“Forgot the lanterns,” Rix told him.
Brian nodded and looked to Alex.
He also looked her up and down and visibly approved.
Watching him do it, Rix remembered that about the guy, the way he’d look over a woman, that way not being cool, this time, doing it to Alex, it was seriously not cool, but it was something Rix thought was about Brian being young.
Guess it wasn’t.
He ground his teeth.
Then he introduced, “Right, Brian, this is my woman, Alex. Al, this is Brian. An old bud from the crew.”
“Brian,” she said, not cold, but not warm either.
Brian instantly knew she knew, his demeanor changed again, and he dipped his chin to her. “Alex.” He then looked back to Rix. “You always got the best ones.”
“Not always.”
Brian flinched.
Memories were serving, and his latest one reminded him that Brian hadn’t exited the scene until Peri had done it.
Brian shook that off and said, “Listen, I know you’re out of here, but if you’re back in time, I leave Monday. Maybe we can go get a beer or something.”
“We aren’t back until Monday night,” Rix shared.
“Too bad,” Brian muttered.
He then said nothing else, and did nothing else, like ending this scenario and leaving.
God damn it.
“Okay, I know what you need, man,” Rix told him. “And I wish I could give it to you.” He sucked in a breath. “I just can’t.”
The color ran out of Brian’s face.
“Honest as fuck, I want that for you,” Rix said. “But you fucked up. And you fucking up meant I lost my legs.”
Brian’s face bleached out.
“People fuck up,” Rix went on. “You are far from the first to do it, Bri. And there have been much worse consequences. I know you’d go back to that day and do things differently. I know, ’cause you’re like me, it haunts you. But shit like this happens. And it happened to me, because of you.”
Brian gulped down a swallow, then nodded.
Then Rix gave it to him.
“I know that’s gotta be torture for you, but think about this shit, man. You’re coming to me to make it easier, and unless I work really hard at it, it never gets easy for me.”
“You’re right,” Brian forced out, the words rough. He cleared his throat. “This was a bad idea.”
He dipped his chin at Alex again and made a move to head to the car at the curb.
“I do want that for you,” Rix said.
Brian stopped and returned his attention to Rix.
“It doesn’t make me feel the slightest bit better you live with it. Different than me, but you do. I know you do. And that’s no balm, Bri.”
“I didn’t think… I never thought that, Rix. That you’d think that. You’re not that guy.”
“I got my house.” He jerked his head to his house. “I got a great job, pays more, honestly, than I ever thought I’d make.” He took Alex’s hand. “Got a beautiful woman.”
“Right, yeah,” Brian whispered.
“Shit happens. Bad shit happens. Seriously bad shit happens. Life goes on. We gotta do our best to do no harm and live it,” Rix finished.
“I…” Brian shook his head. “Rix, man, thanks for your time. I shouldn’t have… Anyway. You gave it, your time, and that’s always been you.”
Rix jutted his chin.
“Alex, nice to meet you,” he said to Alex.
Again, all she said was, “Brian.”
Brian took that hint and moved to his car.
Alex moved in closer to Rix.
Rix started to look down at her to see where she was at, but stopped when Brian called, “Rix?”
Alex’s fingers closed so tight around his, there was pain.
He didn’t wince or make a move to shift her hold.
He looked to the man he used to razz at the firehouse. The man who, the last time Rix saw him, was sitting in Rix’s living room, trying hard not to look at Rix’s legs, also trying hard not to throw up all over himself, after he dropped on Rix a five-hundred-dollar bottle of scotch.
Rix still had it.
But he hadn’t opened it.
“Yeah, bud?” Rix called back.
“You happy?”
He felt that emotion.
He released her hand as his arm automatically moved to curl around Alex’s neck at the thought of it.
But for some fucking reason, he couldn’t say it.
“Look at me,” he said instead.
Brian looked back and forth between Alex and Rix.
And then he genuinely smiled, gave them a short wave, got in his car and motored.
Rix looked down at Alex. “Ready to roll, baby?”
“My key to your place is in my bag in the truck, can you let me in your house?”
“Need to hit the head?”
“Please let me in your house, Rix.”
He studied her.
Then he led her to the side door and into the kitchen.
She did not head to the bathroom.
She went out on the deck.
He went out with her.
She stood on the deck, staring at his back yard.
“Babe?”
It was his voice that flipped a switch for her.
Movements agitated, she turned to the pillows on his bench, nabbed a couple and, twisting at the waist to give it her all, she hurled them into his yard. Back to the pillows, off they flew. Then she went after the cushions. All the bench cushions, flung. The ones on the chair. Gone.
Then she stood at the foot of his deck and glared at them.
He got what she was feeling. He really did. It was still fucking adorable how she expressed it.
Rix didn’t tease her to get her out of it.
Because his throat was closed and that tear in his torso was trembling.
“I’ll put them back in a second,” she snapped.
“Okay, sweetheart.”
“You were good with him,” she told the yard.
“Yeah.”
“What the fuck was he thinking?” she asked the yard.
“I don’t know, baby. If I fucked up like he did, there might come a time when I was driven to do the same. But you gotta understand, it’s not just me, Alex. There were ten of us out there. I caught it, but the fullness of what he lives with is he knows. He knows that fire could have taken us all.”
She made a “huh” noise that wasn’t the normal “huh,” but the sound you make to let out emotion you’re holding so you won’t cry.
“We can hit the road tomorrow,” he offered.
She turned to him then and snarled, “We’re going to Ouray.”
“All right, honey,” he murmured.
“You were good with him,” she repeated.
He didn’t have a reply.
“You’re just good,” she declared.
That fissure shifted, stronger, shuddering.
“Best man I’ve ever met in my life,” she concluded.
She then stormed into the yard to retrieve the cushions.
Rix gave it a second to get a lock on it.
Then he followed in order to help.
The pines were dark arrows, pointing straight to the stars.
Rix was on his back, his pack shoved under his head, his fingers playing with Alex’s hair.