Chapter Thirteen – Girl In The Mirror
Chapter Thirteen
Fallon
GIRL IN THE MIRROR
Performed by Megan Moroney
THREE YEARS AGO
HIM: I didn’t hear you leave.
No response.
HIM: You’re really going to ghost me?
No response.
HIM: Don’t make me come find you.
HER: Take the hint, Parker. I can’t talk to you right now. Let me recover from my humiliation and lick my wounds in peace.
PRESENT DAY
The smoldering ruin in front of me made my stomach roll, and fury beat inside my chest. The flames were out, but smoke still drifted from the blackened remains into the morning sunshine. The heat of the day wasn’t far off, and the charred scent hung heavy in the thick air.
My hands were damp, and my fingers wrinkled from the hoses I’d wrangled while fighting the blaze. My body shook from both the physical exertion and the nerves that had settled in now that the fire had been contained.
We’d almost lost it all. The entire ranch…
Pain coursed through me.
God. It had almost gone up in flames on my watch.
“Fuck.” Kurt’s single word was full of emotions.
I glanced over to find his face and clothes coated with black ash that I was sure covered me too.
Tears threatened, and I bit my cheek hard in an attempt to contain them. I would not cry in front of my staff or the fire crew who was finishing up. I’d save the tears for later, in the privacy of my own home when no one could see me.
Just before dawn, I’d been coming down from my house to the hotel when an explosion had rocked the ground and sent me to my hands and knees.
Shock had quickly been followed by terror as I’d clambered to my feet and raced toward the main house.
When I’d seen the flames, for one panicked moment, I’d thought it had been the horse barn.
I’d barely registered that relief as the cabin had come into view, wholly engulfed in the blaze.
Kurt and others had poured onto the scene, and we’d had the emergency pumps and hoses going well before the firefighters had arrived. But it had been too late to save the cabin.
Thank God no one had been inside. Andie, our hotel manager, had said it had been empty last night, and the next guest wasn’t due to arrive until today. We’d have to figure out where to put them, but that was the least of our worries.
As I stared at the black hole where the cabin had once been, I saw Dad’s sad, disappointed face in my mind.
Once upon a time, the ranch’s horse trainer had lived there.
I didn’t remember Levi, but Dad had fond memories of the weathered old man who’d been more of a father to him than anyone else.
Dad had spent much of his childhood at Levi’s side, learning everything he knew about horses.
If I hadn’t been born, and Spence hadn’t whisked Mom away from Dad, my father would have spent his entire life here, breeding and training horses.
When Levi had died, my stepdad and Mom couldn’t afford to replace him, and the cabin had stayed empty until we’d renovated the ranch.
We’d kept the old pine furniture, updated the kitchen and bath, and added a tiny porch with rocking chairs and potted plants.
It had been one of our top bookings over the years, and now, it was gone.
The lost memories for Dad hurt far worse than any lost profit could.
I rubbed my chest. The ache inside it only grew.
“I’m so sorry, Ms. Harring—Fallon,” Chuck said from my other side. His face was soot-covered as well, and he looked closer to tears than me.
“Thanks for the assist with the hoses, Chuck. You’ve been a big help. Why don’t you get cleaned up and head over to the ranch-hand house for some breakfast?”
The teen ducked his head, mumbled something incomprehensible, and shuffled off with his shoulders sloped as if the weight of the world was on him.
Before I could consider why it had hit him so hard, one of the firefighters approached. He had his massive gloves stuffed in the pocket of his Kevlar jacket, a helmet shoved under an arm, and a small plastic bag held in his free hand.
“Dad, Fallon.” He nodded at the two of us. It took me a moment to recognize Kurt’s son under the black coating his face. We’d gone to high school together. He’d been two years older than Maisey and me, but we’d all been friends.
“Thanks for getting here so quick, Beckett,” I said.
“We’ve had a cool summer up until this week, but things are dry. We were lucky there was relatively no wind today. Otherwise, the embers might have taken the barn and the other outbuildings before spreading to the fields and forest.”
Over the last few decades, California had been devastated by large, fast-burning fires, burning hundreds of thousands of acres, houses, and businesses.
Beckett was right, the weather and their response time had made a difference today.
We’d been lucky, even though it didn’t feel that way looking at the darkened timbers in front of me.
“What you got there?” Kurt nodded toward the bag.
Beckett handed it over to him, and I saw it held a black box with melted wires sticking out of the end.
“Timing device,” Beckett said, brows furrowing.
It took too long for me to understand what he was saying, and when it did, the pain in my chest grew exponentially.
“You’re saying someone did this on purpose?” My voice was hollow with grief.
“I’m afraid so. I placed a call to Sheriff Wylee. He’s on his way,” Beckett responded.
My legs buckled, and only Beckett’s and Kurt’s quick reactions prevented me from hitting the ground for the second time that morning.
A deep voice calling my name from the direction of the parking lot had me jerking out of their hold. Everything felt like it was in slow motion as I turned to see Parker weaving through firefighters, staff, and guests toward me.
How was he here?
He had Will’s son in his arms, and the picture they made racing across the blacktop was stunning—a hero rushing through smoke and crowds with a rescued kid in his arms. Parker’s black hair, wide shoulders, narrow waist, and steel-gray eyes only enhanced the mirage.
Add a cape, and he’d be able to fly around the earth in a single bound.
As he got closer, Parker scanned me in that way he always did, cataloging me from head to toe, searching every inch for injury. Normally, it lit me up from the inside out. But now, the panicked concern I saw in his gaze caused the tears I’d barely held back to rush out.
Before I could take a step toward him, he’d reached me and pulled me into a fierce, one-armed hug. I buried my face into his chest and tried to hide the sob that escaped. His heartbeat thundered under my ear while Theo patted me, awkwardly smooshed between Parker and me.
“Are you okay? What the hell happened?” Parker’s deep voice was growly and dark.
I couldn’t respond. My throat was too clogged.
I didn’t know how or why he was here. At the moment, I didn’t care, because gathered in his arms was one of the rare places I’d always felt safe.
And for most of my childhood, it was the only place I’d felt truly wanted.
Maybe not as his girlfriend, but as a friend.
As family. At least until I’d realized he was just one more person who saw me as a responsibility.
But none of that mattered now. All I cared about was that he was here.
That I’d needed him, and he’d appeared like I’d conjured him from a dream.
For days, I’d debated telling Dad about what had been happening at the ranch.
The mutilated cow. The terrifying slide into the ditch when the tractor tire had been tampered with.
But I’d known it would be selfish to call him.
Dad would have come running when there was nothing he could do.
As a teen, I would have wanted that—him simply showing up so I wouldn’t face more awful things alone—but as a grown-ass woman, I didn’t need Dad to come running.
Except, I’d needed someone. I’d needed Parker.
“Ducky?” Parker’s voice broke as the tears wracked my body, and my shoulders shook. When I still couldn’t answer, he sent his question to my foreman. “Kurt?”
“She’s not hurt, Parker. It’s just been a long few days.” Kurt’s voice was tired and drawn. “And like always, she’s tried to take it all on without showing a lick of weakness.”
His words had me pulling myself together, had me fighting the tears and wiping at my face, even though it would spread the black ash into an ugly mess.
I reluctantly stepped away from Parker and tossed an irritated look at my foreman.
“And what’s that supposed to mean, Kurt? I’m a woman, so I’m supposed to curl up in a ball and cry, while you’re a man, so you’re supposed to be able to take it all on the chin and keep standing?”
Kurt’s mouth twitched, and he guffawed. “There’s my girl. Thought you were in there somewhere below that blubbering mess.”
It took me a second to realize what he’d done. I slammed him on the shoulder with my fist. “Asshole.”
Beckett looked between the group of us with a smile emerging.
“I see you’ve got plenty of support with Dad and the gang here, so I won’t have to worry about you.
” I rolled my eyes, and he laughed. “That eye roll is the same one you gave me when I asked you to the homecoming dance, and you broke my heart by saying no.”
A gurgled laugh erupted from deep inside me. “I did not break your heart. You didn’t even really want to go with me. You wanted to go with Maisey.”
He winked. “True story. But she’d already told Carter Smythe yes.” He flung a thumb back at the crew still mopping up. “I’m going to get back at it. When Wylee shows up, direct him my way.”
He pocketed the bag with the black box and strode away .
When I turned to Parker, his face was shuttered in that way I despised. All emotion was hidden away. It made him look every inch the Navy SEAL he was, but I still couldn’t stand it. I missed the Parker I’d grown up with—the one I could read as easily as he still read me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
Kurt cleared his throat awkwardly, and I reeled around to glare at him again. “You called him?”