Page 38 of Fire

“Anyway, like I was saying, it was one of the most stressful moments of my life—at least, up until then. But I got throughit, and when I woke up on the morning of the exam, I felt good. Confident, even.” If this is her point, she’s seriously missed the mark. “I met Tanner at?—”

“New rule,” I interject, not giving a shit that I’m interrupting her. “No talking about douchey exes during Story Time.”

She stares at me and simply replies, “All right.”

I stare right back. “Okay, then.”

It takes her a moment, almost as if she’s still digesting the moment, but finally, she shifts in her seat and speaks. “Anyway, I got to where they were administering the test, and as soon as I walked up to the building, I froze. I couldn’t move. Tan—” She stops herself from saying his name. “Certain outside forces possibly added to my stress in that moment, and I ended up having a full-blown panic attack. It was the first time something like that ever happened to me.”

“Wait.” I hold up my hand. “What do you mean by ‘outside forces?’”

“It doesn’t matter,” she answers quickly. “And you’re breaking the rules.”

“Fuck the rules. What did he do, Zara?”

She lets out a long sigh. “He told me I was embarrassing him and needed to pull myself together.”

“God, that guy’s an asshole.” I just shake my head. “You know that, right? Because nothing about that moment was embarrassing. It’s natural to freak out when shit gets stressful.”

“I know.”

“Especially when it’s something you’ve been working toward for a really long time.”

“Yes.”

I didn’t realize my gaze had drifted down to the ground until I felt her eyes on me, and I understood the double meaning of what I had just said.

Did she intentionally turn this around and connect it back to me, or was that a coincidence? Either way, I let out a deep breath, and just as I’m about to lift my gaze to look at her, the door bursts open, and two of the crew members barrel in.

They come to an abrupt halt when they see us.

“Uh, sorry, Doc. Didn’t know you had anyone in here. We can come back,” the scrawny dark-haired guy says as the tall blond one looks at him with wide eyes, holding a wad of toilet paper to his nose.

“No.” She rises to her feet. “It’s fine. Bring him over here.” She points to the exam table and then turns back to me, giving a warm smile. “We good?”

“Yeah.” I gaze into her eyes, suddenly feeling like a heavy weight has been lifted off my shoulders. “We’re good.”

Chapter Twelve

ZARA

I hate to say it, but I’m going to anyway.

I don’t understand how this band survived this many tours without a full-time doctor.

Maybe it’s just this particular tour or the people on it. But we’re only on day one, and I’ve dealt with a bloody nose caused by two very clumsy crew members, a dehydrated security guard, and a near panic attack by one very hot bass guitarist.

When I walked past Hendrix earlier, I almost didn’t see him. He had done a decent job of making himself nearly invisible in that darkened corner.

He did not want to be found.

And that’s what set off the alarm bells in my head.

Hendrix isn’t the kind of person to run and hide from challenges. Even in college, when he struggled with biology, he didn’t succumb to his fate. He simply dealt with the issue, found a tutor—me—and retook the class. Since our recent reunion, I’ve noticed that even though the single-minded determination he once had may have taken a hit or two over the years, no doubt due to Edwin’s betrayal, it’s still there.

It’s still driving him to succeed.

And if there’s one thing I know, it’s how overwhelming stress can feel when you’re working toward a long-term goal.