Page 26 of Sparks Fly

“Why did I have to lash out like that?” Kaia whispers into the silence of her room, her voice raw and thick with tears.

Wiping at her eyes with trembling hands, Kaia fishes her phone out of her pocket. Fingers shaking, she pulls up Hallie’s contact and hits the call button before she can secondguess herself.

The phone rings once, twice, three times. Each unanswered trill is like a knife to Kaia’s heart, twisting deeper with every passing second. She starts to pace the length of her apartment, phone pressed to her ear hard enough to hurt.

“Pick up, Hallie. Come on,” she pleads under her breath. “It can’t end like this.”

But the ringing eventually gives way to Hallie’s curt, professional voicemail message. There’s a beep, and then silence, expectant and suffocating. Kaia takes a shuddering breath, trying to compose herself enough to speak.

“Hallie, I’m sorry,” she begins, hating the way her voice cracks. “Please, can we just talk about this? I know I was an idiot. I never meant to put you in danger. You mean too much to me to throw this away. Just...call me back. Please.”

She ends the call and sinks onto the couch, staring at the phone in her hand as if she can will it to ring through desperation alone. Minutes tick by, each one an eternity as Kaia waits for a response that doesn’t come. Hope soon gives way to a gnawing dread, cold tendrils of fear wrapping around her chest with every moment that passes and Hallie’s name doesn’t appear.

How long she sits there, eyes glued to the dark screen, Kaia doesn’t know. Eventually, her phone chimes with an incoming text, startling Kaia so badly she nearly drops it. But as her eyes scan the words on the screen, Kaia feels the last, fragile embers of hope gutter and die in the darkness of her unlit sitting room.

I meant what I said. We need to focus on our careers right now, not let our feelings cloud our judgment on the job. It’s better this way. See you at work.

The message is like a punch to the gut, cold and impersonal. Kaia stares and stares at it until the words blur together, disbelief and devastation warring for dominance in her heavy head. After everything they’d been through, all the moments of tenderness and passion, the whispered confessions in the dark, Hallie is really choosing her career over what they had?

A strangled sob tears from Kaia’s throat, the phone slipping from her fingers and tumbling to the carpet. She curls in on herself, arms wrapped around her middle as she rocks back and forth. Hot tears spill down her cheeks, soaking into her sweatshirt as Kaia cries until her throat is raw and her eyes are swollen.

Exhaustion pulls her down to the couch cushions, the deep, bone-weary kind that only comes from heartbreak. Kaia doesn’t fight it, doesn’t have the strength to do anything but succumb to the oblivion of sleep. As her eyes slip closed, a final, devastating thought drifts through her mind like acrid smoke.

I’ve lost her. And it’s all my fault.

The next morning, Kaia drags herself into the station, feeling like a husk of her former self. She moves on autopilot, going through the motions of her routine without really noticing anything around her. It’s as if she’s watching herself from a distance, puppeteering her own movements without actually being present in her own body.

She’s just finished filling her coffee mug in the break room, staring blankly into the steaming depths as if they hold the answers to her misery, when a voice startles her out of her daze.

“Hey, Montgomery. Got a minute?”

Kaia turns to see Richards leaning against the counter, her fellow rookie’s expression uncharacteristically somber. Instantly, she feels her defenses slam into place, her spine stiffening as she braces for the inevitable jab or snide remark.

“What do you want, Richards?” she asks warily, her fingers reflexively tightening around her coffee mug.

But he just holds up his hands, his eyes sincere as he meets her gaze.

“I come in peace,” he says calmly. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about what happened at the resort. We should’ve had your back up there. That… that was some real shit.”

Kaia blinks, taken aback by the genuine remorse in his voice. Of all the things she’d expected him to say, an apology was definitely not one of them.

Richards takes a step closer, his voice low and earnest. “Look, I know we’ve given you a hard time. But at the end of the day, we’re a team. We need to trust each other if we’re gonna make it in this job.”

Kaia nods slowly, the words sinking in like a balm to her battered ego. She takes a deep breath, shoulders sagging as the weight of her own mistakes settles heavily on her.

“You’re right,” she admits quietly. “I-I need to do better at being a team player too. No more lone wolf crap.”

He grins at that, clapping her on the shoulder. “We all have our own shit to fix, it seems. Now come on, we’ve got drills to crush.” He jerks his head towards the door, a clear invitation.

Kaia feels a small smile tug at the corners of her mouth, a flicker of warmth kindling in her chest in the face of his olive branch. She downs half of her coffee in one gulp before setting her mug down and following him out to the training ground, determination settling over her like a second skin. If she can’t win back Hallie’s heart, at least she can to prove her lieutenant—and herself—that she can be a valuable asset to this team.

But her resolve is tested the moment she steps out onto the tarmac and sees Hallie standing at the front of the assembled crew, her presence as commanding as ever. Kaia’s heart clenches painfully at the sight of her, so close and yet so distant compared to weeks past. It takes every ounce of her strength not to let the hurt show on her face, to maintain the mask of calm professionalism even as her insides twist themselves into knots.

“Listen up!” Hallie calls out, her voice ringing with that familiar authority. “Today we’re practicing rapid intervention. You’ll each take turns as the firefighter down, trusting your teammate to get you out. Pair up.”

Kaia feels a jolt of the usual unease at the prospect of having to work alongside one of the guys, but then Richards catches her eye, tilting his head in a silent question. Partners?

Relief washes over her immediately and Kaia nods, grateful to not be sneered at as she falls into line beside him. As Hallie goes over the drill, Kaia forces herself to focus on the task at hand, pushing aside the tumultuous emotions threatening to overwhelm her.

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