“Do you ever brush your hair at school?” he asked.
She glanced at the brush as though seeing it for the first time. “Nope.”
“Didn’t think so. Did my mom put it in there?”
“She did, but my grandma told her where my backpack was. They didn’t think I could hear them.”
“Thought so.” He chuckled and knelt down. “Maybe next time we do this in the kitchen.”
She nodded as if he’d lucked onto a fun fact, like that air was cool to breathe. “That’s where we’re supposed to do it.”
“Oh.” He clucked, picked up the hairbrush, and tapped it on her shoulder. “Next time, tell me.”
Her eyebrows slid together as though something was on her mind, and Noah had no idea how to read that yet—or maybe he never would.
“You’re not in trouble, Bella.”
“I know.”
“Then what’s that look for?” he asked.
“Should I tell you when you aren’t supposed to do things?”
Lifting a shoulder, he decided it couldn’t hurt. Advice from Bella was just as valuable as advice from Teagan, given the current circumstance. He sniffed the air. Were his green beans burning? “It wouldn’t hurt to share, but I might not always agree.” That sounded like Teagan might approve.
He twisted toward the door, inhaling again. Something smelled burned, but he’d blackened green beans before. That wasn’t the right scent. Leave it to an explosives expert to try to diagnose burned dinner by the smell.
Bella scooted closer to him. “I accept those terms.”
Again with her adorable grown-up speak, and Noah set aside burned green beans and had to focus not to laugh. “Do you?”
She nodded earnestly. “I do.”
He wasn’t sure if half the guys on his team would say “I accept those terms.” “We’ll shake on it.”
He held out his hand, more concerned about the acrid tinge to the air, when the smoke detector chirped. “Shoot, I’m burning the green beans!”
“I don’t think you are,” Bella said, following him as they hustled from her room. “You’re not supposed to put anything but pans in the broiler.”
Noah froze, mentally retracing his steps, then turned to her. “What broiler?” Oh, hell. He hurried back to the kitchen and held out his hand for her to stay in the hall. “Stay put for a sec.”
He reached for the hand towel on his shoulder but came up empty as he stepped to the browning green beans.
Beep.
“Freaking smoke detector,” he mumbled. Where did they keep pot holders? He flicked off the top burner, scooting the crisped green beans off as they smoked. But that wasn’t nearly enough to cause the haze in the kitchen.
Beep.
The casserole? How was he screwing up a simple dinner! He pulled the oven open, and black smoke billowed out. “What the—”
Then flames jumped. His dish towel! “Shoot!”
Beep.
There was a fire in the oven from the dish towel he’d tossed in below. He slammed the door shut. Beep. He switched the gas off and rushed to the window to throw it open and let some of the swirling air out. Beep. “Hey, Bella. Go open the front door.”
He needed a cross draft to blow this place free of the stink. Beep.
“Ohhh-kay dokey.”
Her giant leaps were more for fun and less for distance, and beep, Noah tried the oven again. The fire raged inside. He needed a fire extinguisher. Beep. No, he needed the fire alarm to chill. Where was that? He looked down the hall, and there was the noisemaking culprit.
He dragged the chair to the hallway, ripped the smoke detector off the ceiling, and pulled the battery out with tactical efficiency. Good to see his skills could still be put to use.
Beep.
He glared. It still had a charge even as they remained surrounded by smoke. “Go toss it in the front yard, would ya, Bug?”
She didn’t miss a beat and skipped away, only to return with a report that it broke into two pieces on the sidewalk. Her lips rounded as though she were in trouble, but he couldn’t have planned it better if he’d tried.
“Good work. Now to fix this—”
The distant call of fire alarm sirens brought everything to a standstill. Only in Eagle’s Ridge would someone call the fire department when they heard a neighbor’s fire detector and saw a little smoke out a window.
“Are they coming here?” Bella asked.
His head dropped, and slowly he nodded. “Without a doubt.”
Noah turned back to the oven, and his eyes dropped to the storage cabinet underneath. But it wasn’t a storage cabinet. He stomped to the sink and checked below it, where he found the obligatory fire extinguisher as the sirens blared closer.
“This wasn’t on any of the mommy blogs.” He pulled the broiler drawer open with his boot, and there sat the charred remains of his dish towel.
Just to be safe, he popped the pin and aimed the nozzle. There was no doubt that he’d just made the front page of the Eagle’s Ridge newspaper. Then after pulling the oven open, Noah needed to douse his casserole inferno and sprayed it to a wet, white, foamy crisp.
“This is exciting!” Bella announced, perched on top of a chair.
“Riveting.” The sizzling mess was completely extinguished in all of its rancid, acrid glory, and Noah turned as boots stomped into the kitchen.
Hello, Eagle’s Ridge Fire Department. They entered Lainey’s house—in full gear—with the man in the lead holding the broken smoke detector.
“Noah Coleman?” The man with his broken fire detector stopped in the hallway.
They even had him by name. Small town gossip at its best. “That’s me. Sorry about the—”
“This is yours?” The man held up the two pieces.
“Yup.” Noah crossed his arms. “I was wondering where that got to.”
“I did that!” Bella piped up. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, ladybug. Don’t worry about it.” Or the overreacting firemen in our house.
The word CHIEF was emblazoned on the man’s jacket, and he tossed it onto the counter. “Since you’re new in town—”
“Hold on a second.” He wasn’t new in town. Any embarrassment he’d had over blackening Lainey’s kitchen wall and stinking the house up ceased to exist. “Let’s be clear, sir. No, I’m not new in town. I was born and raised in Eagle’s Ridge. My father’s father was a founder, and I take great pride in that. I left for a service calling, and I’m back for a calling too. Are we clear on that?”
Their stare down was interrupted when Bella inched between them. “Am I in trouble for tampering or disabling a smoke detector device?”
“No, sweetheart.”
Noah appreciated the tone the man took with Bella as she repeated the warning that she must’ve heard on an airplane. “I didn’t catch your name.”
“Fire Chief Bernie Pope.”
“Good to meet you, sir. Given the circumstances.” Noah gestured. “But I think you can see everything’s taken care of now.”
The fire chief brushed by for his inspection as Bella chatted with a familiar face about their gear. The inspection of toasted green beans and casserole took far too long, but the man was making his point. He was in charge, and Noah had caused him to suit up and work when there was nothing to be done.
Noah softened his stance and recalibrated his approach. “Look, I’m sorry you had to come out.”
The chief grunted as he took notes.
“I didn’t call.”
Pope shook his head. “No, your neighbor said smoke was pouring out of Lainey’s house.”
Wasn’t that the neighbor Lainey had promised would be a helpful resource one day? “Pouring might’ve been an overstatement.”
“Humph.”
Noah had no idea if that was an agreement or not. “But hey, for your troubles. I just reopened Nuts and Bolts. If you or any of the guys need a tune-up, swing on by. I could use something to do, and it’ll help me get the word out I’m bac
k and opening up.”
Pope chuckled. “Trust me, son. Not many don’t know you’re back.”
What was that supposed to mean? “Then come by, anyway.”
“Pretty busy.” The chief took a picture with his cell phone.
Undeterred, Noah stood in his line of sight and extended his hand. “On the house.”
Pope stopped, noting the intrusion in his work, and studied Noah’s hand. His heavy jaws worked side to side before he gave a nod. “We appreciate what you’re doing for Bella.” The chief met his grip, and they shook. “I’ll let the guys know you’re knocking twenty percent off.”
“That wasn’t the offer I made.”
Pope pocketed his notes and phone and waved goodbye to Bella. “But it was the one that I accepted.”
Noah needed the business but didn’t want handouts. Then again, that was what he’d just offered. Maybe the chief felt the same way. “All right, then.”
“Scrape out what you can when the oven cools. Scatter baking soda. Wet it with white vinegar and let it soak. Then attack it with elbow grease if you don’t want to use chemicals, like Lainey.”
“Thanks.” Right now, Noah would rather rip the appliance out and start over, but he had to worry about feeding Bella. And not pizza because that would somehow scar her for life.
Unlike her mother, who never did anything wrong, ever—except take care of everyone and follow every rule and handle every possible concern except when it affected herself. “Don’t worry. I won’t douse the thing in ammonia.”
Or do anything for now. Except maybe text Teagan and see how badly he’d screwed up his little ladybug.
CHAPTER FIVE
The five o’clock hour at the grocery store was like social hour in Eagle’s Ridge among the working moms and last-minute dinner-prepping crowd. Teagan chatted her way through produce while Will shrugged out of the polite chatter with one purpose in mind—pepperoni pizza.
Baking a frozen pizza sounded far easier than reheating last night’s roast beef and potatoes. She already had salad makings at home, and the roast beef leftovers would keep for another night. Besides, somewhere at the bottom of her purse was a coupon for stuffed crust pepperoni. If that wasn’t fate calling them to the frozen food aisle, Teagan didn’t know what was.
A burst of colorful caftan whirled around the far end of the chilly aisle as Teagan made her way toward her son drooling over the dinner options, and she could tell by the way that Hildie Fontana gripped her colorful shawl while her mouth moved a mile a minute on a cell phone conversation, meant for all to hear, that something juicy was happening in the social boundaries of the county.
Truthfully, Teagan used Hildie as a behind-the-scenes source of useful information. She did so sparingly, but getting the dirt sometimes helped her decipher situations at school that might not be apparent.
Hildie hung up her phone, ditching it with great fanfare in her giant purse as she hooked Will for a hug before stopping in front of Teagan. “Make sure to get a chocolate chip cookie next time you’re near my shop, Will. It’s been a while since you’ve stopped by.”
Teagan smiled. Hildie loved men, young and old.
The appreciation for attention went both ways. “We will!” He beamed. “Promise.”
“I can’t wait.” Hildie was harmless, but no male in Eagle’s Ridge was safe from her strings-free cookie offers. “I’ll make a fresh batch if you give me a heads-up.”
Will’s eyes melted as wide as one of Hildie’s cookies.
Even Teagan’s mouth watered, and she wasn’t one for sweets. “Will do.”
Sufficiently appeased, Will ran back to the freezer chests and gaped at his options.
Hildie watched him press against the cold glass. “What’s for dinner?”
“Pepperoni!”
“Great choice,” Hildie praised. “Study all your options, because I want to chat with your mama.” Her telltale eyebrows waggled.
Over the years, Teagan had decided there was a Richter scale for town gossip. The more each of Hildie’s eyebrows wiggled and danced, the more newsworthy the woman found the conversation to be.
When everyone in town was curious whether Sam Tucker had noticed how Brenda Morgan had started dating again, it was the medium tempo of Hildie’s eyebrows and their slight angle that clued the gossipmongers into the not-so-dramatic details of Sam falling for another girl when the money had been on Sam and Brenda to become a couple.
But Hildie’s eyebrows had arched into her hairline, cancanning with every word when she recounted how Max Tucker refused to leave his house as the river flooded during Founders’ Day weekend.
Right now, in the middle of the frozen food aisle, Hildie’s brow action indicated that seismic activity was happening in Eagle’s Ridge.
“What do we need to chat about?” At least there was no need to beat around the bush with Hildie. She wanted to share.
“Penny phoned me earlier.”
Teagan shook her head. “Refresh my memory.”
“Penny. She works 9-1-1 dispatch.”
“Oh.” Teagan wasn’t sure how she felt about gossip that started with an emergency phone call. “Is everyone okay?”
Hildie swatted away her concern like a fruit fly from apples. “You are never going to believe what she told me.”
Teagan guessed everyone was okay. If anyone had been rushed to the Coleman Center by ambulance, the conversation would have had a different tone. “What did Penny tell you?”
Hildie flapped her arms and made her multicolored caftan flair. “Well, it involves the fire department.”
Oh, the theatrics. It was what this woman lived for, yet there were only so many things that involved a 9-1-1 call that Teagan could consider guilt-free gossip.
Teagan needed to feed Will and decided guessing might speed the conversation along. “The firehouse decided to do a calendar for charity. All proceeds go to fund your museum—”
“Oh. That would be nice.” Hildie’s face froze, likely lost in the innumerable poses she’d pulled in an instant. “But no.”
“Do I have to guess again?” Teagan flicked a glance at her son. “Will might wither away.”
Hildie snapped out of her firemen daydream and glanced at Will, pressed against the frozen food case as if he’d never seen food in his life. “No more guessing.”
“Great. Give me the goods.”
“The fire department is wrapping up a run to the Force house.” She pitched forward. “Where Noah Coleman moved back to today!”
“What?” A little gasp caught in Teagan’s throat.
“Penny said it was a double whammy while he cooked dinner.”
Teagan’s eyes couldn’t have gotten any wider. “Are you kidding me?”
“Do I joke?” The town gossip balked then pursed her lips as though offended that Teagan had questioned the authenticity of her intel.
“I didn’t mean to be rude, Hildie. It’s just…” She half wanted to burst out laughing and half needed to check on Bella. “We were just there.”
“Right, Will and Bella.” Hildie bounced her finger, apparently remembering the friendships of kindergartners. All in the job of the town busybody. “Friends? Something more one day?”
“Never.” She shook her head. “They’re like siblings. But not. Would be if they could, though.”
“Like the Coleman and the Stram—I mean Force—girl. I never saw Lainey as a Force. Always a Stram.”
Teagan lifted her shoulder. “I didn’t know Davis Force. But I do know I need to feed Will.”
“You don’t want to know what happened?” Hildie gaped.
Goodness, what Teagan didn’t want to do was insult her again. She tried not to laugh at the thought of Noah needing the fire department while he cooked dinner. “I didn’t realize you knew more details, Hildie. Sorry. What happened?”
“What happened?” Hildie repeated, flapping the shawl. “Everything happened!”
Hmm. Hildie was to be used only in small doses and
for therapeutic purposes. A perfect student might take a nosedive before an impending divorce was announced. Hildie would know. Teagan could come up with actionable steps. But this was starting to look like chin wagging that served zero purpose. “Just the quick version. I can’t forget about Will for too long.”
Hildie straightened her arms in her shawl then crossed them. “Double whammy.”
“I got that.”
“He cranked up the heat on the stovetop, but it was the oven that did him in.”
Oh good gracious, would she just spit it out? Teagan glanced at Will, now opening and closing the door to the frozen pizza section. “And…?”
“He tossed a hand towel in the broiler under the oven, thinking it was a storage cabinet. Poof. “ Hildie threw her arms in the air, and her shawl splayed brightly. “Fire.”
Teagan slapped her hand over the mouth. “Oh my.”
“The next-door neighbor called the fire department. Said the kitchen caught fire. Smoke was billowing out the front door and windows.”
Oh God. Poor Noah. She didn’t want to laugh. This wasn’t funny.
“All that smoke?” Hildie shook her head. “I bet half the kitchen in that sweet cedar is gone. Just gutted. Can you imagine what it must look like? Bet the walls are black, the floors too…”
Teagan’s mind wandered to Lainey’s—no, Noah’s—beautiful kitchen. Had he really burned it out? That would be a shame, and if so, she wouldn’t laugh any more.
Hildie clucked. “Now that I think about it, maybe that was his plan.”
“I’m sorry?” Teagan asked, torn from her worries.
“What better way to up his bachelor status?”
Teagan gaped. “What?”
“Very smart. Handsome man like that, one who needs help in the kitchen but who is trying? Comes from a good family with deep roots?” Hildie’s voice flittered. “And have you heard his story?”
“He has a story?” Teagan’s brow furrowed. This was why she didn’t gossip. She didn’t know if the headache pounding in her temple that very second was from irritation, aggravation, or frustration.
“He walked away from the military for Bella.” Hildie tilted her head. “Bella and Will are close. Didn’t you know that?”
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