Page 105 of Loving Lies (Granton University 3)

“I’ll tell you what happened,” Charlie Martin’s daughter spoke up, stepping in front of him and straining onto her tiptoes so she could be included into the frame. “This guy was a hero tonight. A straight-up, risk-his-life-for-other-people hero. When I fell down just feet from the exit, he immediately swooped in to lift me back up before I could get trampled.”

“No,” Jonah started modestly, remembering her from the front foyer of the arts center. He lifted his hand to silence her. “I’m actually the one who accidentally knocked you down in the first place.”

“But you had to fight against the crowd to stay there and help her back up,” Tess said.

“He was amazing.” The girl patted his arm. “I was so sure I was going to die. But he saved me.”

“He saved me too,” Aubrey called from his stretcher.

The microphone and light from the camera instantly shifted away from Jonah to swerve his roommate’s way.

“Three of us were trapped under this tree prop that had fallen on stage, when suddenly I heard Jonah calling my name. Then he appeared like an angel from the smoke and pushed the beam off us. None of us could walk so he carried us, and, oh hell. Your leg’s broken. How could you carry all three of us?”

The camera and reporter whirled back to Jonah. “Your leg’s broken?”

Jonah shrugged. “My femur’s still technically mending from being shattered in the massacre.”

“Wait!” Charlie Martin waved his hand with an incredulous air. “You were wounded in the school shooting, you had a broken femur, and you still carried three people out of a burning building?”

“Well…” Hmm, he had, hadn’t he? That was strange. It sounded almost noble when phrased that way. But still…“It’s practically healed. I’ve had over three months to—”

“He was amazing. Totally amazing.” Tess wrapped her hands around his arm and squeezed. “We were screaming at him, begging him not to go back inside. But he was so determined and brave.”

“Then he used the laser off my flashlight to wedge in the doorway so he could see his way back out,” Bailey felt the need to add with a self-congratulatory nod.

Charlie Martin’s jaw dropped. “So, you’d already escaped outside after the fire had started, but you went back in?” The light from the video recorder shifted and the cameraman moved to get a better shot of Jonah’s face. “Weren’t you scared?”

“Of course.” Jesus, who wouldn’t be scared? Was this guy for real? “But my friend was still in there. I couldn’t just leave him.”

“And another girl came running through the doorway while he was inside because she’d been able to follow the line of red laser right out the exit.” Bailey preened, obviously still proud of her invention. “So, there’s another life he saved tonight.”

“What’s that up to, then?” Aubrey asked. “Five people who might’ve died if not for him?” He gazed up at Jonah with complete adoration. “You really are a hero.”

But Jonah shook his head. “No. My leg gave out on me about ten feet from the door. I dropped all three of you guys, and—” he glanced at Tess “—I don’t know who, but someone else got us all outside.”

No one seemed to care that he hadn’t done it all by himself. Charlie Martin shook his head with amazement. “What did you say your name was again?”

Jonah paled. “I didn’t—”

Aubrey talked over him. “His name’s Jonah Abbott. That’s Abbott with two b’s and two t’s.”

Mouth falling open, Charlie Martin gaped at him before stuttering, “Did you say…J-Jonah Abbott?”

“Oh, so, you remember totally lambasting him a couple months back, do you?” Bailey smirked cheerfully as she hooked her arm through Tess’s. “Just because he owned a gun, which a really bad person stole to do really bad things with. No, I guess a hero with a bum leg risking his life and rushing inside a burning building to save his best gay friend from certain death doesn’t quite fit the mold of evil bullying bigot all you friendly media people made him out to be, does it?”

“Ooh…burn,” Aubrey said. Bailey laughed and fist-bumped him.

After gaping at the two of them for totally defending him, Jonah looked incredulously at Tess. Had she just heard the same thing he’d heard? Maybe too much smoke to the brain was making him hallucinate.

But Tess merely grinned at him and lifted up on her toes to kiss his cheek. “Reason number one why having Bailey for a friend kicks ass,” she murmured in his ear.

Um…yeah. Definitely.

As the news reporter stammered for an apt reply, a trio of firemen approached them. From the sweat and soot streaming off their faces and uniforms, they’d all just come from inside the building.

“Hey, man. We heard what you did. Carrying three people out of there all at one time was pretty heroic.” They gave him a solemn nod.

Staring at them in awe, because firefighters—freaking firefighters—were commending him for a job well done, he began to stutter profusely. “I…I…” Hell, he had no idea what to say to firemen who saved lives on a daily basis while they were looking at him as if impressed. “I…played football,” he finished lamely. “I’m used to carrying a lot of weight on my shoulders.”

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