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No grudge.
No animosity.
Not even a declaration that he’d been waiting for me to say I was sorry.
I was beginning to think the man wasn’t real.
Only, now that there was a knock at my door when I hadn’t been expecting anyone, I had no choice but to assume it was him.
I quickly glanced out the window and confirmed my suspicions.
It was Jack.
Even if I wanted to pretend that I wasn’t home or that I was already in bed sleeping, I couldn’t. Because the moment I looked out and saw him standing there, his eyes landed on me.
Without a way to escape, I had no choice but to move to the door and open it.
So, that’s what I did.
“Hi, Jack,” I greeted him when I opened the door.
Seeing him again made me feel an odd mix of stress and relief. Stress because this was Jack, and something about him made me nervous. Or maybe it was that I didn’t trust that I was strong enough in my convictions about my future. The relief I felt was because this was Jack, and he was unbelievably handsome with a beautiful voice. I was convinced that one look at him could calm even the most tense of individuals.
Concern was written all over his expression. “Your chimney is on fire.”
My body tensed at his declaration. “What?”
Jack’s eyes dropped to my feet momentarily before they returned to my face. “I’d show you, but you only have socks on your feet.”
“Did you say my chimney is on fire?” I asked.
He nodded his head. “Yes.”
My body was no longer tense. It was trembling. “Oh, God. I have to call the fire department,” I panicked.
“Relax,” Jack urged as he pushed inside without an invitation and moved right to the fireplace. As he shrugged off his jacket, he said, “I’ll take care of it for you.”
For the next few minutes, I watched in awe as this man I didn’t know a thing about worked to put out my chimney fire. I didn’t even know how he knew my chimney was on fire when I had been inside the cabin and didn’t know it.
As he worked, I didn’t bother him. I let him do his thing, uninterrupted.
But once he finished and stood, he asked, “Do you have a space heater?”
I blinked my eyes in surprise as I shook my head. “A space heater?”
Nodding, he clarified, “As a backup heating source.”
I shook my head.
Jack thought for a moment and said, “I’ll be right back.”
With that, he pulled his jacket back on, crossed the room, and walked out the front door. I had no idea what was going on.
Was my chimney still on fire?
Where had Jack gone?
Why did I need a supplemental heating source?
