by Vivian Arend
His father had the grace to look guilty. “No. I don’t mean that. Just that we’re all dying. And my accident proved we never know when life might change. Now with my damn legs, and—”
“Jeez, Dad, don’t scare the hell out of us like that.” Brad glanced at his brother in the hopes their father’s moment of vulnerably had broken through his hard shell.
Mark was still glaring. It seemed his brother’s heart truly was a rock.
Patrick cleared his throat then spoke firmly. “It was my choice. I sent a letter to my lawyer to get things set up, so it’s done. I told him I was giving it all to you, Brad. Which means I’m now officially your responsibility, but you I trust. I know you won’t kick me out on my ass or put me in some old-age home and never come and see me.”
“This is my home too. You can’t just give everything to Brad,” Mark snapped. “You’re out of your goddamn mind.”
His father raised a brow, but instead of shouting, he spoke more softly. “And maybe that right there is an answer to why I trust Brad to take care of me, and not you.”
“So just like that, you’ll cut me out of everything?”
“It’s done,” Patrick said.
Brad sighed. “I wish you’d talked to me about this first, Dad. I mean it’s your decision what you do with your money and the house—”
“Of course, you’d say that, since you’re getting everything,” Mark snapped, rising to his feet. He glared between the two of them. “You haven’t heard the last of this. You just can’t up and give everything to him.”
All the shout seemed to have left his father. Patrick stared sadly at his oldest son. “There’s nothing you can do to change my mind about that part. You’ve spent the last five years showing how little you respect me, the ranch, your mother when she was still alive. I don’t trust you right now. So whatever debts you built up that you were hoping for your inheritance to clear up, you’ll just have to grow a pair and get yourself out of trouble on your own. You made your choices, son. Now you have to live with them.”
It was softly spoken, but sharp as a knife.
“So. That’s it?”
“I guess it is.”
Mark stomped from the room, slamming the door behind him. In the quiet that fell, an engine raced before fading into the distance.
Patrick looked pale. Brad went over to kneel by his Dad’s feet, taking his hand and covertly checking his pulse.
His father shook his head. “I’m sorry that turned out so harsh.”
“Me too.” Brad sat back on the coffee table, keeping hold of his dad’s hand. “We’re not done talking. I meant it—it’s your decision to do what you want with the ranch. And you’re right. Mark needs to take responsibility and grow up. But I don’t think it’s a good idea to close the door on him. He’s still your son and my brother. People can change.”
Patrick’s silvery-white head dipped slowly. “I know. It’s hard to see the big picture when I’m running on piss and vinegar. Connie wouldn’t be very happy with me right now.” He sighed heavily. “I should have talked to you first.”
“You should have, but we’ll do what we can to move forward. How about we give Mark a bit of time to cool off, then send him an email,” Brad suggested. “Tell him to come visit. It would be nice to start being a family again someday.”
Patrick stared off into space. “Damn, I miss your mom. She wouldn’t have been able to fix this, but just talking to her always made the burden lighter.”
Brad knew what his dad was talking about better than he’d ever imagined, because in the space of a few months, everything had changed.
The strongest longing inside him was to go find Hanna and pull her against him. To hold her tight as he shared what had just happened. He wanted to let her into his world and let her support him.
It was something to be thought about…
2
Friday night Crissy crawled onto Hanna’s lap, homework reading book at the ready. “What time do you have to leave for work, Mommy?”
“Soon. Mrs. Nonnie should be here anytime.”
Her little girl snuggled in tight then turned the pages slowly, reading the words with care. Hanna prompted her when necessary, but for the most part she just soaked in the warmth of her precious child.
Every moment of struggle up to this point had been worth it because of Crissy. Every relationship that she’d had to turn her back on, Hanna couldn’t regret any of them because Crissy was here and happy, and thriving as much as she could.
There were sad truths. Crissy didn’t have a grandma and grandpa because when Hanna had found out she was pregnant, the first thing her parents had done after looking at her with horror and shock was to tell her to pack a bag and get out.
Hanna pushed the memory away. Those were nightmare thoughts and not something she wanted in her life. She focused on Crissy, who smiled up at her after sounding out an exceptionally hard word.
“That says beautiful,” Crissy informed her.
“It does. Well done.”
Crissy lifted a hand to touch her cheek. “I think you’re beautiful.”
Hanna’s heart filled. “Thank you. I think you’re beautiful too.”
The phone rang, and Hanna picked it up.
“Hanna, honey. I’m sorry, but there’s no way I can come over.” Something in Mrs. Nonnie’s throat made a horrible sizzling sound, and the woman paused to blow her nose before coming back to finish in a hoarse whisper. “I should have called earlier, but I fell asleep.”
This night was going from bad to worse. “I’m sorry you’re not feeling well. Of course, you should stay home and get better.”
“You take care.”
Even as Hanna hung up, she scolded herself for not realizing this could happen. Mrs. Nonnie had cancelled only a few nights ago, and Hanna had been forced to scramble and drop Crissy off with friends.
While Hanna had booked a different sitter for her and Brad’s cancelled date, getting a teenager at the last minute on a Friday night was out of the question.
She checked the time. It was too late to ask her friends for help.
Crissy took a deep breath. “I’m big enough to stay home by myself,” she said in a soft whisper.
“Oh, darling. No, you’re not. I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to come with Mommy. We’ll bring your sleeping bag, and you can have a camping trip, okay?”
It was going to make everything harder, but what choice did she have? And it wasn’t something that she hadn’t had to do at different times over the years.
Crissy headed off to gather her things.
“Don’t put on pyjamas. Wear your soft sweatpants and blue hoodie,” Hanna reminded her.
Most of her cleaning supplies were already in the car. Hanna grabbed the basket of things she brought in every day to keep them from freezing, then packed a snack and a bottle of water for Crissy. She added a couple of books and a flashlight to turn it into a camping adventure.
It took an extra trip to get from the car into the office, and it took time to set up Crissy in her “tent”, but as Hanna went about cleaning the accounting firm that was her first of four jobs for the night, it was a little like stepping back in time.
After Crissy had been born, Hanna had needed a job. She’d worked for another woman for a year, sharing an apartment with two single moms. They’d arranged their schedules so they could babysit in a rotation.
When that had fallen apart, though, Hanna had come to Heart Falls. She’d started out by bringing in a portable playpen for Crissy to sleep and play in, and when that didn’t work, she had a backpack she wore, the motion of moving back and forth with the vacuum cleaner and the rest of her tasks were enough to put a tired toddler to sleep.
Every job had taken a little longer, but it made it possible for Hanna to bring in enough work to pay the bills.
The fact that Crissy was a beautiful, sweet child made it easier, then, and now. But by the time the third office was done it was after midnight, an
d Hanna began to feel the extra effort it had taken to get through her tasks.
She carried a sleeping Crissy upstairs back to their apartment and laid her in bed. This she would allow herself to do. The final office that needed to be cleaned was the law firm directly below their home. And with the baby monitor turned on, if Crissy did need her, Hanna could be upstairs in under a minute.
She pressed a kiss to her sleeping daughter’s forehead. “Mommy loves you,” she whispered.
Crissy’s arms came up and tangled around her neck, squeezing tight. “I love you, Mommy. This is my bed,” she said drowsily.
“Yes. Your camping trip is over. Mommy has to go downstairs to finish work, but if you need me, just call out, okay? I’ve got the special telephone with me.”
“Okay.” Crissy was asleep before she finished rolling over.
It was tough work to do the last office. Probably because Hanna’s afternoon nap had been more tossing and turning than sleeping, images of Brad interrupting her far too often.
She needed to figure out what she was doing with the man. It wasn’t fair to keep going out with him if she wasn’t interested in getting serious.
On the other hand, she couldn’t decide if she was interested unless she knew he truly was serious. He seemed to be, and he was persistent, but it was pretty clear she didn’t have a very good handle on when guys were serious and when they were just trying to get something. And by get something, she meant sex.
The back kitchen area of the law office looked as if someone had held a party before an earthquake struck. And when Hanna went to move the coffee maker and it tipped, cold coffee spilling everywhere, it just added to the disaster.
By the time the room was sparkling, she was tired enough she had to sit down. She laid her head on her arms and closed her eyes for a moment.
She probably could’ve gotten away with a little less work, but Mr. Boise had been kind to her right from the start when she’d arrived in Heart Falls. He’d been the first to hire her, and offered a recommendation so she’d gotten into the apartment above his office.
He’d also helped her do up the paperwork necessary to make sure no one could ever take Crissy from her. Not that she expected the sperm donor to show up asking for parental rights, but she wasn’t taking any chances.
She could see Crissy’s clear grey eyes looking at her with trust. Hanna dreamed of taking her somewhere pretty, up on a mountainside, with a swing set and maybe some horses—Crissy loved horses as much as Hanna had at that age.
A loud buzzing filled her ears, and Hanna realized she’d fallen asleep at the table. She looked up in shock to discover the room was filled with smoke, and the buzzer was a fire alarm going off.
Crissy.
Hanna leapt to her feet, racing down the hall toward the front door.
She jerked to a stop in the doorway as heat slammed into her face. The entire front office was filled with flames, and she turned, darting to the back entrance, frantically patting her pockets for her phone as she ran.
She hit 911 even as she put her shoulder to the emergency exit and another alarm rang out.
Hanna raced to the entrance leading to the stairs to the apartments before she discovered her keys were back in the law office. She was in the back alley in nothing but her T-shirt and jeans, her purse and jacket left on the table beside the rest of her things.
“No.” She pounded on the door, desperate for Crissy to hear.
“Nine-one-one, what’s the nature of your emergency?”
“There’s a fire in the law office, and my little girl is upstairs, and I can’t get in. Please, please, somebody help me.”
Brad had been down at the fire hall when the call came in, the initial warning rising from the switchboard linked to the alarm system from the law office. By the time 911 received the second call, he and the first of the volunteer fire department were headed out in the truck.
It didn’t register until he actually saw the building that this was where Hanna lived. Icy fear crawled up his spine, but he moved in well-practiced precision with the other members of his team, sliding into place at the front of the building and hauling out the hoses to deal with the immediate flames.
He shouted orders at his men then took the route around to the back, circling to look for other entrances.
He found Hanna pounding on a closed, locked door, screaming at the top of her lungs.
“Someone get me a blanket,” he shouted back at the lookout at the corner before examining her quickly. He scanned her hands and arms, running a hand over her head. “Are you okay? Were you in the fire?”
“Crissy. Crissy is upstairs,” she said, trying to get past him and back to the door.
His heart fell all the way down to his toes. He gripped Hanna by the shoulders and leaned over to look her in the eye. “I’ll go get her. You stay here.”
Hanna shook her head frantically. “I know where she is.”
“Tell me. Back bedroom or front?” He knew the layout of the place from years ago, but he also knew that in a fire, kids didn’t stay where they started.
Another EMT had showed up, wrapping a blanket around Hanna’s shoulders.
She tried to push it off, tears shining in her eyes but anger there too. “I have to save her,” she shouted.
The crew had the door open, and Brad couldn’t wait any longer.
“See that she stays here,” he ordered the EMT before bending down and grabbing hold of her, looking her square in the eyes. “Hanna, I’m going to get Crissy for you. You have to stay here.”
He squeezed her briefly, and she nodded, expression sharpening as she remembered something. “Her secret code is Santa Claus. She might not come with you willingly without it.”
“Got it.” He carefully forced her back into the protective arms of a volunteer. Then he whirled, pulling down his face mask and motioning for his partner to join him as they entered the smoke-filled stairwell.
The heavy weight of his equipment didn’t exist as he sprinted upward, pivoting on the landing toward Hanna’s apartment. He and Mack checked both doors quickly.
Mack swore as he pulled away from the empty apartment. “She’s got a backdraft building.”
“This one is still cool,” Brad told him. One solid kick at the lock level was enough to send wood splintering.
At some other time he’d have worried about how flimsy the protection guarding Hanna and Crissy was, but right now, he was glad.
“Crissy. It’s Mommy’s friend, Brad. We’re here to help you.” The shout came out garbled by his mask, and Brad cursed softly before lifting it partway, directing Mack toward the front bedroom. “Crissy, we have to get out of the apartment. Hanna said you need to come with us.”
Smoke was pumping up through the baseboards and registers, the sound of sirens and fire alarms carrying over the fainter but growing crackle of flames. All too familiar, all too dangerous.
Brad slipped into what was definitely a little girl’s room, a pretty purple with unicorns and fairytale-creature posters covering the walls. Only the princess palace was rapidly turning into a scene from hell as the fire on the first level took hold of the floor under this part of the building. Walls were buckling with heat, and the surface beneath him creaked ominously.
“Crissy?”
She wasn’t in bed, under the bed or in the closet, all the usual places for a frightened child to hide. He checked the toy chest, but there wasn’t anywhere else big enough for a kid, not even a slight eight-year-old.
“Other bedroom is empty too,” Mack shouted. “Crissy, your mom is waiting for you downstairs. You gotta come with us now.”
Heat was rising. The bathroom was a dead end, the kitchen small enough it only took ten seconds to open all the cupboards and peer in them.
Brad shouted Crissy’s name again while Mack worked the edge of the living space, running his hand over blankets and curtains, tossing pillows aside. Visibility was fading, the old building giving up as the flames took their to
ll on wood and insulation, lighting up even as water pounded against the closed windows.
She had to be there.
His gaze fell on the coffee table in the corner. A small artificial Christmas tree rested on top, bare branches like a Charlie Brown tribute.
But the base was covered with a cheery Christmas-coloured cloth that hung all the way to the floor. It would have kept out the worst of the smoke, and been a lot safer than her bedroom.
Was it possible?
A crash sounded from out in the hall. Mack shouted a warning. “Two minutes, tops. Move it, bro.”
Brad dropped to his knees and lifted the edge of the fabric, looking into two big grey eyes and the tear-stained face of a mini-Hanna. “Hey, Crissy. Mommy says Santa Claus wants you to come with me. Okay?”
If he had to, he’d scoop her out of there in under two seconds, but when she immediately crawled forward and threw herself into his arms, he was relieved to avoid adding to what was already a traumatic experience.
He spun. “Got her, Mack. Let’s get out of here.”
His feet were already moving as he pulled a blanket off the couch. “Crissy, I need you to hide under this for a minute, okay? I’m taking you to your mom.”
She clutched him tighter, pressing her face to his chest as he threw the blanket over her head and ducked low, sprinting toward the door where Mack was waiting. His hand caught hold of Brad’s gear and shoved him in the right direction.
The stairs were on fire.
Brad jumped the final five steps, one hand on the railing to guide his forward flight, the other holding Crissy against him. They shot out of the door like they were jet propelled, a horrid crashing sound echoing on his heels.
Mack wrapped an arm around Brad’s shoulders and together they rushed to the safe zone. Behind them the fire protested their escape, an eardrum-rattling shriek echoing as the building gave up.
He glanced back, and the blanket over Crissy’s head shifted as she wiggled upright. Haunted little-girl eyes took in the flames and crashing walls, heat roiling over them.