“Hey, hey,” Xander said, his voice so calm and soothing at the same time. “What’s the matter, baby?”
“I thought…” she started, finding it hard to find the words though. “There was a fire… your phone kept going straight to voicemail?—”
“Aye, yo, Paulie,” she heard Xander say in the background. “I’mma be right back. Handle the front for me.”
There was some shuffling on Xander’s end before he revealed, “My battery died. Just got it back because it was charging while I was at the front desk. I’m on my shift at the station.”
“There was a fire in Park Slope,” she stated, her voice shaking. “I thought?—”
“Yeah, that was another fire company, baby,” he cut in. “They got there before we even got the call. I’m okay. We’re okay.”
“I thought you were one of them,” she whispered, pressing her back to her bed on the floor. Rylee sniffed back her tears, her eyes burning now.
“One of who?”
“The firefighters they said died,” she answered, tears streaming down her face, her voice hoarse now, strained. “And I just… I couldn’t live through that again. And I thought I’d have to.”
There was silence on his end for a couple of beats.
“You don’t,” he said after the pause. “I’m right here, aight? And I’m on my way to you. I’ll see you within the hour. Okay?”
Before Rylee could say anything else, Xander ended the call.
She cleaned her face with her hands. Her body still trembling uncontrollably as she sniffed back tears that kept falling.
Rylee stayed on her bedroom floor until she heard her doorbell downstairs. And when she took the stairs down to answer it, Xander stood on the other side.
She searched his face for burns, bandages… anything. But all she saw was him. Whole.
He had on no coat, just his station’s uniform. A blue tee tucked into pressed slacks, and black boots on his feet.
She was so distraught she couldn’t enjoy the view of her man in his uniform, fulfilling fantasies she didn’t even know she had.
He didn’t have to say a thing. Rylee closed the space between them and threw her arms around him, pressing her face into his chest and crying against him.
In that moment, she hated herself for all those times she made a fuss over him popping up without calling. Surprising her kids with gifts or promises of homemade breakfast with pancakes shaped in whatever shape they wanted.
She cried against Xander and he let her. He walked her back inside and away from the doorway, allowing her to cry into him as he closed the door, not once letting her go.
In the middle of hating herself over his pop-ups, she hated herself for doing what she did with Lennox… taking Xander for granted. Just like Lennox died suddenly, Xander could have been in that fire tonight and died too, without warning.
She vowed she would never take time for granted after Lennox, but was kind of doing it with Xander. And that made her hug him even tighter.
“Don’teverdo that to me again,” she uttered against him.
He chuckled softly, tightening his arms around her. “Do what, Snoop?”
“Not answer your phone.” She sniffed back her tears and stepped back. “Because I swear?—”
“My phone lost charge, baby?—”
“Then keep a charger strapped to your back, Xander!”
“Shh,” he shushed, taking her hand, his eyes moving up the stairs. “Don’t wake the kids now.”
“I thought…” she said, her shoulders slouching a little. “I thought I’d lost you tonight.”
Xander closed the space between them again, wrapping his arms around her when he was close. He tilted her head back so she’d look up at him, then brushed his thumb under her eyes.
