Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Xander lay in his bed, staring up at the ceiling.
He was a complete and utter ass.
He hadn’t gone over to see Immy because he knew how it would have ended and, no matter how much he wanted that, he knew it was for the best that it didn’t happen again.
Because if it did, when he held her in his arms, when he made love to her, he’d have to face those feelings he had spent months denying he had.
And so like the coward he was, he had hidden himself away over here and now he was regretting it, mostly because he’d let Immy down, maybe hurt her all over again, and he hated himself for that.
And also because she’d wanted to talk and he’d promised he would come over and he couldn’t even give her that.
He got out of bed, wondering if it was too late to go over. It was gone eleven but sometimes, late at night, he’d look out the window at her flat and her light would be on in her bedroom where she was probably reading.
He pulled back the curtain to look across the street and could see the bedroom light was off. He couldn’t exactly go and knock on her door at this time anyway, he’d scare the crap out of her.
He was just about to let the curtain drop and go back to bed when he noticed something in her shop, a flickering light.
He frowned and opened the window to get a better look.
She had fairy lights in her shop so maybe some of them had been accidentally left on and they were just twinkling away – but the light seemed bigger than that.
He leaned down to look as the light seemed to be coming from the very back of her shop and getting bigger and brighter.
Suddenly the bottom dropped out of his world as he realised the light was in fact a flame. The shop was on fire.
He grabbed his phone and called the emergency services as he shoved his feet in his boots and ran outside. Fortunately the fire station was at the end of the road, they could be here very quickly. He hoped.
He sped across the street and could see the fire was spreading.
He ran round the side to the door that led upstairs to her flat.
He smashed through it as he heard the sirens of the fire engine in the distance.
He took the stairs two or three at a time and burst into Immy’s flat.
He looked around, realising he was in her lounge.
He’d never been in here before but there were only a few doors off the lounge and he guessed that one of the two rooms facing the front was her bedroom.
‘Immy!’ he roared.
He heard a bark from Jacob, her dog, and followed the noise, slamming through the door in seconds.
‘Xander, what the hell?’ Immy said, sitting up in bed.
‘Get up, you need to get out.’
‘What?’
He could taste the smoke.
‘Get up, there’s a fire.’ He threw back the duvet and hauled her out of her bed.
‘A fire, where?’ she asked, fear filling her voice.
‘In the shop, let’s go.’
‘No, there can’t be.’
He hoisted Jacob into his arms, passed her a pair of shoes and then grabbed her hand and practically manhandled her out of the room and down the stairs before she’d even had a chance to put them on.
The smoke from the shop was already crawling up the stairs and they had to run through the smog to get out onto the street.
Immy pulled her shoes on and Xander quickly dashed across the road and bundled Jacob through the door of his flat, then closed the door.
The last thing they needed was a lost dog too.
Immy ran round to the front of the shop and stared in horror at the flames rapidly taking over her precious shop.
He could see she wanted to go in there and fight the fire herself, but thankfully the fire engine arrived at that point.
Xander pulled her away. ‘Let them do their job.’
She let herself be led away. ‘My poor shop, it took me months to get that looking perfect. How can this be happening?’
‘I know honey, but let them put the fire out and then, tomorrow, we can assess the damage.’
Tears welled in her eyes as the firefighters smashed through her shop door and started putting the fire out.
He pulled her into his arms and held her tight as she wrapped her fingers in his t-shirt and cried against his chest. He found his hand in her hair, stroking her head as she trembled in his arms.
‘What am I going to do?’ Immy said, tearfully.
He pulled back to look at her, cupping her face with his hands. ‘I promise, we’ll fix this.’
The ambulance arrived just as the fire seemed to be put out.
‘It’s probably best you go to the hospital and get checked out,’ Xander said.
‘I’m fine. There wasn’t any smoke in my flat, you got me out before it reached me.’
He shook his head. ‘No, you don’t mess around with smoke inhalation. You could have carbon monoxide poisoning or hypoxia.’
She let out a little gasp and her hand briefly went to her stomach, tears filling her eyes once more.
Crap. He hadn’t meant to scare her. ‘I’m sure you don’t, but it’s best to be checked over, just in case.’
‘Yes, you’re right,’ Immy said as the paramedics came over.
‘And I’ll come with you.’
‘No, Xander. I need you to take Jacob to the vet’s, he might have smoke inhalation poisoning too.’
He wanted to protest because she was his priority but she was right, if he was going to insist she go to the hospital he had to make sure Jacob was OK too. He nodded.
‘I have money in my savings to cover it and he’s insured but if they need money upfront, I’ll have to pay you back,’ Immy said.
‘Please don’t worry about that now,’ Xander said.
The paramedics asked Immy to go with them to the back of the ambulance and Xander walked over to the fire brigade to discuss the extent of the damage and when they could gain access to the shop.
Disappointingly it was going to take a few days for someone to come out and assess it and no one was allowed in any part of the building until it had been declared safe.
He chanced a look in the shop and saw most of the damage was at the back, which was something at least. The firefighters assured him they would secure the shop and the flat door before they left.
He ran back into his house while the paramedics were still assessing Immy, threw some clothes on and grabbed a jumper for her.
Jacob had already made himself comfortable on the bottom of his bed, cheeky bugger.
There probably wasn’t a thing wrong with him but Xander would never forgive himself if he didn’t take him to the vets’ and the dog turned out to have smoke poisoning.
He ran back out to the ambulance to see that Immy was now wearing an oxygen mask and it made him feel sick that something could be wrong with her, that he hadn’t got to her in time.
‘Don’t look so worried,’ Immy said, her voice muffled with the mask. ‘It’s just a precaution.’
He nodded, finding it impossible not to worry. ‘Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you? I don’t like the idea of you being alone.’
‘I’ll be OK. I’ll feel happier knowing someone is looking after Jacob.’
‘Can I call anyone?’ He knew her sister, Alex, was away for the weekend with his cousin Quinn and her daughter, Zara. But he didn’t know if Immy had any other family.
She shook her head and she looked so sad his heart broke for her. He should be going with her, he hated leaving her like this.
‘OK, we’re ready to go,’ one of the paramedics said. ‘We’re going to St Sebastian hospital.’
Xander nodded. ‘Call or text me, let me know how it’s going.’
‘I haven’t got my phone.’
He cursed, of course she didn’t. ‘I’ll come to the hospital as soon as the vet has finished with Jacob.’
She nodded and, the next thing, the paramedics were shutting the door and driving off, taking a piece of his heart with him.
‘Go, he’ll be fine, I promise,’ Paige said.
Xander had been delighted when he pulled up at the emergency vets’ to find that his cousin was the duty vet that night.
Paige had examined a very excitable Jacob who was wagging his tail and trying to lick her face.
While Paige thought that Jacob was fine, she’d decided to keep him in overnight, run some tests, give him oxygen therapy just to be on the safe side.
Xander hated the thought of leaving him alone but he knew Paige was an excellent vet.
‘You’ll call me with any updates? If his condition worsens, if you find anything, you’ll call me?’
‘Of course. I’ll look after him as if he’s my own. But there’s no point you being here, you’ll just be sitting in the waiting room while I treat him out the back. Go home and get some rest.’
Xander nodded, although he had no intention of going home. ‘Thank you.’
He walked out the vets’ and got in his car, driving quickly across the hills to St Sebastian hospital.
He walked into the hospital and spoke to one of the receptionists.
‘I’m here to see Immy, umm… Imogen Berry. She was brought here earlier tonight after a house fire.’
‘Let me see… Yes, we have her. Are you a family member?’
He cursed under his breath that they wouldn’t let him see her if he wasn’t.
‘She’s my fiancée,’ he said without thinking. He scowled as he realised he liked the sound of that far too much.
‘OK, great. Let me see if I can find someone to come and talk to you and see if she’s available for a visit.’
The receptionist picked up the phone and had a brief chat with someone then put the phone down. ‘One of the nurses is coming down to talk to you.’
After just a few minutes a nurse appeared. ‘Are you Imogen’s fiancé?’
‘Yes,’ Xander said, annoyed at how easily that lie slipped off the tongue.
‘Follow me.’ They started walking down the corridor.
‘How is she?’
‘She’s fine. We’ve done multiple tests on her and she seems absolutely fine. She’s been on oxygen for a while, just as a precaution, and we’re just about to start an ultrasound so it will be good for you to be there for that.’
He wasn’t clued up with his medical knowledge, but he guessed the ultrasound would be used to have a closer look at her chest and lungs.
‘The sonographer was just about to start so you shouldn’t have missed anything.’ The nurse knocked on a door and then entered. ‘Hello Imogen, we have your fiancé here to see you.’
‘My fiancé?’ he heard Immy say in surprise.
The nurse held the door open and Xander walked in.
‘Xander, what are you doing here?’
‘I needed to make sure you were OK.’
‘I’m fine. Is Jacob OK?’
He glanced at the sonographer who was putting some kind of jelly on Immy’s stomach. Did they think that the smoke poisoning would be in her stomach or other organs too, as well as the lungs? It seemed an odd place to start the examination.
He turned his attention back to Immy. ‘He’s fine too. My cousin, Paige, was the duty vet tonight and she’s taking very good care of him. She said she wants to keep him in overnight to observe him and run some tests on him just in case, but she’s not worried.’
Immy nodded and returned her gaze to the screen. The sonographer was running the wand over Immy’s stomach and there was just a mass of shadows and blurry objects on the screen. He wasn’t sure how they could identify anything in all that.
Immy took his hand and he looked down at her in surprise. ‘I… have something to tell you.’
‘And there’s baby,’ the sonographer said. ‘I was having trouble finding the baby there for a while, but they do like to move around.’
Xander’s eyes snapped to the screen and he could very clearly see a small head, body, arms, legs, even tiny fingers and toes. And in the middle of the chest he could see the tiny heart beating away. His mouth was dry, he’d forgotten how to breathe.
‘Is… everything OK?’ Immy said.
‘Baby looks absolutely fine,’ the sonographer said. ‘But to be on the safe side we’ll have you back for another scan in four weeks. But he or she appears to be fighting fit.’
Immy’s eyes filled with tears and Xander had no idea what to do or say.
He wanted to let go of her hand but she was holding onto him so tightly, that wasn’t even possible.
He wanted to get out of here because all he could think about was how he had lost Immy for good and it was that reality that made him realise how completely stupid he’d been to push her away all this time.
Now it was too late. She was pregnant with another man’s baby and he couldn’t help feeling sick about that.