2020: Emergency Exit Read Online Free PDF Page A

apparently do quite well. I left the kids. Again. Only difference was, this time I took Sophie with me.
    Cameron’s parents took Danny in. He lived above their garage his last two years of high school. He and Cameron had been like brothers since they were five or six anyway. They’d fished, hunted, snowboarded, raced motorcycles, and played virtually every sport together since then. They held each other in check and pushed each other competitively in everything. Danny was already a driven kid, with all of Sophie’s incredible athletic genes, but losing Sophie drove him even harder. I don’t think living with his best friend those two years hurt Danny. It was clear he still wanted nothing to do with me, and even more clear he blamed me in some way for what had happened to her—for what happened to our family. I couldn’t fault him for that.
    Danny, like his grandfather (my dad), was a natural born leader. Blond-haired, blue-eyed, handsome as hell, and about six foot three or four. He was one tough kid. A modern-day MacGyver and Eagle Scout (also like his grandpa), and an expert marksman with most any weapon, backed with a decade of mixed martial arts; you’d want Danny with you when the crap hit the fan. He was certainly the ideal travel companion for a situation as far fetched as this one.
    Cameron was similarly appointed, and the two of them had joined the Marines together straight out of high school. No doubt, for Danny, it was the perfect means to get him even further away from me. While their friends were binge drinking, smoking pot, and getting girls pregnant, Danny and Cameron were off challenging each other and transforming themselves from skilled duck and deer hunters into some of the world’s most elite snipers.
    That first year away did wonders for rebuilding our relationship. I would never forget his first day back home, at the halfway point of their Special Ops training. Hayley and I went to meet them at the Minneapolis airport. I barely recognized Danny with his short-cropped hair. It had been long as far back as I could remember. I definitely didn’t recognize the smile he gave me as he actually sought me out and hugged me first. First! I hadn’t counted on a hug at all. I sure had missed him. I had honestly only hoped to see him. That hug was so much better than expected.
    We spoke that night for hours, for the first time in years. He apologized for some things. I apologized for much more. He cried a little. I cried a lot more. He didn’t even yell. Once. Man he had a lot of his mother in him . I wouldn’t say he forgave me, but he seemed to be intent on giving me a second chance. Or tenth . It was probably for his mother’s sake, but I was thrilled to take it any way I could get it. Better still, at his insistence Hayley agreed to move up to the cabin with me for her senior year of high school. “It’s time to put the pieces back together,” he’d said.
    The military completed the conversion of my boy into a man, and I was grateful for the results. Their Special Ops training was a gift to us right now. Without them, we knew we’d have no chance against this army. With them, we knew we had as much of a chance as Jim Carrey did getting that girl in Dumb & Dumber . But it was at least a chance.
    The boys’ girlfriends were very much their complements. Cameron had been seeing Jenna steadily for about two and a half years. She was a pre-med student and one of the brightest kids I’ve ever known. Danny and Kate had been together nearly five years now. Danny had tried to break up with her after Sophie’s death, but Kate wouldn’t let him. She gave him space, but never left him alone. She didn’t want him to repeat his father’s mistakes. Smart girl . Though Danny had distanced himself from the romance side of their relationship, it was clear how deep his love for her remained, and to Kate’s credit that seemed to be good enough for now. While Danny was away at Scout Sniper training in