Page 20 of Embers in Our Souls
Noah looks proudly at Kalli then over at me and scrunches his nose. He starts shaking his head. “I want to see the fire truck, Mom. On our way home.”
“Maybe another day, sweetie,” I start telling him.
“But we drove by and they’re there! I saw them when we drove by today. Pleeeease, Mom,” he insists.
“Yeah, about that,” Kalli begins, “we were driving back from the zoo and apparently the station that helped him is the one by us. He caught sight of them washing the truck. I guess he recognized them. The kid has eagle eyes,” she whispers low enough for me to hear that last part. “I wouldn’t know, but he claims some of them were the same.” She shrugs her shoulders.
I sigh and try to convince him otherwise. “Noah, they might be out on a call right now. It would probably be best to stop by another day, okay?”
“Mom, you’re always working and I have school,” he declares.
Man, this kid knows how to get me every single time. Using the work card gets me—and he knows it.
I look over at Kalli and she knows I’m going to cave. “Why don’t I go with you both? I’ll make sure Julian’s good with Viv.” She winks in my direction.
While Kalli is in the backyard, I’m working to ensure Noah grabs the items he brought over. I’m helping him with his shoes when Kalli makes her way to the foyer.
“Okay, all set here. Let me grab my purse,” she says.
Julian and Vivienne make their way to the foyer as we are about to leave.
“Noah, thanks for being such a big help today,” he says as he gives Noah a high-five.
“Sure. No problem,” Noah smiles. He turns to Viv, “Roarrr!”
Vivienne lights up at the sound and repeats it to him. Soon they’re both trying to outshine each other in volume until we’re out the door and I think my eardrums are on the verge of bursting.
“Who knew that girl could get so loud?” I say, rubbing my ear.
“Oh, consider yourself lucky Julian wasn’t involved. I had a headache a few hours ago.” She laughs.
Kalli is nice enough to drive, and we pile into her SUV. While Noah seems ecstatic in the backseat, sitting in the booster seat she borrowed from me earlier today, I’ve got butterflies multiplying by the second as I sit in the passenger seat.
There’s no guarantee Tyler will be on shift, but there’s still a chance we’ll bump into him. My guard’s up and I really have no idea how I’ll feel seeing him today. I saw him for a short amount of time the other day and I haven’t been the same since then. My entire week has felt off-kilter since and this time I’ll be on his turf.
By the time Kalli pulls into the driveway, I’m close to wanting to hurl my lunch. The things I’ll do for my son are remarkable because I’m close to begging for my best friend to turn this car around, but I hold myself together for him.
I get out the passenger side and help Noah out of his booster. The moment he’s out of the car, he grabs the drawings he made for the crew. Apparently, he used some of the extra time he had while Viv was napping to draw firetrucks and pictures of himself with those members that helped save his life that day at school.
“Don’t run too far ahead, please,” I tell Noah. His excitement is palpable.
“Try to take a deep breath. It’ll be okay.” Kalli walks up beside me.
“It just feels like a lot. I haven’t seen him in so long and now I’ll be seeing him twice in the span of a week, possibly,” I tell her.
“Maybe luck will be on your side today. He might not be here.” She brings her arm around my shoulders and pulls me into a half hug.
“Have you noticed my luck? I doubt it.” I give her a side eye and laugh. There’s no humor behind it, but she laughs with me.
“Come on. I won’t let you go through this alone.” We catch up to Noah and walk through to the equipment bay. We find two firemen standing near the garage doors, which are open.
“Well, good afternoon, young man,” a tall, red-haired fireman says. He kneels down to greet Noah, giving him a fist bump.
“Hi, I’m Noah,” my son says with a big smile.
“It’s nice to meet you, Noah. I’m Tucker. But the guys like to call me Malloy. What can I help you with?” Malloy asks, moving his hand through his beard.
“You came to my school. I was stung by a bee right here,” Noah explains, pointing to the spot where the bee stung him.
