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“No! No…” The woman gagged, her raspy voice barely audible between the hoarseness and coughing. Out of the soot-covered face, two deep blue eyes pleaded with him, terrified, desperate. Her hands gripped his arm as she sucked in air, trying to calm her coughing.
“You’ve inhaled smoke. You need to lie still.”
“You—under—and. Baby…”
Ben’s heart dropped at her words. His breath stuck in his throat.
“Baby? Someone else is in the house?”
Frantically she nodded, her black-streaked hair falling into her face. “Five. I have—her.” She broke into another round of coughing.
Ben’s stomach clenched with queasiness. Whirling, he stared at the house. Flames engulfed the back part. The roof was smoldering and would go at any time. In the distance he heard the sound of sirens, but with all the smoke and fire, they wouldn’t make it in time.
He didn’t think. He simply acted. Taking a deep breath, he barreled into the house. Thick billowing smoke met him, and he prayed he’d find the child before he choked on the noxious odors.
Think. Think!
The woman, lying in the floor near a door. Yes. That was it. She had to be going after her daughter. Rushing that way, Ben met scorching heat. Putting his hand to the door he found it warm, not hot, and hoped it was safe to open without causing damage.
With a quick jerk, he opened and closed it behind him. Smoke, not as thick, had started filling this room. Wiping an arm across his sweat-covered face, he called, “Anyone here? Come out. We have to get you out of here.”
He broke into a round of coughing, feeling as if his lungs were on fire. He could hardly make out the bed across the room—only enough to see the covers were disturbed, as if someone had been in it.
He jerked the closet door open, found no one. A quick move around the room. He was getting frantic. He couldn’t breathe. The heat was intense against the door. He was out of time.
As a last shot he went to the bed and suddenly realized he hadn’t looked under it. Sure enough, a small child was bundled under there, crying. He heard her as soon as he went down on one knee. Brown curly hair surrounded the child’s fearful face. Big brown eyes, filled with fright, locked on to him. In her arms she held a white teddy bear. Her breathing was uneven and labored as she stared at him, frozen under her bed.
“Come here, honey,” Ben said, and without waiting for a reply grabbed her. She dropped the bear, her arms clutching at his neck, to his ever-lasting relief. “It’s gonna be okay, sweetheart. We’ll get you outta here.”
The little girl whimpered in his ear, clutching his neck and burying her head against his shoulder.
A sense of purpose took over him. He’d get this little girl out.
The door was too hot, out of the question to go back that way, so he chose the window. Covering her with the blanket from the bed, he went to the window. Using his hands, he managed to get the glass out, then kicked out the screen. The mother was on the other side of the window, unsteady but working to help. Her deep blue eyes were determined and steady. She wanted her child out of the burning house and in her arms.
He’d never seen that look in a woman’s eyes before. It was a mother’s willingness to do anything to protect her child.
He gladly handed the coughing child to her mother before slipping through the small square exit and landing unsteadily in the flower garden, going to one knee. He forced himself to his feet, slipped an arm around the tiny frame of the mother and pushed her farther from the house. “Others?” He rasped the word out, trying to breathe in the warm muggy morning air but feeling like he was breathing in razors over raw skin.
“No. None. Oh…” Gasp, cough. “Thank you.” Hugging her child closely to her chest, she dropped to her knees.
Between her sobs and her coughs, Ben couldn’t make out much of what the pink-enshrouded woman said. Falling to his knees, he knelt and worked on breathing.
The crunching of gravel as a fire truck pulled in mixed with the sound of the corner of the roof collapsing on the house.
In what seemed like seconds a fireman was beside them administering first aid, giving them oxygen and easing their painful attempts to breathe.
Ben watched the ambulance arrive. Technicians checked out each of them. He noted that the woman, her long blond hair smudged with soot, clung to her daughter. The little child, who had dark hair and big brown eyes, looked like the mother except in coloring. She looked more scared than ill from the smoke.
The technicians took no chances and gave the child oxygen. Then it was his turn. The two ambulance technicians worked on them as the firemen shouted back and forth, spraying water on the fire to get it under control.
Finally, with the woman on a stretcher and the child and Ben strapped into seats across from her, the ambulance headed for the hospital in Zachary.
Over and over he heard the woman saying, “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” And the entire time, as he watched the woman try to comfort the child and be brave while coping with the fact she’d just lost most of her house and nearly her life, he thought, Where’s your husband?
Chapter Two
Women are a species all to themselves, with the ability to cause you to make crazy decisions.
—Ben’s Laws of Life
Okay, okay, I admit I was ashamed not to know my neighbors. But when you see a good-looking woman with a kid you expect to find a husband attached.
At least I did. Of course, I was going to find out many of my bachelor ideas were inaccurate, to say the least. But first, I had to learn just how out of touch with the real world I was.
And boy did I get a dose of reality right after we arrived at the hospital.
“You don’t know her name?”
Ben shrugged. “No.” He could feel the dull flush creep up his cheeks as the nurse inspected him like he was some odd microbe under a microscope. Turning to the bed next to him, he asked, “Can you tell me your name?”
He wondered why the nurse had asked him instead of the woman, anyway.
Through the oxygen mask she wore the woman muttered, “Nie…ebber.”
Glancing at the nurse, he said, “Annie Webber.” He remembered the name Webber on the mailbox.
The nurse studied him. “This is your wife, sir?”
Shaking his head, he admitted, “No. We’re not married.”
The woman next to him grabbed his hand.
“I see,” the nurse said, looking pointedly at their hands.
“St…nie,” the woman said, jerking on his hand.
The little girl, who shared a bed with her mother, got down from the cot and moved next to Ben. She grasped his jogging sock.
Ben glanced from the woman’s hand, which was soot-covered, to the small child, who was suddenly hanging on him, and imagined just what the nurse thought she saw. “No, you don’t understand. I don’t know—” He started coughing.
The nurse tsked and adjusted the mask on his face then lifted the little girl to sit next to him.
He stared at the child, trying to figure out just why the nurse would put her there.
The little girl smiled beatifically then pulled at her mask, adjusting it, before leaning against him.
“St—nn—nie.” The woman stuttered again, drawing his attention from the alienlike being who’d just claimed one of his arms as her own.
This was unreal, he thought, looking from the woman to the child to the smirking nurse.
“I was jogging and came upon the—” His voice broke as he fell into a fresh spasm of coughs.
The nurse adjusted his mask again—and then slipped the clipboard under her arm. “Just relax. Breathe in and let the oxygen do its work. Give me a license and I’ll have the desk clerk finish this, Mr….?”
“I don’t have a license,” he said between gasps. “I told you. I was jog—”
“Ah, here is the doctor now.” The nurse didn’t act as if she cared that he hadn’t gotten to give her a lick of information. Instead, she was all business as she nodded toward the man who’d entered the room.
A young man full of energy strode into the curtained area where the three of them sat—or rather two sat and one lay, he thought, glancing at Annie.
“We’re going to get some X rays and do some blood gases and then, most likely, you can go home.” He went from Annie, checking her eyes and fingernails, to Ben and then the child. He paused long enough to listen to their hearts and lungs. Ben gratefully used that time to catch his breath and relax so his throat would stop clenching in pain against his attempts to talk.
“No burns,” the doctor said, nodding approvingly. “That’s good. From what the techs say, you guys were really lucky getting out of the house when you did.” He didn’t ask questions or stop to get to know the three of them. Instead, he offered a smile and added, “Don’t you worry now, everything will be fine.” With a quick nod he replied, “Gotta run. Busy morning. By the way, you have a cute daughter,” he added to Ben as he strode out.
“She’s not—”
The nurse followed the doctor.
Ben raised his hand to stop her and then gave up. He leaned back on the bed and realized the child still clung to him.
Glancing at her, uneasy at such a close proximity to something so small, he wondered what he was supposed to do with her. His niece and nephew never clung like this.
“Katie?” The woman reached toward the child, forcing herself into a sitting position.
The little girl wiggled and moved into her mother’s arms. The mother bowed her head over the girl and shuddered. Finally, she looked up. Through the mask she said, once again, “Thank you.”
He shrugged. “I’m glad you made it out okay.” He found breathing became easier as he relaxed.
“I have no idea what happened,” the woman said. “I woke up. Having…bad dream and smelled…smoke. I thought Katie…” She shuddered and squeezed her daughter. Bowing her head, she gasped as if fighting tears. “I have no idea what we’re going to do. My house burned down. We don’t have family here.”
“No husband?” Ben asked then flushed, realizing that wasn’t something he should ask. But surely she had a husband. She had a kid.
“No. No husband.”
The woman was alone.
“No one to stay with?” he asked. Aw, man, for some reason this just didn’t sound right. A woman wasn’t supposed to live isolated from all of her family. Everyone had family. Even he had a sister who lived over in Slaughter, just north of Zachary.
“No. I mean…” He could see she was trying to think of someone. “I guess I could find someone…maybe. I don’t know….”
It was the tears that did it.
He knew when he saw those tears no matter what happened at the hospital, he was going to make sure this woman was okay once she left.
First one, then another tear slipped over her cheeks, past the mask to run down her neck, leaving clean streaks through her darkened face.
He couldn’t handle tears. He’d never been able to handle tears. “You can stay at my house until we can get to your home tomorrow and make sure you can move back in,” he said, though he didn’t think she’d be able to move in that quickly. They’d have to check the damage. “By the way,” he added belatedly, “I’m your neighbor, Ben.”
The woman glanced up, the surprise in her face mirroring what he felt.
What was he doing? He was a bachelor. He didn’t have time for people—especially people of the female sort or the small sort. He hadn’t just invited a woman and kid to share his house, had he? No way would he do something so stupid.
It was impossible.
But sitting there, staring at the woman and child, at the look of utter helplessness on her face as she continued to struggle to breathe, Ben realized his major weakness was a woman in peril. His sister swore he couldn’t say no to a woman. And here was this young mother needing help. How could he turn them away?
He couldn’t.
It was that simple.
With an inward sigh he admitted he’d done it. He’d invited them to stay with him. And he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
What was he getting himself into?
Chapter Three
Bachelorhood is simply a way of saying I don’t know anything about women.
—Ben’s Laws of Life
There had been a ton of paperwork to sign, and even though the doctor had seen them they still had tests that needed doing. While the nurses had been busy poking and prodding, Stephanie had asked about calling a taxi, but Ben had insisted on calling his friend.
She was glad for the ride. She couldn’t afford a taxi, and even if she could pay for a cab, where would she go? She had been honest when she’d said she couldn’t think of anyone to stay with. She was still probing her mind for someone who might have room to put her up for a day or two. She wasn’t sure what she could do. She’d had a house and now she didn’t. At least, she didn’t think she did. It had been burning when they’d left.
When they’d finally straightened everything out with the paperwork and it was time for a signature, Ben’s friend had shown up.
“I’m certain that it’ll be fine if you stay with me until we get something done with your house,” Ben said, and Stephanie felt herself redden in the early-morning light. “The doctor said it’d be a good idea for all of us to rest today, and you certainly aren’t going to do that back at your house. I’ll have John go by and board up what he can and tomorrow you can look at it.”
Confused, Stephanie asked, “Board up?”
He nodded. “Cover whatever there is left to cover. The entire house didn’t burn down. There’ll be things you can salvage. We’ll need to call the insurance company, of course, but everything else can wait until tomorrow. You had a close call this morning.”
Ben Mayeaux. It suddenly clicked who this man was.
“I’ve heard a lot about you. I mean, you aren’t exactly a stranger, Mr. Mayeaux.”
Stephanie knew that sounded like an odd thing to say to a man she’d really never met. But as they drove back from Lane Hospital, she couldn’t help but chat to cover her nervousness. And she was nervous. Why had she accepted his invitation? Though she said she knew something about him, she only knew the basic facts. He was her neighbor, lived alone but was more involved in the community than she was. Everyone around town said he was a very nice person and really cared about people—even if he was a bit of a loner.
“Oh?” he asked, though the wary look that crossed his face told his true feelings.
“I know you’re at all of the town meetings and are on the board to build a better school even though you don’t have children. You’re quiet and keep to yourself and build stuff.”
“I build houses, Annie.”
“Stephanie,” she corrected.
“Yeah,” he murmured. His voice still sounded hoarse from the smoke.
