Read Life Support (The Breathe Series Book 2) for Free Online

table to carry our plates to the kitchen. I move to help, but she stops me. “No, you stay and catch up with your sister. I’m going to help your mom with the dishes. I don’t mind. Really.”
    I nod, smile weakly, and take a seat. While Olivia leaves to help my mom with the dishes, I’m left at the table with Vince and a somewhat put-off Emily.
    “Sooo, she hasn’t put two and two together about your nightmares, huh, Owen? No offense, but what kind of psychologist is she that she hasn’t noticed?” Emily says flippantly.
    “Watch your mouth.” I growl. “You don’t know anything about her, and for you to insinuate that she’s not brilliant at her job pisses me off.” I ball my hands into fists in frustration, my jaw set tight. “Listen,” I sigh heavily, “she’s witnessed her fair share of my episodes. Olivia has asked me about them repeatedly. My first response was to slam the bathroom door in her face and close her off. Granted, it wasn’t the classiest of moves, but when the dust settled, she just offered to listen when I was ready. When I was ready , Emily,” I stress. “It’s just not something we talk about.”
    Emily grabs my forearm that is resting on the table. “Think this one through, Owen. She’s a psychologist…specializing in PTSD…in servicemen. You’ve been given a gift, O. Olivia can help you if you just give—”
    “No, Em,” I bite out. “I don’t want to burden Olivia with my shit. I need to be strong…be a man. I just need to get over this fucking thing. My nightmares make me weak and I don’t want her to see me like that.”
    “If there’s any one person you should be talking to about this, it’s Olivia,” Vince chimes in. “I’m going to get all sappy on you here for a minute, but for a multitude of reasons, she should be the person you confide in about this stuff. You keep pushing her away and not letting her in, she’s going to walk. She’s too smart to put up with your shit.”
    Leave it to Vince to tell it like it is.
    “You need to let her in, Owen. You need to talk to her about this,” Emily reiterates.
    I tilt my head toward the ceiling and close my eyes in frustration. Then I look back at Emily. “It’s my problem to deal with. I’m handling it.”
    “Of course you are!” Emily sits back abruptly in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest. “Because that’s been going so well for you over the past three years, hasn’t it?”
    “Keep your voice down, Em,” I say, looking toward the kitchen and finding that Olivia is deep in conversation with my mom.
    I know that I need to tell her about my nightmares. Just talking about them brings me right back to that day –the reason for my nightmares.
    Three years earlier
    “Okay! Everybody listen up! We’ve got a report of two children trapped on the third floor of the building!” Walt Chapman, the commanding officer on the scene, shouts. “Maxwell! Wilson! You’re in the front looking for those kids!” he barks, looking at Tanner and me, and juts his thumb over his shoulder. “Jackson and Watts, you’re on the roof. Simpson and Lewis, you go around to the rear. Let’s get these kids out safe!” he yells.
    “What about the parents?” I ask, strapping on my helmet. “We just looking for the two?”
    “Neighbors saw the mom leave the building about an hour ago. Presumably, she left after putting the kids to bed for the night. The rest of the building’s tenants are accounted for,” the commanding officer answers. “Find those kids.”
    The flashlights on our helmets do little to penetrate the wall of smoke as my partner, Tanner Wilson, and I enter the main door of the building. There is smoke to the floor as we climb the first flight of stairs together. We feel our way up the wall to the first floor. Tanner and I decide to split up to cover more ground in less time. We’ll get shit from our C.O. about this, but we’re running out of time. Our tanks only hold 4500 PSI of air.