Christmas Nights(32)

“Yes, right now. A night like this will bring things into focus, so don’t dismiss it.”

Janie stared at her. Her heart was beating hard and fast—she was so afraid of what might happen, or had already happened, to Travis. Yet, through that, her feelings crystallized. She loved him. She knew that with certainty. She didn’t know if she was ready, but that worry was tiny beside the depth and breadth of her feelings for him. A blast of wind gusted across the parking lot, blowing smoke and cold air across them. She held Sylvia’s gaze. “I love him.”

Sylvia nodded firmly. “Well, there you go. I can’t promise that will give you all the answers, but at least you know that. We all have baggage, so don’t go worrying about that.”

Janie nodded slowly and swallowed against the tightness in her throat. She felt buffeted by a mix of emotions—relief at being able to know her own heart, fear for Travis’s immediate safety, and this gnawing anxiety that he was hurt and she couldn’t get to him.

“Mom!”

Janie glanced over to see Stella hurrying over to them. She stood up. “Stella, I told you to stay in the car! What…?”

“But you promised to come tell me once you knew what was going on,” Stella countered.

Janie sighed internally. She’d completely forgotten to let Stella know what was going on in the maelstrom of her worry. Stella reached them and silently handed Janie the car keys before crossing her arms and looking between them. “So?”

“Hon, we’re waiting for them to find Travis and Ben,” Sylvia said, her voice calm and clear. “Sit with me.” She patted the table beside her.

Stella’s eyes swung from Sylvia to Janie—wide with concern. Janie met her gaze, a thread of strength holding her together. “Let’s hope for the best.” Her voice sounded confident and hopeful, but it belied the depth of worry pounding in her heart and tying her in knots inside.

Time crept by. Minutes felt like hours. Janie kept checking her watch to find not much time had passed. Finally, there was a call from one of the hotel entrances. One of the emergency responder teams raced over to the entrance with a stretcher. Janie stood and started to move in that direction, only to have Sylvia grip her arm and hold her in place. “You can’t go over there right now. Wait and see. If it’s him, Darren will tell you right away. They don’t need anyone else in the fire zone.”

Janie closed her eyes and forced herself to stay where she was. She didn’t even know if it was Travis. Logically, she knew Sylvia was right. She would be nothing but in the way if she raced over there. She paced back and forth in front of the small table. Ken had left a while ago to work with the crew and had gone into the hotel himself. The crews appeared to have gotten control of the fire. Flames were no longer streaking up into the sky. Smoke billowed from the dampened fire everywhere. The emergency crews had organized shuttles to get the guests to other nearby hotels, so there were vehicles rotating into the parking lot on the far side, out of the way of the fire crews.

Janie waited and waited to have someone come tell her if they’d found Travis. When she couldn’t wait anymore, she looked to Sylvia and Stella. “I’m not going to get in the way, but I’m going over there…” she gestured to one of the ambulances out of the way “…and find out if that’s Travis.”

She didn’t wait for Sylvia’s reply and jogged over there quickly. Her heart sank when the EMT waiting by the ambulance reported the person brought out of the building was Ben. With her arms wrapped around her waist and hot tears rolling down her cheeks, she trudged back toward where Sylvia and Stella were waiting. She stopped before she got too close and tried to gather herself. She didn’t want to cry in front of Stella, not right now. She looked up into the sky and let the icy air dry her tears. Swallowing down her fear, she gave herself a shake and kept walking.

They both looked to her and didn’t say a word. She knew they knew that it clearly wasn’t Travis on the stretcher. While she was relieved to know Ben was safe and sound, the heart crushing worry she felt wouldn’t dissipate until she knew Travis was out of harm’s way. Time kept crawling by. When she heard another call from the wing furthest away, she stood again and watched while another crew raced to the entrance. An ambulance carrying Ben had left already. She didn’t give Sylvia a chance to grab her arm this time. She called over her shoulder as she raced off. “I’ll stay out of the way!”

She kept her word and stopped at a distance by one of the ambulances. All she could see was the cluster of firefighters surrounding whoever was being placed on a stretcher. The three men carrying the stretcher broke free and aimed directly for the ambulance.

“Janie.”

Startled, she jumped and looked to her side to find Darren right there. “Why don’t you ride with me to the hospital?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No. I want to see Travis. I’ll ride with him in the ambulance.”

Darren looked away and nodded abruptly. “Fine. He doesn’t look so good, okay? I just want you to be prepared.”

“Will he be okay?” she asked, shaky inside with her heart hammering away.

“As best as I can guess, probably. Sounds like a beam fell and he broke his leg. He sustained some injuries almost everywhere you can see and his face is bloodied.”

On the heels of the rushing relief at hearing Travis might be okay came a crashing wave of concern. With her heart racing, she waited with Darren by the ambulance. Only when the stretcher was close did she break away and race over. Travis was covered in soot, his gear blackened and dark steaks mingling with the blood on his face. His firefighter gear was so heavy that she couldn’t ascertain any injuries other than his face. She reached the stretcher and looked down. His eyes were closed and his forehead furrowed with pain.

The EMT’s, all of whom were unfamiliar to her so she figured they must be one of the crews from out of town, glanced at her and kept moving. They rolled a cart out and lifted the stretcher onto it. She curled her hands on the rail and looked for where she could touch Travis, finally settling to curl her hand over his where it rested on the stretcher. His eyes opened.

“Hey,” she said because that was about all she could manage. She fought against the tears, but one escaped and rolled down her cheek.

He started to shake his head, but grimaced the second he tried to move. She squeezed his hand. He held her eyes. “I’m okay, just a little banged up. Think I might need to borrow Stella’s crutches.” He managed to crack a smile through the soot and blood streaking his face. His attempt at humor sent a wave of emotion cresting inside and she swallowed against the tears.

For a moment, she was jostled out of the way. Darren interjected to let the ambulance crew know she had requested to ride with Travis to the hospital. She released his hand as they got the stretcher into the ambulance. An EMT with an easy-going smile held out a hand and lifted her into the back of the ambulance. Once she was seated beside Travis, the man spoke. “He’s a bit worse for the wear, but he’ll be all right. I’m Evan by the way.”

“You think he’ll be okay?” she asked, too worried about Travis’s state to introduce herself in return.

“Oh, setting that leg break will be hell, but after that, he’ll be okay.”

Travis started to chuckle and grimaced again. “Think I must’ve broken a rib too.”

“Well then, that’ll hurt worse than your leg,” Evan said with a shrug.

Evan got busy hooking Travis up to a monitor and checking his blood pressure. He chatted casually with the driver, leaving Janie to keep her eyes pinned to Travis. Her heart felt cracked open, emotions pouring out inside. She gulped in air, trying to get a handle on herself. Travis asked Evan a few questions, but she didn’t hear a thing he said. When he looked her way again, he gave her hand a squeeze. “Don’t look like that. I’ll be fine. Just a little banged up.”

“I love you,” she blurted out, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I didn’t mean to be such an idiot last week. I got all messed up in my head and…”

He squeezed her hand again. “Hey, hey. You didn’t mess up. It’s not like I handled it that great. I showed up and dumped it all on you.” He freed his hand from hers and lifted it to knuckle her tears away. “Love you too.”

His words were raspy from the smoke. She scrambled inside to contain her emotions and tried to stop crying, but the tears kept rolling down her cheeks. He curled his hand over hers and held on through the last few minutes of the ride, which were busy with Evan adjusting a few things hooked up to Travis and checking to make sure his leg was stationary. When they arrived at the hospital, Travis was whisked away.

“I’ll be waiting right here,” she said as he was wheeled away.





Chapter 21





Travis slowly came awake. He didn’t remember much from last night after he got to the hospital beyond the doctor telling him he wouldn’t need surgery. He opened his eyes and rolled his head to the side to find he was in Janie’s bedroom. She wasn’t in bed with him, but he could hear the shower running. He carefully moved his leg and was relieved to discover he wasn’t in too much pain. He was sore from head to toe and had a dull pain in his leg. He lifted the covers to see he had a cast up to his knee. He took a deep breath and felt a twinge in his ribs. It was as if he was on an expedition to figure out the extent of his injuries. He had bandaging across his ribs on his right side, along with the cast on his lower right leg. His memories of being inside the hotel were much clearer. He’d just finished escorting a family to the stairwell when he heard something. He’d headed back down the hall, barely able to see through the smoke, and a beam crashed down from the ceiling. He’d managed to roll and get out of the way, but he’d fallen on his right side, likely cracking his ribs and breaking his ankle at once. The beam had pinned his ankle, trapping him in place.