Amongst The Flames: A Contemporary Christian Romance (Embers and Ashes Book 1) (2 page)

A paramedic came over to me and said, “I need to take a look at you.”

“I’m fine,” I replied as I wiped my face of sweat with my good arm. I could feel the soot from the building smear across my forehead. “Just make sure that little girl is okay.”

His eyebrows went up as he looked at my arm and all the blood my jacket was soaked in. Glancing down at where I was hit, I saw my Kevlar jacket was no match for whatever hit me; it tore through the material with ease. Whatever ‘it’ was it managed to slice through all the layers and straight into the muscle of my arm. Suddenly I felt light headed, and everything went black.

Lying in a hospital bed was the last place on earth I wanted to be that afternoon. The rest of the guys were back at the station getting ready for the next call to come in. Being idle, motion-less and like that of a vegetable was absolute torture for me. I felt useless lying in that bed and everything was out of my control. This injury didn’t need an operation in my mind, but the doctors and nurses insisted otherwise.

My wife Megan was three hours away in Yakima visiting a friend, but she headed here as soon as she got word that I was hurt. She overreacted, as usual. Last year I fell off a ladder and scraped my arm, and for a month straight she told me to be careful every time I left for work. She was always worrying about me.

Walking into my hospital room, Megan began crying immediately, as our eyes met on her way over to my bed. Those tears that live in my wife’s eyes were no regular tears at all. They had the ability to cut right through me when they made their appearance.

“Honey, don’t cry. Please? Save those tears for the next time you want something at the mall. Don’t waste them here and on this little injury,” I said with a smile, trying to lighten the mood.

“How can I not cry? You could have died, Cole!” she said, wiping tears from her cheeks.

“I wasn’t even close to dying, love,” I replied, bringing her hand up to my lips. Planting one on her hand, I looked up at her and smiled.

“You should really take Luis up on that offer in California. Me, you and the boys can all just have a normal life and you can work a normal 9 to 5 at MyTech.”

Shaking my head, I said, “I can’t do that to the guys at the station. We’ve been over this…”

She pulled her hand out of mine and said, “You hadn’t been hurt before, though… Not seriously anyway… I don’t want you to end up like my uncle.”

“That was a freak accident and he’s one of only twelve guys who have lost their lives at the station since 1914 when it opened.”

“I know… but it’s still a dangerous line of work.”

“You knew that when we got married. Heck, I met you at the fire station!” I began laughing.

“I know… but you used to have passions that led me to believe you might want something different than this all your life.”

“What’s wrong with saving lives? I saved a little girl in that burning building today. She might not be alive if it wasn’t for me finding her in time.”

“I know… And that’s really cool, babe… I… I just worry.”

“I love you, baby, and I’m sorry I got hurt,” I said grasping onto her hand tightly. “I’ll be more careful next time.”

A
couple days into my recovery at home and I was already going out of my mind. Megan was constantly hollering at the boys, and a pungent smell of poop and pee seemed to fill the air in every room. I was more than ready to get back to work pronto.

One morning my cell phone buzzed on the nightstand next to me. Reaching over, I grabbed the remote for the TV and hit the pause on the western I was in the middle of watching. Westerns were about the only part of bed rest I wasn’t minding. Outside of the western rerun channel, I found nothing but weight loss infomercials, how to get rich quick schemes and over-the-top reality shows that seemed anything but real.

“How’s it going, Brother?” Micah asked.

“Oh, you know, just lying around doing nothing with my life.” I scoffed.

He laughed. “I bet it’s a little bit nice to be taking a load off for a while. I don’t recall too many days in the past ten years where you took time off.”

“You would think it’d be nice… but it’s really not. The medications they have me on make me sleepy all the time… and having the boys constantly bumping my bed is getting old quick.”

“Well, at least it’s not long term,” He replied. “Couple of the guys and I were talking about possibly stopping by to see you today. We made a big batch of my Chicken Alfredo for you and your family. Plus, Ted wants to see your incision.”

“I could go for some of your famous Chicken Alfredo right about now. I’m starving! As for Ted… I’m in a cast, so nothing to see for him,” I replied.

Micah laughed. “Alright, I’ll let him know. So that sounds okay with you and Megan if we come over?”

“Sounds good to me,” I replied as I thought about that delicious Alfredo sauce. My mouth was salivating at just the thought of it.

“We’ll be by later this afternoon, probably about three or so. After we get off our shift.”

“Fantastic! Don’t forget the Alfredo!”

I smiled as I hung up the phone and continued watching my western. Thinking about the guys coming over made me do something I hadn’t been doing a lot of since I had been bedridden the last couple days —smile. They knew I was dying on the vine being away from the station and knew exactly what would cheer me up.

Megan came up the stairs and into the bedroom with a laundry basket in her hands. She went over and into the closet. Flipping on a light switch, she asked, “Did you need anything from the store? I’m about to load up the boys and head there after I finish this laundry.”

Glancing up at the ceiling for a moment, I thought about it and then said, “Get some of those pretzels and that white sugary stuff you put on them. Those were delicious when you made them for the Christmas party.”

She smiled at me. “Alright,” she replied as she continued putting the folded laundry away.

“Thanks,” I said as I smiled and continued watching my western.

Ding, Dong.

Looking over at the alarm clock on the nightstand, I saw it was already a little after three in the afternoon. I had forgotten to warn Megan about the guys coming over. I could hear Megan open the door downstairs and I cringed as I thought about how she was caught off guard. She hated it when I did that kind of thing.

As all the guys came up the stairs, Megan entered the room first, shooting a glare over at me. “Hey honey… a few of your co-workers decided to stop by and bring us dinner…” I could tell she was searching my eyes to see if I had already known about them coming.

“Oh, wow! What a nice surprise,” I said, trying to save my own hide.

She nodded as her eyes narrowed on me. Thankfully, Bradley began screaming downstairs and pulled her away. “Duty calls. Nice seeing you all,” she said as she headed out of the room.

Micah approached my bedside. “You shouldn’t lie to her.” He had a concerned look on his face as he folded his hands together in front of him. Kane put his hand on Micah’s shoulder and pulled him back out of the way to give himself room to get to me.

“Lay off him, Micah! Can’t you see Taylor’s in enemy territory?” Kane said as he scoffed.

“It’s not that bad being home,” I replied.

“Sure, you say that now. But wait until she decides to not bring you some food or wipe your butt or whatever else you have her doing.” Kane looked back at Micah. “Bible doesn’t talk about that!”

Micah’s eyebrows furrowed and he cleared his throat. “Megan should
never
be viewed as an enemy, Kane. She’s his wife. Maybe your hatred against marriage is why you still haven’t landed a solid lady.”

Kane shook his head, “Did you forget I got those digits from that bakery chick? We got a date this coming Friday night.”

“What’s her name?” I asked.

He pulled out the napkin she wrote her number on. “It doesn’t have a name.”

“What, no name? You don’t remember it?” I asked.

He laughed. “No I don’t remember!”

Megan peeked back into the room, “Do any of you want anything to drink? We have cola and lemonade in the fridge.”

“I’ll take lemonade,” Ted said from behind Micah. Everybody else declined. Megan nodded and vanished again downstairs.

Ted peered past Micah at my cast and said, “So what did they have to do in the surgery?”

“Attach the muscle back to the tendon…” I said.

He shivered a little. “Sounds crazy man… Do you worry they left some tools in there? I heard about some crazy stuff on the news a while back about them doing that kind of thing.”

“Shut up Ted,” Kane said. “You watch too much TV.”

Ted shook his head at Kane as he said, “No man… It really happens!”

“Well, I’m not really worried about that kind of thing,” I said. “I’m more worried about the recovery time… I can’t lift a cup of coffee for even the first month!”

All their eyes widened at the same time. Micah said, “Denise and I will keep you in our prayers, Brother.”

Kane said, “The station feels really strange without you around to keep everyone in line. Alderman forgot to mop the apparatus room yesterday and when the Cap was doing his inspection he noticed it. Oh man… you should have seen the Cap, he was flaming mad!”

“Bet Alderman felt stupid,” I said.

Micah nodded along with Ted.

Kane continued, “The Captain ripped into him pretty bad about it. Talking about how he’s one of the vets around there and how we all look up to him… It was brutal.”

“How’d you guys hear about it?” I asked.

Kane smiled. “We were at the top of the fire pole listening in on the conversation between them…”

“That’s no surprise for my father to get like that,” Megan said coming into the room. “He’s been that way forever. I remember once when I was a kid I spaced making my bed one morning and he lectured me for an hour about how responsibility and duty comes before playing. Then he grounded me for the rest of the week.”

We all shook our heads at the story. I said, “He’s rough at times, but he’s a good man.”

“You say that because he’s your father-in-law,” Kane replied with a grin. “We all know you don’t like him, Taylor.”

“I know that too,” Megan said smiling.

“Father-in-law or not,” I said. “I’ve got a lot of respect for that man that dates back to before he got that title of Captain.”

“Yeah…” Kane replied, nodding.

“He gave me a chance when I didn’t deserve one. He put his name in for recommending me when I was just a young buck, and he didn’t even know me,” I said.

“It’s too bad he hates you now for marrying his daughter,” Ted added.

“I don’t think he
hates
him,” Kane said.

“No, he’s right, he hates Cole,” Megan said, nodding as she handed Ted his cup of lemonade.

I smiled over at her.

“Hate to break up this bro fest you all are having, but I need to help Cole take care of some stuff before dinner time rolls around,” Megan said weaving between the guys. She didn’t verbalize the word ‘bath,’ but it was still embarrassing.

I went red in the face. I felt so weak, so incapable, and the worst part of what Megan did in that moment was she did it in front of the men that look up to me at the station. They weren’t just friends. They trusted me with their lives. “Megan…” I said as I pushed her hand away from my shoulder. “Just give me a few more minutes to talk.”

“That’s okay,” Micah said, raising a hand. “We were about to get going anyways.”

“Yeah. We need to get back to the station so I can get my car and head up to Colville to see my Mom tonight,” Kane added.

“Oh wow, two hot dates in a row?” Ted said with a laugh. “Tonight your Mom and tomorrow the nameless bakery gal.”

“Shut it, Sherman,” Kane said, shooting a sharp glance over at Ted.

Ted raised his hands. “Just playing, just playing.”

Micah leaned in to me a little and said, “Take it easy and get plenty of rest, Cole. And do not hesitate to let us know if you need anything.”

“Thanks for coming by,” I replied as Megan went for my hand to help me up. The guys all funneled out of my room and back down the stairs to leave.

As I heard the front door shut, I asked, “Why’d you have to embarrass me like that?”

“Oh, I don’t know, Cole… why’d you fail to mention they were coming over? The house was trashed when they showed up… you know I hate that! Plus, it’s not like I said you needed a bath, just that we needed to take care of some things… Jeez.”

“They don’t care about the house, Megan. They have families of their own. They understand.”

“You should have seen the way Ted looked at the toys strewn across the living room. It was mortifying!”

“Ted’s just a weirdo; he always gives those looks.”

“Whatever, I didn’t appreciate it!” Megan retorted. “You think you’d be a little nicer to me since I’m helping you here.”

“Got it,” I replied.

After my sponge bath, I watched the end of my western before joining the family for dinner. By the time I joined the boys at the table, Bradley had already dumped his cup of milk over his head in the high chair and Justin was crawling under the table trying to hide.

“Get up to the table, please,” I said, exhausted as I took a seat.

“Why?” Justin whined. He started the ‘why’ kick a few weeks ago. It was cute before I had to be on bed rest and I only saw him for a few minutes here and there. But on my first day home I realized quickly that ‘why’ made up a large part of his vocabulary. And thus Megan’s annoyance over the question made a whole lot more sense after being home. Every chance he got, he’d ask it.

“Because I said so. Please get up to the table.”

“Listen to your Father,” Megan said from the kitchen.

He climbed up into his booster and sat. “In, in?” Justin said, raising his hands wanting someone to latch him in.

“Just a minute,” Megan said to him.

“Da do it?” he asked.

“I can’t bud, I’m hurt.”

“Got owie?” he asked his eyes wide.

I nodded. “Sure do.”

“Da-da got owie!” Bradley shouted from less than a foot away from my ear.

“I’m okay now. I just need to sleep, boys,” I replied.

“Airplane!” Bradley shouted as a lingering jet overhead could be heard.

I smiled. “Yep, that’s an airplane.”

Megan brought over my plate of Micah’s famous Chicken Alfredo. My taste buds jumped with joy as the plate got set in front of me. Over the last few days, Megan had been so busy with dentist appointments and doctor visits that she was not able to make a single homemade meal. The frozen TV dinners and corn dogs were not really hitting the spot for me. “Thank you,” I said.

“Don’t thank me, thank your friends,” she said with a bit of an annoyed tone.

“Why are you upset? They know you’re overwhelmed with stuff at home.”

“Overwhelmed? This is my job, Cole.” She said as she wiped Bradley down of milk. “I’m not overwhelmed… this is my life.”

“Look, they were just trying to help.” I picked up my fork and shook my head. As I began to eat, Megan cleared her throat at me. “What?” I asked.