Page 8 of Jake and Conner
He doesn't even look that old,my brain supplied helpfully before I could tell it to shut up. Losinganyonewas a tragedy, and contemplating how much this was going to suck wasn't solving anything.
I needed to figure a way out of this.
"What do we need?" Warren asked, approaching me.
A miracle? I almost said that out loud, but didn't, even though it would have been accurate. What we needed was to be more prepared for this kind of situation than we were. My eyes swept over the scene again before I turned to Warren. "Blood pressure cuffs and MAST pants," I said. "Three IVs and as much fluid as we have. And the drug kit."
My partner nodded and sped off.
"How bad is it?" the man asked. "It's bad right?" The pain on his face gave way to worry. Maybe even panic but I didn't want to examine it that closely. It was hard enough for me to keep my own panic under control.
I estimated that there was roughly a five percent chance that we could win this one and get the man to the hospital alive. The far more likely scenario was that we were going to lose this guy while I was chatting with him. If he stayed conscious long enough I'd try to find his phone or give him mine so he could get in touch with his family one last time.
I swallowed.
God, I hated it when things went like that.
"I'm Jake Stephens," I said, introducing myself, because really, if I was going to be at his side at the end, I didn't want to be a stranger.
"George Bratley," he gave back, and I nodded, even though I'd rather not have known. It wasn't that I was cold-hearted, don't get me wrong, but my job was much easier to do when I could wear a protective wall around me that kept me from being swept up in the pain of the people I was trying to safe.
"We'll do our best to get you out of here, George," I said, forcing a smile on my face, even though I didn't have much hope.
Most days I loved my job, I really did.
But that day?
That day I wished I'd chosenanythingelse.
4
Conner
Juliana really was the most precious little baby I'd seen in a long time. I sat on Laurence's couch with her in my arms and couldn't help but smile at the sleeping infant. "She's beautiful."
The proud parents beamed at me. They already knew, of course.
Laurence sat on the couch beside me while Aaron had taken seat in the armchair opposite me, jumping up every now and then to refill or drinks or get snacks from the kitchen. Nathan and Raphael had arrived a few minutes after me. Raph had immediately claimed the second arm chair, so Nathan was stuck on the couch with me and Laurence.
The room felt very full, especially with Laurence's twins running around the table trying to show us various toys and causing quite a bit of noise while doing so--and it didn't help that Nathan and Raphael's 20-months-old son was determined to keep up with the twins and making his displeasure known whenever they left him behind.
In spite of all of that, though, I kind of enjoyed the chaos and the busy chatter going on all around me.
It was good to be among my friends and their families.
Also, no Jake in sight.
I didn'twantto focus on that thought, but I couldn't help it. To be honest, many of my thoughts revolved around the bold young alpha I used to be so close with. And even though it had been over two years since our break-up, I could never quite forget about him. Part of that was because we lived in a small-town and I was bound to run into him every now and then. Another reason was that Jake refused tolet me forget.About a year into our break-up, he'd decided that he wanted us to start over, and when he set his mind to something, he could be almost as stubborn as I was.
But that wasn't all.
It wasn't just that we lived in a small-town and it wasn't just that Jake made sure to send me flowers and other little gifts to get my attention.
There was a long list of reasons why I couldn't move on from Jake, but the most important one was this: he wasJake.And I was Conner. And for the longest time, we had belonged together, the same way two differently poled magnets tried to stick to each other. Even when we were apart, we could feel the pull. Even now.
Even when I didn't want to.
It was really quite annoying.
