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Luke held a squirming bundle close to his chest with one arm.Jen!He reached for Sally with the other, urgently tugging her into the hallway. His presence, and Jen’s, momentarily eased her panic.
“Luke? Is Jen okay?”
“She’s fine.” Luke tugged on her arm again. “We need to go.” He had to raise his voice to be heard over the roar she hadn’t noticed until now.
Fear squeezed Sally’s stomach as she stumbled after Luke. A glance over her shoulder caught flames clawing across the ceiling and down the wall by the window, engulfing the drapes in a barrier of fire. Drapes that had cost her a small fortune—gone in the space of a heartbeat.
Oh my God! That could have been me.Her involuntary gasp forced more smoke into her lungs, and her protesting airway took over again. The more she coughed, the more smoke she inhaled. Her eyes burned and watered until she could barely see.
The farther they got from the bedrooms, the less smoke choked the air. Exiting the hallway into the living room, she jerked her arm from Luke’s grasp. “Are you sure Jen’s all right?” She tried to untangle the blankets that held her daughter.
As though in response, the bundle in his arms stretched until two arms poked from the blanket and curled around his neck. Luke’s brief smile held relief. “I’ve got her. She’s okay.” He hooked his arm around Sally’s waist and guided her toward the front door, speaking calmly in her ear, loudly enough to be heard over the fire and the blood pulsing in her temples. His voice, sure and confident, called her back from the edge of terror.
Luke turned the dead bolt and opened the door, then dashed toward the couch and grabbed his duffel bag. At the last second, Sally spotted her purse atop the cabinet where she’d forgotten it after his unexpected appearance earlier. Her credit cards were in there, as well as what little money she had. Somehow, she’d have to put a roof over their heads—they’d need clothes and other essentials. She snatched the bag and her cell phone, threw the strap over her head, then noticed a pair of Jen’s tennis shoes beneath the cabinet and snagged them before rushing through the open doorway with Luke on her heels. They jogged down the front steps, both dragging fresh air into their lungs, causing them to work overtime to force the smoke out. When Luke finally stopped, she dropped to her knees in the grass at the edge of the street and gave in to the uncontrollable need to cough.
Finally, she was able to take a breath and then another, without her lungs starting to spasm. She wiped her eyes and eagerly turned to Luke as he dropped to the ground across from her and set the precious contents of his bundle on the ground. Jen shrugged out of the blanket, her eyes wide, but otherwise she was perfectly safe. Tears welling, she reached for Sally and sank into her arms.
Sally sought Luke’s gaze as she hugged her daughter, needing him to know how grateful she was for saving her little girl. He was staring over her head, and the flames, leaping from the blackened shell of her home, reflected in his eyes. A chill feathered up her spine and she trembled.
Luke lowered his head and met her gaze. “Are you okay?”
Sally held Jen tighter. “Yeah…now I am. Do you know how the fire started?”
He lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. “No, but old houses usually have old wiring. An electrical surge or a spark from a bare wire could have ignited whatever you had stored in the attic.”
“Why the attic?”
“The fire started above us, burned across the ceiling and down the curtains before the main floor became engulfed. The local fire marshal should be able to determine the cause after it’s out.” Luke stretched full length on the grass, leaning on one elbow, and searched her face.
He looked away, a sad expression dulling his eyes, reminding her how they’d left things between them. Their earlier conversation seemed as though it had taken place a lifetime ago. The world had changed in an instant. As hard as Sally had been sleeping, absent Luke banging on the wall, it was doubtful she’d have waked before inhaling enough smoke to kill her. And Jen—she couldn’t even think about what might have happened to her daughter.
She owed Luke a debt she’d never be able to repay…for saving both of them. The slight she’d suffered in Bethesda no longer seemed the unforgiveable sin it had before. He’d come here to explain and apologize…and ended up saving their lives. That was worth something, wasn’t it?
Jen pulled free of Sally’s arms, sliding down onto the grass beside her. It was all Sally could do to let her go. “Are you hurt anywhere, honey? Are you warm enough?”
“I’m fine, Mom. May I go talk to Tiffany?” She pointed toward her babysitter and some other girls she knew from the neighborhood a few feet away.
Let Jen out of her sight?“Oh, honey. I’d rather you stayed right here so—”
“Sally?” Luke drew her attention, his voice brimming with quiet strength. “She’ll be all right. I’ll go with her. Okay with you, Jen?” He stood and offered her a hand up.
“Sure.” Jen reached for his hand and scrambled to her feet. “Is it okay, Mom?”
Sally managed to nod even though the last thing she wanted at the moment was to be separated from her daughter. She did a halfway decent job of returning Luke’s smile before he and Jen walked away.
Gradually, Sally became aware of other people standing nearby, of voices and sirens in the distance. She recognized Tiffany’s mother, Gretchen, when the woman who’d lived next door for the past ten years bent down and squeezed her shoulder.
“I called nine-one-one as soon as I saw the flames coming from the roof. The fire trucks will be here any second. Are you and Jen all right?” Gretchen eyed Luke curiously.
That explained the sirens getting closer by the minute. Sally patted Gretchen’s hand. “We’re fine now. Thanks for calling the fire department.” Gretchen nodded and moved away to await the firemen before Sally could tell her they might not have made it out if it hadn’t been for Luke. She looked around for him and found him standing nearby, one arm around Jen’s shoulders.
The fire engine, sirens screaming and red lights twirling on the roof of the truck, raced down the block and stopped in front of her house. Firemen jumped from every opening and began unrolling hoses. They pushed the small crowd of neighbors that had gathered farther into the street as they prepared to douse the flames with water.
Luke knelt in front of her with Jen’s blanket in his hand, and placed it around Sally’s shoulders. It wasn’t until then she realized she was sitting in her front yard with nothing on but a stretchy knit tank top and panties. She experienced a brief moment of wishing she could drop through the earth’s crust until she put it in perspective: being alive was the only thing that mattered. Still, she had no doubt her face was crimson when she met Luke’s gaze.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
He smiled, regarding her with those expressive brown eyes that had hypnotized her more than once. Though very glad Luke was here, this wasn’t the time to explore residual feelings. He must have come to the same conclusion. Rising to his feet, his gaze swept the milling crowd. She searched for Jen again and found her, her small hand held in Tiffany’s larger one as they both sat on the curb beside Gretchen. Reassured, Sally turned to watch the firemen efficiently quenching the flames on the roof. From the corner of her eye, she saw Luke pull his cell phone from his pocket and move away from the noise of the group clustered in front of her house.
