three books with you now.”
Nate just grinned. “There are two in my truck and a few more in my backpack.”
Denny shook his head. “Of course there are.”
The other baby girl in the stroller the older lady was pushing around let out a squawk, which made him wonder how Mia was making out with the little girl. And then he wondered why he cared. Someone like her was so out of his comfort zone, she may as well be in another country. It would be difficult enough for him to bring another person into his life, let alone another person with four kids. Then the back door of the store opened up and Mia came out, and in spite of his self-talk he couldn’t stop himself from taking another look.
She was petite. Cute. Her dark hair cut in a short, pixie-looking cut. Her brown eyes were like a doe’s, large, brown, thick-lashed and held a hint of sadness. This, in turn, created a protective urge that surprised him.
He pushed down the reaction. He was in no position to protect anyone. He was having a hard enough time taking care of himself.
“Everything okay?” Evangeline asked as Mia walked over to where the older lady named Sophie stood, reading a book with one hand, pushing the stroller back and forth with another.
“Yeah. She’s settled. Hopefully that lasts until I get back to the store.”
“Hey, Mia,” Denny said. “Nate and I came to take Evangeline out for supper. You want to join us?”
“Sorry,” Mia said with a smile of regret. “I have to catch Zach’s father before he quits for the night and I’ve got a ton of other things to do yet.”
She didn’t look at Nate this time and he was confident he was part of the reason she turned down the invitation. He felt like he should apologize for his reaction but then caught himself. Apologizing was Denny’s thing.
He was always the one who felt like he had to smooth things over with Olivia, Adrianna and Trista. Nate would hunker down, avoid eye contact and keep himself from getting caught in the emotional storms. They usually blew over quickly in the Norquest family.
As for Mia, Nate knew he wouldn’t be spending much time with her. As soon as Tango was healed, he would be on the road again. Back to a life that he was more comfortable with.
Just him and his horses and no one depending on him.
Chapter Two
Was that smoke she smelled?
Mia took another sniff as she walked out of the grocery store, the evening light slanting over the parking lot. Probably just her overactive imagination.
As she came around the corner of Mug Shots, she heard Evangeline call her name. She was leaving the café, Denny and Nate right behind her.
“You only now finished your grocery shopping?” Evangeline asked.
“Talking to Zach took longer than I thought, and the grocery store was busy today.” As they walked along the street, she tried to ignore Nate’s presence behind them. She didn’t need to mix up her life by getting distracted by someone like him.
“Is that smoke I smell?” Nate asked.
“Yeah. I thought I smelled it, too.” Then she looked up and saw a plume of black smoke in the sky above Mug Shots. Her heart stopped.
“Looks like it’s coming from Main Street,” she said as she hurried her steps, trying to shake off the idea that it could be her store and home. Then she took another look and saw smoke twining around the telltale crooked brick chimney of her store. Panic clenched her stomach as she grabbed the handles of her stroller and hurried down the street.
“Mia. Wait,” Denny called out, but she ignored him, her panic growing with each step. And then she came around the corner.
“It’s my store.” Her legs turned to rubber as she clung to the handles of the stroller. “My boys. My boys.” She started across the street, unable to move fast enough.
Someone caught her by the arm. She shook it off, her entire focus on the smoke pouring out of her store and flames starting to curl up from the roof. She started walking again, but then an arm snaked around her waist. “Don’t. Stay here,” Nate’s voice growled in her ear as his iron-hard arm clamped her against him. “You can’t do anything.”
“My boys. My boys are in there.” She thrashed against his hands, her fear and panic twisting like the flames now flickering from the roof. “My boys and Angie.”
She heard the squawk of a two-way radio and then heard another voice behind her.
She spun around. Jeff Deptuck, a local fireman, stood beside her, his cell phone to his ear and a two-way radio in his other hand. She grabbed at him. “Jeff. They’re not here yet. My boys are in there with Angie.”
“Are you sure?” Jeff’s gaze was suddenly intent on hers. “Angie and your boys?”
“Look, someone is at the window,” Nate called out.
It was Angie, waving. She was probably trapped.
“The trucks are out of town. They won’t be here for another ten minutes,” Jeff called out. “Someone get an extension ladder from the hardware store.”
A tall man broke away from the group that had gathered and ran down the street.
“By the time he gets the ladder out, it’s going to be too late,” Mia called out.
“We’ll have to go in up the stairs at the back,” Jeff said.
“I’m coming with you,” Nate said. “I’ve worked as a volunteer firefighter.”
“You listen to me and do exactly what I say,” Jeff warned, his voice stern.
Then without another word, Jeff dashed across the street then ducked into the gap between the buildings to get to the alley, Nate right behind him.
“Make sure she doesn’t go anywhere,” Nate said to Denny, then ran across the street after Jeff.
Mia pulled at Denny’s hands that held her arms like a vise. “I need to go and help them,” she called out. “I know how to get in.”
But Denny pulled Mia back again as the ominous sound of fire crackling battled with the growing wail of sirens.
But it was only a police car that came down Main Street.
“The fire trucks aren’t coming,” Mia sobbed, pulling ineffectually at Denny’s hands. She stared up at Angie’s panicked figure in the window. “They won’t get here in time.”
Then Angie disappeared and Mia’s heart turned to ice.
She couldn’t watch, but she couldn’t look away, thoughts, fears and half-formed images seething and twisting through her tortured mind.
The policemen got out and moved the gathering crowd back.
Mia’s entire attention was on
