Chapter 1 Parker
Parker
My eyes shoot open and I immediately know something is wrong.
I stand from the uncomfortable cot at the fire station and try to find the source of my heightened alarm. When I glance out the window, I see it.
“Guys, we gotta go!” I shout, already racing down to get equipment because the grooming salon situated next door is on fire.
Everyone shoots up without hesitation. Even though a call hasn’t come in for this yet, we treat it the same. Racing to put on my gear, I remember there’s someone that lives at the building and don’t even think twice before I’m running over there with only one thing in mind.
I break through the door; the smoke is everywhere and it’s hard to see anything. I don’t know where the fire is coming from or the level of it, but I hear the squawking from the bird I’m here to save.
Luckily, I’ve been here enough times that I know exactly where the cage is. I toss the blanket that’s covering it off and open the cage while he’s yelling insane things at me.
“Shut up, Vern! Bitch! Jizz! Hot guy Jameson!”
I chuckle at the last one in particular, but don’t waste any time holding the white cockatoo to my chest and getting out of the building as fast as possible with him. By the time I make it outside, my team is already preparing to put out the fire.
“Anyone else inside?” my coworker, Jameson, calls out.
“All clear,” I yell over Jerry Lee barking under my jacket. I try to figure out where I’m going to be able to put him.
I want to join in helping them put out the fire, but I’m currently stuck babysitting a bird. I glance at the truck, wondering if I can set him free in there for just a minute. Or maybe I can put him in the bathroom at the station. He’ll be fine in there for a minute, right?
“Parker,” Jo, another one of my coworkers, calls. “Maybe you should call Trish.”
“I want to help,” I insist.
“Help by calling the salon owner,” she argues. “And then she can take her bird.”
I grumble, going inside to get my phone while said bird continues to squawk random words in between barks at me. “You’re annoying,” I tell him.
I don’t even think he can hear me over his own loudness, but I manage to grab my phone and dial the grooming salon owner. Her voice is groggy when she answers, “Hello?”
“Hey, uh Trish, it’s Parker. You need to come down to your shop.”
“Shut up, Vern!” Jerry Lee screams.
“Why do you have my bird? Is everything okay?” I hear rustling on the other end of the phone.
“Not exactly. There’s been a fire at your salon.”
“On my way.”
We hang up, and I stare at my phone screen, scrolling up to a contact I have thought about reaching out to so many times, but haven’t done so in years. Her name continues to invoke both nostalgia and pain. The girl that got away. My girl that got away.
“Bitch! Hot guy Jameson!”
“Thanks for that, Jerry Lee.” I chuckle, the bird pulling me from the thoughts of a certain little firecracker of a woman.
Amity is a small town, and I know Trish lives near her sister not far away. Her sister that happens to be my girl’s mom. My ex-girl.
Trish races into the small parking lot, and I meet her there with her still screaming bird under my jacket. The fire that was engulfing half the building is slowly dying from the efforts of my team.
“Parker, oh my God, what happened?” Trish is shaking her head as I hand her the bird.
“I’m not sure, I woke up and saw the flames.”
“I need to tell Sutton,” she finally says softly, referring to the other woman who works at the grooming salon with her. Who also happens to be Jameson’s wife. “And Lily.”
Hearing her name has me freezing, but I do everything I can to hide my reaction.
I shake my head, unable to get my voice to work for the moment.
I think about a time when I could’ve called her, and been the one to comfort her.
But there’s no reason for me to call her for this.
There’s no reason for me to call her anymore at all.
Trish sighs, and Jerry Lee seems to have calmed down for the moment.
She looks at the building, and I see her shoulders deflate.
I don’t know her extremely well, but she’s always reminded me a bit of her niece in the regard to being a bit of a free spirit with minimal filter.
Right now, she doesn’t seem like that. Right now, she just seems sad.
“Do you need anything?” I ask, unsure how exactly I can help especially now that the flames have died down almost completely. The night seeming darker without the light from them.
“No, I’m going to have to figure something out here. Thank you for saving Jerry Lee.”
“Of course.” I nod, starting to walk back toward my team.
After we clear the scene, confirming the fire is completely out and there isn’t a risk of another one starting back up again, we start to clear out.
I notice Trish is on the phone, Jerry Lee sounds much more content tucked under her jacket than he was under mine because I haven’t heard a rogue “jizz” in a few minutes.
What I do hear has me pausing.
“No, no, Lily, don’t worry about it.” She listens, and I try to pull my attention away. But I’m really unable to when I hear what she says next. “He is? I mean, if he’d be willing to help that would be fantastic, but I don’t want to put you both out.”
He.
Her boyfriend.
The guy that will never be me.
I need to walk away and get back to work. I need to not worry about her. She chose to push me away and I need to keep my distance. But I never could.
“If you’re sure, then you know your parents and me would be glad to have you back,” Trish says into the phone.
“Parker,” Jameson slaps a hand on my shoulder, “You good?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
It’s not a lie, but I know if Lily is about to come back into town, knowing she’s going to bring some guy, that will end up changing.
Or it’ll finally be my time to try and get her back.