Noelle insisted I get checked out first. I feel fine, but Quinn told us it was protocol, and Noelle practically pushed me in his direction. He checked my vitals, and other than a strong smellof smoke and a lingering cough he assured me was normal, I got the all clear.
Despite her insistence that I get checked out, he practically had to drag Noelle to get looked over. I hover by her family, tuning out their theories on what caused the fire, watching her. Quinn doesn’t look worried, thank god. But I’m less concerned about the physical impact of the fire than I am about how Noelle is going to react to having her dream go up in flames.
Quinn gives her a blanket, and she wraps it around her shoulders, staring up at the charred remains of the bakery as he walks in our direction.
“She’s okay,” he says to a collective sigh of relief. “I think she just needs a minute to herself.”
He heads back to help in the bakery, and I turn back to face Noelle. I’ve never wished I could read her mind more. Her expression is unreadable, almost blank. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her so… switched off.
“You okay?” Rora nudges me lightly, stealing my attention from Noelle.
“Yeah,” I answer on autopilot, but Rora gives me a skeptical expression. “I am, I just… God, that could’ve been so much worse, you know?”
“I know. I’m so glad you’re both okay. Thank you for getting her out, Shay.”
“Do you think she’s okay?”
Rora wrinkles her nose, blowing out a long breath. “She’s… recalibrating. She has a lot to think about, and it’s been a long time coming, but these are shitty circumstances to force her into it. She’ll be okay, though. She’s Noelle—where some people come out of hard things tarnished, she shows up brighter, every time.”
“She really is like a little ray of sunshine,” I agree, and Rora chuckles.
“Why do you think Sunny’s middle name is Noelle?”
Before I get a chance to answer, an engine rumbles along the street, and I have to give myself a shake as I watch a figure exit the truck.
Rora stands on her tiptoes beside me to look. “Is that?—”
“Nico,” I say, taking long strides across the asphalt to reach him, because he hasn’t spotted me, but he’s looking at the wreckage of Noelle’s bakery with a terrified expression.
I call his name, and before he even turns, his body sags in what can only be relief.
“You’re okay?”
“I’m okay,” I confirm. “How did you…” I trail off, because of course he knew something had happened. No matter how distant he’s become over the years, we still have the same connection we’ve always had.
“I woke up and I just knew something was wrong,” he confirms, shaking his head. He looks at the charred bakery and curses softly. “Noelle’s bakery?”
“Yeah. Her smoke alarm woke me up, but by the time we got outside, it was already pretty far gone.”
Nico’s eyes widen. “You were inside?”
“The fire never reached her apartment,” I assure him. “We’ve been checked over by the fire chief and EMT, and he’s not worried.”
“Good. Shit.” He rubs his face with his hands. Nico has never been a good sleeper, even before the accident, and I know he would never admit how little he sleeps these days, but the smudges beneath his eyes look almost like bruises. “That’s good.”
“Are you okay?” I ask gently, even though I know he’s not. If the situation were reversed, and I’d gone running into something not knowing if he was okay, I don’t know what I’d do,but I know I wouldn’t be okay. It’s scary enough knowing he’s all alone on the mountain.
Instead, he pulls me into a crushing hug.
I squeak because I wasn’t expecting it, and I don’t remember the last time Nico hugged me. I lean into it; he feels like a home I haven’t visited in a long time—familiar, but foreign.
“If something happened to you, Shay?—”
“But it didn’t.”
“But if itdid,” he insists. “I’m going to need you to outlive me, because I can’t handle losing you.” The “too” is unspoken, but blaring. It has the power to choke me if I let it, but I can’t keep letting it.
“That’s really morbid. And unfair. Why do I have to be the one to live with it?”
