Page 97 of Faking It with the Firefighter

I wasn’t sure if setting Rex’s things aflame would make me feel better. But I was sure it was worth a try. “Good idea. I’ll go grab the bag.”

My feet crunched over the dried leaves that littered my backyard as I walked back to the house. Winston still waited at the screen door. “Back up, little buddy,” I said softly, and he did. I walked in and shut the door behind me, then grabbed Rex’s bag. The moment I picked it up, I could smell him. I hated to admit it, but it made me miss him, which only made me angry, which made new tears puddle in my eyes.

Yeah. I was a mess.

I needed to burn this stuff as soon as possible and cleanse myself of Rex Montgomery. I opened the back door and felt arush streak by my calves. I blinked my tears back and watched as Winston jetted across the lawn.

“Winston!” I yelled, but he sprang off into the darkness. My friends looked up, and I pointed toward him. “Winston got out!”

Sophie bolted from her chair and Charlie was right behind her. Still gripping the duffel, I ran as fast as I could. Winston was still faster.

“Winston!” we all called after him, but he never looked back.

Please don’t jump the fence. Please don’t jump the fence!

Winston, the little rule-breaker, didn’t listen to my mental command. With one powerful leap, he was on top of the fence. He paused for a moment and glanced back at us, then stepped daintily across until he was at the side of the house.

“Winston!” I cried as he leaped off the fence. I could hardly see him in the gloom, apart from the white of his paws and the tip of his tail. The duffel dropped onto the grass at my side. I rushed to the side gate and caught a glimpse of him shooting up the big oak tree in my front yard, disappearing into the fluttering, changing leaves.

Charlie, Sophie, and I went through the side gate and stood at the base of the trunk, looking up in the dark. “Winston!” I called, and he meowed back from a branch.

Only this wasn’t his normal cry; he sounded scared. My heart began to thump, and a cold bead of sweat trickled down my spine. I called his name again, and Winston meowed back so softly I could barely hear it beneath the rustle of the leaves.

An old, familiar refrain started up in my head. I’d messed up. I’d let him out. I couldn’t keep a man, a cat, or a clean house.I screwed everything up, and now an innocent kitty would bear the brunt of my failures.

Winston was tough on the outside, but he stared down at me with big eyes, and I knew he was terrified.

The one creature that didn’t judge me, that listened to me rant, that pooped in the shoes of my enemies. I needed to get to him. The closest branch was well above my head, but I jumped up anyway, missing it by a mile. Charlie and Sophie tried, but they were both shorter than I was, and their vertical jump wasn’t exactly going to get them drafted into the WNBA.

Winston cried again.

“Just hang tight, buddy. I’ll get you down,” I promised. I dashed inside and came back out with a bag of kibble. Shaking it at the tree, I met Winston’s gaze. “Come on, kitty cat. If you could jump up, you can jump down. You know you want some of this.”

Winston stared at me.

I tossed some kibble on the ground and pointed at it. Winston looked at me like I’d insulted his mother. Sighing, I set his food by the front door and brought out a stepladder. Still too short.

Winston cried again. My heart twisted.

Of all the things that could go wrong, this was the one that would send me over the edge. My cat was the one creature that had been steady this week. The one thing I could count on. My heart rate had only climbed over the past five minutes, and my breaths were coming in short. Winston hadn’t asked to be adopted by the town screwup. He didn’t deserve this.

I stared up at him,distraught.

“Do you have a bigger ladder?” Charlie asked, and I shook my head.

“You know who would?” Sophie asked, bunching her lips to the side.

“Please don’t say Betrayer-saurus Rex,” Charlie answered.

“No, but close. We could call the fire department. They’d have him down in no time.”

THIRTY-FIVE

REX

All wasquiet at the station when I first arrived—with the exception of the crew hollering at the TV. Football was on the box, and the game was close. Just as I was settling in, we got a call. Someone’s fire alarm system had gone off, and no one was home.

We rushed downstairs, got into our gear, and loaded into the truck. The anticipation of what was to come was just the distraction I needed. Between my conversation with Donny, my lingering guilt about snapping at my mom, and everything that had happened with Abigail, I’d had a hard time tuning out my thoughts.

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