When I didn’t tell him what it was, he growled. “That’s a shitty thing to do. You don’t say something like that and not finish with what it is.”
Leaning against one of our Cruisers, one that’d been driven by Alex and Raoul, who were assisting the fire department, I smiled smugly.
“Her favorite singer’s Roy Orbison. She swears she can’t decide which song she prefers, though: IDrove All Night or You Got It. The thing is, when I Drove All Night plays, she instantly relaxes and can’t hold back a smile.”
“Both are great songs. I wouldn’t be able to choose between them, either.”
Tapping my ribs on the left side of my vest, I told him, “I’ve got five lines from the sheet music for IDrove All Night on this side because it’s the song that makes me feel closest to her.”
He looked confused by this information. “But she can’t decide between the two songs?”
“Your favorite song brings out the biggest emotional response. If you smile and look the most relaxed anyone’s ever seen you, then out of the two, that’s the one.”
Reid’s eyebrows shot up, but then he jiggled his head. “I guess you’re right on that one.”
“Coming through!” someone yelled, and we both turned to see them carrying someone on a backboard to the ambulance.
Judging by the mangled wreck of their vehicle, the fact they still had a heartbeat was a miracle.
“Holy shit. How the hell do you survive something like that?” Reid breathed, voicing my thoughts exactly.
“The jury’s still out on if they’ll survive it,” Alex said as he walked up next to us. “Also a shame the teenage guy in the passenger seat didn’t make it.”
I glanced at Reid to see that his face was now blank of emotions or thoughts. It wasn’t any wonder that he’d shut down at hearing this after what’d happened to his best friend when he was younger. It was also the reason why he’d lost his dream until she’d come back to help look after her dad while he battled cancer.
Wincing, Alex ran his fingers through his hair, his discomfort obvious. “Shit, I’m sorry, man. I didn’t mean to—”
Reid held his hand up. “You can’t police what you say in this job.” No one responded to the pun. “I just don’t know how to hold back the emotions and memories, and I shut down so they don’t impact my ability to do the job.”
Slapping him on the shoulder, Alex took a moment to watch the ambulance as it pulled away. Once it was far enough away, he waved his hand in front of his face to clear the dust and exhaust fumes before he spoke.
“That might be the case, but we all have triggers and have to be more aware of what we’re saying. I’ve never known you to have issues with RTAs, so it’s not impacting your ability to deal with them. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have been a bit more sensitive or tactful.”
Seeing that my friend was uncomfortable, I decided to lighten the mood. “Hey, do you guys want to see a funny photo of Tom Townsend when he was a kid?”
No one, not one living person, would ever be able to turn down something like that, so we all crowded around my phone while I showed them the photo of him at Disney. Of course, once the fire department and other officers from the town next to us heard of the awesomeness that I had, they all came to see it for themselves.
Yeah, it wasn’t a good idea to piss off her brothers, especially after two of them had come to see me this morning to apologize for their behavior and give me their approval, but sometimes you had to do what you had to do.