor, recalling what happened all those years ago.

"Well, James was a volunteer firefighter, too. He got called to a house in town that had caught fire. The forest fire had spread into town, you see, and the house was right on the edge over there."

My guts churn. Mason's house is on that side of town, too. Mia and I were in there. We would have stayed if Mason hadn't called. He saved us.

"James was inside that home helping to get the family out when it suddenly collapsed. The fire had damaged too much of the internal structure. He was trapped."

Fear licks through my spine as nausea crawls up the back of my throat. I don't want to picture Mason in that situation, but the intrusive thoughts won't back down.

"James got those people out. The kids are Mason's age now and have kids of their own. He died that day, but what he did was beyond heroic. He saw a family like his own in need, and he made the ultimate sacrifice to keep them safe."

I can't stop the tears, and my mother isn't judging me. She hands me a tissue, and I dab at my face as the fear and worry swirl together.

Mason cannot die today. I'll…he just can't.

"I didn't know. I mean, I knew that he'd been a firefighter and passed, but…James really was a hero."

My heart feels like it's going to split open and spill all its contents out onto the floor. Mason is just as good a man as his father, and I'm trembling thinking about him out there right now.

I look out the window and then at my phone. It hasn't been long since we last spoke, and I know Mason is busy. But fucking hell, I want to hear his voice right now.

Mia starts babbling at the stuffed animals, who are clearly having some kind of conversation I don't understand.

She walks over to me and grabs my finger, dragging me over to the circle of animals. We've played this game at home, and I know she wants me to say who each of the stuffies is and make the animal sound with her.

So I do.

Still, my fingers itch with the need to call Mason. But I can't be the reason he's distracted.

Mia is here right now, and she needs me. So, I'll do my best to keep her calm and happy. It's the absolute least I can do while Mason is out there putting his life on the line.

Smiling and making sounds like a monkey and lion and struggling through giraffes because I don't think they make a sound, I play with Mia.

Inside, however, I'm panicking. I want to hear Mason's voice. I want him to call soon, to give me good news and say he's coming home soon.

The thought "home" strikes me, and I realize just how much that "home" is really just him.

It wasn't too long ago that Mason and I agreed to give this a try, and while the thought of Jai still out there searching for me has never left my mind, I didn't expect that we'd be contending with a fire, too.

It hasn't been long since Mason came back into my life, but when I think about it, I'm not sure he ever left.

Hell, I've been crushing on him since I was in high school.

That aggravating discomfort—a blend of nausea and aching bones—swells, and all I can think as I play with his daughter is that the universe can't do this to me.

I've finally gotten Mason back in my life, and beyond that, we've gotten this chance to be together.

It can't be taken away. I…I won't survive it.

It's him. He's it. Without Mason, all this running from Jai will finally catch up to me, and I just won't be able to do it anymore.

The reality of what he means to me hits me like a punch to the chest, but I can't even bring myself to think it.

Because if something happens…if something happens and he was the one, it will just hurt that much more.

"Growl!"

My attention snaps back to Mia as she holds up a teddy bear.

"Yup, growl goes the bear. Good job, Mia."

She looks around the room and then toward the door.

"Dada?"

I have to fight to school my expression.

"He'll be home soon, hun. He's just working really hard right now."

Mia seems happy enough with my response, and then it's back to making animal sounds.