Page 125 of Yours and Mine (Friends with Benefits)

The smoke plumes got higher the closer we got, and I could see fire spewing out the front windows.

“God, please no.” I covered my mouth with my hand.

“We’ll get her, Jo. I promise.”

Carter was focused on the destination, his nerves as calm as I’d ever seen, but I knew that he must have been dying on the inside. If anything had happened to Mackenzie… no, shehadto be okay.

Captain Clark was running toward the house just as we pulled up. The half a minute it took us to get here felt like a lifetime. A few other firefighters wearing their full suits were affixing the hoses they’d carried on their backs, or maybe drove over in another car, to the fire hydrant.

Neither Carter nor Nick waited for instructions as Captain Clark called out to them as if they were part of the crew. I rushed behind them toward the house.

“Jo, stay back.” Carter stopped me.

“She’s my daughter.”

“And I love her like she’s mine as well. If she’s in there, I promise to get her out.” By that time, Nick was next to me, holding my arms. I was ready to bust through that fire without looking back.

“You can’t go in there,” Nick said. “Not without me.”

“Wait, you can’t both go in.” I looked from Nick and then to Carter, and before I got a chance to protest, Nick took ahold of my hands. “You need to stay here for Mackenzie. If something happens, our daughter will need you.”

“Nick…”

“I love you.” He kissed me quickly, and they both headed for the front door before Captain Clark was able to stop them. I doubted that a hundred men could have stopped them.

“Where is the fire truck?” I asked.

“It’s being serviced,” Captain Clark answered, then called out to his crew. “Joe, Andrew – my stupid heroic son just went in. You better get that water going.”

But as they turned the hydrant on, air hissed out, along with a few stray drops.

“Shit! Carter! Nick! Get out of there!”

“Two minutes later, Nick came outside, carrying Mackenzie’s limp body in his arms.”

“Oh, my God!”

We quickly moved away from the house, and he set her on the ground. “Carter found her hiding in the attic. She was still conscious.”

I knelt next to her, checking for any sign of breathing, but she I couldn’t find any, and so I gave her mouth-to-mouth and began chest compressions.

“Come on, baby. Breathe!” A window burst in our direction with only a crackle of the glass as a warning when the cooler air collided with it before it shattered.

Nick was panting from exertion himself, but I couldn’t look at him now. As I blew the next breath into Mackenzie, her eyes fluttered a little and she took a breath.

She coughed out a lungful and my heart soared with happiness. “I wanted to bake a cake for Daddy,” she gasped.

“My son?” I heard Captain Clark ask.

“Baby, you’re okay now. You’re okay.”

“Daddy? Where’s Uncle Carter?” she asked, and we both looked to the burning house, just before Nick dashed back through the front door. As soon as he disappeared, flames swallowed the entrance. I pressed Mackenzie’s head to my chest, blocking her eyes. If God forbid something happened, I didn’t want her to remember this scene.

“Stay still, Mackenzie. We’re going to give you some special air, okay?” Captain Clark placed an oxygen mask over her face just as Doctor Burke’s car pulled up. “Will somebody please get my son out of that house!” he screamed.

“Mommy?” Mackenzie asked through the mask. “Is Uncle Carter okay?”

“Yes, Daddy went to get him. They’ll be out in a moment.” I wanted to believe my words, but looking at the flames spitting through the roof and a house that resembled a burnt skeleton with every passing minute, it was difficult. The next few seconds happened in slow motion. When Andrew, one of the firefighters, heard the first crack, he stepped away from the front door. He must have sensed it — Carter had told me that all firefighters sensed that moment. The trusses burned through and collapsed, then the walls and our home turned into a dragon’s never-closing mouth. The flames and the heat pushed Andrew face down to the ground, and I felt it burn my lungs as I gasped in a breath of despair.

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