Chapter 34
Greyson
The course of true love never did run smooth.
~ William Shakespeare
I don’t remember what happens next, but I wake in a hospital room with windows looking out toward a wooded area and Hallie sitting in a chair off to the side of my bed.
“Did I fall asleep?”
“You did.”
Memories of the ride up to my room flood me. “Did I tell you …”
“That you love me?”
“Yeah.”
“You did, but in all fairness, the meds were kicking in.”
“I do,” I tell her, ignoring the pang in my chest.
I don’t know what I can promise her. And I don’t want to lead her on until I figure out what that really means for us.
“I love you too, Grey. I think I’ve loved you since Munich.”
The memories of that first night together linger between us and we share a private smile.
“Is it possible?” I ask her. “You know. Is it possible for someone to fall for another person in a night?”
“That wasn’t an average night,” she says. “And I think it’s not usual, but it happens. It happened to us.”
“It did,” I agree.
There’s a knock on the door and my parents walk in.
“Greyson?” Mom’s at my bedside in a few strides.
Dad’s sticking his hand out to Hallie. “Jack Stone.”
“I’m Hallie. Greyson and I work together.”
“You’re Hallie,” Mom says, staring across the room with a soft smile.
“Nice to meet you,” Hallie says, standing. “Would you like a chair? I’ll go get a few more.”
“No. No. Don’t you fret,” Mom says. “Jack, go wrestle up some chairs, would you?”
Dad nods and leaves the room.
“I’m Jean Ann,” Mom says to Hallie. “It’s so nice to meet you. So, you work with Greyson? You’re a firefighter?”
“I am.”
“Well isn’t that something,” Mom says. “And you have a daughter?”
“Mia. She’s seven.”
Hallie smiles at me and I smile back.
“Oh, goodness,” Mom says. “I do love that age. They’re such thinkers, but still childlike. First grade or second?”
“Second. Her birthday’s early.”
“Oh my. Well, that’s just lovely.”
Mom’s already in grandma mode. I can feel it. I need a brake pedal.
Mom turns her attention to me, eyeing my monitors and then looking me over. “How are you feeling? What are your levels like?”
I glance at Hallie. “Mom was a nurse.”
“Ahhh,” Hallie says. “Medical expertise runs in the family.”
“And Dad’s a retired pediatrician,” I tell her.
“Wow. Well, I know who to call if we ever need a second opinion.” Hallie smiles at Mom and I detect a note of nervousness.
Is she nervous to meet my parents?
I shift in the bed.
Dad comes back with two chairs, setting them on the opposite side of my bed from Hallie.
“Well, Hallie,” Dad says. “Tell us about yourself.”
Hallie tells my parents about her move. They ask her about being a woman on the crew, and about Mia. Then the conversation veers toward their trips to East Tennessee and Maryville. Dollywood. Their voices blur. I try to focus, but eventually I give in to the tug behind my eyelids and drift off.
When I wake, Hallie is still here, dutifully positioned at my bedside. My parents are not in the room.
“Your parents went back to your house. Your mom said something about making sure you had food for when you get out.”
“Oh, man,” I say.
Hallie smiles. “They’re sweet.”
“Yeah, they are.”
“How do you feel?” she asks.
“No pain,” I say. “A little groggy.”
“You should rest. The guys are coming by. And I think the baseball team has plans.”
I wince.
“Pain?” Hallie asks.
“Too many visitors,” I say.
She laughs a full laugh. “Well, there’s the sign.”
“What sign?”
“You’ll be fine.”
I chuckle. Then I close my eyes. “I’m just going to rest a little.”
“You should rest,” she says with a tenderness I don’t deserve.
I close my eyes and drift off. When I wake, my room is packed like a sardine can with people.
“Isn’t there a fire code for how many people can be in here?” I ask, my throat raspy from sleep and smoke inhalation.
Hallie smiles from her permanent spot at my side.
“Everyone came to see you, Greyson,” she says.
My baseball players form a line at Will’s command, dropping homemade card after homemade card on my tray table and saying things like, “Get well, Coach G,” and “Can I sign your cast when you get it?”
Eventually, Will takes all of them out, but Mia lingers behind with her nana and Avery.
Mia walks up to my bedside table. “I wanted to make you cookies and bring you an ice cream sandwich like the ones we made together. Remember?”
I nod. “I do.”
“Well, Nana said next time. She said you can’t eat cookies. But maybe ice cream.”
“I think I can eat cookies. But I’ll take a rain check,” I tell her.
Her face contorts with confusion.
“That means where we wait for a better time.”
“Oh. Good.” She stares at me and in the most offhanded way, she says, “I really wish you were my daddy so we could take you home and take care of you.”
My body goes still.
“Okay,” she says. “We better go because Henry Cavill will tear the place up if we leave him too long. He really likes underwear and socks. Did you know he eats them sometimes?”
I laugh. “No. I didn’t know that.”
“Just be careful not to leave them on the floor at my house if you come over again.”
“I’ll be careful,” I tell her.
“Okay,” Hallie says, laughing softly. “Tell Coach G you’ll see him later.”
Mia looks me in the eyes and says, “Bye, Coach G. I love you!”
Then she skips out of the room, leaving the rest of the adults in stunned silence.
I glance at Hallie. She’s smiling softly.
My chest is tight like someone wrapped a band around it.
Mia’s oblivious declaration unlocked the door Hallie and I have been waiting to open.
Before today I would have been relieved—excited, even.
Now I’m torn. I never saw the risk of my presence in Hallie’s life or in Mia’s.
The fire burned through my denial. I’m not their protector.
I’m the greatest threat to their stability.
Hallie knew it all along. I never saw it.
The crew stops by a little later, everyone’s in their civilian clothes. Dustin brings a box of donuts from the bakery.
“Better than flowers, right, Grey?”
“Much better,” I tell him.
Somehow, I’ve already acquired five arrangements which are perched on hospital tables and the windowsill.
The guys leave after a while and Hallie and I are finally alone together.
She smiles over at me, grabbing my hand again. “That was something—what Mia said about you.”
Hallie’s beaming, almost looking refreshed. She gives my hand a squeeze.
“That she loves me, or that she wants me to be her daddy?” I ask with a short huff of laughter followed by a coughing spell.
“Are you okay?” Hallie asks.
“Yeah. I guess my SCBA got knocked loose in the fall. I’ll be fine. Did they test you for inhalation?”
“Yes.” She nods. “I passed with flying colors. Otherwise we’d be roommates with matching oxygen masks.”
“I don’t think they’d put you in the same room as me.”
“Well then, it’s a good thing my mask did the job,” she says. “And yes. Mia saying she wishes you were her dad. She’s never said that to any other man.”
“She means a lot to me,” I say, honestly. “All I’ve wanted since you came here and we started seeing one another is you.” I pause. “You and Mia. She wasn’t an afterthought. When I allowed myself to imagine us living a life in the future, she was always in those thoughts, the three of us, together.”
Hallie beams as if she shares those dreams. From the conversations we’ve had, I’m sure she does.
“But after this,” I wave a hand over my leg and around the machines monitoring my vitals. “I’d be irresponsible to let Mia build a life around me when I might disappear. You’ve been right all along, Hallie.”
Her smile falls slightly. Doesn’t she see the reality anymore?
I look her in the eyes, “I could have died back there, Hallie.”
She nods.
I stare out the window. I might not have Hallie alone like this again for the coming few days. We’re talking about the future. She needs to know.
“And there’s something I need to tell you.”
“Anything,” she says, her voice soft.
I take a breath, holding her hands in mine.
“I was going to ask you if we could meet in the kitchen—before the tone rang and we were called out.”
The tone that changed everything.
“Before you came to Waterford, I got a call from a guy I knew in Afghanistan. He’s working in DC with FEMA. He offered me a job.”
Hallie pulls her hand away slowly, clasping both her hands in her lap.
“I went through with applying. Why wouldn’t I? I can do a lot more good if I’m serving my country at a national level instead of a local fire station.”
She nods. Her face is a mask. I can’t get a read on her.
“Well, they put me through a panel interview.”
“When?” She swallows, but then sits up straighter.
“A little over a week ago or so.”
She nods again. I can tell I’m overloading her, but she needs to know everything. This is our chance to talk about this. I can’t wait any longer. The email said five days. That was yesterday.
“I didn’t see any point in telling you. I planned to turn the position down. I forgot to cancel the interview, so I went through with it.”
She nods again, taking everything in. Her face remains stoic—not mad, but a kind of stillness I haven’t seen on her before.
“Last night, before the tone, I got an email offering me the position.”
“In DC?”
“Yes. In DC.”
She sighs.
“Are you okay?” I ask. “I wasn’t hiding this from you. It seemed … irrelevant.”
“But now?” she asks.
“Now I want you to know. I want to talk about it with you.”
“Okay.”
“What do you think?” I ask. “I know this is out of the blue for you. If you want to talk about it later, we can.”
“Now’s good,” she says, almost too calmly. “Are you considering the position now?”
“I don’t know,” I tell her truthfully. “I want your input.”
“I want you to decide that, Greyson. I would never want to hold you here if your dream job is somewhere else. If you want to know what I want, it’s you. It’s always been you. But I won’t be the reason you stay.”
She pauses, taking my hand again and swallowing hard.
“I’m sorry,” I say. And I am. “This was bad timing.”
“No. It’s okay. I’m just tired—and emotional. We went through a lot. But it’s not bad timing. I’m glad you told me.” She smiles a comforting smile. I’m not sure if she’s trying to comfort me or herself.
“This is your decision, Greyson. But you have a little while now. You’re not going anywhere like this.” She points to my leg.
“Yeah. We have time,” I tell her.
There’s a knock at the door, and the nurse comes in. “Visiting hours are about over. Say your goodbyes.”
Hallie stands. If she were my wife, she could stay here. We probably could ask for permission anyway, but Mia needs her. And I just dropped a bomb. She needs to go home, shower, and rest.
“He’ll be going home tomorrow,” the nurse tells Hallie. “You can come back before he’s discharged if you like. Sometimes they like to take their time letting people out of here.”
Hallie tells the nurse, “Thank you.” Then she turns and places a kiss on my forehead. “Rest, Greyson. We can solve the world’s problems after you’re back home.”
Can we, though? I’m not so sure.