Page 37 of Christmas with Brother's Best Friends

“They’ll find their way out. We were looking for you!” I reply as I glance around, not seeing Max or Josh. We’ll find our way to each other eventually, but I know that they would want me to get her out first. She doesn’t need to be breathing in all this smoke. “Try to cover your face!”

Emma takes my suit jacket and presses it against her nose and mouth, her other arm still holding me. She stays as close as possible, her eyes watering from the smoke.

I cough hard, my lungs aching. I surge forward one last time, dragging her through the doors and out onto the sidewalk where other people are recovering. “This way.”

Emma stumbles after me as I lead her down the sidewalk away from the building, the sound of sirens echoing down the street as the firefighters rush toward us. She sucks in a deep breath of fresh air, her makeup streaking and smudging around her teary eyes.

I guide her toward a wall, encouraging her to lean against it and catch her breath. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

Emma shakes her head as she wipes her eyes. “When I couldn’t find you guys, I got scared. My mind blanked. I didn’t know what to do.”

Making sure that she was okay was the only thing on my mind when the alarm went off. I can’t lose her. Iwon’tlose her.

I gently cup her face and inspect her, making sure that she’s truly okay. “Maybe we should go to the hospital. Just in case.”

Emma grabs my wrists and shakes her head. “I’m okay, Ryan. You got me out fast.”

Her words bring me a little comfort, but what if I didn’t get her out quickly enough? What if she’s actually hurting and not telling me?

Emma reaches out and hugs me. “I’m okay. I promise.”

I hug her back, cradling the back of her head. She smells like smoke now, but a hint of her perfume breaks through. It’s enough to comfort me some more.

“There they are. Emma! Ryan!”

I release Emma, but I don’t step away from her more than a few feet when Josh and Max run over to us. I don’t even want to take my eyes off her right now.

Emma hugs them and reassures them that she’s okay.

It doesn’t take long for the fire department to arrive and start tackling the fire, sirens and lights filling the street as people watch with shocked looks on their faces.

“I think we should leave,” Emma says as she presses herself against my side. “Just in case they can’t get the fire under control.”

I nod in agreement, not wanting to take any risks. Not when it comes to her safety and wellbeing. “We can call for a car around the corner. Let’s get away from the crowd.”

Together, the four of us head down the sidewalk and to another street, coughing and rubbing our eyes every so often from the after effects of the smoke. Things could’ve been so much worse. We could’ve gotten trapped or trampled because people don’t know how to react in an emergency.

Just the thought of Emma getting hurt by reckless people makes me clench my teeth. I can’t let anything bad happen to her. It’ll break me.

And that tells me all that I need to know.

I don’t just want her.I’d risk anything to keep her safe.

Chapter eighteen

Chapter Eighteen: Max

Tomorrow istheday. Update launch day. I can’t believe we’re already here.

“Do we have an official okay from the programming department? Did they fix those last-minute bugs?” Josh asks as the four of us gather in the conference room for one last meeting.

Instead of getting ready for Christmas and doing last minute shopping on Christmas Eve, we’ll be monitoring the update launch and making sure that everything goes smoothly. Sure, it sucks to miss out on the festivities, but this update impacts the future of our company.

We need to be all in. No matter what day it is.

“Yep. I talked to Brian earlier,” I reply, my fingers flying over the keyboard of my laptop as I multitask. I need to send out a fewmore emails and double check a few more details before I can leave today.

“Perfect,” Josh says as he clicks his mouse, undoubtedly going down a checklist of last-minute things to do. “Ryan, are the social media posts ready to go?”