With a grin, Remington threw his arms around my shoulders, squeezing me tight. “I’m so happy for you,” he whispered. “You deserve this, sugar. You deserve it all.”
“Thanks, Rem,” I said with a giggle. “What do you think? Want to take a drive with me to the summit? I can show you Korbin’s high-rise.”
“Oh, God, yes,” said Rem, grabbing a few of the already packed bags by my feet. “Let’s do it.”
After a few more trips to load the car, Remington and I headed towards Eagle River, Korbin’s spare key heavy in my pocket. He’d given it to me on the way out the door this morning, and I’d been hyper-aware of it ever since.
“I guess it’s pretty cute here,” Rem said as we pulled into town. “It’s quaint. And charming.”
“And boring,” I reminded him. “Well, it would be for you, anyway. The closest thing we have to a party place is the campus bar.”
“Maybe you’re right,” he said. “Maybe I should consider winding down, saying goodbye to the party life in the city.”
“Yeah, well, when you’re ready for that I’ll be here,” I teased him. “Having my best friend here doesn’t sound like a terribly bad idea.”
“Jesus,” Rem said, shading his eyes against the sun as we turned a corner. “Is that smoke?”
I noticed it just as the word tumbled from his mouth, and my chest tightened with anxiety. The smoke was thick, billowing, and from down the street I could see the flashing lights of the firetrucks. It was a huge building that seemed to be on fire, taking up almost half a block.
“Do you think Korbin’s there?” Remington asked, but I already knew he was. In a town as small as Eagle River, the first responders didn’t really change much. And as I considered that he could possibly be there, yes, fear gripped my stomach, rolling with nausea, and I had to take a deep breath to keep from puking. The thought of Korbin in danger terrified me; it always had. And seeing it just made it that much more real. “Pull over,” Remington said. “Are we allowed to watch?”
“They normally don’t like bystanders,” I said, but I pulled the car to the curb anyway. If I could at least spot Korbin, maybe my fear would ease a little bit.
“How does a fire like this even start?” Remington asked, ducking his head to see the billowing smoke and licking flames out the windshield. “Like, how does one tiny flame grow so big, so fast?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But that’s what makes it so dangerous.”
I didn’t have any luck spotting Korbin through the smoke, and just as I was about to turn on the car and leave there was a tap on the window.
“Hey,” the woman said, poking her head in. “You’re Peyton, aren’t you?”
“Right,” I said. “And you’re Paisley. I—I went to your wedding.”
“Yes!” Paisley smiled in such a way that we might as well have been best friends seeing each other again after twenty years. She poked her head further into the window and waved at Rem, who waved politely back. Then she looked back at me. “Are you moving some of your stuff in today?” she asked. “To Korbin’s high rise, I mean?”
Next to me, Remington made a funny sound deep in this throat. A chuckle, maybe.
“Paisley, what did Korbin tell you?” I asked her. “Everything?”
“Yeah, basically.”
I laughed, mostly because I wasn’t sure how else to respond to that. “Are all of you okay?” I asked, noticing the way the smoke curled in through the open window. “This looks pretty bad.”
“It sucks,” said Paisley, then she turned away briefly to speak into her radio before turning back around to wave at Rem and me. “I’d better get back,” she said. “I’m super happy for you and Korbin, Peyton.”
“Thanks, Paisley.”
Just as Paisley turned to leave, Korbin walked over, probably alerted by Paisley before her departure. He looked handsome as all get-out in his PPE, so much so that Remington made a small growling noise in the back of his throat.
“Are you okay?” Korbin asked at once, poking his head through the window. “Is everything all right?”
“Of course,” I said softly, reaching out to squeeze his hand. “Rem and I were just making a trip to the high rise to drop off some of my stuff. We saw the fire and stopped. It looks scary.”
Korbin glanced at the charred building over his shoulder and nodded, his eyes crinkling up with pensive concern as he looked at me again. “It was a bad one,” he said. “We didn’t even have time to scout the building.”
“Were people in there?”
“We don’t know yet.”
