Page 60 of Never Always
An SRG team enters, and blessedly takes Ariel from me and knows how to drain the tank. It happens in a matter of minutes, the tank empty, Grey standing next to Tennyson, a hand on her shoulder. I put my face in my hands and brace myself. I tell at least nine different people the full story, or at least everything I know. It’s torturous as I watch them question her, because she can’t stop crying and I can’t not hear it no matter what room I’m in.
They take Ariel away in cuffs when she comes to, and I don’t think I’ve ever underestimated a person more in my life. She had the whole world fooled. Gave the words cold-hearted bitch a whole new meaning. Maybe it was about me, but I still think it was about Fire. The magnetism is so strong that no one can ignore it. Not even crazy bitches. She stalked Tennyson. She tried to live her life. She wanted to slip into her skin and be her. Somewhere in that madness, the killing started and kept going. Grey got sucked in because he loved Fire too. Here we are.
There’s a tap on my shoulder. I’m still barefoot, but my clothes dried about an hour ago. “Hey Grey,” I sigh. “I’m sorry. I mean I’m not that sorry because I love Tennyson, but I’m sorry for being an asshole to you.”
He looks like he’s not sure how to reply, one brow raised. He’s a victim in all of this. It’s pretty strange to think of when I’ve spent most of the time suspecting him.
“You saved her.”
Her voice comes from behind me. “You are so awful, Corrick Granger.”
I smile and peer over my shoulder to see a bedraggled Fire. Hair a tangled rat’s nest, a blanket around her shoulders, her black one-piece swimsuit underneath. Her face is so bruised and swollen she’s barely recognizable. “I have to go to the hospital now. To get checked over even though I told them I’m physically fine. Do you want to come?”
Grey doesn’t know she’s talking to me because he’s the one who responds. “Yes. Of course.”
She looks down. “That’s nice of you, Grey, but I meant Grange.”
His face looks like he’s received one extra blow on top of his beating. “Oh.”
“Thank you for today. For everything. For being a great friend. For caring about me so… much. You are going to make a wonderful boyfriend and husband for the right person.” She clears her throat, and it’s painful to watch her let him down easy. I walk away, but I hear what she ends with. “The thing is, I fell in love with a man, that man, so desperately that my life is only right when he’s beside me. He gave me a love that’s hard to describe because it’s so pure. I want that for you. You deserve that, Grey Morgan. I will champion your work, drive, and heart, but I will always only be your friend. Thank you for saving me so I can continue ruling my work and loving my man.”
I rub the bullet through my dress shirt and I talk to Rexy. I tell him that I was only able to pull through today because he was inside me, pushing me on, to be a better person. Once again, saving my fucking life.
Grey bids me a farewell and leaves with a couple officers to give more statements down at the station. I imagine they have a ton of questions for the man who spent the most time with Ariel and didn’t suspect anything. He traveled all the way across the world with her for Christ’s sake.
Tennyson links her arm in mine. “Tell Rexy he should have let you ring that bell during Hell Week. You might be less awful today if he did.”
For the first time in months, I laugh. And I actually feel the joy behind it.
“I don’t always ask barefoot men to ride with me in ambulances, but I’ve actually never ridden in an ambulance before and I’m kind of scared.”
Stopping, I turn to face her, and even though it hurts to see her so beaten up, I push that back because she’s alive and here with me right now. Maybe that’s all we have. I’m taking it. “I love you, Tennyson Kline. Always.” Leaning down, I put my lips against hers. Ignoring the taste of her blood, I linger there for a long time.
We walk out the same way I entered. “I love you, too, always,” Fire says, leaning her head on my shoulder. I snatch my shoes from the planter on the walk down the hallway and out the front door to the waiting ambulance.
Tennyson just laughs, shaking her head. In the back of an ambulance, staring at her, is the first time I’m able to relax. This is it. The place where never and always meet.
My Fire.
Forever.
Chapter Twenty
Tennyson
IDIDN’T JUMPback into things with Grange straight away. On Sue-Ellen’s advice, I let him work back into my life at his own pace. After the loss of Rexy, I wasn’t sure what was the proper protocol to follow. How much time passes before you allow things to fall back into normalcy? What does grieving look like when you’ve lost the closest thing to family you had? He loved Rexy with his whole heart so his grief takes up his whole heart, too. I catch him rolling the bullet around in his fingertips more often than not and I hope that he’s thinking of happy times, or telling him a funny story or anecdote. I hope it’s notallsadness.
Maeve is dropping me off at Grange’s house after Clover’s baby shower. She hid her pregnancy for so long because of the shit time we were all having. Today was all positive and pink balloons. I’ve never seen her and Mercer happier. The nursery is the most adorable thing, all sunflowers and white clouds. Seeing her in that room, touching all of the soft animals and homemade blankets awakened a new part of me. I want to be a mother. It was never on my docket. Mostly because no one was up to par. Almost drowning put many things into perspective. This is just one of those things. Now I have babies on the brain and I’m questioning my sanity. I don’t even know if Grange wants babies. Not that I’d ever bring them up while he’s still getting over everything, but maybe I will one day, and that’s a huge, wildly crazy thing for me.
He gave me a key so I stopped knocking on his door when I come over. Maeve waves at me and then honks her horn a few times, like my mother used to do when she dropped me off at the mall with my friends.
I blow her a kiss, and she pulls away. “I’m home,” I call out. “I mean, I’m here!”
Grange catches me from the side and presses a kiss to my temple. He was waiting for me. “I like the first one better. What happened? You were supposed to move in with me.”
I turn to snuggle into his bare chest, and relish his scent, being held, embracing him anytime I want. “Well, things went a little sideways.”
He leans back and runs his thumb along the scar under my right eye. I think it was from a flipper when Ariel was trying to knock me out at the hotel pool, but it could have been any number of things. Grange never asked what happened, and I never offered it up. The scars bother him. He traces them and kisses them like he can erase them if he tries hard enough. “Can we discuss it again?”
