Violet shook her head. “I’m fine. Nate inhaled a bunch, though. He was coughing and―”
“I’m fine.” Nate cut her off. “Just get Mrs. D’Angelo to the hospital.”
Ethan set off toward the ambulance. “I’ll send someone over to examine you,” he called over his shoulder.
As she watched Mrs. D’Angelo’s still form, Violet’s knees went weak. If Nate hadn’t gotten them out . . .
She sagged against him, and he lowered her gently to the ground. “You okay?”
She tried to nod, but she was shaking all over now.
“You’re in shock. Just a second.” Nate passed her Tony’s leash and jogged toward the fire trucks. Beyond the trucks, firefighters entered the building, hoses unwinding behind them. She prayed harder.
Nate talked with a firefighter standing next to the fire truck, then jogged back to her carrying a blanket. He wrapped it around her shoulders, then sat next to her and curled his arm around her, moving it up and down her back.
“Thank you.” The words were way too small, but there was nothing else she could say.
His arm tightened around her, and she risked a look at his face. His teeth were clenched, but a muscle in his jaw jumped.
“I was in the shower. I had no idea there was anything wrong until I heard you pounding on the door. And then it took me a minute to get dressed.” She glanced down, realizing for the first time that she was wearing her kitten pajamas.
“I’m sorry I knocked you down up there.” Nate’s voice was low. “When you didn’t answer the door, I just . . .” That muscle in his jaw jumped again. “I was desperate to get to you.”
She shuddered as all the emotions of the night washed over her. “How did you know there was a fire? Was there smoke in your apartment?”
“No. I just got home. I thought I smelled smoke when I was outside, but I couldn’t place it. And then I opened the door and realized where it was coming from. I was―” His swallow was audible. When he finally finished the sentence, his voice was barely a whisper. “I was scared.”
Violet angled so she could see him better. “But you ran into the building instead of out?”
His eyes met hers in surprise. “Of course I ran in. I wasn’t scared for me. I was scared for you.”
“Oh.” Their eyes held, and her heart jumped. He had risked his life for her. Even after the cold way she’d been treating him all week. She’d been unfair. It wasn’t his fault his dad was insisting on leasing the space to someone else.
She didn’t know how long they sat like that, but she couldn’t make herself look away. After a while, a paramedic came over, insisting that they be examined for smoke inhalation. Even as the paramedic listened to her lungs and examined her nose and throat, Violet couldn’t take her eyes off Nate.
When they were finally given a clean bill of health, they walked hand-in-hand toward the fire trucks, where the firefighters were wrapping up their hoses.
One of the firefighters pulled off his helmet and approached them. As he got closer, Violet recognized him, and she let go of Nate’s hand to run and hug Jared. “Thank you for being here.”
He returned her hug. “The fire is out. It’s not as bad as it looks. There’s a lot of soot damage, but the structural damage is minimal. It looks like something was smoldering for quite a while before it flamed up. I’d say you caught it just in the nick of time.”
Violet’s heart jumped. If it weren’t for Nate, she could be dealing with a whole lot more than soot damage. “What caused it?”
“Hard to say right now. We’ll have an inspector check things out in the morning. In the meantime, you two are probably going to need somewhere else to stay tonight. Just until we can get someone in there to make sure everything is safe.”
“Yeah, of course. Thank you again. I’m so glad you’re all safe.” She squeezed his arm, and he went back to help the crew finish cleaning up.
She pulled out her phone and dialed Sophie’s number. She hated to intrude on her friends, but she knew Sophie would never forgive her if she sought help anywhere else.
As she lifted the phone to her ear, she turned to Nate. But he wasn’t where she’d left him. She scanned the parking lot. He was at the far end, rounding the building into the narrow alley that led to the street, Tony following obediently.
Where on earth was he going? She set off after him at a run.
“Hi, Violet.” Just the sound of Sophie’s voice brought tears to Violet’s eyes. She was so fortunate to have friends she could count on.
“Hey, Soph.” She panted as she ran. “Can you hold on a second?”
“Sure. What’s going on?”
But Violet lowered the phone as she closed the distance to Nate. He must have heard her footsteps because he turned toward her a few steps before she reached him.
“Where are you going?” The words came out in little gasps.
“Jared said we couldn’t stay in the building tonight, so I figured I’d sleep at my office.”
She stared at him with her mouth open. Was he kidding? The guy had saved her life, and he thought she was going to let him sleep in his office? “No one’s sleeping in an office. You’ll come stay at Spencer and Sophie’s with me.”
“But I―”
She held up a hand, then lifted the phone to her ear. The moment she told Sophie what happened, Sophie insisted that they both stay there.
“Let’s go.” She hung up the phone and grabbed Nate’s hand, tugging him toward her car.
But his feet remained planted. “I couldn’t expect them to do that.”
Violet rolled her eyes. And he thought she was stubborn? “They want to do it, Nate. They’re your friends. They care about you.” She almost added, I care about you. But she managed to swallow the words at the last second.
There would be plenty of time to sort out her feelings for him later.
For now, they both just needed a place to sleep.
Chapter 28
“How’d you sleep?” Sophie passed Violet a cup of coffee, and Violet took it gratefully.
“Good, thanks.” Better than she’d expected, actually.
Before she’d climbed into bed, thoughts about what could have happened and what would happen next had jostled for position of number-one worry. But the moment her head had hit the pillow, she’d been out.
And she’d begun her morning with a deep, long prayer about everything she had to deal with today.
She was as ready as she ever would be to handle whatever this day held.
“Is Nate up yet?” She tried to keep her voice casual, but the moment she looked at her friend, she knew she hadn’t succeeded.
But all Sophie said was, “He’s out in the shed with Spencer. I don’t think he slept much.”
Violet nodded and took another sip, but when she put the coffee cup down, Sophie was watching her.
“What?”
“Nothing.” But the soft smile on Sophie’s lips said it was something.
“Don’t go getting any ideas, Soph. There’s nothing going on between us.”
Sophie laid a hand on her arm. “The man ran into a burning building to save you, Vi. That’s not nothing.”
Violet’s whole body warmed. “He would have done that for anyone.” But she couldn’t deny that she’d thought the same thing. “Anyway, I can’t really think about that right now. I want to get over to the store and see how bad things are.”
“We’re coming with you.” Sophie dumped the last drops of her coffee into the sink and grabbed her keys. “Come on.”
Violet didn’t want to take her friends away from their day. But she couldn’t say no. She was going to need all the support she could get.
As they stepped outside, Violet let herself pull in a breath of the fresh morning air.
The trees had taken on the brilliant hues of fall, and there was a bite to the air this morning, but she relished the feel of it in her lungs.
She should be depressed and scared after what had ha
ppened to her store.
But this morning, she felt blessed.
Blessed to be alive.
Blessed to have such amazing friends.
Blessed to have such an amazing . . . whatever Nate was to her.
It didn’t mean seeing her store wasn’t going to be hard. It didn’t mean figuring out what to do next would be easy. But it did mean she knew she’d get through it, whatever happened.
Tony ran to greet them the moment they opened the door of the pole shed Spencer used as a woodworking shop. Violet crouched to pet him, her eyes searching the space until they found Nate.
He was bent in half, his head under a patio table Spencer had built. “That’s some great craftsmanship.”
The moment he stood, his eyes fell on her, and she could have sworn they brightened a shade. The light played on his face as he crossed the shed to her, accentuating his chiseled jaw, which was lined with stubble this morning.
It was a good look on him.
“Hey.” He stopped just far enough away that Tony could stand between them. “How are you doing?” The concern in his eyes made her heart squeeze.
“I’m good.” She squatted to pet Tony again, mostly to break the intensity of the gaze they shared.
“Violet.” His voice was so quiet it made her look up. “How are you really?” He searched her face.
She stood and touched a hand to his forearm. “I promise. I’m good. When I take stock of what could have happened and what did happen―”
She swallowed past a fresh knot of emotion at the way God had spared them all. “I’m good.”
He gave her an uncertain look but nodded.
“Should we go?” Sophie’s voice from behind her made Violet jump. She’d almost forgotten that she and Nate weren’t alone.
She made herself look away from Nate. “Yeah. I’m ready.”
“Everyone else is going to meet us there. We should be able to make a good dent in the cleanup today.” Sophie took Spencer’s hand as they led the way out of the shed.
“Everyone else?” Violet stopped in her tracks. “I don’t expect everyone to give up their day to do that.”
Sophie waved off her comment, so she turned to Nate to protest.
But he smiled at her. “They’re your friends. They care about you.” She read in his eyes the words he left off―the same words she hadn’t let herself say last night.
He cared about her, too.
Violet stared at the clothes iron the fire inspector held out toward her.
The initial shock of seeing her workshop covered with soot and partially destroyed hadn’t worn off yet. And now he was telling her he thought the iron had started the fire.
“I don’t understand how . . .” She spoke loudly to be heard over the industrial vacuum Dan was using to suck up soot particles.
The inspector passed her a piece of charred fabric. “This is all that was left, but I’d guess the iron was left on top of it, and the fabric smoldered for a while until it caught fire and spread.” He gestured to the burned-out remains of a table, a bookshelf, two wicker chairs, and a shelving unit.
“But―” She tried to recall what she had ironed last. “I haven’t used this iron in at least two weeks.” She’d been working on a particularly stubborn set of drapes then, but they were on the sales floor now.
The inspector’s brow furrowed. “It couldn’t have been smoldering that long. Maybe you accidentally threw some fabric over it yesterday?”
Violet scrunched her face, trying to remember what she’d done yesterday. “I didn’t touch any fabric yesterday. Actually―” She rubbed at the fabric in her hand. Through the char, she could make out a faint pattern of stripes. “This was on a roll on a shelf over there.” She pointed across the room to where the rest of the fabric she used for reupholstering jobs rested on a shelf, all blackened by soot.
“You’re sure?” The inspector’s expression hardened.
“Absolutely sure. I haven’t reupholstered anything in months.”
Nate came over from where he’d been scrubbing soot off the walls with the special cleaning solution they’d picked up at the hardware store. “Is there anything else that could have caused it?” His voice was sure and firm, and Violet felt again the reassurance of having him near.
“Not that I’ve seen.” The inspector grimaced. “I’ll do some more digging, though.”
Nate turned to Violet. “In the meantime, what do you want to do with these things?” He gestured to the blackened remains of the furniture that had been destroyed. “Is there any reason to save them?”
Violet shook her head. “No, they’re not salvageable. But I should probably take some pictures first for insurance.”
When they came to the burnt-through table where the inspector said he’d found the iron, Nate gave a low whistle. All that was left was a leg and half of a bottom support beam.
Violet frowned at the table. Why would she have put her iron here? She always used the ironing board Cade had built into the end of one of the shelving units. And she always put the iron away when she was done with it. Cade’s tendency to leave out his tools had driven her crazy for that very reason.
An image of Talmadge rummaging around back here yesterday hit her, and she gasped.
“What’s wrong?” Nate’s head jerked up.
“Talmadge came in yesterday. He said he had to take some measurements back here.”
Nate waited, obviously not picking up on where she was going with this.
“He said if I didn’t move out of the store, I was going to regret it. I thought he wanted to intimidate me, but―”
“You think he did this?” Nate sounded incredulous.
“I don’t know.” She didn’t particularly like Talmadge, but did she really think he would have burned down her store?
Nate dropped the table leg and moved closer to her, putting a hand on each of her shoulders. “That seems unlikely. Why would he destroy a building he wants to move into?”
Violet bit her lip. She had to admit it didn’t make a lot of sense, but something about the way Talmadge had acted yesterday stuck in her gut.
“Or maybe he was trying to destroy some of my inventory. Make me give up. I’m telling you, he was ready to do whatever it took to get in here.”
Nate scrubbed a hand over his face. “Okay. We should at least mention this to the fire inspector. And I’ll talk to my dad. We’ll get to the bottom of this. I promise.”
Nate threw the table leg in the back of Spencer’s pickup truck, then edged around the building and pulled out his phone. He didn’t want Violet to stumble on this conversation. Not until he was sure.
He hated to think his dad was capable of it, but he had to ask.
The phone rang five times, and Nate was starting to contemplate what kind of message to leave, when someone picked up.
“Hello?”
He sucked in a sharp breath at his mother’s voice and blinked back the heat behind his eyelids. He pressed his forearm to the building’s brick wall and rested his head against it.
He could barely speak through the well of emotion building from his core. “Mom,” he managed to croak.
“Nate?” Mom’s voice sounded unsure.
He sniffed and cleared his throat. “Yeah, Mom, it’s me.” He swallowed past the burn. “It’s so good to hear your voice.”
“Yours, too.” He could hear the tears behind her words.
“Mom, I’m so sorry, I never―”
But she was talking over him. “Where are you?”
He paused. What did she mean, where was he?
Before he could answer, he heard his father’s voice in the background, followed by a low murmur from his mother.
“Mom?”
“I thought I told you not to call your mother. Do you have that much trouble following simple directions?” Dad’s voice was as uninviting as ever.
Nate stiffened. “I wasn’t calling to talk to her. I was calling to talk to you.” Anger drew him up ta
ller, as if he were face-to-face with his dad instead of hundreds of miles away. “What did you do to Violet’s store?”
“First of all, you’d do well not to talk to me like that. And second, what are you talking about? I told you I was going to get her out of there. And that’s what I’m doing.”
“By having her building set on fire?” Nate was practically yelling, and he lowered his voice so no one would overhear. “She could have died.” He could have died, too, for that matter. But he didn’t bring that up. It wasn’t like Dad would care anyway.
“Why I what?” The shock in Dad’s voice was unmistakable, but Nate wasn’t convinced.
“Don’t play dumb, Dad. Were you after the insurance payout? Or was this all to get Talmadge what he wanted? Because either way, you failed. The fire is out, and Violet still has a store.”
“Nathan. Have you been drinking again? You’re not making any sense.”
Nate closed his eyes and clutched the phone tighter. There was no again. He’d only had alcohol one time in his life. “So you’re saying you didn’t know there was a fire at Violet’s store last night? The store she happens to live above. And so does a sweet old woman, who is now in the hospital with smoke inhalation.” He broke off but then decided he might as well go for broke. “Oh, and so do I, by the way. In case you care about the fact that you almost killed your son. Whether you still want to call me that or not.”
“Nathan, I didn’t― I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re saying there was a fire at the property Talmadge wants?”
“Yes.” Nate bit the word off. He could only take so much more of this game.
“But everyone is okay? You’re okay?” Was that genuine concern in Dad’s voice?
Nate hardened his heart. He wasn’t going to fall for that. “Like I said, Mrs. D’Angelo is in the hospital. But she’ll be okay. Violet is okay, although the back of her store is pretty damaged. It could have been a lot worse if I hadn’t happened to come home when I did. Her apartment is right above where the fire was.”
Not Until You (Hope Springs Book 3) Page 19