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“You can heat up the bottle in the microwave in the book club room if you need to feed her,” Evangeline offered.
As Mia reached into the diaper bag to get a bottle she caught Nate frowning at her.
“Those are your kids?” he asked.
She didn’t imagine the shuttering of his expression. Nor the step he took away from them. Like a rejection of her girls. Like Al.
“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know you were—”
“A mom?” Mia couldn’t stop the hint of annoyance entering her voice. “It gets worse. There’s two more of these at home and no father,” she said, reality extinguishing the small attraction she had allowed herself to feel. Nate wasn’t the first man put off by her brood.
She bounced Grace in her arms then turned back to Evangeline. “I’ll heat up her milk and feed her. Thanks for the books. I’ll pay for them on my way out.”
“You know you don’t have to—”
“I’ll pay for them on my way out,” she insisted, unable to stop herself from shooting a quick glance at Nate. He was still looking at her but the pity on his face ignited a flare of annoyance.
She juggled her baby in one hand and with the other worked the stroller around the desk. It caught on the corner and the diaper bag fell off, spilling diapers, bottles, snack packages, extra clothes and old cookies all over the floor.
Of course this would happen as she was trying to make a quick getaway. Of course this would happen in front of this handsome, single guy.
“Here. Let me help you.” Nate stepped toward her and bent over to straighten the mess just as she reached for the bag. His hand brushed hers and to her dismay she felt a faint tingle again.
“I’m okay. I got this,” she returned as Grace’s wails grew in intensity.
But Nate set her and the large diaper bag on end.
“I’ll take care of Jennifer.” Sophie Brouwer made a sudden appearance and before Mia could say anything she wheeled the stroller and its lone passenger away. Evangeline showed up with a broom and nudged Mia aside. “I can finish this,” she said.
“You should take care of your little girl,” Nate said, glancing over at her as he gathered up the embarrassing detritus of her diaper bag.
“I’m sure I know what I need to do,” she returned, frustration and pressure and everything that had piled on her shoulders the past few months making her snappier than normal.
She stood and strode to the back room with the sobbing baby. But by the time she got there she realized she had left the bottle of milk lying on the floor. With a groan of frustration she turned to get it, only to end up face-to-face with Nate in the doorway, holding out a bottle.
With a muttered thanks she took it from him, closed the door to the back room and rocked a now furious Gracie.
As soon as the milk was ready she snatched it out of the microwave and Gracie grabbed for it and shoved it in her mouth. Silence, blessed silence, now reigned and Mia dropped into the nearest chair, cuddled her little girl close and fought the inexplicable urge to break into tears.
* * *
Nate stood a moment by the door, listening. Guess Mia got her little girl settled.
“I feel like I have to apologize for Mia’s shortness,” Evangeline said as she stood. “She’s a great girl. She’s just had a lot to deal with lately.”
“I imagine taking care of four kids would do that.” He shot a quick glance over to where Sophie was pushing the stroller around and he couldn’t help a smile at the sight of the little girl still sleeping inside it, her head fallen to one side, her cute mouth open.
“Mia’s had a tough go of it,” Evangeline agreed as she set the diaper bag on the counter.
“Doesn’t help that she’s so independent,” Denny said, still leaning an elbow on the counter.
“She’s had to be,” Evangeline retorted, as if sticking up for her friend.
Nate could identify. He had come limping, literally, with his broken-down horse trailer and injured horses and Socks, his dog, onto Denny’s yard this morning feeling sheepish and reluctant. When he had his accident he had been on his way to deliver his mares to a ranch in Montana where he would be working after the competition he had entered Tango in. The vet in Cranbrook had told Nate that Tango wouldn’t be competing anytime soon, and Nola might end up foaling earlier because of the accident. Thankfully, Bella was okay.
After being out of touch so long, Nate felt like the prodigal son when he pulled onto Denny’s yard.
But Denny had come running out and had pulled him close in a bear hug. Behind him had come his foster sister, Olivia, carrying a little girl. Denny’s daughter, Nate found out later. Both Olivia, Nate’s foster sister, and Ella were crying. Olivia from joy, Ella from frustration.
And as he stood with Denny’s arm around his shoulder and Olivia’s around his waist, Nate felt like he had come home.
“So, Nate, what do you think of my future wife’s store?” Denny was asking, leaning on the counter as he flipped through the children’s books Mia had left behind.
As Nate glanced around the building with its high ceilings, wooden floor and bookshelves lining every wall, he felt a craving rise up in him.
“This old store is cool,” he said with a grin. “And all those shelves of new books just waiting to be cracked open.”
“So you like to read?” she asked.
“Like to read?” Denny snorted. “This cowboy had his nose in a book so often I can’t believe he’s not shortsighted. Used to read on the way to school, on the way back, when he was riding fence. I had to snap my fingers in his face to get him to look up and even then he would barely notice me. You probably have at least 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 the building and the smoke billowing out of it now. After what seemed to be hours, the fire trucks finally showed up at the end of the street, the men piling out 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.
