Her smile was back, along with that stutter in my chest. “Good. Enjoy your night.”
“You too.”
She turned around and went down the steps, cutting across the lawn to her place with that same youthful bounce in her step. Glancing down at the box, I shook my head—of course she had a whole thing of pink princess Band-Aids. I shut the door and trudged up the stairs to get the kids cleaned up.
Hallie went first, after a brief attempt to get me to let her wear socks in the shower. As usual, I refused, explaining again that the entire house had been thoroughly cleaned before we moved in, and I’d been here yesterday to make sure of it.
While she was getting dressed, I made sure Luna washed her hair and used soap, then helped her get dried off. After hanging up their towels, I double-checked that they’d chosen appropriate clothing and was just about to get in my own shower when I heard a series of high-pitched beeps.
“What’s that?” Hallie said, scrunching up her face.
Instantly on high alert, I put my hand up. “Shh.”
I heard it again, and recognized it as a smoke detector going off, but not in our house—we were hearing it through the walls. “Stay here.”
I raced out of their room and took the stairs down three at a time, jumping to the bottom with five to go. Barreling out my front door, I ran over to Winnie’s and knocked. The alarm was clearly coming from inside her unit, and when she didn’t answer the door, I made a split-second decision to bust in.
Fortunately, the door wasn’t locked.
I shouldered it open, relieved when I didn’t see or smell smoke right away. Winnie’s townhouse was laid out exactly like mine, and I immediately realized the detector going off was upstairs. Racing up the steps three at a time, I reached the master bedroom doorway just in time to see Winnie climbing onto a suitcase, one hand reaching toward the ceiling to disconnect the unit.
My jaw dropped.
She was totally naked and dripping wet.
One hand was clutching a small towel to her chest that didn’t fucking hide anything. Behind her, steam from her shower billowed from her bathroom, which must have been what set off the alarm—some detectors are that sensitive. Behind me, I heard clamoring on the stairs, and a second later both Hallie and Luna rushed into the bedroom.
Startled, Winnie looked over and saw us. Her eyes went wide as she screamed, lost her footing, and toppled backward off the suitcase. She landed hard on her ass, arms and legs flailing like a rag doll.
Averting my eyes, I strode over and disconnected the unit while she scrambled toward the bathroom on her hands and knees, presumably in search of a bigger towel.
But then she slammed the door . . . and didn’t come out.
The eighty-five decibel alarm had ceased, but the sirens in my head continued.
I looked at the girls. Luna had her hands over her mouth. Hallie’s eyes were wide, and she pointed to the bathroom door. “Winnie was naked,” she whispered. “We saw her bum.”
“Quiet,” I scolded angrily. “You two were supposed to stay at our house. You didn’t follow my orders.”
“But Daddy, we were scared,” Luna said. Her hair was still wet and tangled. “We came to find you.”
“We’ll talk about it later, but when I tell you to stay put, you stay put—especially in an emergency. Understand?”
They nodded.
“Now go back to our house, both of you.”
“But what about Winnie? Is she okay?”
I went over to the bathroom door and knocked, trying not to picture her naked. The shower wasn’t running anymore. “Winnie? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine!”
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine!” she repeated in the same false, bright tone.
A tiny smile inched onto my lips. “Are you sure?”
“Uh huh!”
“It must have been the steam that set off your smoke detector.”
“Yes, it happens sometimes when I forget to open the windows in here.”
“It’s good that it’s sensitive, but open them now, okay? I should hook this back up.”
“I will.”
I hesitated, then spoke again. “Sorry to barge in on you like that. I’m a firefighter and a dad, so I take smoke detectors seriously. They’re kind of my thing.”
“Haha, it’s okay!” She was still trying to sound brave and cheerful, but her voice cracked, making me smile again.
Clearly, she was not going to risk looking me in the eye after I’d seen her naked, and I couldn’t really blame her. After making sure both windows in her bedroom were open, I reconnected the battery in the detector. Then I went over to the door and spoke through it once more. “I reconnected it. I’ll lock the door on my way out.”
“Thank you!”
“Okay, girls. Let’s go.” I glanced around quickly before herding the girls from her room—walls painted a soft gray, neatly made bed with a white comforter, ten thousand pillows in every shade of pink, fuzzy white rug on the wooden floor. Would have been nice if she’d landed on that rug when she hit the ground, but she’d gone down just beyond it.
As we went down the stairs, I couldn’t help chuckling as I recalled her mad dash for the bathroom on her hands and knees. I’d never seen anyone crawl that fast—not even the kindergartners during the home escape and exit drills when they came to the station for a fire-rescue visit. But I felt bad for her—she was going to have a hell of a bruise on that hip.
Shoving the memory of her bare ass from my mind, I hurried out the door, making sure it locked behind me.
“Was the noise from her smoke alarm?” Luna asked as we walked back to our place.
“Yes.”
“How come the alarm went off if there was no fire?” Hallie asked. “Was it like a drill?”
“No, it was the steam from her shower. But it’s good that the alarm went off, because that means it’s working. That reminds me—first thing tomorrow, we make our emergency plan and set a meeting spot, okay?”
“Okay.”
I opened the screen door to our place—they hadn’t even bothered to shut the big door—and shooed them inside. “We will also talk about what the consequences will be for not doing what I say.”
They nodded solemnly as we went up the stairs.
“I still can’t believe we saw her bum,” Hallie whispered to Luna.
“That’s enough.” I swatted her backside lightly before ushering them into their bedroom. “I have to get cleaned up, so comb your hair, find your shoes, and be ready to go in ten minutes.”
“But I need help, Daddy,” said Luna. “I can’t get the tangles out by myself.”
“Baby,” snickered Hallie, grabbing her brush and easily pulling it through her smooth, damp hair.
“Shut up! Yours is just easier because it’s straight!”
“Stop,” I ordered, dropping onto the foot of Hallie’s bed. “Bring me the comb, Loony Toon. I’ll do it. I’m awesome at getting tangles out of hair.”
“But not gum,” Hallie said.
I picked up a stuffed animal—a penguin she called Rupert—and threw it at her. When it hit the floor, I heard a coin go rolling beneath the dresser.