37. Overpowered #2
Turning my head, I found Maggie staring at me.
She was no longer the center of attention, everyone else moving around to help check for damage to Suzie’s house.
Somehow, we drifted toward each other until she was standing right in front of me.
Her hair was braided, plastered to her face and neck, but she was still as beautiful as ever.
With sparkling eyes, she lifted her hand to my jaw. “You look utterly exhausted. Are you okay?”
I nodded, unable to speak. The more I stood there, the less I believed it. Her lips glistened with rain water and they were practically screaming for me to kiss her.
Lowering her gaze, she let her hand slip to my chest. “I know you think I left this town behind because I didn’t like it, but I do. I truly love this town.”
“The town loves you too, Mags. They always have. You’ve always been a shining light who could bring out the best in people,” I glanced around at everyone celebrating. “When you went away, they noticed. And when you came back, they’ve been so happy to have you home.”
It looked like she was considering the idea of this as home when another round of thunder rumbled and goosebumps stood up on my arms. Adrenaline dumped into my veins, giving me a second wind. I pushed her toward her car. “You have to get out of here. It’s not safe.”
As I tried to rush her toward her car, she dug in her heels, stopping me. “Paul, everyone else is out here, too. I’ll be fine.”
I felt my heart beating so wildly that I could hardly stay upright. Slumping against her, I yelled over the rain. “I need you to get back home. You’re drenched. Get a shower, dry off, and stay inside. I’ll finish things up here.”
“Paul, I’m fine,” she said, helping support me with her shoulder. “It’s the lightning, right?”
I nodded, averting my eyes. The desire to keep everyone safe coursed through me. While I wanted to get Maggie and my brothers home, out of the storm, I was out of energy from fighting the fire. There was no brute strength left to force them to go home.
Maggie held onto me, pressing her forehead to mine while placing her hand over my heart.
“Take deep breaths. It’ll be okay,” she said, coaching and breathing with me. “We can’t control everything, Paul. Sometimes, we have to let go.”
The storm went on around us, drenching everyone, but the crowd didn’t care in the least. My brothers along with the other volunteers were still whooping for the rain that saved the Gentry home.
As the rain slowed, a paramedic approached us. “Is he okay, ma’am?”
My legs felt like rubber, barely holding me upright. Maggie struggled to hold me.
“I’m not sure. He worked really hard on the front lines, so could you check him?” Maggie asked.
Together, they supported me so I could shuffle to the ambulance. When I was seated, Maggie stood back holding her upper arms while she watched the paramedic assess me.
“Your blood pressure is pretty high,” the paramedic said. “I’m going to monitor you for a few minutes before I decide if I need to get you to the hospital.”
“Everything okay?” Merrill said as he approached us.
I glanced over him. “Is the fire out?”
Merrill nodded. “It’s looking good. You take care of yourself. Listen to this man. He knows what he’s doing.”
Breathing a sigh of relief, I slumped against the side of the ambulance. I was exhausted from prolonged physical tasks. Maggie ran to her car and returned with a sandwich and an electrolyte drink.
“Here, drink this,” she said, sitting next to me.
Once I’d guzzled half of it, she handed me the sandwich.
My stomach rumbled at the sight of food, and I ate it in three bites.
It was only then I realized that Maggie was shivering.
Seeing her like that, I put an arm around her.
The paramedic noticed, grabbing a gray blanket and wrapping it around us both.
It was only then that I really looked at Maggie, with ash in her hair and her face smudged just as mine must have been.
“You were too close to that front line for my liking,” I muttered.
Maggie scoffed. “I felt the same way about you.”
My eyes traced her face as the truth of how I felt about her hit me so hard it left me breathless.
“Nothing can happen to you, Mags,” I whispered. “I couldn’t survive that.”
Her lips parted as something passed between us.
“Paul …”
Before she could finish her thought, the paramedic returned to take my blood pressure again. I stared out at the field, willing it to be lower as the rain slowed. While some thunder rumbled in the distance, the storm appeared to be moving on.
“Still a little elevated, but nothing to be concerned about considering what you’ve been doing. I don’t recommend further treatment at this time, but if you have any weakness or shortness of breath, get yourself to an emergency room, understand?” he said.
I nodded. “Got it. Thanks.”
Together, Maggie and I walked with the blanket to her car. “I really would feel better if you got back to your hotel room.”
“For you, I will,” she said smiling.
Before I could get her in the car, Suzie came running over, pulling Maggie into a hug. “The fire is finally out. Thank you both so much!”
When I glanced over at Kyle, he was shaking his daddy’s hand.
“We’re going to stay with Kyle’s parents until we can get back into the house,” Suzie said. “It’ll be tight, but we’ll make it work.”
That was probably best. I cringed as the lighter sky showed some melted siding on the house, hoping that was the only damage they had. If it was cosmetic, they could replace it in their own time after the insurance company assessed it.
After the ladies had time to talk, I finally got Maggie in her car. There was packaging in the back hatch, but nothing remained from the donations.
“Text me later,” she insisted. “I want to make sure you’re not having any of those symptoms the paramedic discussed with you.”
“Okay,” I promised, closing her door and tapping on the roof to let her know it was safe to drive away.
With a whistle, I rounded up my brothers and sent them to the truck. We always kept some towels in the cab for unexpected sweat, rain, or mud, so we used those to dry off and sit on as we headed home.
Josh sighed. “Well, that was anticlimactic.”
“The fire going out wasn’t to your liking?” I grumped.
He huffed. “No, you idiot. You and Maggie. The whole damn town was waiting for you to kiss her in the rain. You’ve seen the movies. You know how to do it. And yet, you just stared at each other. What the hell, man?”
I concentrated as I eased through some of the giant puddles on the back road to our place. “Life isn’t like the movies. Maggie and I are friends.”
Sawyer smirked. “Oh, that’s how you’re playing this. Friends with benefits?”
I slammed my hand on the steering wheel.
“Shut the fuck up! I’m not playing anything.
This is real life. These are real feelings.
And we don’t need the entire damn town watching us kiss to know that there’s something between us.
We don’t know what it is. I don’t know if she wants to come back to town or not.
She’s been watching her mother die, waste away, now losing her mind, and she doesn’t need you two chuckleheads analyzing her every move. ”
“They’re still trying to figure things out, guys,” Rob said quietly. “Let’s just drop it.”
From then until we got home, there was only the sound of the rain and windshield wipers. My brothers finally heard the situation and respected it.
Maggie was at a crossroads in her life. She had a life elsewhere, but she needed to be here for her mom.
Everything so up in the air. She may go back to Chicago the moment her mom was gone, or she may stay, but no matter what happened, I was going to be her friend.
I couldn’t let her disappear from my life again.
After updating Dad on the fire, my brothers showered, ate, and went to bed.
After I showered, though, I was wide awake.
I felt like something was bubbling in my belly.
A new blog post that was important. So, I wrote about fire prevention, how to battle a fire in rural communities, the importance of funding volunteer fire departments, and what people can do in their communities to be prepared when a fire happens.
When all of the fire stuff was out of my system, I picked other topics to write about.
First, I wrote about the importance of coming together for a common cause in the farming community.
It really resonated with me. Then, I wrote one about repairs that had me laughing out loud as I wrote it.
Seemed silly at first, but I pushed through it and had about eight hundred words for each of those articles.
I wasn’t sure if this was the type of thing my audience wanted, but it showed who I was.
The response after I put these up in the morning should tell me if I was heading in the right direction with my business.