Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
HAILEY
I can’t see a thing.
At the crack of an eyelid, brilliant white light blinds my retinas.
Where am I? What time is it?
I bat at the surface next to me, reaching for the familiar rectangular object.
It’s too far away.
I try to roll to one side but there’s an arm draped across my midsection. The person it’s attached to groans and furls me in tighter.
I fight through the haze, scratching at my eyes. I try to push Reed’s big body off me with no luck. If I could just… get… a little… I swing at the phone with the finesse of an octopus arm, and it sails off the nightstand and thumps to the floor.
Super .
I’m going to have to go about this another way. I wiggle my body up, down, side to side, testing which direction grants me the most leverage. When my chest slips lower with the scoot of my butt, down it is. With no footboard, I flop off the end in a blunt thud to the floor .
Wow, okay . I’m awake .
I swipe up on the dark screen and stand.
Eight missed calls?
Seven say Dean. One says Jack.
I rub at the puffy circles that ring my eyes.
I was crying. Jack was here. I’ve been working. Reed was… Reed . Working .
Reality crashes in on me.
Eight missed calls and it’s light out!
“Reed!” I slap at his arm and he sits up with a start.
“What? What is it?” He scans the room, swinging his head frantically. Then he groans at the surge of light.
“My phone’s on silent,” I say, switching the sound on and off again to be sure I’m seeing it correctly. “How did my volume get turned off?”
Reed scratches the back of his head. “I thought you could use the extra sleep on your day off.”
“Yeah, I could! Except it’s past nine now and we missed a dispatch call over an hour ago!”
He throws himself out of bed and runs to the living room. He turns on the TV, flipping to Channel 7 News, and we hear the detailed report we would have gotten from my dad or Dean if we hadn’t missed their calls.
“ The White Horse fire burning across the Payette National Forest developed a massive shift overnight when a thunderstorm swept the area. The fire that was once contained on the northern border hopped the Salmon River. High winds and lightning in the area are making it difficult for crews to stay on top of the spread that has burned an estimated 103,000 acres at this point. Forest Service officials say if they don’t get ahead of this thing, we might be in for a long summer .”
I grab the remote from his frozen hand, punching the OFF button and flinging it on the sofa. “We gotta go! Now!”
Reed’s the first one in the truck.
“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I didn’t even think—” He shakes his head and clenches the steering wheel in a firm grip.
“Let’s just hope we aren’t too late, or we’re all screwed,” I say.
We ride in silence, with Reed barreling twenty miles an hour over the speed limit through Warren Wagon Road and me hanging on for dear life.
A call comes through the truck’s dash with Reed’s phone connected to autoplay. He answers it.
“Where the hell are you!” Dean’s voice screams through the speaker.
We jostle back and forth when the paved road gives way to gravel.
“Five miles out,” Reed answers.
“From where?”
“What do you mean from where? White Horse!”
“You need to turn around,” Dean says.
“Why?”
“Because we’re not there, man.”
“Where the hell are you then?”
“The crew had to turn down the job, Morgan. We can’t work with a seventeen-man team.”
Reed’s eyes grow wide. “No. We… we can still do it. I can be wherever you need me to be.”
“We needed you to answer your dispatch call almost two hours ago.”
The line goes dead and Reed slams a palm against the dashboard. “Dammit! I should have listened to him. ”
“Woah, it’s okay. We’ll fix this.”
“How, Hailey?”
I wince when I hear him use my first name.
“This is what I do. I screw shit up! Dean, my dad, your dad. They’re all right about me. I manage to make the easy, wrong choice every time.”
I don’t know what he means by that, but I can’t help tying those words to me— easy , wrong .
I pull out my own phone and dial the number I’ve had memorized my whole life.
He shocks me when he picks up on the first ring.
“If you’re calling to defend your boyfriend, it’s too late, Hayes. Dispatch is already sending out another crew. That’s how this thing works.”
“Dad, please!”
The name sounds foreign on my lips, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
“Please do this one thing for me.”
He lets out a shaky exhale through the speaker. I don’t ask for much from him, but I can’t be the reason Reed loses this job. I’ve seen how hard he’s worked to prove himself here. He deserves a second chance.
“Okay. Let me make a call.”
“Thank you!”
We park on the side of the road and wait. One minute turns into five. One nervous knee turns into two shaking knees. Then the phone rings again—Reed’s. Even with it disconnected from the truck and pressed to his ear this time, the volume’s loud enough I hear my father’s voice.
“ Morgan, make sure my daughter is safe and then meet us at the McCall Smokejumper Base. You’ve got forty-five minutes. This is your last chance; don’t blow it .”
“Thank you,” Reed says.
“ I didn’t do it for you ,” Jack answers.
Reed looks over and smiles at me when he says, “Yes, sir.”
He ends the call and drops the phone in his lap, pulling back onto the gravel road.
“Wait. What are you doing?”
“He told me to make sure you’re safe, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
“At the campground? Reed, please! The crew is spiking out again. Probably for an entire roll this time. You can’t spend two weeks without an EMT. Ben will be staying back to hold down the medic tent. You guys need me.”
“I’m sure dispatch has already thought of that,” he argues.
“Fine, I need you. I can’t spend the next two weeks wondering if you’re okay! There could be bears out there! Or a coyote!”
His eyebrow peaks and that damn dimple sinks into his cheek.
“I didn’t realize they taught you bear defense in EMT school.”
I slap him on the arm.
“Wow. I take it back. Maybe they did. You’ve got the arm of a major league pitcher.”
“And you’ve got the reflexes of a dairy cow.”
He chuckles, spinning the car around.
I don’t know if I got him to agree because he feels sorry for me or if having me along makes sense. But somewhere in my heart, I’m hoping he did it because a part of him needs me just as much as I need him.