“I suppose that makes sense,” I reply, but I can’t help but feel a nag of guilt in my chest, knowing that she went through so much alone. Sure, she might have had her family nearby, but how much did that count for when she was dealing with four children? She should have had the father here, whoever he is. Shit, I knew all four of us would have stepped up to do our bit if we had been given the chance. No matter who actually turned out to be the father, we were all committed enough to make certain that what needed to be done was done.
“Hey, it’s okay,” she remarks, furrowing her brow at me slightly. “I made it through in one piece. And so did they.”
She looks into the back once more, and I glance into the rearview mirror to see the quads’ faces lighting up as makes a face at them through the glass. It’s clear that they adore their mother, and it’s hard not to be charmed by it, the connection they so obviously share.
We grab some stuff from the house and then head to the motel where her family are staying. She texts ahead to let them know that she’s on the way, and when we get to the door, her sister is already there, hand raised to greet us.
“Oh God, you’re alright,” she gasps as soon as she sees Angelie step out of the van, rushing over to her side to give her a hug.Angelie laughs as she tightens her grip on her sister, as though she’s surprised at the reaction.
“Of course I’m alright,” she replies. “Nothing happened, okay?”
“Mom and Dad told me that you went to their place to get them out…”
“Sure, but they left pretty easy,” Angelie replies, pulling away to bring the toddlers out of the van. Her sister’s face lights up as she sees her nieces and nephews, scooping the girls into her arms and turning to bring them inside the motel.
“Are you going to be staying here too?” I ask Angelie, as it suddenly strikes me that she didn’t bring anything with her from the house.
She hesitates, then looks up at me, biting her lip. “I think I want to come back with you guys,” she confesses. “I know it’s going to be hard, being away from the kids, but…I know Devin Ridge so well. And I couldn’t live with myself if I let something happen that could have been avoided if I had been there to help you guys out.”
“Angelie—”
“I know what you’re going to say,” she cuts me off, lifting a hand to stop me in my tracks. “And I get it, I do. But you have to understand, this place has changed since you were last here. There are details you never knew about. I mean, look at what happened with my parents. If I hadn’t been there, you would never have known that the road sign had come down and might have missed the turning…”
I sigh heavily. I can already tell that the others aren’t going to like this, but she’s got a point. We could use someone who’s beenliving here the last few years, someone who knows what they’re doing, someone who can navigate the land with the confidence of a local. We might have grown up here, but she’s right—a lot can change in four years, and every bit of information we have could help us keep the fires under control a while longer.
Or maybe I’m just telling myself what I want to hear, because I know there’s no way I can let her slip through my fingers, not now that I’ve found her again.
“Alright,” I reply. “We’ll need to pick up some extra supplies on the way back, and don’t blame me if Carlisle turns you right around and sends you back here the minute you set foot in the door.”
“You don’t get to make the calls?” she asks, a small smile teasing at her lips. “You’re the oldest, after all…”
“Not how it works.” I laugh, shaking my head. Out of the corner of my eye, I see her parents emerging from the doorway of the motel, clearly trying to make sense of what’s taking their daughter so long.
Angelie glances back at them, chewing her lip. “Just let me tell them and I’ll be right with you,” she promises, hurrying over to the door to speak to her family.
I watch her as I lean against the van, waiting for her to return. Her parents both look shocked at what she’s telling them, and her mother grips her arm tightly, her fingers digging into her skin for a second like she doesn’t want to let her go. It reminds me of the way my mother would hold on to my father before he would take off for a call, the fear in her eyes like he might not come back at all.
But, as Angelie gives them both a huge hug, and then stoops down to squeeze her children, I realize that she’s going through with this. Which means that her parents must put a decent amount of trust in us, if they believe we can keep her safe. I know the guys will do everything in their power to make sure she stays that way, if they even let her back into the cabin at all.
The way Carlisle goes about his work, it wouldn’t surprise me if he kicks her out and tells her to stay out of our way just to make sure he won’t have to worry about her. I can tell that he has taken her sudden reappearance in our lives particularly hard—and I’m pretty sure I heard the floorboards near his room creaking last night, for whatever that’s worth…
Angelie strides back over to the van, a smile on her face that’s clearly meant to wipe away any doubts that might still be clinging to her mind.
“Alright, let’s get out of here,” she announces, as if she’s trying to convince herself as much as me. As I pull open the door of the cabin for her, she scrambles past me and I catch the scent of her apple shampoo in the air.
And just for a moment, I’m back in that night, the night that I had her, the night that I made her mine. It’s a night I want nothing more than to repeat, even now—and a night that I know would be best left to memory, given that we still haven’t made sense of everything that came of it.
At least, that’s what I have to keep telling myself, if I’m going to find some way to be around her without losing my mind.
11
CALLUM
Reaching inside the water tank,I feel around for a break in the seal—it’s been leaking all morning, and that’s the last thing we need if we’re going to leap into action on short notice like we did before.
The air is clear for the time being, the fire seeming to have burned itself out around the edges of town. The incoming backup from the nearby city has been cancelled, but I don’t exactly trust this place not to take a turn for the worse at any moment. It’s blazing sunshine all week, drying out the trees and the grass and the earth, and one wrong move is all it would take to have this place turned to kindling in a matter of hours.
The residents are still being held at the motel nearby, and that’s where I want them to stay for now. I’ve heard they’re getting a little antsy about being kept away from their homes, but it would be that much harder to move them out again if we let them back and then the fires come back in. One evacuation, you can manage, because it serves as something of a novelty, but the second is much harder. People just want to get back to their regular lives, and dig their heels in if you try to get them out.
