Abby Blake - Fire

Author:Abby Blake [Blake, Abby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0100-12-31T14:00:00+00:00

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Abby Blake

Chapter Five

“It’s kind of hard to believe this is the sports field where we used

to play football,” Reece mused as they sat in front of their tent a couple of days later. Everywhere they could see stood tents of various shapes and sizes, many of them provided by the army to help house as

many people as they could.

“I remember watching some of the games when I was in high

school.” Christina smiled fondly at the memories. They’d been good

days. Back then she'd been surrounded by close friends and loving

family, and her future had been full of dreams.

“Hey, babe, why the sad smile? You must be remembering how

many times Jack dropped the football.” Jack threw the rolled-up

sleeping bag at Reece, aiming for his head. Reece managed to dodge

the missile and laughingly added, “And he wasn’t much good at

passing either.”

Jack laughed good-naturedly, and Christina found herself relaxing

a little as they horsed around. Their laughter attracted the attention of some children who’d been in the area, and they came over to see the

adults who were able to laugh while everyone else seemed so serious.

Christina watched with pride as the guys grabbed a football and

quickly put together two teams of kids to play a game. With a small

jolt of guilt, she realized these kids were probably hurting just as much as everyone else but without the maturity or experience to

understand just how much their lives were about to change.

Reece and Jack had seemed to understand and now helped these

kids cope a little by providing a sense of normalcy in the middle of

such extraordinary circumstances. At the same time, it gave their

Fire

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parents a little space to do their own grieving without having to hide it from their kids.

As she sat and watched the game that grew bigger every time

another group of kids discovered the fun, she realized just how special these guys really were. They’d rescued her, stayed with her at the

hospital, and now, they’d taken her in when she had nowhere else to

go and no one to turn to. Awed by their selflessness, she hoped one day she’d be able to return their kindness and vowed to herself to find a way.

She’d been a little embarrassed that first morning in the tent when

she’d woken plastered against Jack. He’d smiled at her sleepy,

confused expression, kissed her chastely on the forehead, and pulled her closer. She’d had the nightmare again and remembered reaching

out for something but had quickly gone back to sleep when strong

arms had pulled her into a tight embrace. Reece had laughed at them

when he’d woken up, lamenting that he’d missed all the fun. Waking

in Reece’s arms the next morning had been even more embarrassing,

but neither of her guys seemed upset by her ability to sleep-crawl into their laps.

Happy that she wasn’t causing a problem for their friendship, she

still felt a little off balance by the way they both accepted her

presence so casually. She hadn’t been able to resolve her own feelings about either of them, and every time she convinced herself the three

of

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