First and Last (25 page)

Dropping to my knees, I stalk after her like a lion on the prowl. Her cheeks tint red as she shakes her head and begs me to stop. The grin on my face lets her know there’s no chance in hell that’s happening. I grind on the floor enough I should be embarrassed my mother is witnessing this, but I push on and keep going. Standing up, I do a quick spin before straddling her lap, grabbing the back of her chair, and rolling my hips so I’m rubbing all on her. Her hands go to her mouth and she starts laughing uncontrollably. The crowd yells and whistles, giving me the encouragement I need to keep going.

I take her hands away from her mouth and rub them over my chest before spinning around and shaking my ass. She gives me a good hard smack, startling me, but I quickly recover, turning around and wagging my finger at her. “No touching,” I warn her. She continues to laugh.

I get back down on my knees in front of her and slowly lift up her dress, making eye contact the whole way. She shakes her head at me with a wide smile. I wink before diving in and hiding under her gown. She yelps when she feels my lips on her thigh. My lips pepper small kisses all around the garter belt until she’s squirming in her seat and yelling at me to stop. Grabbing it with my teeth, I slide it off her leg and stand up in victory with it in my mouth when I have it off.

All the single guys line up, Luke and Josh included. I point at Luke and nod my head while he holds up his hands.

“I don’t think so, bro. That’s not part of my job description as best man,” he says. Luke’s completely content living his bachelor life. Who am I to judge? It’s just not for me.

I laugh to myself, turn around, and throw it. To my disappointment, Luke doesn’t catch it, but Josh does. “Looks like you’re next, buddy.”

Music starts and Josh holds his hand out in invitation to the lucky girl who caught the bouquet. Claire gets up from her seat and they dance together for a song. I’ll admit I’m not Claire’s biggest fan. My first impression of her wasn’t stellar and she came off as a huge bitch, but Mia adores her. Even with the distance, they’ve remained close, so it came as no surprise when Mia wanted to make her the maid of honor. Since we got back together, I have noticed a difference in Claire. Apparently, her parents cut her off while she was finishing school, which helped humble her some.

“Congrats, buddy,” Gary says, slapping me on the back.

“Thanks, man. So, any advice from one married guy to another?” I ask jokingly.

“I’m not an expert, but I’ll tell you the two things my dad told me on my wedding day.” He holds up one finger. “Always fight fair. Don’t bring up stuff from the past to prove your point or hurt each other. Focus on the issues at hand and work through them. Two,” he says as he holds up a second finger, “never go to bed mad. None of us knows what will happen each day, so hold each other tight and always tell her you love her.”

“Those are some nice words of wisdom,” I reply.

“Eh, I do what I can. Now stop talking to me and go dance with the new Mrs. Collins.” Hearing him call her that brings a smile to my face. Without any further thought, I take his suggestion and walk over to Mia.

“Dance with me, wife,” I request. Now that all the requirements of a wedding are done—the cake, toasts, tosses, first dances—we can sit back and enjoy the rest of the day with our friends and family. As Mia and I rock back and forth on the dance floor, I stare into her eyes. This is what I’ve always strived for. To see this amount of happiness and joy radiating off of her. It makes me feel amazing knowing I’ve been able to give this to her, and as long as there’s oxygen in my lungs, I’ll work hard to keep her this way. “Thank you,” I tell her.

Her head tilts to the side a little. “For what?”

“For making me the happiest man alive. For being my partner. You deserve way better than me, but I’m glad you don’t see that.” She lightly pinches me in the ribs, making me laugh. “All joking aside, I can’t picture my life without you, and I promise the best is yet to come for us.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too,” I reply against her lips before completely closing the distance.

“What do you say we head to our honeymoon suite and you can show me more of those dance moves?” She raises her eyebrows up and down suggestively, but I don’t need it spelled out and she definitely doesn’t have to ask me twice. Without a second thought, I grab her hand and we run out of there.

Present

T
he roar of the nearby fire has become white noise to me, but when the pops and cracks get louder, I know it’s time to move again.

“Fuck.” I’m so damn tired and part of me wants to give up so bad, but I keep picturing Mia walking down the aisle and move another inch away from death and toward my love.

My shoulders are burning and I know I’m close to muscle failure. It’s a bitch to pull two hundred pounds using only your arms.

I pause, needing the break to regain some strength as well as cough. My abs hurt from tensing with each cough, but I can’t stop it. Smoke inhalation is one of the leading causes of death in fires, and I know it’s getting me right now.

I don’t make it much further before I collapse, the hard ground digging into my face. I’m still in an area that’s not real dense with trees, so that’s good. The bad thing is I didn’t make much progress in my attempt to distance myself from the spreading flames.

I’m no stranger to tragedy. It’s all part of the job. When I was with the fire department, I saw it every day. Between car crashes and house fires, you get a large dose of things you wish you’d never have to see again. I just never thought I’d be staring at my own tragedy.

Images of Gary’s wife’s face flash through my mind. My stomach twists and clenches as I remember looking into her eyes and apologizing. Eyes that held so much sadness and heartache that it was tough to look at. I owed it to her though. She deserved an apology and so much more; I just didn’t know what else to do or say to make it better. To make it right. But her face is quickly replaced with Mia’s, sending a wave of nausea through me.
Fuck, I can’t do this to her.

It’s a reminder that sometimes the best of times are followed by the worst. Mia has always been my light in the darkness, the thing to pull me through the hardest of times. And I know I’ll need that now if I’m going to make it out of here alive.

September 2009

T
he alarm sounds and we spring into action. Running to get our gear, we throw it on and load up in the truck as fast as we can. My adrenaline is pumping and my knee bounces as we pull out of the station.

Chief relays the information he has on the situation. “Alright, guys. We have an abandoned warehouse that a passerby called in. He says he doesn’t think anyone is in there, but we know these buildings don’t catch fire on their own. So let’s approach it like someone might have been living there and try to do a full sweep.”

We all nod and try to prepare for what we’re walking into. It’s impossible to predict how any call will go. We’re always told to expect the unexpected. What might start out as a small fire could spread rapidly. My dad always had a great respect for the destroyer, and I keep that in mind every time I have to go out. I’m not in control. Ever. The moment I forget that is when all hell can break loose.

When we pull up, the right side of the building is engulfed in flames. “Shit,” I say under my breath. The warehouse was dilapidated anyway, but there’s zero percent chance we’ll be able to salvage this. It’s too far gone now.

“Structure looks too unstable to send anyone in to do a search,” Chief tells us.

“I’ll do it,” I volunteer. “In and out. If it looks too risky, I’ll come back.”

“I’ll go with him,” Gary says.

“We’ll keep to the left side. We’ll be quick,” I urge. There have been times where we couldn’t get in and save people we knew were trapped inside. It’s hard to go home at night and sleep knowing you couldn’t rescue them. I know it’s not our fault, but it’s still hard to stomach. So if there’s the slightest possibility we can get in and look around, I’ll take it.

“Alright, but get your asses back out here asap,” he says.

Gary and I head over to the front entrance. The door is wide open, making me believe someone was definitely in here. “Let’s do this,” I mutter to him.

The heat is stifling and the loud cracks and pops of everything burning are almost drowned out by the roar of the flames. Visibility is low as we approach with caution. It appears that we’re in a huge, open room.

“Anyone in here?” Gary calls out. To our right, we hear something large crash.

We look at each other, sharing the same thought.
We gotta make this quick.
Chief is right, the building is really unstable, and it could be minutes before it starts falling in on itself. Quickening our pace, we follow the outside perimeter as our guide through the warehouse, using our flashlights to see through the darkness.

“Look! Over there!” Gary points to the corner. We run over, meanwhile very aware that we can now see the actual flames and they’re no longer contained to the right side. They’re spreading, and fast.

Lying on the floor unconscious is a man. I don’t have time to check his pulse right now. We need to get him the hell out of here and then we’ll assess his vitals.

“I got him,” I say as I bend over and throw him over my shoulder. Gary helps me up as I stand with him.

“You good?” he asks.

I nod. “Yeah, let’s get the hell out of here.” Going as fast as I can, I squeeze my eyes shut to clear the sweat from them. I’m breathing heavy as I carry the weight of all my equipment plus a full sized man, but I concentrate on following Gary as he leads the way to safety.

Suddenly, there’s a loud snap coming from right above us. We both stop and look up, embers floating and falling from the floor above us. One more buckle and that’s when it happens.

“Fuck,” I say the same time Gary yells, “Blake!”

A quick, hard shove sends me backwards, falling to the ground right before the floor above crashes to the ground, sending debris flying through the air. I roll the guy we were rescuing off of me and sit up, but I don’t see Gary anywhere.

“Gary!” I search around frantically, panic setting in while a lead ball forms in my stomach. “Gary!”