She’d heard the fire trucks from her office and had seen the smoke darkening the sky. It had only taken her a second to figure out where the fire was and that it was going to be bad. Now, as she stood on the edge of the playground, she felt her breath catch as one of the walls seemed to shudder before falling in on itself.
She’d always heard people talk about fire as if it were alive. A living creature with cunning and determination and an evil nature. Until now, she’d never believed it. But watching the way the fire systematically destroyed the school, she thought there might be seeds of truth in the theory.
“This is bad,” she whispered.
“Worse than bad.”
Pia saw Mayor Marsha Tilson had joined her. The sixty-something woman stood with a hand pressed against her throat, her eyes wide.
“I spoke with the fire chief. She assured me they’ve gone through every room in the building. No one is left inside. But the building…” Marsha’s voice caught. “I went to school here.”
Pia put her arm around the other woman. “I know. It’s horrible to see this.”
Marsha visibly controlled her emotions. “We’re going to have to find somewhere to put the children. They can’t lose school days over this. But the other schools are full. We could bring in those portable classrooms. There must be someone I can call.” She glanced around. “Where’s Charity? She might know.”
Pia turned and saw her friend standing by the growing crowd of frantic parents. “Over there.”
Marsha saw her, then frowned. “She’s not getting any smoke, is she?”
Pia understood the concern. Charity was several months pregnant and the mayor’s granddaughter. “She’s upwind. She’ll be okay.”
Marsha stared at the destruction. “What could have started this?”
“We’ll find out. The important thing is all the kids and staff got out safely. We can fix the school.”
Marsha squeezed her hand. “You’re rational. Right now I need that. Thank you, Pia.”
“We’ll get through this together.”
“I know. That makes me feel better. I’m going to talk to Charity.”
As the mayor moved off, Pia stayed on the grass. Every few seconds, a blast of heat reached her and with it the smell of smoke and annihilation.
Just that morning she’d walked by the school and everything had been fine. How could things change so quickly?
Before she could figure out an answer, she saw more parents arriving on the scene. Mothers and some fathers rushed toward the children huddled together, protected by their teachers. There were cries of relief and of fear. Children were hugged, then searched for injuries, teachers thanked. The school principal stood by the children, a stack of pages on a clipboard.
Probably the master roster, Pia thought. Given the circumstances, parents would probably have to sign out their kids, so everyone was accounted for.
Two more fire trucks pulled up, sirens blaring. The school fire alarms were finally silenced but the noise was still deafening. People shouted, the truck engines rumbled. A voice over a megaphone warned everyone to stay back, then pointed out the location of the emergency medical vehicles.
Pia glanced in that direction and was surprised to see a tall, familiar man speaking with one of the EMT women. Raoul’s hair was tousled, his face smudged. He paused to cough and despite it all, the man still looked good.
“Just so typical,” she muttered as she crossed the playground and went toward him.
“Let me guess,” she said as she approached. “You did something heroic.”
“You mean stupid,” the medic told her with a roll of her eyes. “It’s a gender thing. They can’t help it.”
Pia chuckled. “Don’t I know it.” She turned to Raoul. “Tell me you didn’t race into a burning building in an attempt to save a child.”
He straightened and drew in a deep breath. “Why do you say it like that? It’s not a bad thing.”
“There are professionals here who know what they’re doing.”
“That’s what I keep getting told. What happened to a little gratitude for risking my life?”
“Odds are, you would have been overcome by smoke, thereby giving the firefighters more work to do instead of less,” the medic told him. She pulled some kind of measuring device off his finger.
“You’re fine,” she continued. “If you have any of the symptoms we talked about, go to the E.R.” She glanced at Pia. “Is he with you?”
Pia shook her head.
“Smart girl,” the medic said, then moved on to the next patient.
“Ouch,” Raoul said. “This is a tough town.”
“Don’t worry,” Pia told him. “I’m sure there will be plenty of women who will want to fawn all over you and coo as you retell your tale of bravery.”
“But you’re not one of them.”
“Not today.”
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
For a second she didn’t understand the question. Then reality returned. That’s right—he’d witnessed her breakdown earlier in the day. Talk about an emotion dump.
“I meant to call you,” she said, moving beside him as they walked away from the medics. “To apologize. I usually have my meltdowns in private.”
“It’s okay. I’d say I understand, but you’ll probably bite my head off if I do. How about if I tell you I’m sympathetic?”
“I would appreciate that.”
She hesitated, wondering if she was supposed to say more. Or if he would ask. Not that she had anything to say. She was still grasping the reality of her friend’s bequest and hadn’t made a decision about what to do next. Despite the attorney’s promise that she had at least three years before she needed to decide anything, Pia felt the pressure weighing on her.
Not that she was going to discuss her dilemma in front of Raoul. He’d already suffered enough.
“What were you doing here?” she asked. “At the school.”
He’d come to a stop and was staring back at the school. His gaze moved from one firefighter to another. The chief stood on a garden wall about three feet high, yelling out orders to her team.
“Are you worried about the kids?” Pia asked. “Don’t be. I’ve sat through plenty of preparedness meetings. They’re great to attend if you’re having trouble sleeping. Anyway, there’s a plan for each school, and a master list. Attendance is taken daily and sent by computer to the district office. A list of who is out that day is brought to the disaster site. Trust me. Every student is accounted for.”
He looked at her, his dark eyes bright with surprise. “They’re all women.”
“Most teachers are.”
“The firefighters. They’re all women.”
“Oh, that.” She shrugged. “It’s Fool’s Gold. What did you expect?”
He appeared both confused and lost, which on a tall, good-looking guy was kind of appealing. Assuming she was interested, and she wasn’t. If her natural wariness about guys wasn’t enough, Raoul was famous-ish, and she didn’t need the pain and suffering that came with that type. Not to mention the fact that she might soon be pregnant with another couple’s embryos.
A week ago her life had been predictable and boring. Now she was in the running to be a tabloid headline. Boring was better.
“There’s a man shortage,” Pia said patiently. “Surely you’ve noticed there aren’t a lot of men in town. I thought that was why you’d moved here.”
“There are men.”
“Okay. Where?”
“The town has children.” He pointed to the few students still waiting to be picked up. “They have fathers.”
“That’s true. We do have a few breeding pairs, for experimental purposes.”
He took a step back.
She grinned. “Sorry. I’m kidding. Yes, there are men in town, but statistically, we don’t have very many. Certainly not enough. So if you find yourself exceptionally popular, don’t let it go to your head.”
“I think I like
d you better when you were having your breakdown,” he muttered.
“You wouldn’t be the first man to prefer a woman in a weakened condition. Full strength, we’re a threat. Being as big and tough as you are, I’d hoped for something more. Life is nothing if not a disappointment. You didn’t answer my question from before. What were you doing here?”
He looked distracted, as if he were having trouble keeping up. “Talking to Mrs. Miller’s fourth-grade class. I speak to students. Usually they’re in high school, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“She probably wanted to spend the hour looking at your butt.”
Raoul stared at her.
She shrugged. “I’m just saying.”
“You’re certainly feeling better.”
“It’s more a matter of not being on the edge of hysteria,” she admitted.
She turned her attention back to the school. It was obviously going to be in ruins when all this was over. “How big is your place?” she asked. “You seem like the mansion type. Could they hold classes in your foyer?”
“I rent a two-bedroom house from Josh Golden.”
“Then that would be a no. They’re going to have to put the kids somewhere.”
“What about the other schools in town?”
“Marsha said they were thinking about bringing in those portable classrooms.”
“Marsha?”
“Mayor Marsha Tilson. My boss. You know Josh Golden?”
Raoul nodded.
“He’s married to her granddaughter.”
“Got it.”
He seemed less stunned now, which probably made him feel better. With the smoke smudges on his face, he looked pretty attractive, she thought absently. Not that he hadn’t been devastatingly handsome before. He was the kind of man who made a woman do stupid things. Thank goodness she was immune. A lifetime of romantic failures had a way of curing a woman of foolishness.
“We should make another appointment,” she said. “I’ll call your office and set things up with your secretary.”
“There you go, assuming again. I don’t have a secretary.”
“Huh. Who sets up your calendar and makes you feel important?” she said with a wink.
He studied her for a second. “Are you like this with everyone?”
“Charming?” She laughed. “As a rule. Just ask around.”
“Maybe I will.”
He was teasing. She knew he was teasing. Yet she felt something. A flicker. Maybe a quiver, down low in her belly.
No way, she reminded herself as she waved and walked toward her car. Especially not with a man like him. Successful, handsome men had expectations. Blonde ambitions. She knew—she read People magazine.
Life had taught her many important lessons. The greatest of which was not to depend on anyone to be there for her. She was a strong, independent woman. Men were optional and right now she was going to just say no.
* * *
RAOUL SPENT THE NEXT hour at the school. The firefighters got the fire under control. The chief had told him they would have a presence for at least the next twenty-four hours, to control any hot spots. Cleanup would start when the remaining structure had cooled and the investigation was complete.
It was the kind of disaster he’d read about in the paper and seen on the news a dozen times over the years. But even the best reporting hadn’t prepared him for the reality of the heat, the destruction and the smell. It would be months, maybe years, before the campus was even close to normal.
The kids had all gone home, as had most of the spectators. Eventually he turned to walk back to his office. His car wasn’t in any danger, but it was blocked in by several fire trucks. He would return later and collect it. In the meantime, the center of town was only about twenty minutes away.
Raoul had grown up in Seattle, gone to college in Oklahoma, and then been drafted by the Dallas Cowboys. He was a big-city kind of guy, enjoying the restaurants, the nightlife, the possibilities. At least he had thought he was. Somewhere along the way, going out all the time had gotten old. He’d wanted to settle down.
“Don’t go there,” he told himself firmly.
Revisiting the past was a waste of time. What was more important was the future. He’d chosen Fool’s Gold and so far he enjoyed small-town life. Walking nearly everywhere was one of the advantages. So was the lack of traffic. His friends had joked that he wasn’t going to have much of a social life, but since his divorce, he hadn’t been that interested, so it was all working out.
He reached his office, a first-floor space on a tree-lined side street. There was a restaurant—the Fox and Hound—around the corner, and a Starbucks nearby. For now, it was enough.
He reached for his keys only to see the lights were already on. He pulled open the door and stepped inside.
The three-thousand-square-foot office was more than he needed, but he had plans to expand. His summer camp was just the beginning. Changing the world would require a staff.
Dakota Hendrix, his lone year-round employee, looked up from her computer. “Were you at the fire? Didn’t you mention you were going to the school?”
“I was there.”
“Did everyone get out okay?”
He nodded and briefed her on what had happened—leaving out the part where he went back to check that all the rooms were empty.
Dakota, a pretty woman with shoulder-length blond hair and expressive eyes, listened carefully. She had a PhD in childhood development and he’d been damn lucky to find her, let alone hire her.
One of the reasons Raoul had moved to Fool’s Gold had been because of the abandoned camp up in the mountains. He’d been able to get it for practically nothing. He’d updated the facility and this past summer End Zone for Kids had opened its doors.
The camp’s mandate was to help inner-city kids be a part of nature—hardly a unique idea, but one that was appreciated by those who lived in the urban center of broken cities. Local kids came as day campers, and the city kids stayed for two weeks at a time.
The initial reports had been favorable. Raoul had an idea to expand the camp into a year-round facility, a challenge Dakota had understood and wanted to take on. In addition to planning and running End Zone, she’d started writing a business plan for the winter months.
“I heard the fire was awful,” she said when he was done. “That there was a lot of damage. Marsha called me a few minutes ago.” She paused. “Marsha’s our mayor.”
He remembered Pia mentioning her. “Why would she call you about the fire?”
“Mostly she was calling about the camp.” This time the pause was longer. “The city wants to know if they can use the camp as a temporary school. Marsha, the head of our board of education and the principal would like to see it first, but they think it would work. The only other place big enough is the convention center. But it’s pretty much booked and the layout isn’t really suitable. The acoustics would be awful—the noise of one class bleeding into another. So they’re very interested in the camp.” She paused for a third time, drew a breath and looked hopeful.
Raoul pulled out a chair and sat across from her. Hawk’s words about getting involved echoed in his head. This was one way to get involved—but from a very safe distance.
“We don’t have classrooms,” he said, thinking out loud. “But we already have all the beds stored so the bunkrooms could be classrooms. They would be small but workable. With the right kind of dividers, the main building could house a dozen or so classrooms.”
“That’s what I thought,” Dakota said, leaning toward him. “There’s the kitchen, so lunch wouldn’t be a problem. The main dining hall could double as an assembly area. No one knows how much is salvageable in terms of desks, but they’re putting out the word to other districts. We should have some solid numbers in the next couple of days. So they can use the camp? I’ll take care of the details and act as liaison.”
“If you’re willing to take that on.” There would be liability issues, but that’
s why he had lawyers.
“I am.”
He and Dakota tossed around potential problems and solutions.
“This will give us a lot of practical information about having the camp open all year,” she told him. “Dealing with the weather. We get a lot of snow in the winter. Can we keep the roads open, that sort of thing.”
He chuckled. “Why do I know all those displaced kids will be hoping we can’t?”
She smiled. “Snow days are fun. Did you have them in Seattle?”
“Every few years.” He leaned back in his chair.
“I’ll take care of everything,” she told him. “Earn the big salary you’ve given me.”
“You’re already earning it.”
“I was over the summer. Less so now. Anyway, this is great. The town will be grateful.”
“Will they put me on a stamp?”
The smile turned into a grin. “Stamps are actually a federal thing, but I’ll see what I can do.”
Raoul thought about the kids he’d met that morning. Especially the little redheaded boy who had flinched, as if someone hit him. He didn’t know the kid’s name, so asking about him would be problematic. But once the school reopened, Raoul could do some checking.
He remembered Pia’s teasing comment about moving the school to his house. This was close. It would be moving to his camp.
“Want to drive up to the camp with me?” he asked. “We should go and see what changes have to be made.”
“Sure. If there’s anything more than basic cleanup and refurbishing, I’ll have Ethan meet with us.”
Raoul nodded. Ethan was Dakota’s brother and the contractor Raoul had used to refurbish the camp.
Dakota stood and collected her handbag. “We can have a couple of work parties, for general cleaning and prepping. Pia has a phone-tree list that would make the CIA jealous. Just tell her what you need and she can get you a hundred volunteers in about an hour.”
“Impressive.”
They went out, only to pause on the curb.
“My car is at the school,” Raoul said.
Dakota laughed. “We’ll take my Jeep.”
He eyed the battered vehicle. “All right.”
Susan Mallery Fool's Gold Series Volume One: Chasing PerfectAlmost PerfectSister of the BrideFinding Perfect Page 63