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“He’s not an idiot, Bobby.”
“You give him too much credit.”
“And you underestimate what he’s capable of,” I said. “Trust me, the minute you call, he’ll see through it. He’ll know I’m here.”
Bobby pursed his lips and drummed his fingers on the table. “So, what do you want to do?”
“Nothing,” I said. “Absolutely nothing. He knows we hardly talk. He’ll probably think Mansfield was the last place I’d run off to.”
“Now you’re being ridiculous,” Bobby frowned. “You said he wasn’t stupid. This would be the first place I’d look if I were in his shoes.”
“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head. “Just don’t call him. He’ll know.”
Bobby looked at me for a few seconds, then sighed and ran a hand across his face. “Fine, we’ll do it your way.”
“Thank you.”
“I still think my plan is kinda awesome,” he smiled.
“Your plan sucks.”
Bobby laughed and shook his head at me. “It’s good to have you back, little sis.”
I smiled at him, took a sip from my coffee and closed my eyes.
It was good to be back.
***
My room looked exactly the same. My bed was made, the purple sheets I loved embracing the mattress with a perfection that only my father could have achieved. My posters hung on the walls, faded and yellow, but still a stark reminder of the boyband lover that had once inhabited the room. My books were lined perfectly on the shelf above my desk, and the picture of me at ten playing baseball with my father still stood on the nightstand by the bed.
I would have cried if I hadn’t been all out of tears.
I rolled my suitcase into a corner and opened the closet, grazing my hand over the few clothes that had been left hanging there for God knows how long. Bobby was right. My parents really hadn’t given up on me. My room was a perfect symbol of their expecting me to come back at any time. I wondered how long they waited for me to knock on the front door before finally deciding that I was gone for good. That they wouldn’t see me again.
It made my heart ache.
I opened the suitcase, found something to sleep in, and quickly undressed. I slid under the covers, letting the cool sheets tingle my skin, and stared up at the stars I had stuck on the ceiling when I was only seven. I had never taken them down, even though I clearly remembered how stupid I thought they were back when I was in high school. But I couldn’t bring myself to remove them.
It was funny how much of this I had taken for granted for so long. I thought back to the house I shared with Dennis, the chill that inhabited it like a third wheel, the blandness of it all. As if it had been furnished for a doctor’s office, and not a home. There was no warmth there, no life, nothing that reflected even a glimmer of happiness.
Unlike here. There was no chill here. No emptiness. Just a lot of warmth, and love, as if the walls themselves had been infused with it. I couldn’t believe that I had forgotten how good it felt to be here. I couldn’t believe that I had stayed away for so long.
I closed my eyes, and for the first time in a very long time, I fell asleep with a smile on my face.
Chapter 6: Andy
I learned a lot from my time as a fire fighter.
For starters, I learned never to underestimate my surroundings. Running into a burning building was a lot like hitting two hundred miles an hour on a motorcycle without a helmet in the middle of a crowded residential area. You never knew what was going to hit you. No matter how well you were prepared, there was always that one mistake that you could make, that one doorknob you forgot to check for heat, that one roof you didn’t probe before walking below it. One mistake. Just one, and everything came tumbling down on top of you.
A lot like my life, if you thought about it. The problem was, I was too busy being careful on the job, that I basically regarded the rest of my life as a free for all. I didn’t care about safety that much, which probably explained my toxic relationship with Hannah. I rarely used a condom on the drunk college kids I brought home, which meant that if one of them came up to me a year after our night together with a baby, claiming it was mine, I wouldn’t be surprised. I usually forgot to put on my seatbelt, which, as a fire fighter, was as ridiculous as they came.
I was reckless. Everyone knew that. I knew that. And to be quite honest, I didn’t give a rat’s ass. As long as I was keeping it safe on the job, making sure no one died under my watch, then I figured that meant everything else should be fine. It was one of the reasons why the Chief calling me reckless made me scoff, much to his displeasure.
Another thing I learned was no matter what time it was, I always woke up at seven in the morning, even on my days off. A quick jog down the woodland path behind my house, followed by a hot shower, and I was ready to take on the day.
This morning, though, I slept in, and when my cellphone began to ring,
