The Problem with Fire - M.E. Clayton Page 0,28

and my knees buckled. Thomas’ arm came around me and pulled me close.

She was okay.

Once that registered, I pulled back and looked around, and that’s when I saw Leta weaving her way through the throng of people. I raced towards her, not caring who I was mowing down, and I didn’t stop until I had her in my arms. “Oh, God.”

“Mom, it’s okay,” she said, hugging me back. “I’m okay. Everyone is okay.”

“What happened?” Thomas asked, and that’s when I realized he was right behind me.

Leta stepped back and looked up at her father. “Some kids were dicking around in the chemistry labs, and a fire broke out. The fire extinguisher was faulty, though. And while everyone got out safely, the fire went out the windows or something, and torched the left side of the building.” She shook her head. “That’s all I’ve heard.”

“No one was injured?” Thomas asked.

“No,” she answered. “But the boys who started this probably will be once their parents get a hold of them.” Thomas chuckled, and then pulled our daughter into his arms.

As Thomas was having his moment with Leta, I looked around and saw a lot of familiar faces, and some new ones. Even though no one was hurt, the panic and relief were both real and I knew it’d take the rest of the day for everyone to calm down.

Adrenaline was a real sonofabitch.

As I took in the scene, I saw a couple of firefighters by one of the firetrucks, while a few other were scattered on the grass on the east side of the Science building. My heart skipped a beat as I wondered if Sayer was among the firefighters that had been called out.

Then I mentally slapped myself because I was supposed to be a grown ass woman, not some lovesick teenage girl, scribbling Monroe Hayes in her notebook.

It wasn’t until one of the firefighters made his way to the first truck and took off his hat that I saw it was, indeed, Sayer Hayes.

I looked back at Thomas and Leta, and said, “I’ll be right back.” Thomas tensed, but I ignored him, and headed towards the firetruck. Because, apparently, I was a lovesick teenage girl who was scribbling Monroe Hayes in her notebook.

Chapter 14

Sayer~

I was really starting to hate Wednesdays. Or, at least, this Wednesday. It was the first day of my work stretch, and I wasn’t going to see Monroe for three fucking days. Never mind when I hit my four-day rotation.

And I really wanted to hate on the Wednesday when Monroe’s ex-husband had shown up at her door, ready for a fight, but had it not been for that Wednesday, Monroe might not be mine now. But just when I had been about to give Wednesday the benefit of the doubt, the alarm at the firehouse had gone off and the second we’d been told there was a fire at Granger High, the importance of my job had taken on a whole new meaning.

I’ve always loved my job, and I’ve always done my all to be the best at it. Firefighters couldn’t afford to get it wrong, and every second counted when you were playing with fire. The problem with fire was that it was unpredictable. If you didn’t have a connection with it, if you didn’t put in the effort to try to understand it, it could and would turn on you.

What I did was important, and I took the lives I’ve saved and lost seriously. I even cared about saving the damn buildings. Some of those buildings were homes, housed family businesses, or were community businesses that couldn’t be replaced due to sentimental value. A lot of community centers shaped famous athletes or artists.

But being told that Grange High was on fire had hit me on an entirely different level than I’ve ever felt before. From our talks these past few days, I knew Leta attended Granger High School, and I hadn’t been about to be the one to tell Monroe that her baby wasn’t safe. As irrational as that seemed, it was how I had felt riding towards the school.

Luckily, it had been a small fire…well, relatively speaking from experiencing much worse, and everyone had been evacuated accordingly before we had even arrived on the scene. We had all gone to work immediately with the principal approaching Carl first, letting him know what had happened. In all honestly, it could have been way worse with the fire being in a lab class. While there had