“Stay back! It’s too close for you. Everyone else go in and report out.”
Helplessly, I watched on as the team busted into the barn to clear it. I didn’t know what to do. My entire fucking world was in that barn, and I was standing outside. “Chief… please…”
“She said to tell you she loves you.”
I turned to him. “What?”
“That’s what she said to the dispatcher before the connection was lost.”
I wanted to cry.Before the connection was lost.I dropped to my knees and stared at the barn on fire, waiting to hear something, anything. They’d been in there too long. “Chief, it’s taking too long. What’s happening?” Just then, the rain came pouring down, putting the fire out, a little too late. I gritted my teeth through tears and cursed the sky. Maybe a little too soon.
“Chief. We’ve got them and we’re coming out.”
I ran to the barn as I watched them appear from the smoke and debris. Evans carried Rusty. Brady was carried Laida. I screamed for her, “Laida! Laida, baby!” She didn’t respond. I turned to Evans. “Rusty!”
They took them straight to the ambulance, with neither of them moving. My world came to a stop.
Chapter 19
Jesse
It’d been a week and Rusty was still recovering from the fire. I put the bowl down in front of him. “Come on, boy, you gotta if you want to heal.” Rusty walked slowly over to his bowl and nibbled for a while. The veterinarian said he would be fine, but he might be sluggish for a while. I was supposed to watch his sleeping and eating patterns, just to make sure nothing in diet changed.
I poured myself a cup of coffee and stepped out onto the front porch. I could see what was left of the barn. It was a horrible mess and broke my heart all over again.
When I glanced across the porch, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Laida’s grandfather’s canvases were leaned against the banister. I set my coffee down on the railing and picked them up to inspect them. The bottom corners were burnt but you could still see the actual drawing. Laida had a burn on her arm when they pulled her out. I wondered if it happened while she was trying to save the canvases. There were so many unanswered questions. What the heck was she thinking? Howdid she get stuck in there? Did she get stuck and then Rusty went after her?
Rusty was whining behind the screen door, so I opened it to let him outside with me. He ran down the porch steps and over to the barn, lying down in front of it. I slowly followed him and sat on the ground next to him. “I know, boy. What happened? I sure wish you could talk right now.” He nudged my hand, so I’d pet him. Rubbing his head, I said, “There you go. You’re a good boy.”
I picked my head up and scanned the driveway when I heard a truck rumbling along the gravel. Ethan got out of the passenger side of Brady’s truck. “What do you want, Ethan? I don’t have the energy to fuck with you.”
He held his hands up. “Listen, I just came to say I’m sorry. What I did was fucked up and I didn’t mean to cause you and…” He cleared his throat, “Laida… any problems. I know I did, and I’m incredibly sorry for that.” Brady was standing behind him with his arms crossed, listening.
I could tell he was sincere, so I let go of the anger, but said, “Thanks. Don’t ever try some shit like that again.” Ethan held his hands up in surrender. Brady wore a smirk on his face in the background. Rusty walked past Ethan and went to Brady. Even Rusty knows an asshole when he sees one and ignored Ethan like he wasn’t there.
“Hey boy,” Brady said as he rubbed his head. “How you holdin’ up?”
I answered him, “He’s doing good. Just sluggish.”
Just then, we heard the screen door open. All three of us looked toward the house. My breath caught in my throat as I looked at my reason for existing, standing on the porch. “Is she…” Ethan started to ask something.
“Laida’s okay. She’s been sleeping a lot, but this is the first time she’s come outside.” I ran up to her on the porch. “Baby, how’re you feeling?”
She looked up at me with tired eyes and said, “I’m fine. The fresh air is nice.” She tried to take a deep breath in and coughed. Thankfully, the coughing wasn’t as bad as the first day.
I reminded her, “Easy, slow breaths.” Her hair blew in the wind as she leaned into me, tired from the coughing fit, so I wrapped my arms around her, basking in her scent as I kissed her forehead. I’ll never take moments with her for granted, knowing I almost lost her.
Laida smiled at the guys as she held onto me. “Hi, Brady. Ethan.” It was great that she was up and moving around but just like Rusty, she was moving slowly.
Ethan walked to the bottom of the steps and said, “Laida, I’m sorry about what I did when Jesse was in the hospital. It was a dick thing to do.”
She smiled at him and said, “It’s okay.”
I quickly interrupted with, “It’s not…”
She smacked my chest. “Ethan, it’s okay. Let’s move on.”
We stood there in silence for a minute before I looked at Brady and Ethan. “If you guys don’t mind; I’m going to take the lady back inside.”
