What are the Chances? Read online

  CHAPTER 6

  Trevor stopped directly in front of Mason. They were almost the same height and stood chest to chest. Trevor scanned my face more closely, then turned towards Mason and glared at him. Rage flickered through Trevor’s eyes and Mason let my hand drop.

  “Did he hurt you?” Trevor asked me without taking his eyes off Mason.

  “No! I’m fine,” I insisted and pressed my hand against Trevor’s bicep to hold him back.

  “Did you make her cry?” Trevor spoke really slowly through clenched teeth, trying to restrain himself.

  “No,” I answered for him as I squished myself in between the two of them. My body wedged up against Trevor’s to push him back. Using all my strength made no difference. He didn’t move at all. Murphy and a couple of other guys stood on alert a few feet away. “I’m fine,” I said again.

  Trevor’s eyebrows angled together as he checked my expression, probably to see if I was lying to save Mason’s ass.

  I held my breath and scrambled for a way to defuse the situation. “It’s raining. My mascara ran. Can we drop it, please? You’re making a scene.”

  Trevor must have believed me because he glared at Mason one more time, then stepped back and relaxed his muscles. “Your clothes are wet. Come on, I’ll take you home.”

  “If she wants to go home, I can take her home,” Mason said.

  They both faced me, waiting for me to tell them what I wanted to do. The night hadn’t gone well right from the start. I was drenched. And everyone was staring. Since Trevor lived next door, I said, “It’s okay, Mason. I don’t want you to have to drive all the way back and forth again in this weather. Trevor’s going that way anyway.”

  It was obvious by his expression that Mason didn’t want to end our date that way, but it didn’t make sense for him to drive back and forth to Britannia Beach again when he didn’t have to. He reluctantly agreed and Trevor left to get the 4Runner.

  Mason stood with me in the foyer as I waited. He leaned his back against the wall and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Sorry this didn’t go that well.”

  I shook my head to ease his concern. “Don’t worry about it. It was nice to see you again and get to know you better. I think everyone deserves friends who like them for who they really are and I’m happy to be your friend. Thanks for everything.”

  Trevor pulled up in front of the house, so I said good-bye, gave Mason a quick hug, then I ran out through the rain and climbed into the truck.

  “Are you honestly okay?” Trevor asked again. He looked at me in a way that made it seem like if I fessed up he would go back inside and take care of it.

  “Yes. Let it go.” I shut the door, then looked back at the house. Mason stood in the open doorway with his hands in his pockets but waved as we pulled away.

  Trevor and I drove in silence. He didn’t have the radio on, so the rain sounded loud as it hit the roof and sprayed off the pavement up into the wheel wells. I glanced at him. His jaw was tense and the serious angles of his face made him look older.

  “I wasn’t crying,” I said. “We went out on the rooftop deck in the rain to avoid everyone because Corrine said something really snotty about me being a maid and all the guys there acted as if I was just fresh meat.”

  “Corrine’s a bitch and you are fresh meat to those guys.”

  “Really?” I scoffed. “You didn’t seem to think Corrine was a bitch when she was all up on you.”

  “Whoa. Jealous?”

  “No. Why would I be jealous? I was on a date with a really interesting guy.”

  His jaw muscle twitched. “I don’t like him.”

  “Well, your opinion of him is completely irrelevant. I can date whomever I want to date. I don’t need your approval.” I reached over and turned the radio on.

  Trevor immediately turned it off again. “He’s going to hurt you.”

  I shook my head, so tired of the same old pattern repeating with us. “I’m not a little kid anymore. When you moved off to college, I grew up. I am perfectly capable of thinking for myself and taking care of myself. He’s a nice guy. You don’t even know him.”

  “I know guys like him.”

  “Yeah? Who cares?” I snapped. “It’s not like it even matters who I date. I’m moving away at the end of the summer.”

  He glanced at me, but instead of responding, he turned the radio back on. God. He was so aggravating. He knew I had feelings for him in the past. He knew he would have been my first choice. I wouldn’t have even considered Toronto if he had given me any indication there was hope for us to be together after high school. But he hadn’t. The fact that he had blocked every attempt I ever made to be with him gave him no right to block my other options. I dropped the argument and stared out the window, arms crossed, face scowled. Tension vibrated off him, which only made me more furious because it was none of his business.

  When we were halfway home a déjà vu feeling crashed over me. My heart rate accelerated. I sat up as I recognized flashes from my vision: the dark, the rain, the road. It all looked familiar.

  “Trevor, stop the truck. Stop! Stop! Stop!” I screamed and braced my hands against the dashboard.

  CHAPTER 7

  Trevor slammed on the brakes and locked his arms against the steering wheel as the truck fish-tailed and then skidded to a stop. We both gawked out the windshield at the gaping blackness that stretched out in front of the headlights. Trevor threw the truck into reverse and pulled it to the shoulder of the highway. “Call 911 and tell them the bridge is washed out in both directions.”

  He jumped out and ran to open the back of the canopy. Grabbing my phone, I got out of the truck and rushed towards the edge, where the highway disappeared into nothing. We had been only inches from plummeting to the rocks below. I told the dispatcher what happened as Trevor lit a bunch of fluorescent-red road flares and spread them across the highway behind us. He lit more and tossed them over the gap to warn any drivers approaching from the other direction.

  The operator was still asking me questions as I stared out where the highway used to be. My vision had saved us. The stream was a raging river of rapids bulging high on the banks. Some of the ruins of what used to be the cement bridge were wedged in a contorted heap up against the boulders. Part of the bridge still hung precariously and the metal rebar ground as it buckled under the pressure of the rumbling water. It made a hideous sound.

  Underneath the water was a bluish glow. Dread flooded my bloodstream when I realized what it was. I shouted and probably startled the operator. “Trevor! There’s a car in the water. I can see the headlights.”

  Trevor stood at my side and peered over the edge. Without even hesitating, he ran back and got ropes, a helmet, and a life vest out of the truck. “Move the truck so the flood lights shine down on the water,” he instructed me as he tore off his shirt and put the vest on.

  He disappeared down into the black hole. He was so calm and technical. I was the opposite. I was panicked and struggling to keep it together as I moved the truck and tilted the floodlight towards the car that was half submerged in the water. If the driver survived the car crashing over the edge, the occupants were in danger of drowning. I kicked off Sophie’s heels and, even though the operator told me to stay on the line, I tossed the phone on the front seat. The sharp edges of the rocks sliced at my bare feet as I scrambled down to the edge of the water. I didn’t know what I was going to do to help. I just felt compelled to attempt something. Trevor set up his ropes and waded waist deep in the water, fighting the current to get close to the car. The driver hung limply from the seatbelt, but thankfully her head wasn’t underwater.

  I stepped ankle deep into the glacier-fed water, regretted it immediately, and hopped back out. Trevor wouldn’t be able to stay in it for very long. He freed the woman from her seatbelt, but struggled against the pressure of the water to pull her out through the window. The mangled part of the bridge that was still partly attached shifted again. It made a demon screeching sound as huge chun
ks of cement fell into the water next to the car. Trevor glanced up at the bridge to check if there were more chunks about to fall, then he turned downstream to move diagonally with the current.

  He pulled the woman’s body through the water with his arms wrapped under her armpits and around her chest. It didn’t seem like that much time had passed, but it must have because more floodlights angled down on us from the highway. The silhouette of two cops appeared on the ridge, then they climbed down the rocky bank towards me. One of the cops touched my arm as he passed me and asked, “Are you okay?”

  I nodded, but his touch triggered a vision: I was in the back seat of the car. The woman smiled over her shoulder at me. She was singing. There was a toy in my hand and my little feet bounced with excitement. I was a toddler strapped into a car seat.

  My vision ended and I screamed at Trevor, “There’s a baby in the back seat! There’s a baby.”

  Trevor passed the limp woman to one of the cops on shore and glanced at me with complete trust before he swam back through the water towards the car. It spun a quarter turn and wedged up against a boulder. The back seat became submerged. I gasped when Trevor took off his life vest to dive down. The bridge shifted again. Metal started popping out and bending as the water pulled on the foundation. I suddenly regretted telling Trevor what I’d seen in my vision. I hyperventilated as I realized my vision might have been wrong. It was so stupid of me to say anything.

  I watched the surface of the water and waited for Trevor to come back up. It seemed like minutes passed and I still couldn’t see him. More rescue people stumbled down the rocks with more equipment and they moved around in an organized way. After a deafening groan, the rest of the bridge broke free. It plummeted into the water with a thunderous splash. The impact shook the ground. The current caught the huge blocks of cement debris and collided with the car, making it spin sideways. The ropes Trevor had set up strained and twisted as the car dropped into deeper water and entirely disappeared.

  One of the cops shouted, “Maverty’s still in the car. Someone get in there quick.”

  Not wasting a second, I quickly waded in chest deep. The cold sucked the breath out of my lungs, but I had to get to where Trevor was trapped. The current was too swift to swim, so I fought against the pressure and stepped along the rocky bottom, following his guide lines, slipping and stumbling. Only the glow of the headlights was visible beneath the rapids. The stream got too deep and I had no choice but to lift my feet and propel myself towards the car.

  My hand hit the roof first, then I reached forward and felt the glass of the window. I held my breath and dipped under the water. Trevor passed the tiny body of the toddler to me out the window. Not knowing what I was supposed to do, I quickly popped my head back up and rolled onto my back to keep the toddler’s mouth above water, as much as possible. A torrent of water surged, spun me around, and pushed me below the surface again. Disoriented and terrified, I clung with one arm around the child and flailed my other arm to grasp onto the rocks that my back smashed against. I was only able to lift my head high enough to steal one gulp of air before the current tumbled me around again. On the second attempt, I was able to reach for an overhanging tree branch and cling to it. I pulled the toddler up over my shoulder. He wasn’t moving. Trevor wasn’t anywhere I could see. I wasn’t even sure if he’d gotten out of the car. The headlights weren’t visible anymore.

  Silhouetted by the rescue floodlights, a massive bald man bounded down the rocky beach. It was Murphy. Instead of jumping into the water to save Trevor, he ran towards me. “Derian!” he gasped as he shimmied along the branch and extended his arm to clasp my hand. He lifted the toddler off my shoulder, then with one tug, he also pulled me out of the frigid water and onto the rocky bank. “Somebody get me a blanket,” he shouted.

  “Murph, help Trevor,” I murmured.

  “Somebody find Maverty. He’s been down for too long,” Murphy hollered as he passed the toddler to another paramedic and then scooped me into his immense arms.

  “No. Save Trevor,” I pleaded.

  As Murphy carried me up the embankment, he glanced back in the direction of the accident scene. His expression made it seem like he was worried it was too late. I refused to believe that.

  On the highway, Murphy laid me on a stretcher in the back of an ambulance. I couldn’t move. I stared without blinking. The pounding of my heart in my ears slowed to a heavy, erratic thump. My body shuddered uncontrollably from the cold and the shock. Murphy wrapped me in a blanket and leaned on me, probably so his body heat would warm me faster. I screwed up the rescue. Murphy would have been able to focus on saving Trevor if I hadn’t put the toddler in even more danger. Thoughts of Trevor not surviving because Murphy had to help me and the child crushed my chest. If he died, telling Kailyn it was my fault he drowned would destroy her. He had to survive. Not having him in my life would be unbearable. The shaking of my limbs turned into more of a seizure and Murphy got a panicked look on his face. He called out the back of the ambulance. I closed my eyes and wondered if it would be possible to will myself to die so I wouldn’t have to live with the guilt of causing Trevor’s death. What was I thinking? No. He couldn’t die. No. No. No. I couldn’t breathe.

  CHAPTER 8

  In the emergency room, the nurses treated me for hypothermia with hot compresses and heated blankets. They wouldn’t answer my questions about Trevor. Not knowing made me hysterical. “Please tell me,” I begged. I tried to sit up, but one of the nurses held my shoulders to keep me down. Eventually, the other nurse opened the door and waved out into the hall. Two seconds later, Trevor entered the room, hair still wet. He rushed in and leaned over me to kiss my forehead. His breathing was heavy and the cold of the glacier water still pulsated off him, which sent goose bumps over my skin. He had a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and his chest was bare underneath.

  “Oh my God. Are you okay?” I asked and squirmed to free my arms from the swaddled blanket so I could hug him.

  “Yeah. I’m fine.” He leaned back to study my face.

  So relieved he was okay, I touched his cheek. It was so pale. “You scared me. I thought you drowned.”

  His eyebrows angled together and concern creased his forehead. “You scared me. I can’t believe you did that.”

  “I was trying to save you.”

  “It was too dangerous.”

  “You risk your life for other people all the time.”

  “I’m trained.” He slowly exhaled the stress he’d been holding in but it didn’t seem to relax him that much. He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it turned out okay. “You could have been killed.”

  I held both his hands in mine and stared at his face. “I would rather die trying to save you than stand by and watch you die.”

  His expression tightened as if the thought of that caused him actual physical pain.

  I leaned closer and whispered, “Watching you die would have been devastating. My entire world would have shattered and I don’t ever want to feel that pain.”

  His eyes closed for a long blink and his fingers squeezed mine. It seemed like a million thoughts ran through his mind before he said, “It would have been devastating for me, too.”

  I flung my arms around his neck and hugged him so tightly it probably made it hard for him to breathe. He wrapped one arm around my waist and cradled the back of my neck to keep me close with his other hand. His muscles relaxed as I sunk into the embrace. Being near him had always given me a safe feeling. Being snuggled against his chest made me feel like everything in the universe was going to be all right, infinitely.

  He ended the hug by kissing me on the forehead. Then he sat on the edge of the bed next to my hip. His mind was still racing, I could tell. But he didn’t speak.

  Eventually I asked, “How are the woman and the baby?”

  “The woman has multiple broken bones. She’s in surgery. The doctor thinks she’s going to be fine. They helivaced the boy to Children’s Hospital in Vancouver
. He wasn’t breathing when they put him into the ambulance. The paramedics got him going, though. Hopefully he’ll recover.”

  “What is his name?”

  “Joshua.”

  I nodded and did a silent prayer for Joshua. “The entire thing was so tragic and traumatizing. How can you do that all the time?”

  “It’s rewarding when they do survive.” He smiled and squeezed my hand again. “You’re an honorary member now. You saved two people with your vision. Four people, if you count us. I definitely would have driven right into the washout too if you weren’t in the truck.”

  I couldn’t help but smile a little because my visions were finally becoming helpful. In the past they hadn’t been specific enough to save my dad or Giselle or the little girl Trevor and the Search and Rescue team tried to find in Iceland, but maybe this meant I could keep getting better at it if I practiced. “I’m glad it made a difference this time.”

  “I owe my life to you.” He reached forward and ran his finger along my skin to lift the pendant Mason had given me. I had completely forgotten about it. “New necklace?”

  I nodded and met his gaze.

  “It’s nice,” he said as he let it slip through his fingers. “I didn’t notice it before the party.”

  He obviously knew Mason gave it to me, and he didn’t seem that thrilled about it. “It’s from Paris,” I said.

  “Fancy.”

  I nodded, not sure what that meant. My core temperature rose, but it wasn’t from the compresses. It was from the way Trevor looked at me. His expression was an intense mixture of terror and relief melted together. Seeing it made my heart race and my eyes water at the same time. “Will you lie with me to keep me warm?”

  He nodded and moved to slide in next to me on the bed. We didn’t talk about it, but the realization that we could have lost each other undeniably changed something between us. I knew he felt it too.

  They kept us in overnight, which I wasn’t thrilled about since Granddad would be sick with worry. And I was supposed to meet Paula to show her the breakfast routine. When Trevor and I walked out of the hospital together in the morning, the sky was clear and blue the way a July day was supposed to be. I was grateful for the sun. I’d seen enough rain and water to last me for a long time. The warm weather felt nice on my skin. The Search and Rescue t-shirt Trevor gave me to wear felt even better. It smelled like him and I hoped he wouldn’t ask for it back. I turned towards the parking lot and he tugged my hand in the opposite direction.