He stumbled blindly through the store, knocking Anna’s displays and tables aside as he went. He mounted the stairs three at a time and burst through the door into the apartment.
The smoke roiled heavily in the living room, but he saw no flames. Where was all this coming from? And where was Anna? There was no way she could be sleeping through this.
He didn’t like what that suggested, but he shoved the fear away before it could take root. Anna was all right.
She had to be all right.
“Hey! Anna?” he called loudly. “It’s Hoyt. Wake up! We need to get out of here! Your building’s on fire.”
He pushed open the bedroom door. A streetlight outside illuminated the smoky room. The narrow bed was rumpled, the sheets thrown back hurriedly, but Anna was nowhere to be seen.
“Anna!”
The only answer was a sharp yip from under the bed. He knelt and saw Chester backed up against the wall, trembling. The puppy whimpered.
Hoyt dragged the terrified dog across the floor to him. A big canvas book bag was slung over the bedpost. He snatched it off and upended it, causing half a dozen books to slither across the floor. He shoved the shaking puppy in. “Come on, doofus. Let’s find Anna.”
A rapid search proved that Anna was nowhere in the apartment, and the smoke was getting worse. Hoyt dropped to his knees and took a breath of the clearer air closer to the floor. Where was she? Had he missed her somehow? Had she already made it outside? “Anna!” he bellowed. “If you’re in here, please answer me!”
Chester yipped sharply from his bag, as if adding his plea to Hoyt’s.
“She’d never have left you, would she?” Hoyt muttered, his heart sinking. Anna was somewhere in this building, and if she wasn’t able to answer him, things were really bad.
God, help me find her. Please. I can’t lose her. I just can’t.
“Hoyt?”
The call came faintly through the walls, from somewhere in the storage space surrounding Anna’s living area. Hoyt thundered back down the bare-planked hallway to the storage rooms. The smoke was thicker here, and he jerked the collar of his T-shirt over his nose so he could breathe through the fabric. It didn’t help much. “Anna! Where are you?”
“In the big storage room!” She broke off with a cough. “I can’t get out. A bookcase fell in front of the door, and I can’t move it.”
“Hang on!”
Hoyt slung the canvas bag with the squirming puppy across his back to free up his arms. Jamming his shoulder against the door, he pressed hard. The bookcase resisted him. It must have been mammoth. He forced the door open an inch and peered through.
Anna was crouched off to the side, barely visible in the swirling smoke. She had gone low to try to breathe, but the smoke line was hovering only about ten inches off the floor.
He had to get her out of there.
“Are you hurt?”
“No. I jumped back when the bookcase fell over. I couldn’t get the door open!”
“I’ll have you out in a minute.” Hoyt repositioned his shoulder against the door, closed his eyes and pushed with everything he had. The door grudgingly opened another scant inch. He took a breath and pushed again. He had to get a gap wide enough for Anna to slip through.
“Stop!”
“What?”
“The bookcase! You’re jamming it up like a wedge. The door’s not going to open that way!” That tense tone in her voice. He’d heard it before—in the airplane right before she passed out.
If she had one of those panic attacks now...
Please God. Help us. Keep her calm.
He pressed his face back against the crack, but he couldn’t see the position of the bookcase from this angle. What he could see was a glowing flicker in the depths of the smoke-filled space.
Flames.
The fire buried in the depths of the walls was coming, and this place was constructed of hundred-year-old wood and stuffed with books. Once the flames hit all that willing tinder, everything around them was going up fast and hot.
He had to get Anna out. Now.
He summoned every bit of strength he had and pushed, but the door slid open only another grudging half inch and then stuck tight.
“Hoyt, you’re only making it worse! It’s not going to work.” Anna’s protest was interrupted by more coughing. “You have to get out! I can hear the fire truck siren. Let the firefighters handle it. They’ll have equipment for this.”
They would. But that flicker... He wasn’t sure they’d get up here fast enough. And Anna sounded even more panicky now.
“I’m not leaving you alone.”
“You have to, Hoyt! What about Jess? If anything happens to you—”
“We’re just going to have to make sure nothing happens to either of us, Anna.” He swallowed hard. “I can’t see what I’m dealing with from here. Can you describe it to me?”
“The bookcase fell on top of some books, so it’s sitting at an angle. When you opened the door, it tilted it up so that it’s wedged hard against the floor.”
That wasn’t good. But Hoyt noticed that Anna’s voice sounded a little steadier, and that was a positive. At least he could keep her talking and distracted while he figured out what he was going to do. “Is there anything you can do from your side?”
“No! I was trying before you came here. I’m not strong enough to— Wait.” There was a short pause that made Hoyt’s pounding heart ramp up.
Please, Lord. Help her see something, anything.
“Hoyt, close the door.”
“What?”
“Close the door. If you do, I think the bookcase will fall back to the floor and then maybe we can move it. I’m pulling out some of the books that have it propped up now.” He heard her scuffling around. “Oh, these poor, poor books. Some of these are first editions! Completely irreplaceable. My dad—”
Seriously?
“Anna, now is not the time.”
“Okay. I think I’ve got it. Pull the door back toward you. And if this doesn’t work, you have to get out. The firefighters will have to handle it. Hoyt? Do you hear me?”
“I hear you.” That much was true. He did. But no way was he leaving here without her.
He hesitated. What Anna was suggesting made sense, but everything inside him warred against the idea of surrendering this hard-earned gap without seeing for himself how the bookcase was positioned. What if this idea had nothing to do with that desperate prayer he’d just thrown up? What if this just made the problem worse?
Don’t start thinking what if. Jacob Stone’s warning echoed in his memory. That’s where faith comes in.
“Hoyt! Close the door!”
He ground his teeth together and pulled on the brass doorknob as hard as he could. The door slammed back into place.
Silence.
“Anna?”
There was a resounding crash. “Ouch!”
“Anna!”
“It’s all right. I had to jump up on the bookcase to make it fall all the way flat, and I twisted my ankle. Wait a second.” He heard more scuffling. “Okay.” Anna coughed deeply. “On three, push as hard as you can. One, two...three!”
Hoyt summoned every ounce of strength he had and slammed his body against the door.
There was still some resistance, but it slid—and kept sliding until there was a gap large enough for him to squeeze through.
He stumbled through the door—Anna was crouched by the end of the bookcase, her fingers clenched around its side. She’d been pulling while he’d pushed. She stood up shakily as he reached her.
“We did it!”
“We did. Now come on. Let’s get out of here.” Coughing, they picked their way through the tumble of books to the doorway. He pushed Anna through the gap and looped his arm around her waist as they stumbled toward the stai
rs.
She was limping. She was moving as fast as she could, but he could tell every step was hurting her. So when they reached the top of the stairs, he paused.
“I know you’re not going to like this, but we’ll move a lot faster if I just carry you. Okay?” She nodded, and he picked her up. “Put your arms around my neck and hang on. And while you’re at it, tell that dog of yours to quit scrabbling around in his bag. He’s scratching up my back.”
“Chester?” Her hands clenched behind his neck. “You found Chester?”
“I found both of you, and now we’re all getting out of here.”
And then I’m never, ever letting you go.
* * *
Anna kept her eyes scrunched shut as Hoyt carried her down the steps. She’d managed to work one hand down into the bag where Chester was, and he was licking her fingers frantically. Her ankle throbbed and her nose and throat burned with the smoke, but she felt an overwhelming sense of relief.
She could feel the hard strength of Hoyt’s arms around her as he moved through the store, and she’d recognized that tone in his voice just now.
Now we’re all getting out of here.
That was Hoyt’s go-big-or-go-home voice. And that meant whatever stood between them and that door didn’t stand a chance.
She kept telling herself that over and over again until she felt fresh, cool air on her face.
Anna could hear the hubbub around her, but she didn’t open her eyes. She just held on to Hoyt, even when she felt hands trying to tug her away.
“You can let go now, Anna. We’re out. The paramedics need to check you over. Careful, guys. Her ankle is hurt.”
Anna reluctantly loosened her grip and opened her eyes. She caught one good look at Hoyt’s smoke-smudged face before a paramedic moved between them, shining a light in her eyes. She tried to speak but broke off into a fit of coughing instead.
“We need some oxygen here! Hoyt, step back, will you? Donny can check you out while I see about your girl here.”
“I’m all right. Just make sure she is.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do. Ma’am? Do you remember me?” Anna focused her gaze on the paramedic. He smiled at her as he clipped some sort of meter to her index finger. “We met at the airport after your first plane ride. We’re going to see about that ankle of yours in just a minute, okay? How are you doing? Are you experiencing any chest pain? Are you feeling panicky?” He patted her arm gently. “Perfectly understandable if you are.”
She shook her head. “No.” Amazingly, she wasn’t. She looked over the paramedic’s shoulder to see Hoyt. He was shrugging off another uniformed man who was trying to draw Hoyt away, presumably to be examined himself. Hoyt wasn’t budging, his eyes laser-focused on Anna. Chester’s fuzzy face peeked comically out of her favorite book bag, which Hoyt was wearing slung over one broad shoulder.
The man looked like a cross between a navy SEAL and a librarian. With a puppy.
When he caught her watching him, he nodded and gave her a thumbs-up. Anna’s eyes suddenly and inexplicably filled with tears.
“Ma’am? Don’t look over there. Okay? You’re all right, and your friend is all right. The rest is just stuff you can replace. You haven’t lost anything that really matters.”
Anna blinked up at the young medic. He thought she was crying over her bookstore, which she could see burning in the background, as a host of gray-clad firefighters struggled with hoses and equipment.
He had it all backward.
She wasn’t grieving over what she’d lost.
What she was grieving over she’d never really had in the first place.
* * *
Six hours later, Anna looked out the window of Hoyt’s truck at the smoking shell of her father’s dream.
She wasn’t the only one looking. Pine Valley had turned out in full force to view the disaster. People were milling around everywhere as the firefighters rolled up hoses and conferred in small, weary groups.
To think that she’d been worried, not that long ago, about people knowing she’d failed at running her father’s business. That was nothing compared to burning the place down.
“Well.” Hoyt drew in a breath. “The building’s still standing.”
It was, barely, but Anna didn’t need an expert to tell her that the damage was extensive. She’d lost everything she owned, including all her store inventory. The low premium insurance she’d been able to afford wouldn’t begin to cover all the losses.
And her own problems were the least of her worries. Trisha’s shop appeared even more badly damaged, and Anna cringed at the thought of the conversation she’d soon be having with the florist.
Worst of all, the disasters in front of her might not even be the most serious destruction the fire had caused.
Hoyt had insisted on staying with her at the hospital. When he’d called Bailey to check on Jess, he’d come back looking concerned. Bailey had told him Jess was perfectly safe, but she’d been what Hoyt had termed “cagey.” And she’d been very interested in exactly when Hoyt might be coming by to pick Jess up.
He brushed off Anna’s questions after that, but she could tell he was worried. And of course he had good reason to be. The idea of the bookstore closing had upset the little girl a few weeks ago. Last night she’d seen the whole place go up in flames right in front of her. There was just no telling what kind of emotional trauma that had caused.
Anna sighed.
“I knew coming here wasn’t a good idea.” Hoyt was watching her, his face grim. “You heard what Doc Peterson said. You need to rest and keep that foot elevated.”
“It’s just a sprain. Now that it’s wrapped up, it’s fine. And you needed to pick up Jess. Besides—” she glanced back out the window “—I’ll have to face this sooner or later.” She pushed open the truck door and stepped out.
The air still smelled strongly of smoke, mingling oddly with a faint scent of coffee. Almost every person on the street clutched a foam cup from Grounds of Faith. Well, at least the church-sponsored coffee shop was making a little money today. That was a tiny sliver of silver lining, she supposed.
Hoyt joined her beside the truck, Chester frisking happily at the end of a new leash. Hoyt took hold of her arm with his free hand. “If you’re bound and determined to walk around, you should lean on me. No sense aggravating that sprain any more than necessary.”
She could probably handle the pain better than the confusing feelings Hoyt’s touch was stirring up. After everything they’d been through, her feelings about this man were all over the place.
She’d given up trying to control them. Right now she was just trying to survive them, hopefully without humiliating herself even more than she already had.
They surveyed the scene in front of them silently as Chester did his best to gnaw his leash in two.
Hoyt gave her arm a gentle squeeze. “It’s going to be okay, Anna. Things look rough right now, I know, but God will work everything out. It’ll take some time, but He’ll get the job done.”
Chester added a frustrated yap and plopped his fat bottom on the sidewalk. Steadying herself on Hoyt’s arm, Anna leaned over and tousled the puppy’s soft ears. Things could have been so much worse. She had a lot to be thankful for.
“Hoyt, listen.” She hesitated, but she might as well go ahead with the first of the numerous apologies she’d be making over the next few days. “I want you to know how deeply sorry I am.”
“For what?”
“I should’ve listened to you the first time you told me about the wiring problems in my building. Instead I delayed dealing with it, and I put you in a position where you had to risk your life to save mine. When I think of what could have happened to you, and what that would have meant for Jess—” Anna broke off and shuddered. Hoyt tightened his grip on her arm.
“What happened here wasn�
��t your fault, Anna.”
“I knew better than to go wandering around after the smoke alarms started going off. I should have just gone out. But I wasn’t able to find Chester, and I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving him.” Her voice wobbled, and she cleared her throat. She moved toward the café, and Hoyt walked beside her, shortening his long strides to match her halting ones.
“I’m the one who should feel bad about that. I’m the one who gave you this crazy dog. Chloe said he was hard to keep penned up. If he hadn’t gotten out of his crate—”
“He didn’t get out. I’d been letting him sleep on the bed with me. He always cried when I put him in the crate. And when the alarms started, of course he got spooked and jumped down. I never even thought about looking under the bed. In the past, he always went straight for that old attic area. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be in there, so he’d hide back behind those bookcases. It was like a game to him. When I was trying to get behind them to look for him, that one fell and blocked the doorway. This whole thing from start to finish was my fault. I take full responsibility.”
“Anna—”
“Bailey’s waving to you from the coffee shop, Hoyt. You’d better go check on Jess.”
The distraction worked. The mention of his daughter’s name had Hoyt turning and looking for Bailey. The grocery store owner was standing in the doorway of Grounds of Faith, waving at them frantically with both hands. Anna’s concern drooped into despair.
Something was definitely up, and she doubted it would be good news.
“Yeah, I better see what’s going on.” Hoyt’s voice was level, but there was a grim undertone to it. She wasn’t the only one worried about how this fire would impact Jess’s speech.
“You go ahead. I’ll slow you down. I’ll come along in a minute.” Anna tugged her arm free from his grasp. “Go on. I’ll be fine.”
“Anna Delaney, this is all your fault!” They turned. Distracted by Bailey, neither of them had noticed Trish approaching. “You see? You see what you did? Do you have any idea what you’ve cost me? My store is destroyed! And I have three weddings scheduled next week!”
Hometown Hope Page 16