I can’t help myself; I reach out for him, resting my head against his chest as I wrap my arms around him tightly. He instantly hugs me back and I hate knowing this is how it ends for us. At least for now
I repeat the words my mom said to me. The words getting me through all of this. “If we’re meant to be, then we will,” I tell him softly.
“You’re really leaving.” His voice is watery.
I pull back to look at him and try to lighten the mood as I always do because I don’t want to see him cry, even as I’m about to do the same. Using humor as I always do I tease, “Try not to miss me too much.”
He smirks. “You’ll be calling me in no time.”
“You’re full of yourself.”
And for just a moment everything feels normal. Until that small moment fades and my parents and Ethan join us outside. I drop my arms from Parker, worried that’ll be the last time I’ll be able to touch him. The last time I’ll feel his hug and the comfort he brings me.
Even as I’m leaving, I watch him in the rearview mirror, my chest sinking until I lose sight of him. I swear there’s an emptiness where my heart was because I just left it in Amity. I hold onto the thought that my mom is right and if we’re meant to be we will.
I just hope that when I come back there may still be a chance for us.
CHAPTER 1
Parker
PRESENT DAY - AGE 25
My eyes shootopen and I immediately know something is wrong.
I stand from the uncomfortable cot at the fire station and try to find the source of my heightened alarm. When I glance out the window, I see it.
“Guys, we gotta go!” I shout, already racing down to get equipment because the grooming salon situated next door is on fire.
Everyone shoots up without hesitation. Even though a call hasn’t come in for this yet, we treat it the same. Racing to put on my gear, I remember there’s someone that lives at the building and don’t even think twice before I’m running over there with only one thing in mind.
I break through the door; the smoke is everywhere and it’s hard to see anything. I don’t know where the fire is coming from or the level of it, but I hear the squawking from the bird I’m here to save.
Luckily, I’ve been here enough times that I know exactly where the cage is. I toss the blanket that’s covering it off and open the cage while he’s yelling insane things at me.
“Shut up, Vern! Bitch! Jizz! Hot guy Jameson!”
I chuckle at the last one in particular, but don’t waste any time holding the white cockatoo to my chest and getting out of the building as fast as possible with him. By the time I make it outside, my team is already preparing to put out the fire.
“Anyone else inside?” my coworker, Jameson, calls out.
“All clear,” I yell over Jerry Lee barking under my jacket. I try to figure out where I’m going to be able to put him.
I want to join in helping them put out the fire, but I’m currently stuck babysitting a bird. I glance at the truck, wondering if I can set him free in there for just a minute. Or maybe I can put him in the bathroom at the station. He’ll be fine in there for a minute,right?
“Parker,” Jo, another one of my coworkers, calls. “Maybe you should call Trish.”
“I want to help,” I insist.
“Help by calling the salon owner,” she argues. “And then she can take her bird.”
I grumble, going inside to get my phone while said bird continues to squawk random words in between barks at me. “You’re annoying,” I tell him.
I don’t even think he can hear me over his own loudness, but I manage to grab my phone and dial the grooming salon owner. Her voice is groggy when she answers, “Hello?”
“Hey, uh Trish, it’s Parker. You need to come down to your shop.”
“Shut up, Vern!”Jerry Lee screams.