TWO
SOPHIA
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I am not built for this. My thoughts are a mess: I should have left earlier, I shouldn’t have left at all, maybe I should have taken my neighbour’s truck when she offered it to me.
Maybe driving in a blizzard is a bad idea.
Oh, hell, I know it is. I’m an ER nurse. I know better.
And yet, here I am. Pushing through the snow, praying I don’t end up a patient in my own ER.
“D—you—me?”
I let out a growl of frustration as my brother, Cooper, cuts in and out, his voice static in my shitty truck. Snow barely makes an impact on the road in front of me, and yet the signal progressively gets worsethe longer I drive out of Willow Ridge proper towards the hospital.
“Coop?” I almost shout, glancing between the dying phone and the road. “Can you hear me?”
“Don’t–d–” His voice cuts out again, though I suspect it was going to be something along the lines ofdon’t drive in a snowstorm. That’s always the advice I get from him during winter, and because I am a nurse, I should be smart enough to listen to him. I’ve seen what comes through the ER on snow days.
I just don’t have a choice this time.
There’s a ping as the call ends. I don’t know whether to sigh in relief or disappointment. Maybe a little of both, if I’m being honest with myself. I love my brother, but his lectures are definitely not something I need to hear right now.
I lean forward in my seat, narrowing my eyes as I scope out the disappearing road. On days like today, Coop—accompanied by at least two of hisbrothers, since firefighters are essentially a frat, after all—would take me in. It would have looked like the Queen had come to visit our little town in the mountains, only instead of black SUV’s and a limo, it would have been me in my dinged up truck, Coop in his new Ford, and the other guys in their own vehicles surrounding me.
A sight for sure, and not one easily missed in Willow Ridge.
I sigh and consider pulling over as the flurry of snow gets thicker and take another side road through the valley. The only downside of working at the only hospital in this town is that it’s situated outside the town and services not only Willow Ridge, but our closest neighbour outside the mountain. And since I live on the other side of town, I’m stuck making the long drive around.
I should have taken Skye’s offer to stay with her.Coop would rather I stay with him in his apartment, but as the grown woman I am, the last thing I want to do is rely on my older brother. He has enough going on and doesn’t need to be worrying about me—especially on a day like today, especially when the firehouse is short-handed and relying completely on volunteers.
My heart hurts at the thought, and I shoot a little prayer up to the big guy in the sky for my brother and the rest of his team. I’m still grateful he survived the lodge fire a couple of years ago, and even more so that he wasn’t stuck in the main collapse of the building.
But I was on call that day, and I saw first-hand what the damage had done to those caught in the fire. I saw what happened to Rhodes, the utter destruction of his body. And Noah Grey…
The sight of him covered in burns still makes me wake up at night with chills. I’ll never forget it. Especially when he shouldn’t have survived.
No one could have survived it.
But by some miracle, he did. He’s alive, and although I don’t see him much anymore, I know he’s out there. Breathing, walking around, though not quite living if Cooper is right.
Somehow, that also pains me. I blame it on the unrequited crush I’ve been harbouring for him since we met all those years ago.
“Crap.” I slow the truck down to a crawl and squint. Within moments, the snow gets thicker, and the sky darkens with the threat of a storm. We were supposed to have a couple more days before the worst of it hit, but it seems that isn’t the case anymore.
And with my cell almost dead and no reception, I’m not entirely sure where I am now.
I curse again under my breath and swerve slightly to the side of the road. The heat blasting through the vents starts getting colder and colder the longer I idle, and the chill from outside starts to settle in my bones.
Shit, shit, shit. I suck in a breath and let the air fill my lungs before releasing it slowly. This is not a time to panic. I can just send Coop a 911 text, hope it gets through to him, and he can comeget me in the fire truck. Yep. Basic rescue mission. He’ll be doing a lot of those today, especially on the mountain. And so will the Jade Mountain Rescue team.
Hell, one of them might stumble across me on their own.
That is not the way to be thinking about this. I take in another deep, steadying breath before pulling back out onto the road. It’ll be fine. Totally fine. I’m a safe driver anyway, and I know my limits.
The snail pace I take only seems to add to my building anxiety; my chest tightens not only from the cold, but from the heavy wind battering the side of my truck. The clock on the dash ticks over, inching closer and closer to the start of my shift. I’m starting to really regret not taking Skye’s offer now.
