“Hey!” he protests with a laugh. “There’s no harm in looking, eh? And you guys haven’t tied the knot yet.”
I shake my head. “That doesn’t mean she’s available.”
Marco rolls his eyes. “Semantics.” He reaches over to nudge Asher’s arm with his elbow. “And Rochelle? When’s she coming by to see us?” The tone is still light, but not quite as genuine.
Asher doesn’t bother looking up, his thumbs digging into the phone so hard that I’m shocked the glass doesn’t crack. “She’s gone away for Christmas,” he admits after a moment. “To her sister’s.”
“Shit,” Marco blows out a breath. “That sucks. Aren’t you off on Christmas?”
“Not anymore,” he mutters. “I swapped with Harrison. Figured a guy with a young kid deserves to spend Christmas at home.” He shakes his head, his expression grim. “Beats me spending the day at home alone.”
“Well, damn,” Marco complains. “This got depressing. Let’s go see if we can’t convince Theo to cook us something.”
The rest of our shift passes relatively quietly—a couple of minor callouts that don’t linger. I steer clear of both the chief and Theo. I don’t know what she might have told him, or even what she might’ve seen in me at the crash site, but there’s nothing wrong with the way I’m processing what happened a couple of weeks ago. I know the chief thinks I’m burying it, but there’s nothing I could have done to change what went down.
The dice were thrown before the rig ever pulled up that day.
And I’ll keep telling myself that until I believe it.
I walk outto my truck the next morning, my bag slung over my shoulder, and my head pounding. Someone calls out my name, and my shoulders creep up to my ears, just wanting to get home and decompress. I keep walking, pretending I didn’t hear, but I only get two steps.
“Braxton! Wait up!”
I frown in bemusement at the unexpected voice, turning to find Paisley approaching, her smile bright and strawberry-blonde ponytail swinging behind her.
“Hey,” I greet her, readjusting my hold on my bag. “What’re you doing here? It’s pretty early for social visits.”
She shrugs. “I’m used to starting my days early, so Ifigured I’d get a run in.” Belatedly, I realize she’s dressed in a sports tank and leggings, her skin shiny with perspiration.
“I was just heading home,” I explain unnecessarily, nodding at the building behind her. “I didn’t get much sleep last night, so I’m looking forward to crawling into bed for a couple of hours.”
Paisley’s eyes crease with sympathy. “I can’t imagine the toll these shifts take on you.”
“I’m used to it.”
A light laugh leaves her. “Being used to it didn’t make my father any less of a grump whenever he got home.”
I palm the back of my neck. “Yeah,” I murmur. “You’re not wrong.”
Paisley steps forward, her voice softening as she says, “I wanted to tell you that I understand about the other night.”
My brow knits together. “Understand what?” I ask in bemusement.
“About you not giving me a ride home.” She looks away, fingers fidgeting with the hem of her tank. “I got the sense that Gracie really doesn’t like me, so I know that played a part in what happened.” There’s an undercurrent of hurt in her voice that has guilt surging into my throat, hot and fast. “We’ve known each other our whole lives, and I just…I think I expected that nothing would have changed, you know?”
“It’s been four years,” I say shortly, sucking back the desire to remind her that she didn’t speak to me once during that time. Things changed between us, and that’s not on me.
“I know…” Paisley reaches up to push a flyaway strand behind her ear. “I just thought…I was really excited to come home to my friend.”
I look away, my chest tight as I remember everything Gracie laid out for me, feeling boxed into a too-tight space.Several seconds pass before I look back at Paisley, and her expression has fallen, brown eyes wounded as she watches me.
“Guess that was my mistake,” she murmurs, eyes dropping…but not before I see the sheen to them.
“Who were you with that night?” I ask past the uncomfortable tightness in my throat. “You said your friends?—”
“Patty and Robert,” Paisley cuts me off with false brightness. “They have two kids already, but they got a babysitter so they could spend some time with me.”
My eyebrows raise. “Two kids?”
