While my imagination had run wild on the way over there, the actual sight of flames licking up the side of her perfect little house would haunt me forever. The vise grip on my heart tightened, squeezing to the point of pain. I couldn’t fucking breathe, fear over where she was, whether she was hurt or safe, overwhelming me.
It was chaos everywhere I turned—too many people and none of themher. I needed to find Everly. To make sure she was okay. That she wasn’t still inside.Jesusfuck, what if she was still—
“Over there.” Ford gripped my shoulders and turned me away from Everly’s burning home and toward the woman herself. She sat in the back of an ambulance, blanket wrapped around her and Chuckanut, who sat calmly in her lap, like their home wasn’t burning behind them. She wore an oversized T-shirt—one of mine I must’ve accidentally left at one time or another—and little else, her bare legs peeking out from beneath the blanket, her face smeared with soot.
I inhaled sharply, the clamp around my heart loosening, and stumbled, feeling like I could finally breathe for the first time since the call had come across the radio. The urge to go to her, to hold her and reassure myself she was here and safe and in one piece, overwhelmed me, and for once, I didn’t question or try to shove it away as I ran to her.
As if she could sense me, she lifted her head, her eyes locking on mine, and everything in me settled. Maybe for her, too, because as soon as she saw me, her shoulders sagged and her lip quivered, the blank mask she wore cracking as her eyes filled with tears.
“B-Beck,” she choked out, and someone might as well have shoved a knife straight through my heart. It would’ve hurt less.
“Sunshine…” I could barely get out the single word, my voice scraped raw. I cupped her face, brushed her disheveled hair back, held her shoulders, and checked her over from head to toe, though I had no idea what I was looking for. I turned to the EMT—Ben Adams, who was barely out of diapers—hovering on her left. “Who’s taking care of her?” I tried to ask the question calmly, but from the look on Ben’s face, it hadn’t come out that way.
With wide eyes, he raised his hand like he was still in grade school. “Um, me. I am.”
“No, you’re not,” I barked. “You’re just standing there while her fucking teeth are chattering.”
“I—I already—”
“If she’s not in perfect condition, I’m holding you personally responsible, do you understand?”
“But I—I can’t—”
“Hey, Ben,” Ford said as he clapped the incompetent EMT on the shoulder, cool, calm, and collected, as if I hadn’t been minutes away from losing one of the most important people in my life. “What my brother means to say is—”
Nope, I meant to say exactly what I did, but I didn’t care how Ford smoothed that over. All I cared about was Everly. I refocused my attention on her as she gazed up at me, twin tear tracks streaking through the soot on her face.
“It’s okay. You’re okay,” I said quietly just to her. I didn’t know if I was trying to reassure her or myself, but I kept repeating the words, nonetheless, catching her tears with my thumbs as she shivered, her teeth chattering. “Jesus, don’t you have another fucking blanket?” I snapped at Ben. “She doesn’t even have any goddamn pants on.”
“I’m wearing sh-shorts,” she said, a shudder racking her body as she pulled the blanket tighter around her.
“It’s the adrenaline crash, man,” Ford said, clapping me on the shoulder. “She should head to the hospital to get checked out, but she’ll be all right.”
“I’m f-f-fine,” Everly said, barely able to get out the word.
Like hell she was.
“You’re not fucking fine.” And these idiots were taking too goddamn long to grab her another blanket. Instead of waiting, I scooped her up in my arms—Chuck and all—and settled her sideways in my lap as I sat where she’d just been. Shaking like a leaf, she curled against me, laying her head on my chest as I draped the blanket over her and held her and Chuck as tightly as I dared. “You can either go to the hospital in the back of the ambulance or in my truck, but you’re going one way or another.”
“St-still b-barking orders, even after a f-f-fire. At least you’re c-consistent.”
Ben cleared his throat. “I highly suggest she go via—”
“Nobody asked you,” I snapped. “She’s going to get there however she wants.”
Ben held up his hands with a shake of his head. “Whatever you say. Just let me know if I’m transporting her.”
I lowered my head and murmured against her ear, “What’s it going to be, sunshine?”
She tightened her fingers in my shirt, and I took that as my cue to hold her tighter. “W-with you.”
And then she ducked her head, resting her cheek on my chest as I buried my nose in her hair and breathed her in. She smelled sharply of smoke and nothing like the subtle floral scent she usually did, but I inhaled deeply anyway. That scent reminded me she was okay. She was still here with me, and I had no intention of letting her go.
CHAPTERSEVEN
EVERLY
After my briefcheckup at the hospital, Beck drove us toward the resort. He kept stealing glances at me, as if he were checking to make sure I was still there, right where he left me. He hadn’t gone so far as three feet away from me since he’d shown up at the fire. Either I was in his lap or next to him or he was pacing a couple feet away and glaring as the doctor or nurses looked me over. Some people might have felt smothered by that, but not me. Not with him.
