“No,” she whispered, shaking her head, temporarily paralyzed by what confronted her.
Her store. Her beautiful, beautiful store.
She’d never thought of a Delish store as hers before—what would be the point in that when she never stuck around?—but, as she watched this one burn she realized it had felt like hers because she’d had to work so damn hard to entwine it into the hearts and minds of this town. The people of Marietta hadn’t wanted her or the store here but she’d won them over.
Heat from the window bathed her front and black smoke slipped under the door like escaping demons and she coughed. The shrill scream of the alarm, almost deafening this close, was a perfect match for the scream inside her head.
“No.” Tears pricked at her eyes and she took a step toward the door, the businesswoman leaping to the fore suddenly frantic with the need to try and salvage what she could—to do something. Because at least she could control that and it would help her keep a lid on all the emotions bubbling up her throat.
“Vivian, no!”
Reuben grabbed her and yanked her back, clamping his arms around hers, trapping them against her body as Viv panicked. “I need to get in there,” she yelled struggling against him, her thoughts jumbled and frenzied. “I have to try and save what I can.”
“The door handle will be hot as blazes,” he panted roughly as he held her tight. “And the second you open it you’ll let in a bunch of oxygen that will just feed the fire even more.”
“What the hell is going on down there?” someone called from farther down the street.
Viv didn’t know who it was; she couldn’t drag herself away from the carnage happening before her eyes. She vaguely heard Reuben requesting whoever it was to run to the fire hall, which was only a few blocks down, and then Reuben was pulling her across the street.
Within minutes it seemed the street was filled with the kind of controlled chaos Viv had only ever seen on the TV as Marietta’s firemen fought to extinguish and contain the fire to just Delish. There was a major risk of the fire spreading through the roof space to the other shops either side and potentially the whole damn block, so the fire department were all over that.
Uniformed people ran everywhere, there was a lot of shouting and the sound of glass popping. Police cars and fire engines parked haphazardly in the street, their flashing lights strobing across the facades of buildings and on the ice crystals forming on the road surface as the night got colder.
A crowd had built too—word had got out and everyone, it seemed, had come down to witness the unfolding drama. Robbie and Mackenzie showed up and Viv hugged them both and assured them it would be okay, that the company wouldn’t abandon them, that they’d rebuild. Reuben’s parents showed up. Sage came. Stephen and Jess arrived as did Clementine. So many people hugged and squeezed her and assured Viv they were here for her with such sincerity she didn’t doubt them for even a moment.
Reuben didn’t leave her side and she leaned on him heavily as squalls of emotion buffeted her body and her brain grappled with answers to how this could have happened. At some point, someone must have noticed her teeth chattering—Viv hadn’t even realized they were—because a warm, thick blanket found its way around her shoulders and somebody else put a mug containing hot chocolate in her hand.
It seemed like an age but was probably only half an hour before the fire department were confident the fire was out and hadn’t spread to the neighboring shops—thank heavens for small mercies—but it was another hour before they were satisfied everything was still structurally sound before they let Viv, Robbie and Mackenzie in to assess the damage. Most people had dispersed by then but Reuben was with her when she took her first step into the charred remains of the store.
Viv gripped his hand hard, barely registering the stench of smoke as she took in the ashy puddles, the sodden waterlogged debris on the floor, the smoke damage to the walls and ceiling. Robbie stifled a sob with her hand and Mackenzie hugged her as a lump the size of Montana rose in Viv’s throat.
“You okay?” Reuben whispered and she nodded but hell, this was utterly gutting.
He stayed by her side as the officer in charge of the scene and Sheriff Walton tag-teamed with some basic questions of them all. “I don’t see anything suspicious about it on a cursory examination,” the fire chief confirmed when they were done. “I think it was probably an electrical fault, but we’ll get some investigators from Bozeman in day after tomorrow to do an assessment; meanwhile we’ll board up the windows and doors, keep everything secure.”
Viv frowned. “Is it possible to get them in tomorrow?” The sooner she had answers the better. Head office was going to want to know ASAP.
“Well sure but it’s…” The fire chief glanced at Reuben.
“If payment is an issue Delish are happy to cover any costs incurred,” Viv assured.
The sheriff and the fire chief glanced at each other but it was Reuben who said softly, “Tomorrow’s Christmas Day, Vivian.”
Oh shit. Of course. “I’m sorry.” Viv shook her head, “I…wasn’t thinking straight.”
“That’s fine,” the sheriff said, giving her shoulder a quick squeeze. “Going through something like this is traumatizing. Nobody thinks very straight for a while.”
Viv gave Reuben’s boss a grateful smile. “Thanks.”
“Why don’t you take her home, Reuben?” the sheriff suggested. “You ladies too.” He glanced at Robbie and Mackenzie. “There’s nothing anyone can do here tonight.”
“Do either of you need a lift?” he asked the other two women.
“No, our cars are parked on 1st,” Robbie said.
And then they hugged Viv and told her they’d check in tomorrow and she nodded but she barely registered their departure as she stared around helplessly. “Come on, Vivian.” Reuben slid his arm around her waist. “Let’s go home.”
Home. Yeah. Tonight—finally—the cottage did feel like home. Like the place she escaped to at the end of the day with someone she…with someone who got her and who would hold her through what promised to be a long, hard night.
He didn’t talk on the short walk home for which Viv was grateful. Her brain was too full of all the things she had to do and fix and sort. Too full of voices. She didn’t need his as well talking for the sake of talking or trying to make her feel better. But she did need his arm around her and his calm, solid presence to stop that eerie feeling of being outside herself.
And she did need him telling her, “Go take a shower,” as soon as they walked through the door even though she couldn’t.
“I have to ring Harriet,” Viv whispered, her voice hoarse as exhaustion crept into every joint in her body. “She’ll want to know.”
He cupped her jaw, smiling at her gently as he stroked his thumb along her cheek. “Shower first,” he said. “Another fifteen minutes won’t hurt. I’ll make you a cup of tea.”
But it was more than fifteen minutes because he came in to check on her after five and Viv was sitting on the bottom of the cubicle, leaning back against the tiles, her knees drawn up to her chest crying her eyes out. She hadn’t meant to cry. She hadn’t even been aware that she was about to until suddenly she was and he took one look at her and shucked his smoky clothes right next to hers and joined her, slotting in behind, his arms coming around her shoulders and drawing her back and Viv cried harder.