Page 280

Even after all these years, saying those words still fucking hurts.

“I was there when his dad came to the hospital that day. Poor Paul. He never left Milo’s side, holding his hand while the doctors did everything they could to save him. And somehow, despite how badly he’d been hurt, Milo just kept hanging on.”

I close my eyes for a moment, remembering the monitors, the machines, and Paul’s trembling voice as he leaned over his son.

“Then someone came in and told us Max was going to pull through. Paul leaned down and shared the good news with Milo, hoping it would give his son the strength to keep fighting.” I pause to collect myself. “But he was wrong. The moment Milo heard Max was going to be okay, his heart stopped beating.”

Dr. Fredrickson remains silent, waiting for me to continue.

“He’d been holding on for her. All that time, through all that pain, he was just waiting to hear that she’d made it. And once he knew she would be fine without him…”

I let the sentence trail off.

He gets the picture. And if he doesn’t, he should buy the damn book.

“I lost a lot of friends that night,” I continue quietly. “I lost Max, too.”

Dr. Fredrickson looks at me. “But she’s alive. He saved her.”

I release a weary sigh. “Did he?”

“I’d say surviving an explosion of that magnitude is rather compelling evidence that he did.” He frowns.

“Physically? Sure. But not everywhere else that counts.”

I look toward the courtyard again.

“But you’re right. He tried his best to save her. That was Milo for you. He would’ve done absolutely anything for Max. Anything. Even risk his own life to save hers. It was just rotten luck that she wasn’t the only person there at the mill that night. His best friends were trapped up on the roof, too, and there was no way in hell he was going to leave them behind. Not without at least trying to get them out.”

“I suppose things didn’t turn out quite the way he’d hoped,” Dr. Fredrickson murmurs.

“You think, Doc?”

The sarcastic teenager I used to be makes a brief appearance, apparently unable to resist giving the poor man a hard time.

But it’s not his fault.

None of this is.

It’s just fucking unfair that two of the best people I’ve ever known were dealt such shitty hands.

“When we were kids, Max once told me something about Milo,” I say after a moment. “Apparently, he used to tease her that one day he’d be her knight in shining armor.”

Dr. Fredrickson gives me a puzzled look.

“And you found that amusing?”

“Of course I did. You have to understand something about Max. She never needed anyone to save her. She’d been taking care of herself for as long as I’d known her, and she’d gotten pretty damn good at it, too. She was stubborn, fiercely independent, and more than capable of fighting her own battles.”

I smile faintly at the memory.

“But Milo knew that. He never wanted to take her power away or make her feel like she couldn’t survive without him. He just wanted to be the person she could turn to when she was tired of being strong. The one place where she didn’t have to put on a brave face or pretend that nothing could hurt her. He wanted to be her safe place. Her anchor.”

I look back at Max.

“Her knight in shining armor, as he liked to put it.”

I shake my head.

“Funny, isn’t it? All those times he joked about rescuing her, neither of them could’ve imagined that one day he’d actually have to. In the final moments of his life, he’d become exactly what he’d always promised to be. The person who saved her when she couldn’t save herself.”

I reach for the door leading out to the courtyard, pushing it open as a gust of wind rushes toward me.

“That’s terribly sad,” Dr. Fredrickson says behind me.

I pause in the doorway and glance back at him.

“Is it?”

He doesn’t answer.

“Not all love stories end with a happily ever after, Doctor. Doesn’t mean they’re any less extraordinary.”

The End