Angel's Rest(16)

“Exactly. I can live other places, be happy other places. I certainly would be better off financially if I worked somewhere else. But I don’t think I’d thrive anywhere but here. It sounds corny, I know, but I believe that this is where I am meant to be.” She sipped her wine and took a risk. “How about you, Gabe Callahan? Where is home for you?”

Slowly, he set down his fork. He lifted his napkin from his lap and wiped his mouth. “The meal was excellent, Nic. I’ve never tasted venison as delicious as this.”

Okay. Great big No Trespassing sign in that window. She considered calling him on it but decided she didn’t want to spoil what had ended up being a lovely evening. “Thank you. Would you care for dessert?”

He glanced at the mantel clock and set his napkin on the table. “I should be heading back.”

“I have a plate of the Bristlecone Café’s famous brownies.”

He returned his napkin to his lap. “I guess there’s no need to hurry.”

Nic grinned as she rose to clear the dinner plates, but the smile died when she glanced out the window and spied an unusual light. “Wait. Look, Gabe. What is that?”

He responded at the moment a bell began to clang. “Fire. I think it’s across the creek.”

Nic stared, realized what she was looking at, then gasped. “That’s Cavanaugh House.”

Celeste Blessing’s home was on fire.


Gabe started his Jeep and cursed the dog. If not for that dopey, crooked-tailed mange magnet, he’d be holed up on the mountain safely by himself.

He didn’t belong down here in the valley having dinner with an attractive woman. He had no business rushing off to the rescue of little old ladies. Interacting with others. Joining in their efforts. He had no business doing any of this. That wasn’t why he’d come to Eternity Springs.

It was all that stupid dog’s fault.

Yet the moment Nic slipped into the passenger seat beside him, a medical bag in hand, he shifted into gear and headed for the fire.

She tossed a pair of work gloves into his lap. “We’re a volunteer fire department here. They’ll have some extra gear on the truck, but it never hurts to have your own.”

He muttered a few more curses beneath his breath. He had much more experience with firefights than he did with fighting fires.

When they arrived at the scene, it quickly became obvious to Gabe that the first responders knew what they were doing. They worked efficiently and effectively beneath the direction of the man he recognized as the owner of the local lumber yard.

“There’s Celeste. Thank God.” Nic grabbed her medical bag and hopped out of the Jeep before Gabe switched off the ignition. As she rushed toward the elderly woman seated on the tailgate of a pickup truck, Gabe braced himself, then went to offer his assistance to the lumberyard owner, who was barking orders into a radio. “What can I do to help?”

“You ever done this before?”

“No.”

“Then stay back. Help move the hose.” He pointed to a man who had the fire hose slung over his shoulder and who moved in coordination with the two men in front at the nozzle. Over the roar and crackle of the fire, the leader shouted, “Cyrus, go spell Frank for a bit. This fella will take your place.”

Heat hit Gabe like a body blow as he moved closer to the fire. From the top floor of the grand old mansion, fingers of flame stabbed into the night sky. Gingerbread decorating the eaves flamed, blackened, and disappeared. An attic window popped and men scurried backward as glass rained down onto the yard.

Once the glass settled, firefighters moved forward with their hoses again, water roaring from the nozzles. Gabe hauled and hoisted and hefted. Sweat cascaded down his face and reminded him of a hot Texas summers of his youth. He turned his face away as a cloud of smoke rolled over him and stole his breath. He started to cough, so hard that he bent over double.

It was as he straightened that he recognized the potential for disaster. With the wind blowing the heat and flames away from them, a pair of knuckleheaded boys had kept inching forward, and they now stood too close to the burning house for Gabe’s peace of mind. He yelled to catch their attention and tell them to move back, but between his smoke-filled lungs and the chaos of the moment, no one paid him any attention. Who are the idiots who allow their kids to run loose this way?

He heaved a grim sigh and set down the hose, indicating his intentions by gesture to the man in front of him. He hurried toward the boys, and he’d just captured the boys’ notice when the boom of an explosion ripped through the night. Burning debris launched like missiles into the air above the boys’ heads, and Gabe launched himself at the pair.