Chapter 2
Morgan
I grabbed a few hours of sleep and then awoke early, determined to be there for Reina. She had to be upset, losing her home and her bakery in one day.
I'd texted Maddox and asked when he could meet at the bakery. Then I pulled on sweats and went downstairs to make pancakes.
Reina was probably a better cook than me, but I wanted to do something with this restless energy, and her door was closed when I walked by.
I started the coffee machine, then mixed batter for the pancakes, dropping in chocolate chips instead of blueberries, hoping that was the right choice. As close as I was to her brother, Tom, I didn't know Reina that well.
When I had gone over to Tom's growing up, she was usually in the kitchen baking or pouring over cookbooks.
When I was in high school, I was involved in the career and tech program, learning electrical.
I was so engrossed in learning the craft that I didn't pay much attention to anything else at school.
After I graduated, I built my electrician business, and now my joint venture with Cooper and my brothers, Sterling Brothers Contracting.
By the time Reina walked into the kitchen, I had a stack of pancakes on a plate.
Her gaze snagged on my bare chest.
I wasn't used to living with anyone besides Tom, and he never cared if I walked around shirtless. But I should have thought about how Reina would feel about it.
"Grab a pancake and some coffee. I just need to get a shirt."
She smirked. "Don't cover up on my account."
"I'm fairly sure Tom would have something to say about that," I said to remind myself that I needed to be careful around her.
I grabbed a clean shirt from the laundry room and pulled it on. When I returned to the kitchen, she'd placed two pancakes on her plate and poured a generous amount of syrup over the top.
"You like sweet things?" I asked, pouring myself a cup of coffee from the carafe.
She gave me a bemused look. "I own a bakery."
I raised a brow as I turned to face her, leaning against the counter. "So that's a yes."
"It's my weakness." She ate a bite of a pancake, closed her eyes, and moaned.
That made me think of sex and how she'd sound when I moved inside her. I gritted my teeth. I shouldn't think of her in that way.
She wasn't attractive, sweet, or enticing. She was Tom's sister. Off-limits to me.
"Have you heard from Maddox?" She licked her finger, and all the blood in my body went south.
If she started sucking on her finger, I couldn't be held responsible for what I would do next. I wanted to be the one sucking syrup off her finger, so I forced myself to look away. "He said to meet him in an hour at the bakery."
She swallowed hard. "Logically, I know I was in a fire last night. I can still smell the smoke, and my throat is raw. But it didn't seem real. It feels like a bad dream. But once I see the bakery, everything will come into focus."
Her vulnerable admission brought me back to reality. "We don't know what the damage is yet. He didn't say anything. Maybe they were able to salvage the kitchen and front area."
She let out a breath. "I hope so."
"You're welcome to stay here as long as you need to."
"Thanks, Morgan. I appreciate that. But I don't want you to feel like you owe me or my brother anything."
"I promised Tom—"
She held up her hand. "Let's get something straight. Tom doesn't get to dictate what goes on in my life."
He didn't want to leave his younger sister unprotected, but at the same time, she was an adult and could take care of herself.
Her forehead creased. "You're not going to tell him what happened, are you? I don't want to worry him."
I knew the drill when he was deployed. "As long as you're safe, there's no need to tell him."
She narrowed her eyes on me. "You mean safe with you?"
"I'll help you get the bakery up and running again. By the time he's on leave, everything will be fixed, and you'll be back in your apartment." I'd make sure of it.
"I like the sound of that," she said shakily.
"You're not going to let a little fire hold you back, are you?" One thing I remembered about Reina as a child was that she was always up for a challenge.
She rolled her shoulders. "I hadn't planned on anything like this happening. I was just starting to turn a decent profit—"
"You have everyone behind you. Eve. Natasha. Me." I'd seen the other shop owners rally around when Angelina's shop flooded and when Belle was planning to open the bookshop.
She squared her shoulders. "I've got this."
The point was that she didn't have to do it by herself.
She had a town of people who were behind her.
But I had a feeling she preferred to be independent.
Maybe it was because her parents moved away or that her brother was deployed.
She was used to handling things on her own. But this time, she wouldn't have to.
I felt responsible for her, but not because I promised her brother. I was the one who was supposed to inspect the electrical in all the buildings, but I hadn't gotten to the bakery yet. I felt responsible for what happened.
"You want to grab another shower before we head out?" I asked her, rinsing my dish and stacking it in the dishwasher.
She moved close to me, hip checking me out of the way of the sink so she could rinse her plate. "I can clean up after myself."
I held my palms up. "Didn't say you couldn't."
"I can take care of myself too." She placed her dish in the machine and closed it.
"I know you can."
She rolled her eyes. "If you knew that, you wouldn't have made any promises to my brother. You'd know that I was a grown ass adult."
"I think it's your brother that's struggling with that." I was very aware of how her wearing my sweatshirt made it appear as if she wasn't wearing anything underneath. Her legs looked impossibly long, and I wondered if her thighs would be soft to touch.
"I'm just saying that you shouldn't underestimate me," she murmured as she slowly backed out of the kitchen.
"I won't." I had a feeling she'd keep surprising me with her determination.
I'd have to recite the fact that she was my best friend's younger sister on repeat if I wanted to ensure I behaved myself. Maybe the damage wasn't bad, and she could move back into her place sooner than we thought.
It was clearly what she wanted, and I wouldn't' have to worry about crossing lines if she wasn't wearing my clothes and sleeping in my guest room.
We stood in front of the bakery. From this vantage point, it looked normal, other than the cardboard someone had placed in the windows so that people wouldn't sneak a peek inside.
Reina let out a shaky breath. "It doesn't look so bad."
But I knew the reality of electrical fires. The firefighters might have contained the fire, but there would be damage, and it could be extensive. "Let's wait for Maddox."
Maddox pulled up in his truck with the fire chief logo on the door. He got out and joined us on the sidewalk. "Are you ready for this?"
"Is it bad?" Reina asked, her voice wavering.
I hated that she was going through this. Maybe I could have prevented this. Her shop would be my first priority going forward.
Maddox winced. "You won't be able to live in the apartment for a while."
She bit her lip. "Okay. But what about the bakery?"
For her, the bakery was more important than where she was living.
"It's going to need some work. You might want to look into renting a kitchen for a while."
She grimaced. "It's that bad?"
"Let's check it out together."
He waited for her to unlock the door.
She stepped inside first. The front room was mainly untouched, but the smell of smoke was strong.
"The investigation isn't finished, but it looks like it started in the kitchen. Your appliances use a lot of electricity. I suspect it was too much for the current electrical system and overloaded the breaker. But I'm not the expert."
In the kitchen, the most damage was on the wall behind the ovens. But the entire kitchen would need to be renovated, and the ovens would need to be replaced.
"Why didn't anyone say anything when we opened?"
Maddox frowned. "When did you open the bakery? Was it before or after Eve and Natasha bought the town?"
"It was a few months before."
"Odds are the old owners weren't worried about it. They wanted a bakery to help sell the town and weren't concerned about potential issues."
"We'll submit the insurance claim and get to work right away," I said.
"You have to wait for the investigation to be finished."
"How long will that take?" Reina asked.
"As long as foul play isn't suspected, a few days. If there's an issue, it could take longer."
Reina looked at me. "How long will the renovations take?"
"I don't know the extent of the damage yet." I didn't want to tell her a shorter timeline and then have to amend it later. I found it was best to give worst-case scenarios and adjust when things changed.
"I'm going to have to find a commercial kitchen to rent. I don't want to have to cancel any orders."
"I'm sure Eve will want you up and running as soon as possible." I'd already examined my calendar and texted Cooper about my upcoming schedule.
"I know it looks bad. But this is just property damage. The important thing is that you're okay," Maddox said.
Reina nodded. "Can I grab some of my things from upstairs?"
"Go ahead. You won't be able to live here for a while. It will need to be repaired and inspected before you can return,” Maddox said.
Reina nodded and then left the room. I should probably go with her, but I wanted to talk to Maddox alone.
"What do you think happened?" I asked him.
"It looks like an electrical fire. These old buildings can't handle large appliances. I suspect the original owners never performed an inspection when she renovated the kitchen."
I bit off a curse. "That sucks for Reina."
"She wouldn't have known." Maddox moved around the space.
"We were focused on the plumbing issues." Some of the shop owners were worried about their stores flooding, but now we had electrical-fire risk to contend with.
"You can only put out so many fires at once." Then he cracked a smile. "No pun intended."
I didn't have it in me to find this amusing. "I hate this for Reina. This is her dream. I don't want Tom to know about this."
Maddox shrugged. "I don't have any plans to tell him. But you never know with a town like this. Word spreads quickly."
Who did Tom keep in contact with besides me and Reina? I wasn't sure. His parents might find out, but they'd know not to worry him. "I'll take care of Tom."
"You said she's staying with you?"
"That's right."
His brow furrowed. "You sure that's a good idea?"
"I told Tom I'd look out for her."
Maddox chuckled, shaking his head. "I bet Reina hates that."
"She wasn't happy when I told her."
"Eve said she's fiercely independent, doesn't accept help from anyone, although she's quick to offer hers."
"She might not have a choice this time." Her summary was similar to mine.
Maddox nodded. "She's going to need a lot of help to get this place open any time soon."
I moved to the wall of ovens, irritated that this hadn't been brought to my attention sooner. I'd assumed that inspections had been done when each store opened. That no corners had been cut, but I was wrong.
He leaned against the counter. "I want to talk to you about something else. You shouldn't have run into her apartment last night. You aren't trained to deal with fires. You could have been hurt or worse."
I shook my head. "When Belle said Reina was living upstairs, I didn't pause to think about the consequences. All I could think about was getting to her."
"But we were already on our way. You had to hear the sirens."
I nodded. "I did."
"But you went inside anyway."
"I told you. I promised Tom I'd look out for her." And I had tunnel vision as soon as Belle said Reina was inside. There was no stopping me from getting to her.
"It wasn't smart."
"What if something happened to her? She inhaled too much smoke and succumbed to her injuries? What if she'd burned in that fire?" My voice was gruff with emotion.
"You could have been hurt or killed. You think Tom would want that on his conscience?"
"Not his call to make." And Tom wasn't here. I was the one he'd tasked with caring for his sister. I took my word seriously. I wouldn't let him down, even if it meant sacrificing my life for hers.
"You're stubborn."
I turned to face him. "You would have done the same thing if it were Eve in a burning building."
He raised a brow. "I'm a firefighter. It's my job to run into burning buildings. Besides, I'm dating Eve. You have something you want to tell me about Reina?"
I pursed my lips. "Just that I promised Tom I'd take care of her, and that's what I'm doing."
He considered me for a few seconds. "I hope you know what you're doing."
"I don't want Tom to find out. He can't be stressed while he's deployed, and I don't want him to worry about his sister. I'll handle Reina."
A noise came from the hallway. Then Reina stepped into the room. "I'm not a problem to be managed."
I grimaced. "That's not what I meant."
Her shoulders stiffened. "I'll find a place to live and be out of your space."
"No—" I'd made her sound like a burden. Something I had to take care of because of her brother when that was the furthest thing from the truth. I wanted to take care of her because, on some level, I was attracted to her. I wondered if that was the reason I hadn't hesitated to go in after her.
She adjusted her duffle on her shoulder. "I'll be in the truck."
Maddox shook his head. "You've screwed things up good."
"You have any advice?" I asked dryly, moving to grab the suitcase she'd left behind.
"Grovel. Ask for forgiveness, and stop treating her like Tom's little sister. I don't know if you've noticed, but she's all grown up."
I grunted, because I knew that. She reminded me at every turn that she'd filled out since we were kids with the most delicious and enticing curves. I was helpless against her. What the hell would Tom have to say about that?
I couldn't let Tom down, but I also couldn't make a move on his sister. Reina was off-limits.