When Annie’s phone rang at seven o’clock on Sunday morning, she had to untangle herself from Chase’s limbs in order to answer it. To her relief, he seemed oblivious and just rolled over at the disturbance.
“Hello?”
“Annie? It’s Jason. Are you still at Chase’s?” There was an urgency in Chase’s brother’s voice that set off an alarm in her head.
“I am.” Still disoriented, she sat up. “Why? Do you need to talk to him? He’s here. What’s going on?”
“No. Hold on a second.” There was a lot of noise in the background, and she heard him tell someone that she was okay. “I’m back.”
“What’s going on, Jason?”
“I’m downtown. There’s a fire in the block where your shop is. They’re trying to contain it, but it doesn’t look good. I wanted to make sure you were safe. I’m sorry.”
“What?” For a moment, she sat there, stunned, then she moved toward the side of the bed. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
As she got to her feet, Chase rolled over. “What’s wrong?”
“There’s a fire downtown.” She snatched up her clothes from the chair.
Before she made it to the bathroom, he was sitting up on the side of the bed. “Say what? There’s a fire?” he asked, his voice husky with sleep.
“Yes. That was Jason,” she told him over her shoulder. “It’s in the block where the shop is, and it’s spreading. I’ve got to get down there.”
She closed the bathroom door. When she came out a couple of minutes later, he was emerging from the closet, zipping up a pair of jeans.
“I’ll drive.” He scooped his keys and wallet from the dish on the dresser, and within a couple of minutes, they were on their way downtown. As he drove, he asked, “Is that all you know? That there’s a fire?”
“That’s all Jason said. God, I hope they can stop it before it does too much damage.”
The traffic going into downtown Leroy was practically nonexistent, and they reached the square in less than five minutes. As they circled the roundabout next to the courthouse, Annie’s heart sank.
Flames were shooting from the second-story windows in the building next to her shop. It housed a real estate company and a small magic shop. The three-story building on the other side of the magic shop, on the opposite end of the block from Annie’s Arbor, had partially collapsed and appeared to be a total loss.
“Oh, no.”
She felt as much as heard Chase’s indrawn breath. That heavily damaged building had housed his family’s law firm for over fifty years. Even though he had his own separate practice, coming on the heels of J.R.’s death, the destruction was a particularly cruel blow.
“Oh, Chase. I’m sorry,” she said, laying a hand on his arm.
He shook his head as he parked on the side of the square opposite the burning buildings, in front of the offices of the Olman County Journal. “What a damned mess of a week.”
They didn’t speak as they hurried across the park in the middle of the square. Several people were milling around, watching the fight to save the buildings. Annie recognized most of them as the owners of the businesses that lined the town square.
“There’s Jason and your uncle John.” She pointed toward a picnic table in the middle of the park.
Chase ushered her in that direction, not stopping to talk with anyone on the way. As they approached, she saw that both John Hudson and Jason wore grim expressions, but Jason’s relaxed slightly when he saw them.
“Hey. It isn’t looking good, Annie. I’m so sorry.” He gave her a hug then did the same with Chase. “Good to have you home. When did you get in?”
“Early this morning.” Chase accepted John’s hand. “Any idea what happened?”
The older man spread his hands. “No. You know we’ve been renovating the offices. The fire chief speculated that might have something to do with it, but he won’t know for sure until they can get in there. They’re hoping they can stop the fire before it spreads to your shop, Annie. I’m glad you weren’t in there this morning.”
She acknowledged his words with a small, strained smile. “So am I. It hasn’t been a good week, has it? I was so sorry to hear about your father, John.”
“Thank you.”
“How’s Grandmother holding up?” Chase asked.
John moved to sit on the picnic table with a groan, his eyes going back to the fire as though drawn there. “You know how she gets. It’s hard to tell. Olivia and I have stayed with her since it happened. Sometimes she seems fine, and other times she’s lost. I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet that Dad’s gone.”
The three men exchanged a look full of unspoken concern. Ethel Hudson wasn’t an easy woman on a good day. Now that J.R. was gone, how she would respond was anyone’s guess, but it would certainly be an uncomfortable time for everyone.
For several minutes, no one spoke as they watched the firefighters work with ladders and heavy streams of water.
“You know, if this had to happen, now is probably as good a time as ever,” John mused as Annie sat beside him.
She frowned. “How so?”
“Well, we moved all the records out of the building and into the temporary offices while the foundation was being fixed and the new filing system was installed. Those files are the most important things in the office. Essentially, they’re the practice more than anything—other than the people. Losing them would be devastating.
“Plus, you weren’t home when the fire started, and none of the other apartments are occupied right now. Who knows what might have happened? If this had started at any other time, the loss could have been much worse than what it’s going to be.” He sighed. “I don’t know if Sammy’s going to feel as lucky. This will be another hard blow for her.”
Sammy Bolen, the mayor’s wife, owned the real estate company. Last fall, their young son, Taylor, had been killed in a car accident that had left her brother-in-law, Reese Bolen, paralyzed from the waist down.
“It’s a damned shame, that’s for sure.” Chase inclined his head at Jason. “Let’s go see if we can get an update.”
Annie rubbed her arms as she watched them walk away. “The last few months haven’t been easy for a lot of people in this town.”
“No,” John agreed. “They haven’t. And somehow, I don’t think it’s going to get any easier in the weeks to come.”
“I know it has to be especially difficult for you, watching this, and of all the times… anyhow, I’m really sorry.”
“It hasn’t been a great week—that’s a fact. It could have been worse, however, so I’ll take the blessings where I find them. If Dad was still here, this would do him in. At least he didn’t have to see this.”
She swiped at her eyes. “At least there’s that.” She’d owned Annie’s Arbor for seven years, and watching it smolder, knowing she was going to lose everything, was tearing her apart. She wasn’t terribly sentimental so far as things were concerned, but she did have possessions in the apartment over the store that would be hard to replace. “Like you said, the files and the people are the important pieces. Everything else is just stuff.”
He patted her shoulder, then squeezed it softly. “We’ll rebuild.”
“Yes, we will.”
But God, it was hard, watching the dream die. She had insurance, all her records were electronic and stored in the cloud, and she had a lot of friends in the community. But it wasn’t their livelihood being destroyed, it was hers, and for now, all she could do was watch and grieve.