Читать книгу A Father in the Making - Carolyne Aarsen - Страница 10

Chapter Two

Was that smoke she smelled?

Mia took another sniff as she walked out of the grocery store, the evening light slanting over the parking lot. Probably just her overactive imagination.

As she came around the corner of Mug Shots, she heard Evangeline call her name. She was leaving the café, Denny and Nate right behind her.

“You only now finished your grocery shopping?” Evangeline asked.

“Talking to Zach took longer than I thought, and the grocery store was busy today.” As they walked along the street, she tried to ignore Nate’s presence behind them. She didn’t need to mix up her life by getting distracted by someone like him.

“Is that smoke I smell?” Nate asked.

“Yeah. I thought I smelled it, too.” Then she looked up and saw a plume of black smoke in the sky above Mug Shots. Her heart stopped.

“Looks like it’s coming from Main Street,” she said as she hurried her steps, trying to shake off the idea that it could be her store and home. Then she took another look and saw smoke twining around the telltale crooked brick chimney of her store. Panic clenched her stomach as she grabbed the handles of her stroller and hurried down the street.

“Mia. Wait,” Denny called out, but she ignored him, her panic growing with each step. And then she came around the corner.

“It’s my store.” Her legs turned to rubber as she clung to the handles of the stroller. “My boys. My boys.” She started across the street, unable to move fast enough.

Someone caught her by the arm. She shook it off, her entire focus on the smoke pouring out of her store and flames starting to curl up from the roof. She started walking again, but then an arm snaked around her waist. “Don’t. Stay here,” Nate’s voice growled in her ear as his iron-hard arm clamped her against him. “You can’t do anything.”

“My boys. My boys are in there.” She thrashed against his hands, her fear and panic twisting like the flames now flickering from the roof. “My boys and Angie.”

She heard the squawk of a two-way radio and then heard another voice behind her.

She spun around. Jeff Deptuck, a local fireman, stood beside her, his cell phone to his ear and a two-way radio in his other hand. She grabbed at him. “Jeff. They’re not here yet. My boys are in there with Angie.”

“Are you sure?” Jeff’s gaze was suddenly intent on hers. “Angie and your boys?”

“Look, someone is at the window,” Nate called out.

It was Angie, waving. She was probably trapped.

“The trucks are out of town. They won’t be here for another ten minutes,” Jeff called out. “Someone get an extension ladder from the hardware store.”

A tall man broke away from the group that had gathered and ran down the street.

“By the time he gets the ladder out, it’s going to be too late,” Mia called out.

“We’ll have to go in up the stairs at the back,” Jeff said.

“I’m coming with you,” Nate said. “I’ve worked as a volunteer firefighter.”

“You listen to me and do exactly what I say,” Jeff warned, his voice stern.

Then without another word, Jeff dashed across the street then ducked into the gap between the buildings to get to the alley, Nate right behind him.

“Make sure she doesn’t go anywhere,” Nate said to Denny, then ran across the street after Jeff.

Mia pulled at Denny’s hands that held her arms like a vise. “I need to go and help them,” she called out. “I know how to get in.”

But Denny pulled Mia back again as the ominous sound of fire crackling battled with the growing wail of sirens.

But it was only a police car that came down Main Street.

“The fire trucks aren’t coming,” Mia sobbed, pulling ineffectually at Denny’s hands. She stared up at Angie’s panicked figure in the window. “They won’t get here in time.”

Then Angie disappeared and Mia’s heart turned to ice.

She couldn’t watch, but she couldn’t look away, thoughts, fears and half-formed images seething and twisting through her tortured mind.

The policemen got out and moved the gathering crowd back.

Mia’s entire attention was on the building and the smoke billowing out of it now. After what seemed to be hours, the fire trucks finally showed up at the end of the street, the men piling out in a flurry of activity, their bulky suits and reflective tape flashing in the failing sunlight.

“Stay here, Mia. Evangeline, you make her stay,” Denny warned as he ran toward the firefighters calling out that there were people in the building yet. One of the firefighters spoke with him while others donned masks and hooked tanks over their bulky coats. There were still more who worked in a rhythm, laying out the hoses, hooking them to the nearest fire hydrant. Instructions were called out, verified as the men with masks grabbed their axes and entered the front of the store.

Then, with a whistle of steam, water was poured onto the building and into the open window. Then more sirens as ambulances came, blue-and-red lights strobing through the smoke and gathering dusk.

Neither Evangeline nor Denny spoke as the drama unfolded in front of them, but Mia felt their hands on her, holding her back, yet at the same time, comforting her.

“Dear Lord, please keep Jeff and Nate safe. Help them to get Angie, Nico and Josh out of the store,” she heard Evangeline praying aloud.

Mia couldn’t pray, her gaze stuck on the building. The brick facade was now charred with smoke and dripping with water as the flames momentarily retreated. Where were the boys? Jeff? Nate? Time ceased as her world narrowed down to the building with smoke pouring out of the windows, the shouts of the firemen, the drone of water pumps, the hiss of flames being extinguished and the cries of the onlookers now gathered along the street.

Then another wave of noise caught her attention. It came from a side avenue. People shouting. Cheering.

Then she saw them.

Jeff, limping as he carried Josh, supported by Angie.

And behind him, Nate holding Nico close, his head tucked against his neck.

Mia ran toward them, her heart threatening to burst in her chest.

“Josh. Nico.” She reached out her arms to take them. But just as she got close, EMT personnel came between her and her boys, taking them from Jeff and Nate and escorting Angie to the ambulance.

“Those are my boys,” she called out, desperate to find out how they were.

“They’re okay.” Nate came up beside her, reeking of smoke, his face smeared with soot. She caught at him, her fingers digging into his arm.

“Are you sure? Are you sure?”

Nate looked down at her, then gave her a tentative smile. “We managed to get them out before the fire got too intense.”

Her legs gave out as the reaction sank in. Nate caught her before she fell. “C’mon, let’s go see how your boys are,” he said, slipping his arm around her shoulder and holding her up. Together they walked to the ambulance, him supporting her, her entire attention focused like a laser on the back of the ambulance.

Yet, at the same time, she was filled with gratitude for the man holding her up. The man who had rescued her sons.

* * *

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Denny held Nate’s gaze with an intensity Nate tried to ignore. It only reminded him of how close he and Jeff had cut things getting Angie, Nico and Josh out of the building.

“The paramedic said I’m fine, so I’ll take his word for that.” Nate leaned forward in the hard plastic chair of the hospital waiting room, and subconsciously tapped his foot on the shining surface floor. The sharp, antiseptic smell of the hospital brought back memories he thought he’d buried. Spent too much time here as a kid.

“You should never have run into that building, you know,” Denny said.

“I had training,” Nate protested, fighting the urge to get up and pace. “That other guy, Jeff, he couldn’t get two kids and that woman out on his own. If we had waited till the fire department showed up, it might have been too late.”

He didn’t want to let his mind go too far down that road. In spite of his work as a volunteer fireman, he knew he would be reliving that harrowing search for months to come. The heat of the floor in Mia’s apartment. The horror that gripped him when he made it to the bed and didn’t find the little boy in it as Angie had said. His panicked sweep of the room only to find the little boy huddled in a closet, his arms wrapped around his knees.

Denny sat back in his chair and gave him a smile. “You’re quite something, little brother. But you should let the doctor check you over.”

“I’m fine. I just want to make sure that kid, Nico, is okay.” The boy had scared him. When Nate pulled him out of the closet, he’d gone limp and Nate had to drag him out of the room and back down the stairs.

“Is Evangeline okay with taking care of those baby girls?” He wanted to talk about something else.

“Yeah. She’s used to handling babies after little Ella came into our lives a couple of months ago.”

“Hey, I was sorry to hear about your ex-wife’s death,” Nate said, a note of sympathy in his voice.

“It took some adjusting. Especially since Lila’s sister dropped that bomb the same time she dropped Ella off on my doorstep because she didn’t want to take care of her anymore.”

“I still can’t believe I’ve got a two-year-old niece,” Nate said, letting a smile curve his lips. “And you’re getting married again in a couple of months.”

“I can’t believe it, either, but I have to say, I highly recommend it.”

Nate just snorted. “Being single is better for a guy like me. Less chance to get hurt.” He stopped himself there. Denny always made him say more than he wanted.

He remembered coming to the Norquest ranch a young, angry boy of twelve, abused by his stepfather. Denny’s family worked his way past the defenses Nate had spent the first twelve years of his life erecting.

The Norquests surrounded him with love and laughter and gave him a vision of a life that was good. Olivia, Trista and Adrianna teased him the same way they teased Denny. Steve and Donna Norquest treated him like their own. After two years of living with them he started calling them Mom and Dad.

Then, when Denny was seventeen, they died in a small plane crash, reinforcing the one belief he had clung to since his mother left him with an abusive stepfather.

Letting people into your life hurt.

“You’ll change your mind someday,” Denny said with a conviction that created a tinge of frustration in Nate.

But Nate preferred to keep his comments to himself.

Evangeline came toward them pushing the baby stroller and gave them both a quick smile. “I’ll keep moving,” she whispered as she passed them. “The girls are sleeping. I just called Olivia and she said she would stay until we came back.”

Denny nodded and leaned back, seemingly content to just sit.

Nate envied him his composure. He couldn’t sit still. Too much had happened too quickly. He was still processing his accident and now this?

He tapped his fingers together and blew out his breath, feeling as if the walls closed in on him.

“What is taking so long?”

“You can go back to the ranch if you want,” Denny said. “Check on your horses. See how Olivia is doing.”

Nate shook his head. “No. I want to see this through. Do you want something to drink? I’m dry as dust.”

“No, thanks, but you go ahead. Do you need change?” he asked, already reaching for his wallet.

“Thanks. I’m good.” Nate had to smile at the offer. Denny was always slipping him money when Nate blew through his allowance sooner than he was supposed to. Always looking out for him. Still looking out for him.

Nate walked down the hall to the vending machine and made his choice, but when he pulled his wallet out to slip the money in he was disappointed to see his fingers trembling.

Aftershock, he reminded himself. The paramedic told him to watch out for it and to go to the hospital if it got too bad.

As if. He had spent enough of his life in a hospital; he wasn’t going to deliberately check into one on his own. He grabbed the bottle of juice when it dropped into the bin. He twisted the top off and chugged half the bottle down as his mind, unwilling, returned to the thick, choking smoke curling up from the building. The panic that seized him when he saw the flames licking up the side of the wall as he and Jeff pulled open the door to the apartment, dropped to the floor and started crawling. The fear that clutched at him when he didn’t find the little boy in his bed.

He stopped by the windows overlooking the town as he walked back to the waiting room, pushing the memories down. Hartley Creek seemed like a good place to stay awhile if he had to stay anywhere. Denny was here. Olivia, too. And it sounded like the other sisters might be popping in from time to time.

Nate let a hint of a smile play over his lips. He had missed Denny and the girls more than he wanted to admit. The past three years had been tiring and taxing and draining. Too much time on the road. Too many competitions. Too much juggling to find places for his horses to stay on the off-season. Right now he had two mares that had just foaled, boarded at a friend’s place. One of these days he knew he had to find a permanent home.

But the thought of settling down, putting down roots, creating the potential for loss...

He shook off that thought, took another swig of juice and started back down the hallway. Then stopped as another fit of coughing seized him. Unable to walk through it he rested his hand against the wall, doubled over. When he was done, his chest felt as if someone had doused his lungs with acid. He took a few more slow breaths, carefully sucking air into his raw throat. It would be okay, he reminded himself.

Then, as he looked up, he saw Mia standing by the entrance to the emergency department, her arms wrapped tightly around her oldest boy. She was looking directly at him.

For a moment he felt it again. The initial shot of attraction he had experienced when he first saw her in Evangeline’s bookstore. The attraction that had been doused when he found out that she had children. A family.

But in spite of that, he easily remembered how she leaned into him as they walked toward the ambulance. How, for a moment, it felt nice to be needed.

He pushed that reaction down. He had his own stuff to deal with and no room for a woman in his life. Especially not a woman who needed more than he could possibly give.

“Where are Evangeline and Denny?” he asked her as he came around the corner to see the waiting room vacated.

“The girls just woke up when I got back here. One needed something to eat, the other, a clean diaper. So they’re taking care of it.”

He sensed, from the strained note in her voice that she didn’t feel right about that situation. She seemed like a person that had a hard time accepting help.

“So how are the boys?” he asked. “What did the doctor say?”

She took a breath then pushed her hand through her short hair in a nervous gesture. “Josh is good,” she said, rubbing her hand up and down the arm of the older boy standing beside her. His dark hair was pasted down on one side and while his face was clean, his hands were still streaked with black, as were his clothes. Mia fingered Josh’s hair away from his face in a vain attempt to neaten it, her fingers trembling. “You’re going to need a bath when we get home, buddy....” Mia’s sentence trailed off and Nate realized she no longer had a home to go back to.

“How is Nico?” Nate asked.

Mia gave him a curious look, as if wondering about his concern. “Dr. Brouwer is checking a few more things out. How was he when you took him out of the building?”

“Scared. Panicky. He hung on to me like a little monkey. But I don’t think anything was broken or burned.”

Mia pressed her lips together as she took a slow, trembling breath. “I can’t begin to thank you for...for what you did. You saved my son’s life.”

She gave him a wavery smile and Nate had to resist the urge to slip his arm around her shoulder and support her. But he caught himself in time.

He had nothing to give a woman like her. She needed someone stable, strong. Someone who could be a father to her kids.

Instead, he turned to Josh, feeling a rush of empathy. Hospitals could be intimidating and scary places. Nate crouched down, balancing on the balls of his feet, his hands dangling between his knees. “Hey. How are you feeling?”

Josh gave him a smile that echoed his mother’s. Trying to be brave. “I was scared in the fire,” the six-year-old said. “And then I saw Mr. Deptuck and he got me and Angie out.” His lower lip trembled and Nate guessed he would have a few bad dreams the next while.

Nate put his hand on his shoulder and squeezed lightly. “You’ll be just fine, champ.”

He straightened and caught Mia’s gaze, her eyes holding a stark look, a direct contrast to the forced smile that held her mouth captive.

She was trying so hard to be brave, he thought. Brave for her son.

“And Jeff?” he asked.

“I’m not sure.” She shot him a frown. “Are you sure you shouldn’t see the doctor, as well?”

The concern in her voice created a flicker of warmth, but he waved off her suggestion. “I’m fine. Throat’s sore, but I’m okay.”

She looked at him like she didn’t believe him and for a moment, he found he couldn’t look away.

Stop this, he warned himself. Don’t do this.

Then he heard the sound of a baby’s whimper and he spun around. Denny and Evangeline returned with the girls. Both babies rubbed their eyes, their cheeks flaming pink.

“Oh, girlies,” Mia said, reaching out for one of them. “You are exhausted.”

Evangeline released the one baby to her and Mia held her close, tucking her little baby’s head against her neck and rocking her. She had been through a lot and was still giving her babies comfort.

A loving mother.

“So we need to figure out what to do with you and the kids,” Evangeline said, her voice taking on a brisk, no-nonsense tone. “Denny and I think you should come back to the ranch with us.”

“I can leave if you need the space,” Nate said.

“No. Your horse is in no shape to travel,” Denny replied. “We got it figured. Evangeline can’t go back to her apartment above the store until things are cleaned up so Mia, Evangeline and the kids can move into the house with Olivia. Me and you get the trailer,” he said to Nate.

Nate wanted to protest, but knew he wasn’t in any position to. His horses needed to recuperate and he needed to be close to them. The foals the mares carried were part of his stake for a new venture he hoped to set up someday. When he was ready to settle.

“So, Mia, it’s decided,” Denny said with what sounded to Nate like a forced heartiness.

“I don’t know,” Mia said, glancing over her shoulder to the examining rooms. “I don’t want to put you out. I could stay with my mother and father.”

Seemed like she didn’t want to stay on the ranch any more than he did, Nate thought.

“Your parents live in a minuscule apartment in Nelson,” Evangeline said. “You can’t go there with four kids.”

Mia sighed and closed her eyes as if she still wasn’t sure what to do.

“Just come for the next couple of nights,” Evangeline said, slipping her arm around her friend’s shoulders. “Don’t think too far ahead.”

Mia nodded and released a sigh. Denny rocked the other baby watching both of them with a fatherly look.

Nate stood on the edge of the group feeling like the outsider he was.

Then the curtain dividing the waiting area from the emergency department swished aside and the doctor stood in the entrance, motioning for Mia to come.

And he wasn’t smiling.