by Natalie Ann
Better than he might think…or even want right now.
Tough
“You’ve got my mother’s phone number if you need anything, right? If Trey wants to go home?”
“Trey will be fine. And I’ll call you or your mother if he even hints at wanting to go home.”
She was starting to have serious doubts about today. She’d mentioned it again last week about taking Trey to the Mathews’s Fourth of July party while Finn worked. He’d hemmed and hawed, and finally agreed if Trey wanted to. She knew it was a big step for him to leave Trey with her, and as happy as she was over it, she was thinking maybe it was a mistake.
First off, Finn was making her nervous. Second of all, maybe she was getting in over her head. She’d never babysat a child before. Not for a full day.
Thankfully, there would be plenty of other people around and Trey would be spending the night at Mac and Beth’s with Michael and Evan.
Finn hadn’t been ready for the sleepover, she knew that, but he gave in when Trey all but begged him. But it was at Trey’s pediatrician’s house, and Finn’s respect for Mac Malone was the only reason he gave in.
“You promise?” he said smiling, and leaning in for a kiss.
Now he was just playing with her and she wished he would stop. She already doubted herself, so she didn’t need him doubting her ability too.
“I do. Now get back to the firehouse. How did you even manage to get out and bring Trey here?”
“I’m entitled to take an hour or so for personal reasons when I’m on shift if I need it. I don’t take it often, but today I made an exception.”
“You needed to make sure Trey was really serious about spending the night at Evan’s? Or were you nervous about leaving him with me?”
“Would you be upset if I said a little bit of both?”
“No, I would think you were being honest. And if we’re being honest, then I’ll tell you I’m a little terrified myself. I won’t let him out of my sight. I promise,” she repeated.
She watched as he hesitated, but then sighed. “Okay. I better go before I find another reason to take him home and get him angry with me again.”
“He’ll be fine, Finn.”
She leaned in, gave him one last kiss, and sent him on his way. Thankfully, Trey had gone down to the beach with Kaitlin and the twins when Finn arrived. Trey couldn’t say bye to his father fast enough, and Olivia was wondering if maybe Finn was a bit hurt by that, too.
“I know. I’ll go. I’ll check in with you later.”
“I’ll have my phone in my pocket at all times. Now go to work and be safe. Mac knows you’ll be picking Trey up a little after eight when you get off your shift.”
“I talked to him earlier. We’re all set on that front. They’ve got my number, too.”
“Bye,” she said one more time, giving him a little shove toward his truck.
An hour later, Olivia was really starting to sweat. This single parent thing was some tough stuff. She didn’t know how Finn did it. Maybe he was more relaxed because Trey was his child, but Olivia was just on edge.
If Trey wasn’t in her sight at all times, she started to panic and run around like a chicken with her head cut off looking for him. She shouldn’t have stressed so much; she knew nothing would happen to him here. There were adults everywhere, the kids were constantly being watched, but she knew today was an important day in her and Finn’s relationship.
She looked over, saw Trey hopping up and down, first on one foot then the other, and wondered what was wrong.
“I think he needs to go to the bathroom,” Sophia whispered in her ear.
“Oh, I didn’t even think to ask him that. I just figured he’d go on his own.”
Sophia snorted. “He’s four. He knows he needs to go, but he isn’t going to stop playing to do it. Better grab him quick before he has an accident.”
“Trey,” Olivia said, rushing closer to him. “How about we take a potty break?”
“I don’t need to go,” he said, clutching himself and crossing his legs.
Sophia burst out laughing when Olivia looked over at her in desperation.
“Trey, I’m trying to potty train Ian and you know what, I bet he’d love it if one of the older kids went up to the bathroom with him. Kind of like a big brother thing. What do you think? Want to be Ian’s big brother for five minutes?”
Trey hopped around again and Olivia was starting to sweat until he finally said, “Sure. I’ll meet you there.” And he took off running for the house.
“Me too,” Evan yelled. “I need to pee, too.”
Olivia breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you. I don’t know what I would have done if he had an accident.”
“You would have told him to go rinse off in the lake since he’s in his bathing suit anyway. And you wouldn’t have made a big deal about it.”
“Hopefully it doesn’t happen and I don’t have to deal with it. Let’s go catch up with them. I didn’t know you were potty training Ian already.”
“I’m not. He’s napping. I’ll think of something when we get there, but my guess is Trey will be done and totally forget we tricked him.”
“I’m hungry, Olivia,” Trey said another hour later.
She’d been keeping an eye on him, running around with him and monitoring his juice intake after the near miss. She knew he wasn’t allowed to have much juice, so she let him have one box and then the rest was water. Since it was hot out, she didn’t think it was that big of a deal that he’d had a few bottles of water.
“You didn’t get any snacks with the other kids?”
“No, they had them before we got here.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” Why didn’t she think of that? “Come on, there are all sorts of snacks out. I just saw Brooke put out some little mini pizzas. You like pizza, don’t you?”
“Only with cheese.”
Please let there be cheese, Olivia silently prayed.
Thankfully there was, along with chips, veggies, dips, and plenty of other things Trey saw that he liked. She let him fill his own plate while she held on to it, then she filled one up for herself and they sat together and ate.
It was awkward for a few minutes with Olivia trying to think of things to say. As luck would have it, Harper marched over with her own plate of food and sat next to Trey, squeezing in so close to him she was almost on his lap.
“I’m eating too,” Harper said happily.
Trey just looked at her and wrinkled his nose, and Olivia had all she could do not to laugh. “I’m done, Olivia.”
Olivia looked over and saw more than half of the food was left and she wondered if he didn’t like what he’d grabbed, or he didn’t want to sit next to Harper. She took a guess it was Harper and got up and sat on the other side of Kaitlin’s daughter and picked her up, then sat her on her lap, and started to tickle her.
“I’ve missed you, Harper. Have you missed me?”
It was enough of a distraction that Trey was able to eat the rest of his snacks, then asked to be excused. She had this, she was getting this parenting thing down.
A few more hours of running around and then an early dinner was served. By now, Olivia knew how Trey liked his burgers and she easily made his plate for him. He wanted to go sit with his friends, so she let him go and kept a careful eye on him. Finn had only called twice to check on Trey, and Olivia had been happy to say things were going well.
“Olivia.” She turned to see Mac coming up next to her. “I’m heading to the hospital right now.”
“I thought you weren’t on call,” she said, confused.
Finn would have never allowed Trey to spend the night at Mac’s if he thought there was a chance Mac wouldn’t be there.
“I’m not. There is an apartment building fire and lots of children are being sent in by ambulance now. It’s all hands on deck. I thought you should know.”
She knew he wasn’t telling her because he was going into work, but because Finn was working.
“All fireman, too?”
“That was the call that came in. I’ll try to keep you posted.”
She watched as Mac took off in a hurry toward his car. Finn had been on plenty of calls since they’d been dating. She never knew about them while they were happening, though. She might find out afterward, the next day, if he mentioned it at all.
But now knowing he was fighting a fire and everyone had been called, with lots of injured children, she didn’t know what to do. She wanted to go too and be there, to make sure he was okay, but she couldn’t leave Trey.
“Hey,” Sophia said, coming over and putting her hand on Olivia’s shoulder. “I just heard. Are you okay? You look a little white right now.”
“I think so. I don’t know. I mean I’ve never thought of it before, what Finn did. Now I am, though. Now I’m realizing the danger of it.” She looked over and saw Trey playing with the kids, not a care in the world. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Nothing. You don’t tell Trey. I don’t think Finn would like that. Finn fights fires all the time; Trey knows that. But he doesn’t need to know it’s happening right now.”
“No. He doesn’t. I’m sure Finn will be fine. I just need to take my mind off of it.”
But two hours later, Beth Malone walked over to her with a phone in her hand. “Olivia, it’s Mac.”
Olivia took the phone, dread rushing through her veins. She knew, she didn’t need to be told. “Please don’t tell me, Mac.”
“They just brought Finn in the ambulance. I don’t have any details other than he’s unconscious right now. I only know because I was waiting for another ambulance with a child in it, and Finn’s came first. I thought you should know.”
“I’m on my way.”
Better Circumstances
“Grandma!”
Olivia turned her head and saw Trey running toward the older woman, and then watched as she bent down and wrapped her arms around his little body. Olivia was glad that Finn’s mother was here. She was running out of things to say to keep Trey calm, especially when she was having a hard time staying calm herself.
She wished someone were here for her to run to and put her arms around. Being the adult in this situation was harder than she thought—having a set of four-year-old eyes looking up at her, pleading with her to say his daddy was okay. She’d said he was, because she didn’t know what else to say, hoping she was speaking the truth.
Absently she noticed that Trey was still in his swimsuit and sandals. She hadn’t even grabbed his clothes or taken time for him to change. Just found his shirt and shoes, threw them on him fast, and took off.
“Come here, baby. Daddy is going to be just fine. You know how tough he is.”
Olivia caught Finn’s mother’s nod at her and slight smile. She was glad to know she’d been saying the right things to Trey all along.
Olivia walked forward. “I’m Olivia. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances.”
“Ellen Abraham,” she said extending her hand out. “Me too.”
“I’m sorry I called you. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Don’t be sorry. You did the right thing. You actually called me before the firehouse. I still haven’t heard from them. How did you find out so fast?”
“Mac. I mean, Dr. Malone was called in two hours ago from the party we were at. He called me to say he saw Finn had been brought in.”
“Well, I’m thankful that the news got to us faster. Come on now, let’s go sit. From my experience, it might be a while before we hear anything. My daughter Sherri is on her way to get Finn’s dad. He was at a friend’s fishing camp and there’s no cell service.”
Olivia was thankful for the older woman for having taken charge. Personally, she was exhausted just trying to hold it together for herself, let alone Trey. She felt ready to collapse and they still didn’t have any information. Suddenly what Ellen said penetrated her brain.
“Your experience? How often has Finn gotten hurt?”
“Not often. Normally just the usual, smoke inhalation, and then they send the men here to give them a clean bill of health. This is the worst, I’m afraid. Though I’m positive it won’t be as bad as our minds are letting us believe.”
Olivia opened her mouth to tell Ellen that they said Finn was unconscious, but caught Ellen’s nod to Trey and closed her mouth.
“It’s scary, I know. Isn’t it, Trey? Scary to know Daddy might be hurt. But what would he say about it?”
Trey lifted his head from his grandmother’s shoulder, where he’d climbed into her lap when they sat down. “He’d say to be brave. That firemen are brave and sometimes brave men get hurt, but they’re always good in the end.”
Olivia didn’t know how Trey could say that. Then she realized it was because that was how Finn’s attitude always was. He was always positive and always using everything in life as a lesson for Trey.
She wondered if she’d taken everything as a lesson earlier in her life, then maybe she wouldn’t have made such a mess out of things. If maybe she wouldn’t have come running to Sophia praying she could pull her life together. That maybe she wouldn’t have made so many mistakes along the way.
It was all water under the bridge now, though. She couldn’t go back in time and change anything. And even if she did, it wouldn’t have brought her here. She wouldn’t change that for a minute.
“Olivia.”
She turned her head to see the other fireman from her inspection weeks ago walking toward her. “Chris, right?”
“Yes. Hi, Ellen. Have you guys heard anything?”
“No. What happened?” Olivia asked.
Ellen raised her eyebrows, then tilted her head down to Trey. “Why don’t we go for a walk, Olivia,” Chris said, catching the hint that Olivia was too numb to realize.
“Sure.” She stood up and followed him out of the waiting room. “It’s bad enough to not say it in front of Trey?” She felt her eyes welling up. She hadn’t cried yet. She’d been holding it back, but now she couldn’t seem to control it.
“It’s not that. At least I don’t think so. But it’s probably best not to scare Trey. We had everyone cleared out of the apartment building. The injured were here at the hospital, and we thought the fire was under control. But the wind shifted and before we knew it, the roof on the house next to us caught fire. We’d been dousing the trees and houses as best we could, but sometimes things just get out of control.”
She didn’t know what to say. “Go on.”
“We thought everyone was out of that house and on the street, until someone started shouting they couldn’t find their daughter. She was afraid the child had gone back in for her cat. Finn noticed the girl on the second floor in the window, screaming. We moved the ladders over quick and made our way up. He was there first and in the window. He had her and handed her off, but the minute he did, a beam broke free and hit him from the side and he went down. Other crew got to him as fast as they could, but they still had to get the girl down to safety.”
“How long was he in the house by himself?”
The burning house, with flames around him, and beams crashing down. Every scenario was running through her brain. Was he burned? Was he not even alive and no one was saying? No, she refused to believe it.
“Not long. There was another ladder on the way up already and they got in and got him, but he was unconscious, so they needed two men to lift him and then get him out and carry him down the ladder. I’ll see if I can go find something out. He’s tough, Olivia. He’ll be fine. They’ve got the fire under control now; men are going to be coming in left and right. It’s a brotherhood, no one will leave until they know he is fine.”
“No one else was hurt?”
“Just the usual smoke inhalation and minor burns. They’ve been treated. Finn got the worse of it this time.”
***
Finn’s head was pounding and his throat was raw. He needed to cough, but it hurt too much. It hurt too much to even move.
&n
bsp; Slowly he opened his eyes and looked around the room. The hospital. He recognized that much. Had to be the ER: there were curtains closed all around him, noises and voices he couldn’t understand.
He went to try to sit up, but couldn’t. It felt like a thousand pounds were on his chest squeezing the breath right out of him.
“Don’t try to move yet.”
Turning his head, he saw the nurse who spoke to him. “What’s wrong?”
“With what? You?” she asked quietly. “Well, for starters you’ve got a nasty lump on your head.”
“Is our patient awake?” Finn turned to the other side to see a doctor making his way close to the bed. “How are you feeling?”
“Like someone knocked me out. What’s the damage?” he asked and started to cough, wishing he could have held it back—the pain almost unbearable. Weren’t they supposed to give him some kind of pain meds?
“That someone was a ceiling beam. You’ve got a concussion, a few busted ribs, and some smoke inhalation. I’d like to keep you overnight for observation.”
“No,” he rasped out. “Nothing you can do for busted ribs or a concussion. I’d rather go home. I need to call my son.”
“He’s here. Don’t worry. So are your parents and your girlfriend, along with your crew. There are a lot of people out there waiting for you to wake up from your nap.”
Finn snorted. Nap, my ass. Before he could ask to see his son, Mac walked around the curtain. “There’s the hero. How are you feeling?”
“Like shit. How’s the girl?”
“She’ll be fine, but she’s got some pretty nasty burns on her arms and back. She’ll have a painful recovery. If you hadn’t gotten there when you did, she wouldn’t be having a recovery at all.”
Finn nodded. He was glad she would be okay, even though he knew she’d have a long horrible road ahead of her.
“Can you do me a favor?”
“Just name it, Finn.”
“Will you go talk to Trey first before he sees me? Tell him I’m fine.”
If there was one person he knew he could trust to keep Trey calm and explain everything so that Trey could understand, it was Mac.
