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Chapter Four
Elise stepped backinto the darkness of Main Street.
Back inside, through the glass, she heard voices.
“Apparently, she’s been going around town telling people that our dad is her dad?” Alex said.
“What? What are you talking about? She’s just a tourist,” Tracey returned.
“No, she’s not. She’s here to squeeze whatever money she can from us. Other women have tried to do it before. Don’t you remember that incident about five years ago?”
Elise couldn’t believe this. She wanted to run back in there, try to set the record straight. But she didn’t have legs to stand on. She didn’t have any proof.
She turned back toward her BnB, her shoulders hunched forward. Devastation was the word for it. The universe had handed her a brand-new family, and that family didn’t want anything to do with her.
The walk back toward the Willow Grove Bed and Breakfast felt much longer than normal. Elise’s legs strained beneath her; she crossed her thin arms across her chest, shivering. As she approached, she heard a yell, then the sound of smashing glass. At first, she thought nothing of it. Calabasas was a safe place—of course, it was—but she also knew the chaos of the city, knew that you could never fully guess what would happen next. If someone wanted to throw a bottle or scream someone’s name...
But when she spotted the Willow Grove Bed and Breakfast, she stopped short.
Every single part of her body froze.
Because the Willow Grove Bed and Breakfast was now on fire.
Fire flickered up across the top floors, cruising down toward her bedroom, eating up the shingles and cracking the windows. It was oddly beautiful—like a painting against the dark backdrop of the sky. Elise thought of her dresses, hanging in the closet, of her shoes, lined up side-by-side, of her sweatshirts and her pairs of jeans, of a few books she’d brought, of the bed, she’d laid in earlier that day, crying.
All of it would be burnt to a crisp.
How about that?
Elise spotted Connell up toward the front of the crowd. He had his arm slung over his son, Marvin, and he shook with tears. Elise marched toward him and tapped his back. When Connell spotted her, his face scrunched up even more with sadness.
“Oh, Elise! I was so worried about you.”
Connell fell forward and wrapped her in a teary hug. Marvin looked awkward, his eyes turning from Elise to the BnB, and back again.
“You were our only guest,” Connell said, sniffling. “And I looked for you everywhere after I realized the fire had started...”
“He really did,” Marvin reported. “I almost tore his head off. Literally the opposite of what you’re supposed to do...”
That moment, the fire department arrived. They attached their hoses to fire hydrants, and then, parabolas of bright water spurted through the air and splattered the old bed and breakfast. The people in the crowd grew quieter, watching, as though their intense concentration made the water work better.
But already, there had been too much damage. The place was too old, too crunchy; it fell under the fire, bending itself over. A hundred years of history disappeared.
“Connell. I’m so, so sorry,” Elise offered.
But words weren’t enough.
“Elise? Elise!” Wayne barreled through the crowd and appeared, gasping, beside her. His eyes were bloodshot. “What the hell happened? When I walked back into the restaurant, Alex was there, and he was screaming about you to Tracey...”
Elise’s eyes bugged out of her head.
“And now, the Willow Grove?” Wayne cried, flashing his hands forward.
Elise had the funniest feeling that she wanted to fall forward, drop her head against his chest, and cry and cry until she couldn’t cry anymore.
There was a lot of chaos while the fire department put out the flames. Wayne placed his hands on his hips and grunted to himself, then finally rushed up to one of the firefighters to ask if he could do anything. From what Elise heard, they’d known each other for a long time. The firefighter said only to try to keep the crowd back; there wasn’t enough room for the firefighters to do their job. Wayne took this job seriously. He donned one of the firefighter hats and leaped to the front of the crowd to push people back.
“Nothing to see here, folks,” he told them. “Everyone’s out. Nobody was injured. We’re going to close out the fire and get back home ourselves. Heck, it’s late—why don’t you guys find your way back to your hotels and bed and breakfasts, huh? You can read about this tomorrow.”
