Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
EVERLEIGH
“M om.” I spring out of the chair, and Charlie is already out of his, and so is Autumn, who grabs a hold of my hand. “What do you mean there is a fire?” The second I say that, Autumn gasps and her hold gets tighter, while Charlie’s phone rings from his pocket.
“Everleigh,” Oliver says into the phone, no doubt taking it from my mother, “the fire department just called. There is a fire at the bakery.” I can hear him rushing on his end as my feet feel like they are cemented to the deck. “We are on our way there now.”
“I’m coming.” I disconnect with him and then turn to Autumn. “The bakery is on fire.”
“Charlie,” she calls him over as she moves down the steps, with her hand still in mine.
“Brady just called. Someone called him from the bar,” he reports.
“I have to go.” I feel like I’m in a daze as she guides me to Charlie’s truck.
“I’m going to call my dad to come over,” Autumn says to me once she has me buckled into the truck. “I’ll meet you there.”
“Okay.” I look over at Charlie. “We have to go.” They share a look and a nod before he pulls out of the driveway and heads toward town. For the first time I think in my life there is traffic getting there. It seems the phone chain is in full effect, and people are rushing over to watch or maybe help.
Charlie honks his horn as he makes his way to the corner of Main Street, where I can see the flames. He pulls over and parks his truck on the side, and I spring into action. I jump down from the truck and head toward the bakery. Two fire trucks are already on the scene, and they have closed down the area, two deputies making sure no one gets close.
“What’s going on?” Charlie asks one of them as I look around to see if I can spot my mother.
“We are trying to get the fire under control,” the deputy replies. “Fire department just called the fire marshal in. We are also evacuating the rest of the street to make sure it doesn’t spread.”
“Do we know how it started?” I ask him, and he shakes his head and moves away before I can ask him anything else.
“Oh my goodness.” I hear my mother’s voice from behind me as she runs to me and takes me in her arms. “I was so scared you went to the bakery to get something and was stuck in there.” She holds the back of my head in her hand as I hug her to me.
“No, I’m fine,” I assure her as she lets me go. We stand together with our arms around each other and watch the firefighters work to get the fire under control.
“Hey,” Brady greets when he makes his way to us, next to Harmony who has tears running down her face. “We came as soon as we heard.” They stand with us as they look over and see what we see. Neither of them is able to say anything more.
Harmony walks over to the other side of my mother and slips her hand in hers. “It’s going to be okay, Maddie,” she comforts, putting her head on her shoulder. No one says anything as the fire slowly dies down.
Some of the onlookers have trickled away and then some new ones have come, but it’s mostly just a few of the older folks who are sticking around to see what the damage is. We watch helplessly as the firefighters do what they need to do. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so helpless before in my life. Knowing this is my mother’s life and she’s watching it literally go up in smoke. My heart breaks for her as she puts her hand to her mouth.
Oliver comes over with two take out trays of juice, coffee and water bottles that he must have gotten from the diner. “Here, drink something,” he urges my mother, “have some water.”
“I’m fine,” she replies to him, trying to shoo him away, but he just stands in front of her not moving. “I said I’m fine.”
“And I said to drink something.” He doesn’t back down, which makes my mother glare at him even more.
“Don’t you have somewhere else to be,” she asks him, “like at the hospital?”
“Water, coffee or juice?” He ignores her question. “I’m not going to move along until you take something to drink, and there are other people here.” He leans in. “Some of them are watching us.” She bites down on her lip, reaching out and grabbing a bottle of water. “There, was that so hard?”
“You better move along, Oliver, before you are wearing this water,” she threatens him, and he just chuckles at the threat. Not wanting to deal with him also having to threaten me, I grab a cup of coffee before he moves on.
“He’s bossy,” I mumble to my mother, who just shakes her head.
I think I only let out a breath when I see the firefighters have stopped using water. I can’t even see the damage from here as the fire marshal comes our way. “Maddie,” he says, nodding at her. I feel Oliver come and stand behind my mother, putting his hands on her shoulders and squeezing them. I slip my hand in hers as we both wait for him to start talking.
“How bad is it?” my mother asks.
“There is good news and then bad news,” he starts and I close my eyes, not sure I want to hear any bad news. I don’t want to hear anything, to be honest. “The good news is we caught it before it burned through the roof and the structure.”
“Is that good news?” I finally ask, moving my head to the side. “All the windows are busted out. Where did it start?”
“Started in the kitchen,” he reports, and I shake my head.
“I double-checked twice before I left.” My heart feels like it’s going to soar out of my chest. “I made sure the appliances were all off, and no one had to bake anything or fry anything after I left.”
“I don’t know how to say this—” He looks down at his feet before looking back up at us. “We think?—”
“Don’t say it,” my mother snaps.
“It’s looking like it was arson,” he declares, and the air leaves my body.
“There was forced entry at the back door,” he explains and I stop him right away.
“There were two guys,” I start to say and feel all eyes on me, “there were two guys lurking around. They were acting weird and I didn’t think anything of it.”
“What else can you tell me about them?” he asks me and I try to wrack my brain.
“Medium height I guess, creepy vibes. They had a black car.” I snap my fingers. “Four-door Honda Civic I think.” I close my eyes and try to bring up the memory but it’s just blank. “I don’t know.”
“Well, that makes a little bit more sense,” he says. “We found some gasoline canisters that I’m assuming you didn’t have in your kitchen.”
“What kind of a dumb question is that?” my mother snaps, and Oliver pulls her closer to him and wraps an arm around her waist. “Now what?”
“Now we have to finish the investigation, which will probably be done by tomorrow morning. Then you can get in there and?—”
“And what?” my mother barks. “And do what?” He just shrugs.
“I’m sorry. I know how difficult this can be.” I just stare at him. “We are going to have the police come over and ask you a couple questions about the two guys you saw.” I nod at him, feeling like the rug just got ripped out from under me, looking at what used to be, it actually did. “If you have any questions, feel free to call me.”
He walks away and we just stand here staring at him as he makes his way to the bakery.
“Oh my God, this is my fault,” Harmony cries. “It’s probably because of me.”
We all turn to look at her as Brady takes her in his arms, and she cries in his chest. “If you hadn’t helped me, this probably wouldn’t have happened.”
“You don’t know that.” I rub her back. “It could be anything at this point.”
“Well, there is nothing we can do for now,” Oliver notes. “Let’s get you off your feet.” He slips his arm from around her and into her hand, and she doesn’t even fight him.
I take one more look at the building before turning and walking with them. “I’m going to get a ride with them,” I tell Charlie, who just nods at me, “and come and get the car tomorrow, if that is okay.”
“I’ll have it brought to you and leave the keys in the mailbox,” he states, and I laugh, making everyone look at me.
“I’m sorry, but why does it seem normal to just leave keys in a mailbox and not have to worry that my car is going to be stolen?”
Charlie smirks at me. “This ain’t the city, girl.” He takes me in a chokehold like he used to do back in the day, making me laugh even more. “Now, I’m going to get home to Autumn, who has been blowing up my phone. I thought she would show up with Landon.”
“Sorry about that,” I say.
“She’ll probably be at your house tomorrow morning, early.”
“Good. If she didn’t have the whole husband and kid, I would be crashing at her house anyway.”
“You can always do that,” he invites. “Probably be easier for me to calm her down if you are there.”
“I don’t want to leave Mom,” I admit, looking over to see Oliver open her car door for her, “but I’ll call her and make sure she knows I’m okay.”
“Sounds good,” he says and then smirks. “I’m glad you're home.” I nod because all the emotion of the night has come crashing into me. “You make her happy, and that’s all I can ask for.”
“You love her.” I don’t know why I say it, but the words come out of my mouth.
“More than my next breath,” he confirms. “More than I’ve ever loved anyone before. Not that I compare it, but…”
“I get it,” I say, and my mind suddenly goes to Brock. “You have that once-in-a-lifetime love, and sometimes you are lucky enough to have it look you in the eyes every day. It fills your soul and your bones, and you know you’ll never be cold a day in your life.”
“Everleigh,” he says, “you should know.”
“I don’t want to know.” I hold up my hand, knowing he was going to say something about Brock. “It’s over; he made his choice.”
“Trust me, no one knows more than I do about holding a grudge.”
“It’s not a grudge,” I inform him. “You hold a grudge against someone when you care about them. I don’t. It’s over. He made it that way.” I get up on my tippy-toes. “Thanks for tonight, Charlie.” I cut off the conversation before heading over to my mother and getting into the car.
“Are you okay?” I ask while I put my seat belt on. My mother doesn’t say anything; instead she shakes her head and looks out the window. “It’ll be okay, Mom,” I say, my eyes looking at the bakery. “We’ll make it okay.”