Page 29 of Almost Always

“Daze, I’m home.”

She released a shaky breath and closed her eyes. “Fuck, thank god. Are you okay?”

“Yeah…shit, are you busy?”

Only then did she register the music and shook her head. “At a wedding. Send me your address. I’m on my way.”

“Don’t dip out because of me, Hero. Finish up and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Address, Rafferty.”

He sighed heavily and her phone buzzed a second later. “Please be careful.”

She mumbled a thank you and hung up, turning to a waiting Liam. “I’m so sorry. I need to go.” Before he could respond, she grabbed her purse and rushed to the front of the house to get herself a cab.

CHAPTER 10

When it came to fires, there was no fixed timeline on how long it could take to put it out. Worse when trees were involved. The minute they showed up at the campground, Rafferty knew they’d be out there for days. The fires he’d fought in New York were different, contained within abandoned warehouses and homes on busy streets. He rarely went into the woods with the crew, so he’d never been in a situation like that before.

It was terrifying.

He’d called Mack on his way to find out if he could pick up Cal and keep him for a few days. His new friend agreed without hesitation. Sitting in the truck in his turnout gear on the drive to the campground, he thought about Daisy. How scared she’d looked when he mentioned that he was a firefighter, the wobble in her voice when she saidCome back to me. He wanted nothing more than to assure her he’d be okay and go back to her, but knew that it was a promise he couldn’t keep. Especially since it was one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.

The Allenwood department was in charge of containing the fire at the campground while they waited for the Hotshots to arrive. Having grown up in a concrete jungle, he’d never evenconsidered any other form of firefighting until he signed up. Now, he thought the Hotshots had the best and scariest job—after all, they were trained to handle the worst kinds of fire and were also wild land experts. Unfortunately there wasn’t a permanent crew in the state and they had to fly out from wherever they were at any given moment.

They did everything possible to not let it get completely out of control, but the fire didn’t care for their efforts. By the time the Hotshots arrived, a huge section of trees had already collapsed and the Allenwood crew was still working to put out the campground flames. As much as he wanted to watch them work, Rafferty and his team had more than enough keeping them busy. Especially when the cabins started collapsing.

By the time they were done, he’d lost track of how long they’d been out there. He knew, in the back of his mind, that Daisy would be panicking and worrying about him. But he couldn’t get to his phone to assure her that he was okay. She’d been like that as a kid and something told him that part of her hadn’t changed. During 9/11, when the phone lines were down and every station was delivering the same information, she took it upon herself to get more news. Needing to knoweverythingwas one of his favorite things about her, until it made her so anxious she couldn’t calm down.

Once the campground had been cleared out and the source of the fire had been discovered, the Allenwood crew was dismissed. The Hotshots were still working in the forest and had it mostly contained. It had been seventy-two hours of no sleep when they finally pulled up at the firehouse and he could feel the exhaustion set into his bones as he washed off the three days. After a debrief and a late lunch, Rafferty drove to Mack’s house and picked up Cal, who was sad about not being able to spend more time with his best friend.

“So you didn’t put out the forest fire?” Cal asked. He’d been full of questions once they got home and hadn’t run out of them yet.

“There are other crews for that. Remember Tony? He was a Hotshot.”

“Was Tony there?”

“No,” he said with a soft chuckle. “He retired a few years ago.”

“That’s so cool.”

He smiled and watched his son who was so focused on the video game he was playing. He tried not to order in too much, but exhaustion made it almost impossible to cook anything then, so he called for pizza. The box was lying open on the coffee table, crumbs all over the front of Cal’s shirt, but his attention didn’t move from the television until he lost another life.

“Were you scared?” he asked softly, shifting on the couch to face Rafferty.

“At first, yeah. When we got there, it was shocking to see. But then I remembered my training and pushed the fear away.”

“Was anyone hurt?”

“A few people. Light burns, but maybe more psychological trauma.”

“What is psychological trauma?”

He sighed at the question, but smiled at his son’s eagerness to know everything. “Psychological trauma is what happens to a person when they’ve been in a difficult situation or something scary, like a fire. Remember Poppy talking about his time in the war and how he still had nightmares?” At his son’s dumbstruck nod, Rafferty continued, “That’s psychological trauma. There are different types and it affects people in various ways. But therapy helps a lot.”

“Is trauma why I have to go to sessions with Miss Rhiannon?”

Oof. I walked into that one.

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