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“Nothing awful. With some care and a good topical ointment, you probably won’t have visible scars,” Eric replies.
“They said second-degree burns.”
“It looked worse than it actually was, trust me,” he says, giving me a reassuring smile. He’s so calm and comforting. “You’re going to be fine, Halle.”
“Thank you,” I say with a trembling voice. “Had you not been there, I would’ve—”
“Hey now, don’t let this fool take all the credit,” Wyatt chimes in.
I look around and realize that Wyatt and Chase are also here, both of them standing by the window. They’re still in their firefighter gear—the pants and tees, at least. Their jackets occupy the second chair next to the kids’ cot, along with their oxygen tanks and radio stations.
Despite the nightmare I just survived, I can’t help but notice how ridiculously handsome the Danson brothers are, even after a night’s worth of hard work. They’re sweaty and dirty from the fire, tired and worn out, yet they still carry themselves with the kind of grit and determination that gets my engines rumbling.
These are some ridiculous thoughts for me to entertain at this point in time, but it is better than facing reality.
“You’re all here,” I say, my gaze bouncing from Eric to his twin, Chase, then Wyatt and back. Eric and Chase are almost identical, though the former is slightly bigger and buffer than the latter. Wyatt is taller and more slender, but just as athletic and dominating with his presence. “Why?”
“We were worried about you,” Wyatt says with a wry smile. “We just witnessed our favorite waitress in deadly peril. Our favorite diner burning down. We’re in a lot of pain here, Halle.”
“You’re in a lot of pain?” I scoff, shaking my head slowly. “I’m homeless.”
“You were renting the apartment upstairs, weren’t you?” Eric asks, looking at me with a certain intention in his eyes.
I nod slowly. “For cheap, too. I lost everything up there. My ID, my wallet, my clothes, the kids’ stuff. We’ve got nothing. We had little to begin with, but now… nothing.”
“Hey, hey, it’s gonna be okay,” Eric tries to comfort me but the tears run freely, my whole body shuddering as reality comes crashing down on me harder than the ceiling beam did earlier. “You and the kids are going to pull through this.”
“How?” I mumble. “The diner is gone. I don’t know if they’ll rebuild it or cash the insurance check and sell the plot altogether. I don’t have a job anymore, obviously. My kids and I are homeless. How the hell am I going to pull through this?” I take a deep, almost painful breath in an effort to regain my composure. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to complain or to sound ungrateful after what you and your brothers did for me, for us.”
Eric reaches for a glass of water resting on the bedside table, puts a straw in, then gives it to me. I grab it with my good hand and sip half of it in one, long gulp. “First things first, Halle,” he says. “Is there anybody that you’d like us to call?”
“No,” I say, decidedly.
My mother let me down one last time earlier tonight. She’s out gambling and being her usual self. I’m done trying to reason with her, and I’m certainly done foolishly relying on her for anything. Colby is out of the question, and so is that sociopathic shrew of a mother of his.
“Are you sure?” Eric asks, carefully analyzing my expression.
“Yes.”
“She’s all alone,” Wyatt confirms, then looks at my kids.
“I’ll manage,” I say. “You don’t have to worry about me. You’ve already done so much.”
Chase scoffs, giving me a long, persistent glance. “We were just doing our jobs, Halle.
“You’re still here,” I shoot back. “You didn’t have to stay. I’d argue that’s going above and beyond just doing your jobs.”
“We were worried about you,” Eric says. “We still are.”
“He’s right,” Wyatt insists and crosses his arms.
The brothers exchange meaningful glances, and for a moment, I find myself completely lost. It all happened so fast. In the blink of an eye, my whole life went up in flames quite literally. My fresh start blown to smithereens. Reduced to ashes.
What the hell am I going to do?
“It’s gonna sound weird, crazy even,” Eric says, pulling me back into the moment.
“What is?” I ask, totally confused now.
