in a flurry of activity, their bulky suits and reflective tape flashing in the failing sunlight.
“Stay here, Mia. Evangeline, you make her stay,” Denny warned as he ran toward the firefighters calling out that there were people in the building yet. One of the firefighters spoke with him while others donned masks and hooked tanks over their bulky coats. There were still more who worked in a rhythm, laying out the hoses, hooking them to the nearest fire hydrant. Instructions were called out, verified as the men with masks grabbed their axes and entered the front of the store.
Then, with a whistle of steam, water was poured onto the building and into the open window. Then more sirens as ambulances came, blue-and-red lights strobing through the smoke and gathering dusk.
Neither Evangeline nor Denny spoke as the drama unfolded in front of them, but Mia felt their hands on her, holding her back, yet at the same time, comforting her.
“Dear Lord, please keep Jeff and Nate safe. Help them to get Angie, Nico and Josh out of the store,” she heard Evangeline praying aloud.
Mia couldn’t pray, her gaze stuck on the building. The brick facade was now charred with smoke and dripping with water as the flames momentarily retreated. Where were the boys? Jeff? Nate? Time ceased as her world narrowed down to the building with smoke pouring out of the windows, the shouts of the firemen, the drone of water pumps, the hiss of flames being extinguished and the cries of the onlookers now gathered along the street.
Then another wave of noise caught her attention. It came from a side avenue. People shouting. Cheering.
Then she saw them.
Jeff, limping as he carried Josh, supported by Angie.
And behind him, Nate holding Nico close, his head tucked against his neck.
Mia ran toward them, her heart threatening to burst in her chest.
“Josh. Nico.” She reached out her arms to take them. But just as she got close, EMT personnel came between her and her boys, taking them from Jeff and Nate and escorting Angie to the ambulance.
“Those are my boys,” she called out, desperate to find out how they were.
“They’re okay.” Nate came up beside her, reeking of smoke, his face smeared with soot. She caught at him, her fingers digging into his arm.
“Are you sure? Are you sure?”
Nate looked down at her, then gave her a tentative smile. “We managed to get them out before the fire got too intense.”
Her legs gave out as the reaction sank in. Nate caught her before she fell. “C’mon, let’s go see how your boys are,” he said, slipping his arm around her shoulder and holding her up. Together they walked to the ambulance, him supporting her, her entire attention focused like a laser on the back of the ambulance.
Yet, at the same time, she was filled with gratitude for the man holding her up. The man who had rescued her sons.
* * *
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Denny held Nate’s gaze with an intensity Nate tried to ignore. It only reminded him of how close he and Jeff had cut things getting Angie, Nico and Josh out of the building.
“The paramedic said I’m fine, so I’ll take his word for that.” Nate leaned forward in the hard plastic chair of the hospital waiting room, and subconsciously tapped his foot on the shining surface floor. The sharp, antiseptic smell of the hospital brought back memories he thought he’d buried. Spent too much time here as a kid.
“You should never have run into that building, you know,” Denny said.
“I had training,” Nate protested, fighting the urge to get up and pace. “That other guy, Jeff, he couldn’t get two kids and that woman out on his own. If we had waited till the fire department showed up, it might have been too late.”
He didn’t want to let his mind go too far down that road. In spite of his work as a volunteer fireman, he knew he would be reliving that harrowing search for months to come. The heat of the floor in Mia’s apartment. The horror that gripped him when he made it to the bed and didn’t find the little boy in it as Angie had said. His panicked sweep of the room only to find the little boy huddled in a closet, his arms wrapped around his knees.
Denny sat back in his chair and gave him a smile. “You’re quite something, little brother. But you should let the doctor check you over.”
“I’m fine. I just want to make sure that kid, Nico, is okay.” The boy had scared him. When Nate pulled him out of the closet, he’d gone limp and Nate had to drag him out of the room and back down the stairs.
“Is Evangeline okay with taking care of those baby girls?” He wanted to talk about something else.
“Yeah. She’s used to handling babies after little Ella came into our lives a couple of months ago.”
“Hey, I was sorry to hear about your ex-wife’s death,” Nate said, a note of sympathy in his voice.
“It took some adjusting. Especially since Lila’s sister dropped that bomb the same time she dropped Ella off on my doorstep because she didn’t want to take care of her anymore.”
“I still can’t believe I’ve got a two-year-old niece,” Nate said, letting a smile curve his lips. “And you’re getting married again in a couple of months.”
“I can’t believe it, either, but I have to say, I highly recommend it.”
Nate just snorted. “Being single is better for a guy like me. Less chance to get hurt.” He stopped himself there. Denny always made him say more than he wanted.
He remembered coming to the Norquest ranch a young, angry boy of twelve, abused by his stepfather. Denny’s family worked his way past the defenses Nate had spent the first twelve years of his life erecting.
The Norquests surrounded him with love and laughter and gave him a vision of a life that was good. Olivia, Trista and Adrianna teased him the same way they teased Denny. Steve and Donna Norquest treated him like their own. After two years of living with them he started calling them Mom and Dad.
Then, when Denny was seventeen, they died in a small plane crash, reinforcing the one belief he had clung to since his mother left him with an abusive stepfather.
Letting people into your life hurt.
“You’ll change your mind someday,” Denny said with a conviction that created a tinge of frustration in Nate.
But Nate preferred to keep his comments to himself.
Evangeline came toward them pushing the baby stroller and gave them both a quick smile. “I’ll keep moving,” she whispered as she passed them. “The girls are sleeping. I just called Olivia and she said she would stay until we came back.”
Denny nodded and leaned back, seemingly content to just sit.
Nate envied him his composure. He couldn’t sit still. Too much had happened too quickly. He was still processing his accident and now this?
He tapped his fingers together and blew out his breath, feeling as if the walls
