Page 13 of Memories with Fire

I look towards the ceiling in thought, going through my calendar mentally. I’m not generally very busy on our off days, especially during the cooler winter months, and I can’t think of anything I’ve got going on. “Nothing I can think of. What’s up?”

“It’s supposed to be a nice day, so I’ve booked us all in for Tree Toppers,” he says nonchalantly, like this won’t make me freak the hell out.

Tree Toppers is an aerial ropes course high above the ground in the redwood forest. After being harnessed in, there’s a ladder to climb to a platform on a tree, and then an obstacle course that follows. There are different degrees of challenges, from walking along wooden planks, to walking wires that connect trees. Swinging ladder bridges and moving through rings that are suspended using rope. There are a few parts that even require a partner to go from one tree to another. From past experience, those challenges are Nate’s favorite. He calls it team building.

I call it a death trap.

“No! Nate, no!” I exclaim in horror, my stomach bottoming out at the thought of going up there.

He’s taken the whole team numerous times, and I always hate it. These are the types of things I don’t do. The types of things I hate. Tree Toppers might be the worst of them all, which probably comes from a deep-rooted fear of falling to my death, courtesy of my dad.

“You know I won’t make you do it if you don’t want to,” Nate says to pacify me. “I never do. But I think we all need a bonding experience, and this is a good way to achieve that.”

He’s right. I always stay behind on the ground, but I always feel a tiny morsel of regret that I don’t do it. Not that I tell anyone that. Instead, I cheer from below even though it makes me feel sick, watching all of them high in the trees, working together in pairs to help each other through it all.

Without my consent, my thoughts drift to Luke, causing me to groan inwardly. He’ll be there, I’m sure of it. This is all because of him and the way the whole house has been treating him. Damn Nate.

“Is it mandatory?” I ask because I really don’t want to go.

“It’s never mandatory, Hailey, you know that. I can’t make any of you do anything on your days off,” he tells me, giving a bit of an eyeroll. “But if you don’t come, I’ll be disappointed.”

Nate sucks. He knows exactly what to say to play my emotions against me. Despite my actions in his office this morning, I’m too obedient not to go. I would never want to cause him disappointment, and he knows it. He double sucks because he’s gone all friend on me to get me to do something that affects work, which normally I wouldn’t give two shits about, but this means two out of three of my days off I’m going to see Luke.

“You’re an ass,” I tell him with a grimace. “But fine. I’ll be there.”

He just laughs and waves me out of his office. “Tell Liam I need to speak with him.”

Yanking the door open, I practically run out of there before he can give me any other news I won’t like. I’m not happy about any of this, but I suppose if I want to leave the past in the past, I actually need to leave it there. It doesn’t mean I’m going to be friendly to Luke by any means, but I can get everyone to give him a chance. What he does with that chance is completely up to him.

Kind of like the chance I’m going to give my mom’s blind date. If Luke is going to be at the engagement party, there’s no way I’m showing up alone. Not only will it send a clear message to Luke, it’ll get my mom off my back.

It’s the perfect plan. What could go wrong?

CHAPTER 5

LUKE

A familiar facegives me a lopsided grin, a hand raising in greeting as I make my way down the aisle of an old fifties-looking diner. Checkered floors, red booths, a long sit-down counter where people can enjoy their meals solo, or with a friend. Every inch of the walls is covered in pictures, and if memory serves me correctly from when I spent my summers in Santa Rosé, it’s a lot of local places and people in the frames.

It’s seven-thirty in the morning after my most recent shift and I’m ready for a nap, but the diner smells incredible. Bacon grease, sweet smelling syrup, and some spice I can’t decipher makes my stomach growl in hunger.

“What’s up, man?” I ask my cousin, Carter, as I drop into a booth across from him.

He texted me last night on shift, wondering if I was free today, early, to meet him. It seemed a tad unusual, considering he runs a successful home renovations company here in town. They tend to get started early in the morning, but considering he’s the boss, I guess it’s easy to make an exception.

“Bro,” he says, rubbing his full, but trimmed beard. “You’re never going to believe this.”

No beating around the bush. Okay. The menu I just picked up gets set down and I sit back in the booth. Carter is pretty chill, which is why we’ve always gotten along so well, and why I spent the summer between high school and college with him in Santa Rosé.

“Alright. What’s going on?”

Pulling out his phone, he swipes through it for a minute, and just when I’m about to ask him if he came to talk, or sit on his phone, he slides the thing across the table.

Hailey.

Hailey stares up at me from the screen. And not the Hailey that Carter knew ten years ago, but the Hailey from the present. With her hair to her shoulders, and the side swept bangs. She’s not looking at the camera, but rather at someone who isn’t pictured. She’s happy. Smiling and laughing, and full of life.

My chest tightens. That smile is the one I remember from that summer. The one I fell for. It isn’t one I’ve seen since I started at the fire station. Not even close.

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