She is getting high off this drama, thriving as the center of attention. “Well, I didn’t know anything about it. I was just sleeping and then Muscles over here threw me over his shoulders and hauled me out of my own house.”
“That was on fire. And it wasn’t me. I took you when you got outside,” Brodie adds. “I wouldn’t go into a fire dressed like this.”
Granny finally shows a small sign of weakness, her lips flattening into a line and her eyes shimmering.
“Oh, Granny,” I say, sitting on the edge of her bed and hugging her. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
She starts to cry, and a large, gentle hand lands in the middle of my back.
“I’ll give you two a minute. Go get us some coffee,” Brodie says, the swish of the curtain casters announcing his exit.
“My house,” Granny cries, and I squeeze her a little tighter. “Our house.”
“I know,” I whisper, and it surprises me that a tear squeaks out of my eye too. I can’t give voice to the most devastating part of it for me, afraid it will upset her too much. That house was a living memorial to Gramps, and now we don’t have that physical place that is so full of him. “You’re alive, though.”
Granny sniffs and pushes me back, wiping under her eyes. I grab us each a tissue off the narrow counter by the sink. She laughs as she dries her tears. “Your man was something rescuing me.” She rounds her shoulders and makes her hands into fists. “Big and strong.”
I laugh and dab my nose. “Yeah, he’s known for that, I think.”
In a rare moment of non-snarky sincerity, she sobers. “He was so sweet when I couldn’t breathe.”
Granny’s face crumples again. She’s really shaken up and it’s weird to see it. I hug her tighter and let her sob. I cry some more too because if the worst had happened, who would I have? Richard? Some colleagues?
Brodie?
The nurse comes in to check on her. Her blood oxygen levels aren’t great, so they’re going to keep her overnight. They’re just waiting on a bed to open upstairs.
“So she’ll go home tomorrow afternoon?”
“That’s the plan,” the nurse confirms, and I have a whole other problem to consider. Where do I take her? Where is home now? Even if the whole house isn’t burned, it will be a long time before it’s safe to be back in there. “We’re going to do a nebulizer now to open her lungs up some more.”
I thank her, and Granny leans back like she wants to rest. “I’ll be back,” I say. “Going to let Brodie know he can leave.”
I find him in the hallway, walking toward me with two cups of coffee. He looks so hulking and big in his firefighter uniform, the navy jacket on top since it’s pretty cold out tonight. He extends a cup my way, which I accept. “Thank you.”
He lifts his cup in a cheers-style salute. “Sorry it took so long. The machine is broken, so I had to sweet-talk my way into the staff lounge.”
“Why do I not find that hard to believe?” I take a sip of the coffee. “Thank you. For being here. She could have been here alone, but . . .”
Brodie shakes his head. “It’s nothing. I’m glad she’s okay, even though she is meaner than a snake.”
We both laugh. “She really is.”
“Wonder where you get it from?” he says with a wink, and I just sigh.
I fold my arms in front of me and rest the coffee cup in the crook of my arm, trying to hide my shivering. I ran out of thehouse with no bra under my fortunately big t-shirt, and even though I’ve got a jacket on, I’m both sweating and shivering. “What started the fire? Do we know?”
“Not 100% sure yet, but it looked like it started in her front window with?—”
“The dolls? I always knew those damn things were cursed!”
He grimaces. “They might actually be cursed. And now their faces are melted, so it’s extra . . . yeah. You can imagine.”
I tut. “Poor Granny. She loved those things.”
“It’s hard to lose things. The house you grew up in, Ari. I know it’s not easy.”
I nod, doing an absolutely shit job of being stoic. I fall apart so fast, tissue paper in water. Brodie takes my cup from me, setting both of ours on top of the soda vending machine behind him.
