Stranger Read online

  “Call the fire department!” I shouted this to a startled-looking Shelly who’d come out from behind her desk at the commotion we made hurtling ourselves through the door to the ramp.

  Shelly didn’t hesitate, just picked up the phone and dialed as, panting, Jared and I flew down the hall. Jared slid on the tile floor of the entryway between where we were and Shelly’s desk and wiped out.

  “Jared!” Shelly shrieked, and dropped the phone. She ran to him and knelt, even as he groaned, tried to sit. “Are you all right?”

  His hand, wet, came up to clutch the pristine white sleeve of her demure button-down blouse. It left a print. “Yeah. I just about busted my ass, but—”

  Leaving Shelly to tend her wounded soldier, I grabbed up the handset she’d dropped and dialed 9-1-1, explaining quickly what we needed before hanging up again. In seconds the ringing of the phone distracted me from the intimate picture before me, and I was glad to have someplace else to look.

  “Frawley and Sons, can you hold—”

  “Grace?”

  “Yes?” I answered automatically, reaching for the pen and message pad to write down the number, for surely I’d need to call him back after I dealt with the fire department. I could still smell smoke, and visions of my house on fire made my fingers clumsy enough to drop the pen.

  “Are you all right?”

  It was the same thing Shelly had just asked Jared, and I stopped my restless fumbling and went still. “Who’s this?”

  “It’s Sam.”

  The fire station was no more than a block away, and yet the crew still used the sirens.

  They were loud enough to make conversation difficult, should I have been able to think of something to say, which I could not.

  “Grace? Are those sirens?”

  “Sorry,” I blurted as I watched through the windows for the truck pulling into the parking lot. “I can’t really talk right now.”

  “Grace, wait! Don’t hang up—”

  “Sam, my washing machine exploded and I think there’s a fire!” I cried. “I can’t talk now!”

  The fire truck slid into place along the curb and Dave Lentini hopped out along with Bill Stoner and Jeff Cranford. I’d gone to school with Dave and Bill, and Jeff had been a year ahead of us. In their firefighters’ outfits they looked exotic and sexier than usual, even though I knew they weren’t going to start bumping and grinding and stripping out of them. I yanked open the back door for them and waved them inside.

  “The basement,” I said. “Be careful, a wire pulled loose and there’s water—”

  “Got it.” Jeff pointed to his heavy rubber-soled boots. He hefted a handheld chemical-fire extinguisher and I felt immediately foolish for not using the almost identical one we kept in the prep room.

  “Is he okay?” Bill, not just the local firefighter but also an EMT, jerked a thumb at Jared, who was now sitting up with Shelly’s help.

  “He slipped.”

  “I’ll take a look.”

  Dave and Jeff headed toward the basement stairs while Bill gently shooed Shelly away from Jared, whose face had gone pale. In the seconds it took my heart to slow its adrenaline-induced pounding, I realized I still held the phone against my ear. Sam’s breathing tickled my ear.

  “Sounds like you’re having quite the day,” he said.

  “We’ve had an accident. I really have to go.”

  “Grace, wait. Is everything all right? Are the firefighters there?”

  “Yes.” In fact, Jeff had already reappeared and given me a thumbs-up, situation under control, A-OK. “They’re here. I think it’s going to be all right.”

  I waited. My heart started its frantic thumping again.

  “I want to take you to dinner.”

  “I’m busy tonight.” It wasn’t quite a lie. The mess downstairs would practically guarantee I’d be busy tonight and for a lot of nights in the future.

  “Tomorrow night.”

  “Sam—”

  “Why not?” His question sounded reasonable enough to deserve a reasonable answer, or at least a legitimate excuse, but I had none.

  “I just can’t, okay? I’m sorry, Sam, but I can’t do this right now. I’ve got to go.”

  Jared was still not on his feet. Worry etched Shelly’s pretty face. She’d taken his hand in hers, their fingers linked as Bill felt around Jared’s ankle. I listened hard for sounds from downstairs, but Jeff had disappeared again and I heard nothing.

  “I can’t stop thinking about you.”

  My thumb, which had been creeping toward the disconnect button, stopped. I pressed the phone momentarily closer against my head, and the back of my earring bit into the softness behind my ear. My lips parted, and a sigh escaped me.

  “Just have dinner with me.”

  I closed my eyes and the world settled into darkness around me, just long enough for me to pull in a breath. Then another. I thought of blue eyes and dark hair, and the taste of him. The way he’d felt inside me.

  I didn’t believe in white tunnels of light; and I didn’t believe in fate.

  “I’m sorry. I really have to go.”

  Before he could say anything more to change my mind, I ended the call and turned my attention to the disaster in front of me.

  “What a mess.” My dad clucked his tongue and surveyed the laundry room.

  “No kidding.” I rubbed my forehead. The fire had fortunately been put out before it had time to do more than singe the rafters, but the heavy, electrical smell of the smoke still hung in the damp air. The water from the burst connection had all swirled down the drain in the floor, but a thin film of sludge still clung to everything the water had touched. It was going to take hours of labor to clean.

  I hadn’t really wanted my dad to come, but once he heard about the fire, there was no keeping him away. He was already pissed off I’d waited until the next morning to call him. My excuse had been that I’d assumed he’d have already heard about it. Annville didn’t keep secrets very long, and more than one of my parents’ neighbors kept their police scanners on all the time.

  “The cleaning service will be here in the morning to take care of it. And Jared’s got to stay off his ankle for a day or so.” I pressed my middle finger between my eyes to stave off the headache.

  My dad shot me a look. “Cleaning service? How much is that going to cost?”

  Irritated, I gave him a look right back. “A lot. Of course.”

  The frown he pulled told me he didn’t much care for my attitude, but then I didn’t much care for his. “If you got started now—”

  “Dad!” For once, he stopped, so I didn’t have to talk over him. “I’m not doing this myself.

  I need the cleaning service to take care of this because it has to be done right, and it’s too much for me to do myself. It would take me days and even then, I don’t have the equipment. So lay off, okay?”

  My dad huffed. “I’m just thinking of the cost, Grace.”

  “Dad. I’ve got it covered. Stuff like this happens. We’ll be fine.”

  Sure. If I planned to survive on ramen noodles and bargain-priced mac-n-cheese for a few months. It wouldn’t be the first time, but it still sucked. I could deal with the reduced grocery budget, but this also meant my social life was going to be seriously curtailed. That sucked even worse.

  My dad sighed and put his hands on his hips. “I can come in. Get a start.”

  “Dad, no!” I mirrored his stance. “I don’t need you to do that.”

  He looked around again at the mess, then back at me. “With Jared out, you’ll need some help around here, won’t you?”

  “I’ll be fine. I won’t be going anywhere, anyway.” Not without the money to pay for my dates. Sam’s phone call rose to the top of my mind like a raisin in champagne, refusing to stay down no matter how I tried to squash it.

  “How much is it going to cost?”

  I tossed up my hands and left the room, leaving him to contemplate the damage I’d

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