Chapter Eight

“That was fun,” Sarah said with a smile when the group disbanded around two-thirty p.m. “And I loved the exercises we did. They really got my imagination flowing. I think I’m gonna keep going when I get home, get some more thoughts out of my head and into written form while they’re fresh.”

“Yeah, those sprints really help me, too,” Karli chimed in. “I was really intimidated the first time I did writing sprints. Now, I look forward to them.”

She pulled into Sarah’s complex and parked.

“Hey. Want to come over and have lunch with us tomorrow? Evan’s going to put steaks and brats on the grill.”

“Sounds good. What time?”

“Come over whenever you’re ready. The food should be done around one.”

***

Tim sat quietly, one hand on Dack’s headstone, listening to the fountain and watching the sun moving lower in the western sky. He’d cried and talked for over four hours as he’d unburdened his soul to one of the best friends he had ever had.

He told Dack about his future plans, and about the gaping hole in him that still existed from Sarah’s abrupt departure. He talked about his injury and working his way back.

And he talked about the nightmares he’d kept to himself that had chased him almost daily since they’d come under fire on patrol that fateful afternoon.

“And you, buddy. I really miss you,” Tim whispered after a long silence, his voice almost spent. “Man, I wish you were here, Dack. I wish I’d been able to get to you when you were hit. Maybe…maybe you’d still be here if I’d done my job better.”

“I know it feels that way, honey. But probably not,” came a soft soothing voice from behind him.

Stunned, Tim rose to his feet and turned around, wiping his eyes. A petite, slender woman with long flowing blond hair was gazing at him with the same intense hazel eyes that she’d passed down to her son Dack.

“You must be Tim, dear,” the woman said, and moved toward him as she held out her arms. “I’m Mary. I was hoping I would meet you someday. Dack told us so much about you.”

When she’d closed the distance between them, she hugged Tim and said earnestly, “There’s not anything you could have done differently, honey. Please don’t put that burden on yourself. It’s not your fault. None of it.”

And Tim, who thought his tears had all been spent, laid his forehead on her shoulder and cried some more.

***

When Tim left Corpus Christi that evening, his soul felt lighter than it had in a long time. Mary had insisted he join them for dinner, and he’d reluctantly agreed, afraid that others in Dack’s family might not be so welcoming.

But he couldn’t have been more wrong.

The moment Dack’s father, Charlie, was introduced, Tim found himself wrapped in a big bear hug.

“Thank you for being such a good friend to our son,” Charlie told him.

At dinner, Mary, Charlie, and Wade, Dack’s older brother, asked Tim questions about himself, and slowly he felt his tension melt away. By the end of the meal, he felt more at peace within himself about the events of that day so long ago.

“You’re welcome back here anytime,” Mary told him as she and Charlie walked him to his truck.

“Thanks, Mrs. Abrams, I appreciate that.”

“Safe travels, Tim.”

When he stopped for the night, it was the first time in over a year that restful, dreamless sleep found him. He awoke refreshed and ready to embark on the next chapter of his life.

***

When Sarah arrived at Karli and Evan’s house for lunch, Karli greeted her with a hug.

“Hey there! Come on in,” Karli said with a bright smile. “I want you and Evan to meet.”

Karli led the way out onto the back patio where Evan stood, a beer in one hand and a pair of tongs in the other, talking to two other people.

“Babe,” Karli called out. “This is my friend Sarah.”

“Nice to meet you, Sarah,” Evan offered, showing a smile Sarah would have bet money he’d practiced in a mirror. “Would you like a beer?”

“I’m good, thanks.”

For the next few hours, Sarah tried her best to maintain a pleasant smile whenever she noticed Evan looking her way. But he made her deeply uncomfortable.

I don’t know what it is, she thought to herself, but something about Evan Anders creeps me out.

***

On Thursday morning, Tim’s cell phone pinged to let him know he had a new email.

He opened his browser and logged in, scanned the message, and smiled.

For the hands-on assessment, he’d scored a perfect one hundred out of one hundred possible points. And out of a possible one hundred points on the written exam, he’d earned ninety-seven.

Tim Fresco was now a certified EMT in the State of Texas.

“Hot damn!” he exclaimed, pumping a fist in celebration before he called John Duncan to ask how soon he could start the next program.

Ten days later, Tim began the six-hundred-hour journey to attain his Advanced EMS certifications.

***

By the following November, Sarah had graduated with honors and was almost two months into her new entry-level job as an inventory accountant.

While the pay was infinitely better than the wage she’d made working part-time at the bookstore, it was also already obvious to her that writing would be the only thing that kept her from being completely bored to death.

She was frowning as she reviewed the prior week’s reconciliations from the company’s Denver branch on a typical Monday morning. Then her cell phone rang, and Sarah’s mood lightened to hear Karli’s voice.

“Hey, you,” she said. “What’s up?”

“Not much,” Karli sighed. “I was gonna ask – Are you going anywhere for Thanksgiving?”

“No. Our office is only closed Thanksgiving Day, and I don’t have any paid time off built up yet. I would have to leave work Wednesday afternoon and drive straight through to Adrian, eat with my folks Thursday and then drive straight back. Why?”

“Well,” Karli said wistfully, “Evan just told me his company’s sending him to New Orleans to work next week.”

“Seriously? Well, just go with him,” Sarah suggested.

“I already mentioned that to him,” Karli told her. “Evidently Evan’s company frowns on spouses tagging along. So, I am gonna be by myself. Mom and Dad are on that cruise.”

“That’s right,” Sarah recalled. “Two weeks in the Caribbean. And didn’t you say the other day that Madge was down with the flu?”

“Yep. So, what do you say? Wanna make it a bestie lunch?”

Sarah chuckled.

“Sure thing.”