Chapter 55
Rhett
Are you two on your way?
I sent the message to the group chat, then went to take a shower in preparation for meeting Katie’s parents.
It felt like I wasn’t the only one stepping in under the water. I had company, but it wasn’t one of the guys. Not Katie either, but the memory of her. I’d hated that she’d seen me so beat down. If I’d known she was home, I might’ve just crashed out at the station. But rather than freak out, pull away, there was a softness there in her eyes. I’d eaten my heart out, watching her look at Dave like that, sure she’d never turn that gaze on me.
But she did.
She saw me, dirt, soot, sweat, and all and then took me in hand and scrubbed me clean. Her arms went around me once I was done and she just… held me. My soul sucked that up like it was barren earth and she was the first drops of the summer rains. I’d slept with her in my arms and had the best rest I’d had in my life.
So that meant I needed to get my shit together and prove to her parents that I was worthy of her time. I emerged from the shower, and as I towelled myself off, I expected Rhys to barge in. The prick had no sense of boundaries. Unexpectedly, I had the bathroom to myself as I shaved my face clean, then raked my hair back neatly. Teeth brushed, deodorant applied liberally, I stepped back from the sink and stared into the mirror, surveying my handiwork.
Katie’s parents were going to clock me the moment I walked in the door. Even I could see how freaking desperately I wanted this to work in my haunted reflection. What if they didn’t like me? Shit, what if they had a very understandable negative reaction towards the idea of us sharing our girl? What if…? I quietened my mind with the same technique I used when we were on our way to a fire. I couldn’t fight possibilities, just deal with realities. The three of us had talked about how tonight would go, planned it down to the last minute. Garrett had raked through our wardrobes and pulled out the clothes he approved of. Just like a job, I had an objective, a uniform to wear and a procedure to follow.
So where the hell was the rest of my team?
“Rhys…?” I called out hopefully, but the house had that quiet, still quality that told me no one was home. “Garrett…?” With a shake of my head, I pulled out my phone and looked at the group chat.
Trying to get out of this damn franchise meeting , Rhys had replied. Should be leaving shortly.
Shortly? That wasn’t what we had planned. Katie had stressed that we needed to be on time for dinner and that meant we needed to leave in… shit, twenty minutes. Rhys was on his way. Garrett hadn’t even replied and— My hands turned to fists as the front door was jerked open and Rhys came stumbling in. I sucked in a breath, ready to bollock him out, but he held up a hand, Bronson coming barrelling along with him.
“I know. I fucking know.” Rhys never seemed to lose his shit, so it took me a few moments to work out what was happening here. “I’m having a shower.”
“We don’t have time for that.” I glanced down at my watch. “We have?—”
“Fifteen minutes.” He strode down the hall, tossing clothes off as he went. “It’s either the world’s fastest shower or I spray myself with half a can of anti-perspirant.”
My nose wrinkled, already able to feel the congestion that came from being overwhelmed by the cloying scent.
“Five minutes,” I barked.
“Got it. Get Bronson ready and find out where the fuck Garrett is, because he should’ve left work an hour ago.”
Work out what needed to be done and make sure that happened, it was a philosophy that got me through any number of scrapes, so I whistled to the dog, his head jerking up from his water bowl.
“C’mon, boy.” I nodded to the rear of the house and he came scuttling after me.
A piss in the corner of the garden, Bronson’s eyes on the neighbour’s fence the entire time, and then I was able to get him inside, place a bowl of food for him to wolf down before clipping his lead on. Rhys went stomping back to his room, the muffled sounds of his curses filling the air, but when I locked up the house and went to the front door, he was there.
“Aftershave!” he said, but I shook my head.
“We’ve gotta go. With peak hour traffic, I’m not sure if we’re going to make it on time.”
“What about Garrett?” A line formed between Rhys’ brows. “We can’t go without him.”
“He’ll need to meet us there. We can’t wait for him.”
But apparently we could wait for everyone else.
“Fuck!” I slammed my palm into the steering wheel because traffic had slowed to a trickle. Half the reason why we planned to leave early was for this exact reason. Every damn peak hour it felt like someone’s car gave up the ghost, or worse, there was an accident. The whine of familiar sirens had us both turning around to see not one but two fire engines in the distance.
“Accident?”
Rhys ground that out as he rumpled Bronson’s ears, staring fixedly at the windscreen.
“Only one way to find out.”
We were in the far lane, so it was easy enough to wrench the car sideways and mount the curb, parking it out the front of someone’s house. Rhys watched me unclip my belt and then did the same, grabbing Bronson’s lead. I retrieved the flowers and wine Garrett had selected and then wrenched the keys out of the ignition. Long steps took me up the footpath and closer to the sight of the accident.
“Rhett?”
Charlie was a firie from my station. He and two of the other guys were having a baby with our admin girl, Millie.
“What’s going on?” I looked around and then blanched. “Shit…”
It became evident as soon as I took the accident site in.
“Major collision,” Charlie explained. “Someone t-boned the other trying to get across the road and into this lane.” He gestured to what was left of the cars. They looked more like crumpled pieces of aluminium foil than cars. “Everyone survived, thank god, but the ambos had to work overtime to get everyone to the local hospitals.”
Which would explain where Garrett was. That was how it worked when you worked in emergency services. Sometimes you had hours, days, even weeks where little happened, but when it did? It was all hands on deck, adrenalin pumping as you moved your arse to save the day. In Garrett’s case, to save someone’s life.
“You need to be somewhere?” Charlie looked me up and down, seeing the smart clothes for the first time. “Got a date or something?”
“Worse,” Rhys groaned, raking his hand through his hair. “We’re on our way to meet Katie’s parents.”
“Whoa, that’s moving fast!” Charlie frowned as he stared at the traffic trickling past, waved forward by Noah, his team member and co-parent. “Unlike the traffic. When are you due at the parental units’ place?”
“Twenty minutes,” I replied.
“Shit. Shit…” People did things all the time I didn’t understand, but Charlie’s grin set my teeth on edge. The bloke was an idiot most days of the week, cracking jokes and playing the fool, but right as I sucked in a breath to ream him out, he found the perfect solution.
“Knox!” Charlie shouted.
“What?”
The other fireman looked back at the three of us with a small frown, obviously in the middle of talking to the crash unit.
“Taking Rhett and Rhys to Katie’s parents’ place.” He jingled the keys to one of the 4WD rescue vehicles we deployed when being called out to a major car crash.
“What?” Knox started storming over. “No?—”
“Let's go!” Charlie started loping towards the vehicle, a grin plastered across his face. “C’mon, buddy,” he said to Bronson, urging the dog on.
“Fuck yes,” Rhys said, sliding into the backseat. “Can you put the sirens on or something.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Charlie and I looked at each other as he turned the key in the ignition.
“If this isn’t an emergency, I’m not sure what is.”
He grinned at the rear-view mirror where Knox was sprinting towards us, his smile growing wider as he turned the sirens on.
“An emergency vehicle is only an emergency vehicle when it is being used in the course of duties in relation to an emergency.” I was pretty sure I was reciting the handbook words perfectly, but Charlie didn’t care.
“Pretty sure if we don’t get to Katie’s parents in time, they’re going to need to call an ambulance to take what’s left of us away,” Rhys said through gritted teeth. “How fast can this thing go, Charlie?”
He shot my friend and my dog a look over his shoulder.
“Let's find out, shall we?”