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“Dakota, you need to get out of town,” his gruff voice sounds on the other end.

“What about you?” I place my phone between my ear and shoulder, grabbing the first bag I see, and rush to my bedroom to pack spare clothes.

“I’ll be fine. I need to stay and get the animals sorted.”

“But you are going to evacuate too, right?” I push down the bile that’s rising in my throat. I try not to think of Chance at the ranch, fighting to get everyone and everything organized with the fires so close. “Chance? How close is the fire to you?”

“Close enough,” he grinds out. I can hear yelling and animal sounds in the background. “Do you have someone to get out of town with? Where’s Addie?”

“I’m picking her up as soon as I’m done.” I finish throwing all the clean clothes I can into the bag and move to the bathroom for toiletries. “Will you meet me at the evacuation site?”

Chance’s phone is muffled, but I can hear him yelling on the other end.

I close my eyes and focus on my breath, trying not to worry about him. I don’t want to keep him on the phone long and waste any precious moments that he might need to get himself and everyone else to safety, but I need to know he’s not going to do anything stupid at the same time.

“I have to go. Get yourself out of town and text me when you get there; do you hear me?”

“Yes, Chance, I hear you.” I stop for a moment and brace myself for my next question. “You are leaving, right? You’ll meet me there.”

“Dammit…” The line goes muffled again before he comes back. “I have to go. Dakota, I’ll try, okay? That’s the best I can promise you right now. What you need to do is get the hell out of town. Now.”

“Okay,” I whisper, feeling a tear fall from my eye.

I know what his answer means. He’s not promising that he’ll get out of town, or that he’ll even try.

“Dakota, I…Fuck. You know I’m not good at this stuff but…I love you. Or I love you as much as I know how to love. I just want you to know that, okay?”

“Okay,” I say slowly, too stunned to say anything else.

Chance loves me? And he decides to tell me this now?

The line goes dead, and I take a second to stare at the screen.

Did that just happen? Chance said he loves me in the middle of a fucking wildfire evacuation?

Rushing through the house, I throw my work documents into my briefcase and load up the car. The air is thick with smoke and ash falls like rain. I can’t see any flames, but the dark smoke hovering in the air tells me the fire is close. I back out of my driveway, giving my house a lasting look, hoping it’s not the last time I’ll see it.

After picking up Addie, the drive out of town to Cedar Valley Springs is quiet. The traffic is slow moving as everyone in town makes their way out and to the shelter. Addie wrings her hands in her lap as she looks worriedly out the window.

I don’t dare say anything. Mostly because I don’t want to try to break the silence that we have as it is calm, but also because I am afraid that I will let out all the pent up emotion if I voice my concerns about Chance. After relaying our phone call—minus the ‘I love you’ part—she seems satisfied with the slightly modified version that he is going to get the animals taken care of and then head out of town. I’m hoping that if I tell myself that enough, I’ll start to believe it, too.

Once we finally make it to the shelter and check in, we are given cots set up the in the activity centre, along with hundreds of other people from the town. Addie and I can’t do anything other than sit down on them and decompress, looking around, trying to see who we can find, or in my case, who isn’t here yet.

Addie and I are checked in at the shelter.

I can’t help but stare at my phone, willing those three little dots to come up, letting me know he is going to message me back.

But he doesn’t. The text is delivered but unread.

“I’m sure he’s just sorting out the animals or on his way here now,” Addie says with a weak smile.

“Dakota!” Krissy’s blonde hair bounces in her ponytail behind her as she rushes through the crowd and throws her arms around me.

I do the same, letting myself lean into her for a moment.

“I’m so glad you made it okay. Where’s Chance?”

“He, uh, was just getting everything together at the ranch. Is Brett here with you?” I’ll admit, I’m trying to deflect any more questions about Chance.