The area around Park City and Southern Methodist University was usually serviced jointly by Station 27 and the University Park Fire Department, so it was well outside the usual Station 58 response zone, but between the rain and those idiot street racers, half the rescue vehicles in the city were out on call at the moment. Division had sent her and Trent out on the call about an injured pedestrian simply because they were the closest crew available.
“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about.” The rain started again, and Lexi flicked on the wipers as she guided the truck off I-75 and onto the Central Expressway. “I knew there was a chance that dating a firefighter in my own station might blow up in my face.”
Trent sighed. “Okay, so maybe sorry isn’t the right word. I know how frustrated you are right now, but you need to pull back a second and realize nothing has been said that can’t be unsaid, and nothing has been blown up that can’t be put back together.”
Okay, that wasn’t something you’d usually expect a guy to say. Then again, Trent didn’t seem like a guy ruled by his inner caveman. Unlike Dane.
She glanced at him as she pulling off the expressway onto the Northwest Highway. “You seriously think this is something Dane and I can get past? He called me out in front of the whole station for doing my job.”
Trent glanced at the incident report before answering. “You’re seriously ready to walk away from a guy you’re clearly into because he didn’t know how to put into words how scared he was for you?”
She started to say something snarky about the fact that it wasn’t Dane’s job to worry about her, but the words hung up in her throat. She knew what it was like to be scared for someone. Heck, she’d been freaked out a few days ago when Jax and Tory had pulled Dane out of that burning apartment complex.
“Me being all observant and crap, I see I’ve struck a nerve,” Trent said sarcastically. “Look, I won’t go all sexist on you and attempt to say women are better at hiding their feelings when it comes to concerns over their lover’s occupation. That’s BS. But I can confidently say that most men suck at it. Flat-out, Dane saw you doing something that suddenly made him realize he’s building a relationship with a woman who does a job as dangerous as his, and it freaked him out.”
“Shouldn’t he have figured that out before?” she asked.
Trent shrugged. “You’d think so. But like my getting into a relationship with a woman that spends more time on a plane than she does on the ground, most of the time we don’t think beyond the issue of finding a woman we click with. It’s that single-focus caveman thing that’s wired into our DNA. Dane is falling for you—which is a great thing—but now he’s finally figuring out his relationship is going to come with a few speed bumps along the way, and I don’t think he was ready for it.”
She sighed, knowing deep down that Trent was right. Maybe she shouldn’t have reacted the way she had, but she hadn’t exactly been in a good frame of mind. She’d been riding on an adrenaline high after saving someone’s life, and lashed out without thought.
“So you think it’s on me to help Dane work through this?” she finally said.
“It’s on both of you,” Trent said. “If you and Dane aren’t willing to put a little effort into dealing with the first frigging obstacle that appears in the road, maybe this isn’t the relationship for you. Hell, maybe relationships in general aren’t for you.”
O-kay. She shot him a sharp look. “That’s a little blunt, don’t you think?”
Trent chuckled. “Maybe. But if you can’t be blunt with your friends, who can you be blunt with?”
Lexi shook her head with a laugh. Trent was right. If she and Dane couldn’t handle something this simple, how were they ever going to handle the hard stuff life was bound to throw their way?
She slowed at the sight of flashing blue lights near the park off Hillcrest. Trent checked the incident sheet and confirmed this was where they were supposed to be. But as they pulled up, neither of them saw an injured pedestrian anywhere. All she saw was a police officer standing in front of his patrol car.
“Where’s our injured pedestrian?” Lexi asked the cop as she and Trent got out of the truck.
The officer pointed at the opposite side of the street. “We got here a few minutes ago to find a homeless guy with a busted up leg sitting in the grass over there. He said some crazy drivers slammed into the cars parked by the curb, hitting him in the process before speeding off. The guy’s leg looked pretty bad, but he said he wasn’t going to hang around in the rain any longer and started walking south down this side of Hillcrest. My partner is following him.”
Lexi thanked him then then she and Trent got back in their rescue truck and started down Hillcrest. They ended up finding their patient a quarter mile down the road, patiently limping along the sidewalk, a police officer at his side.
As they got out and approached, she took in the injured man’s worn but expensive looking camouflage jacket. She’d been around enough military types to recognize a GORE-TEX jacket. This guy was probably a veteran, and while he might look rough around the edges, he didn’t think he was more than twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old. There was blood seeping through the leg of the man’s dirty jeans and based on how bad he was hobbling, Lexi was confident it was broken.
Lexi passed the police officer, falling into step with the injured man and giving him a smile. “Hi there. I’m Lexi and I’m a paramedic with Dallas Fire and Rescue. Your leg seems to be causing you a little trouble. Do you mind if I take a look?”
When the man eyed her suspiciously, she smiled at him again. After a few steps, he nodded then stopped, letting her take his hand and lead him to the back of the rescue truck.
“What’s your name?” she asked the bearded man as she and Trent got him on a gurney.
“Jessie.”
Her lips curved. “Well, Jessie, we’re going to fix you right up.”
Jessie nodded, but then held up a hand and shook his head the moment Trent picked up scissors to slice open his jeans. “These are the only pants I got.”
Trent glanced at her, lifting a questioning brow.
“Jessie, we won’t be able to help you if we can’t take a look at your leg,” she said gently. “I promise I’ll make sure you get a new pair of pants. Okay?”
Jessie hesitated for a moment, but then nodded and relaxed back on the gurney. One look at his leg after Trent sliced open his jeans told her it was definitely broken. Lexi couldn’t believe he’d walked as far as he had.
