As Long As You’ll Have Me (First Responders #1)

Miles

· JULY ·

My eyes hang low as the older man recites the final words of the committal service. Holding my hands tightly in front of me, I squeeze my jaw as the large wooden box slowly lowers into the ground.

“I’m in here! A beam has fallen, someone!”

I press my eyes shut and try to block out his screams. When I open them again, my ears catch the sound of his wife, now widow, crying softly in her seat. The men of our company are in full dress uniforms, standing at attention as we pay our respect to our fallen comrade.

It shouldn’t be like this.

It should be me.

I told him to stay back but he ran in anyway. And I couldn’t get to him in time.

A raging heat burns across my skin as I stand shoulder to shoulder with the other men and women of Firehouse Nine. It’s as if I’m back in the burning building, trying to reach Wesley, trying to save him.

But I can’t. I don’t.

And now it’s too late.

I swallow hard as the casket touches earth and salute, a final goodbye to a soul lost too soon.

It should be me in that hole.

And I’ll never forgive myself that it’s not.