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“She and Ash and Muffy”—he swallowed—“they’re . . .” He closed his eyes. “They have to make it,” he whispered.
“I need to see them.” I threw off my covers and tried to scoot off the bed.
“You need to recover. Dr. Lyons is taking good care of them. Lincoln is with the others at the Elliotts’. Everyone is going to be okay.”
I wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince me or himself. But Teague didn’t make empty promises.
“Thank you,” I said as he covered me up again. “You saved us.”
“How’d the fire start?” He brushed off any thanks, though I hadn’t expected any different. It was who he was.
“I don’t know.” I flitted through my memories from the evening before. “I’d put most of the dogs downstairs to get ready for supper. The fire inspector came by—”
“Fire inspector?” Teague asked sharply.
“Yeah. They come by every so often.” That was nothing unusual. The time was a little strange, but I figured they were overloaded with work.
“Who was it?”
I tried to think. I was so tired. Everything was a struggle. “I’m not sure he said. I-I can’t remember.”
Teague brushed the hair back from my face. “That’s okay. Do you feel up to telling me what happened next?”
I closed my eyes, looking back at the rescue.
“He needed to see upstairs. Miss Adeline and those three hadn’t come down. I warned him about the dogs. He suggested I close us all in a room while he looked around. That it wouldn’t take long.”
If he hadn’t said it, I would have. The dogs were sweet and generally well-behaved, but I never knew how they’d react to strangers. They’d been happy to have more time with us in my room.
“Sadie started barking from the other side of the door. I thought she wanted her supper.”
“Then we smelled smoke,” Miss Adeline said.
“We couldn’t get the door to my room open.” I’d yanked and tugged. I even tried to find a screwdriver in my drawers to no avail.
“The inspector didn’t help you?” Teague made a valiant effort to keep his voice neutral but failed to mask his anger. Had the inspector blocked the door somehow?
“We yelled—”
“He never answered,” Miss Adeline finished.
“The smoke got so bad so quickly. I couldn’t remember if I should open a window or not, so I did.” Had that been the wrong thing to do? Short of breaking down the door, I hadn’t seen another option.
“It's best not to because oxygen fuels the fire. But it was your only way out so you did the right thing.”
He eased my unspoken fears that I’d made the situation worse. “Hopefully I won’t need to remember again.” I never wanted to go through another fire again.
“Would you be able to identify the inspector if you saw him?” Teague asked with the respect of someone who had been through a situation like this before.
He made the whole thing so much easier than if he weren’t here.
“I think so.”
He kissed my forehead again. “Rest now. And don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”
“Always is,” Miss Adeline said as if she hadn’t just lost all her worldly possessions.
It didn’t matter. We had what was most important.
