by Zoe York
“Easy to say now that I’m walking again and you have your career,” he said lightly.
“Yes, but no less true.”
Silence stretched between them.
“She’s leaving me.” Ethan wasn’t sure why he confided in Dani. He supposed it was because she’d bared her soul a little bit, so it was his turn.
“But,” he added quickly, “it doesn’t mean I’m on the market.” He arranged the paper clips scattered on the desk beside him. Behind a stack of papers he found a piece of caramel popcorn that Lily had tossed at him all those weeks ago. He toyed with it before dropping it in the trash.
“Ethan, I am so sorry. I can tell how much you care for her.”
“You’re sorry?” He added his own uncomfortable laugh to the conversation. “Weren’t you just saying you wanted a second shot?”
“I know when I’ve lost, but you’re still a catch, Ethan Mattson.”
“A man who hobbles around like his grandfather whenever the weather changes? Hardly a catch.”
“Is that why Lily is leaving you?” She sounded surprised.
“It doesn’t matter why.”
“If that’s her reason she’s just as stupid as I was,” Dani said vehemently. Ethan looked up. “I wanted the job and thought caring for you would hold me back, but what I really needed was you and your love and support. I hope she wakes up and doesn’t take that for granted.”
“No, I made that choice for her.” And it was true. He had. He’d been doing what Lily had said during their fight, and had been pushing her away. Just subtly, here and there, not quite believing that she might truly love him, want him and his uncertain future.
Ethan sat silently, thinking. He’d spent many hours angry at Dani, feeling abandoned, miserable at the hand fate had given him. If it hadn’t been for that accident he probably would have married her. He knew now that it wouldn’t have lasted, because they didn’t have what he and Lily did. He wasn’t even sure what they did have, only that it felt so much more consuming and real. And like a fool, he was letting it slip through his fingers.
“Ethan?” Dani said.
“Sorry, Dani. I have to go talk to my wife.”
Lily felt as though her heart had broken. She’d asked for a divorce.
She sniffed back her tears, determined not to wallow or second-guess herself. She was preventing disaster, preventing being taken advantage of. She wanted this quirky, much-loved kitchen she was standing in, and she wouldn’t be screwed over this time. She was well on her way and there was no turning back, no getting sidetracked into someone else’s fantasy. She didn’t want to move away, didn’t want to build a fancy new place where she could build her own menu and be totally free.
She wanted the security of Benny’s.
Right?
If she did, why did it feel so wrong, so painful, choosing it?
She needed to smarten up and get down to work. Focus on what she’d come back to town for. Financial independence. Her own business. She’d known she and Ethan would go their separate ways and that was what they were doing. Just like they’d planned.
Only a lot earlier.
Lily slipped her phone into the kitchen’s speaker dock and turned up her playlist of songs that helped get her in the mood for creating. It was time to expand her dessert menu with one new offering, and she’d get her new, flaky piecrust recipe right even if she had to stay here all night.
She’d discovered with the roast beef fiasco that adding an item to the regular menu or specials wasn’t nearly as risky as deleting one. If she offered new items that became favorites, she could slowly phase out the old, less popular ones.
She laid out her recipe notes and then walked down the hall to the walk-in fridge to collect a flat of eggs. She left the hall light on and returned to the kitchen, picking up a jug of vinegar as she passed the wet goods shelf. She just about had the eggs safely on the counter when next door the owner began his evening renovations, hammering against the wall, causing the lights to flicker. She flinched, sending eggs tumbling onto her notes. Several cracked open and she quickly wiped the moisture off her papers, the ink smearing.
At least she had digital backups. The only issue was that she was going to have to ask Ethan how to access them.
She blinked back her fatigue and tears. After taking down the camera Ethan had placed in her office, she’d spent the night at her desk trying to sleep and wishing she’d left the couch in there. She’d been hoping to sort out what to do with her life and how best to proceed, but by dawn was still at a loss.
The song playing on her phone ended and one from Ethan’s family plan started up. She walked over and silenced the device.
No thinking about Ethan. Not tonight. It had been a long day of her snapping at her sous-chef and the waitresses, and it was time to unwind and celebrate what she did have.
She swiped at a tear. She should be happy. Elated. She was going to be on her own to make the restaurant exactly the way she wanted.
Rolling the dough, she focused on feeling contentment. Comfort. This was her home. The kitchen.
The dough tore and she growled in frustration. She crumpled it into a ball and reworked it, knowing the crust wouldn’t be as flaky now, that the feeling of contentment she was searching for wasn’t going to come and that she’d ruin whatever she tried to create.
Gramps had moved out today.
She sniffed back the tears that threatened to fall.
She was going to miss him. Miss living with Ethan.
She swiped at her cheeks with the back of her flour-dusted hand.
There was a lot to miss, moving out of that small house. Sharing meals, jokes, time.
Her tears fell in earnest as she realized how much she was about to lose by choosing the restaurant. She was going to lose Ethan and his family. Possibly even customers. Because who liked a woman who had stayed with a kind, upstanding hometown man such as Ethan for only two months before leaving with two of his businesses?
She gave herself a shake. It wouldn’t be that bad. She needed to stay strong. She’d been on her own without the Mattsons before. She could do it again.
But what if everyone steered clear of her restaurant out of loyalty to Ethan?
There was another loud bang in the back hall, this time sounding almost as though it was in her restaurant instead of on the other side of the wall. She shook her head, wondering if the neighbor had finally broken through. She stepped out of the kitchen to check.
“Hello? Georgie, did you come through the wall?” The hall was dark and she flicked the light switch. Nothing. Had the bang loosened her wiring? She flicked the switch two more times before giving up. Maybe Ethan had been right about this place falling apart. It was a money pit.
Enough light filtered into the shadowy hall from the kitchen that she could make her way to the back door, where the other switch was located. Maybe it was just this one that had broken.
She squinted as she reached the walk-in fridge, surprised to find it open. Odd. She was certain she’d closed it. Was it another glitch in the appliance? Maybe Ethan was right and it was faulty, because there was nobody else in the locked building who could have opened it.
She reached for the door, feeling a current of air, then caught a shadow moving out of the corner of her eye.
Lily turned to defend herself, but was shoved inside the fridge. She stumbled backward across the raised threshold, landing hard on the cold floor. The door swung shut, the latch snapping into place with a resounding clang. Something scraped across the door, as if she was being barricaded inside.
“Hey!” She leaped up, slamming her body against the door. It didn’t budge. She pulled hard on the handle, working it, fearing it was going to snap off in her hand when it wouldn’t open.
Panic set in. She was trapped, locked in. She pounded on the door. “Let me out!”
“You think you’re too good for me?”
She froze, recognizing the voice. “Tanner?”
“Think you deserve to move up in the world without me? Think you’re better than me? Think you deserve more than being a lackey?”
“Tanner, let me out!” She thumped the metal door and screamed until her voice broke, hoping that the workers next door would hear her through the thick walls that separated them.
The world around her was silent, except for the clicks and hums of the fridge she was in. She waited for a minute. Had he left? She sat heavily on a crate of oranges and tried to figure out how to convince Tanner to release her if he came back. If not, at least there was enough oxygen circulating through the cooler that she could stay locked in overnight. It would be chilly, but not life threatening.
“Let’s see how you feel with a little heat under you.”
“Tanner? Let me out!” She leaped up to bang on the door again, the tone of his voice sending shivers down her spine, creating a panic that made her heart thud madly in her chest.
“Tanner!” She banged against the metal, the darkness feeling too close, too frightening. “Ethan!”
“He can’t help you, Lily. Goodbye.”
She smelled smoke. Lots of it. The fridge’s air intake. It was coming from there—a hole she could escape through. She began ripping at the metal grate, hoping she could find a way to worm her way out. The grate was secured, screwed firmly into place. She was trapped.
“Help!” She screamed until her throat was raw. She threw herself against the door again, hoping something would move on the other side, magically release her. The smoke abated for a moment and her panic shifted down a notch. He was just trying to freak her out. She only had to stay calm and he’d let her out again.
“Tanner? Let me out so we can talk.”
Nothing.
She coughed. Smoke was still coming in. Lily pushed a crate against the intake and shoved lettuce leaves into the gaps, hoping to create a seal.
The fridge kept pulling in more air, sucking, sucking, bringing with it more and more smoke.
Tanner was silent, possibly gone.
The fire could be real, not just a scare tactic.
Suddenly everything popped into focus. She was going to die in the fridge tonight.
She hadn’t gotten her life right. She needed more time. She wasn’t ready to die.
She’d been so determined to be independent, to own something, so certain she couldn’t have love in the kitchen that she’d pushed everything good in her life to the edges. Ethan, his family, everything.
He was more important than the impossible task of trying to be friends with her employees. That wasn’t how it worked. She needed to be the boss. Definitively. She needed to make menu changes and stand behind them, win people over to the restaurant she wanted to have—the one Ethan had encouraged her to create before he’d known a crazy man had made the offer to purchase Benny’s.
He did know her. It was she who hadn’t been listening.
Love, family and belonging wasn’t something she needed to find in the kitchen; she needed to find it with Ethan.
If she got out of here alive, she promised herself she’d find the strength to step beyond the shadow of her fears, her false need to defend herself. She was going to claim love, claim Ethan.
Ethan needed to talk to Lily. He’d been stupid. She was the woman he wanted, needed. He should have done everything in his power to protect her, to be the man he’d want her to be with. One who wasn’t curbed by his fears, who didn’t hold back, keep secrets or push her away.
He turned down Main, enjoying the briskness in the night air that told him fall was coming soon. He spotted Mandy’s big truck parked along the curb outside her café, his sister and grandpa climbing into it.
“Mandy? Gramps?” he called as he approached. “What are you two doing out so late?” It was almost midnight.
“Gramps had a mashed potato emergency,” Mandy said, pushing her bangs off her forehead.
“At this hour?”
“I didn’t get my evening mashed potatoes,” Gramps complained.
“So you made some for him?” Ethan asked his sister. She gave a nod. “Where’s your little guy?”
“Sleeping,” Mandy said grumpily. “At home with Frankie. Like I should be.”
“Tell Lily I still expect mashed potatoes even if I don’t live with her any longer.”
“You’ve been in the home for five seconds. You could have just called her, you know.”
“I don’t like it there. I miss Lily.”
“So do I.”
Mandy bristled with an awareness.
“Better she leaves you now rather than later,” Gramps exclaimed. “Dani left you and my wife left me. Women aren’t worth it! And judging from your expression it sounds like Lily just took your heart and—”
“Did Lily leave you?” Mandy interrupted, turning to Ethan.
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “Gramps? If you’d known in your twenties that Grams would pass on before you, would you have not married her?” Ethan didn’t wait for an answer. “Of course you would have, because love is worth the risk. I love Lily, Gramps. So enough with the “leaving” talk and being better off without her stuff you’re leading up to.”
“I thought we were commiserating,” Gramps said, acting betrayed.
“We were. But I’m done. No more looking back. Not for me.”
Gramps was watching Ethan with his foggy blue eyes. Finally he harrumphed with a hint of a smile. “Fine. Your life.”
Ethan hugged his grandfather, then helped Mandy get him into her truck. “And be nice to those nurses, okay? They just want what’s best for you.”
He closed the truck door before Gramps could grumble at him, and took the alley that went behind Benny’s with a new sense of resolve to make things work with his wife. He could smell the faint whiff of smoke, not uncommon due to forest fires that came through the mountains, although this one seemed a bit late for the season. Ethan signed into an app as he walked, to see where Lily’s phone was located. No point going all the way down the alley if Lily wasn’t there.
She was.
He heard a meow and glanced down to see Igor run up like a shadow in the dim light, then take off toward the restaurant. Ethan frowned and picked up his pace as much as he could.
As he came closer to the restaurant, the cat grew more frantic, as did the smell of the fire. Only now the scent was strong enough that he could tell it wasn’t a forest ablaze.
He hurried around the corner of the building adjoining the restaurant, his heart stopping when he saw smoke oozing out through the crack under the back door of Benny’s. Lily’s car was parked in the narrow gravel lot.
Ethan scrambled to call 9-1-1 while limping up the steps to the burning building.
“Lily!”
He quickly gave dispatch the pertinent information and then pocketed his phone as he pushed his way through the closed back door, smoke billowing out with alarming persistence. There were no customers this late at night. Lily was likely the only one inside.
He ignored the questions whipping through his mind and only thought about rescuing her.
“Lily!” he hollered, groping his way down the dark hallway. The door was open behind him, but the darkness was encompassing. He could see lit up areas ahead of him, where the flames were concentrated. The heat surrounding him grew by the second. He lifted an arm to shield his face, bending to keep as low as possible without crawling. He moved past the walk-in fridge as he struggled to navigate of the dark hallway, through air thick with smoke. The heat in the kitchen was already extreme. He was too late. Something crashed in there and the heat intensified, his skin feeling as though it was peeling off him, his lungs no longer able to draw enough air to keep him upright.
He staggered back down the hall, coughing, leaning against the wall to try and keep low without collapsing onto his knees. He paused against the walk-in fridge. The metal door was warm like the air around him, and he could see flames licking the ceiling behind him, lighting up the hall.
&nbs
p; He had to get out. Now.
He pressed a hand against the fridge’s metal door, bracing himself against a wave of light-headedness. His hand curled around the handle he’d pulled open a thousand times. It didn’t feel right. There was a metal pole stuck through it, creating a barricade. He paused instead of making his way to safety and fresh air, his mind puzzling over this irregularity. Knowing it was irrational, he stayed put, yanking at the rod that had the door barred and finally hauling it open.
Lily fell against him, her lungs wheezing.
“Lily!”
Ethan bent instinctively, catching her with a shoulder against her stomach, hoisting her over his back. The muscles on his left side protested but didn’t let him down. He could do this. He would do this.
He staggered down the hall, knowing it would be better if he could stay low, out of the thick blanket of toxic smoke that was choking them both.
His steps unsteady, he broke out onto the back landing, his legs threatening to crumble as his lungs drew in rich oxygen. He stumbled down the steps in a barely controlled move, tripping over Igor en route. Just as he was about to hit the ground, his brother caught him, barely holding the three of them upright.
“What took you so long?” he asked Devon hoarsely.
A fire truck was pulling up, and bystanders were gathering.
“Anyone else inside?” Devon asked, as he helped Ethan lower Lily, who was conscious and coughing, to the ground.
She was alive.
He’d never felt so relieved in his entire life. Not even when his paralysis ended.
“Is there anyone else inside?” Devon repeated.
Lily shook her head as Igor leaped on her chest and began head-butting her and purring loudly.
A firefighter rushed up to them and placed an oxygen mask over Lily’s face, easing her coughing. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the bright, burning building, and Ethan felt her fear right to his core. He pulled her against him, unable to speak.
“What happened?” Devon asked.
Ethan swallowed hard and coughed, his lungs aching. “She was locked in the fridge.” His raspy voice trembled with rage. “Someone did this to her. I need to find out who it was and kill him.”