“Absolutely. We’ll set out the casseroles in the restaurant.” Or maybe freeze them for use in the temporary kitchen, once that was set up. “I’ve lined up some appliances for the camp kitchen. When do you think my guys can get in there to start setting that up?”
“Your guys?”
“I have guys.” She found herself grinning, despite the circumstances. “And they’re ready to do my bidding.”
The “guys” in question were mostly people who owed Alvin favors. He had a way of helping people when they most needed it—like when they first got out of rehab, or even prison, in one case. Those people never forgot his nonjudgmental kindness, and jumped at the chance to repay the Carter family.
“Of course they are, who wouldn’t be? I’ll do your bidding anytime, night or day, but especially night, of course.”
A shiver passed through her as she pictured the last night they’d spent together. She’d woken him in the middle of the night, wild with desire. They’d made love in the sweet, sweaty darkness and she’d felt so close to him, tears had come to her eyes.
She shook off the memory and took a lighter tone. “You’re not calling just to flirt, are you? Because about twenty texts just came in.” Her phone had been dinging up a storm for the past two minutes.
His tone shifted to professional. “Yeah, that was me forwarding offers of help. We’re about to do another damage assessment, so I’ll have an answer about the kitchen in half an hour or so.”
“Sounds good. And Jason, be careful in there.”
“Are you worried about me?” The flirty tone was back.
“The fire looked bad in that live stream.”
“The fire’s out. I’m considering doing the walk-through without a shirt on, though, just in case someone else has a camera rolling.”
“Oooh, I dare you.” She let out a gleeful laugh. “Seriously, I’ll make it worth your trouble if you go in there all man-sexy and bare-chested. I’m talking sexual favors. Only if it’s safe for you,” she added quickly.
“It’s against protocol. And I am the fire chief, so I’ll have to earn sexual favors some other way.”
“I’ll think of something.”
“Tonight?”
“Tonight.” When she ended the call, she turned to find her two friends—and a baby—staring at her.
“You are freaking glowing.” Gina pointed at her face.
“I’m sweating.”
Carly joined in as she kissed her baby’s curly head. “You’re happy.”
“Yes, because it’s so nice to be back with my two besties doing what we do best.”
“Cleaning cabins?” Carly screwed up her face.
“Giving each other shit.”
They all laughed at the accuracy. Then Gina shook her curly head. “I don’t believe you. It’s because of Jason.”
“Rebounds rock. Just like you said.”
“No. I mean, yes. But the way you look right now, we’re not dealing with a rebound anymore. Back me up, Carly.”
Carly was swaying from side to side to soothe Teddy. She cocked her head as she aimed a smile at Kendra. “Kendra can handle her own business.”
“That’s right, Moretti.” Kendra tossed Gina a sassy flip of her hair. “Back off.”
“Fine, but you’re going to need to handle it pretty soon. Sooner or later, all relationships reach that point where you either go forward or you stall out. At least back me up on that, Carly.”
Carly made an apologetic face at Kendra. “She’s right about that one.”
“Whatever. We’re having fun and it’s working and I really need to make some calls right now.” She checked her phone, which showed a new string of texts. “This is like an airlift operation, except with pickup trucks and a FedEx van.”
“We’ll finish up here. Just let us know if there’s anything else we can do.”
“Thank you, that’d be great.” Kendra gave them each a quick hug, and stroked Teddy’s silky hair. “Catch y’all later.”
“Tick-tock,” Gina called after her as she hurried away.
Operation Respected Elders took up the rest of Kendra’s day and most of the night. She rallied all the servers and kitchen workers to make food not just for the displaced seniors, but for everyone who was pitching in to help. She coordinated vehicles to shuttle back and forth from the nursing home to the residents’ various destinations.
As soon as Jason gave the all-clear, she called in the work crew she’d lined up to construct a temporary kitchen in the undamaged dining room of the nursing home. She coordinated the delivery of the appliances she’d retrieved from storage, where they’d been living since the latest renovation of the Blue Drake’s kitchen. Before close of business, she contacted the local health department and explained the situation with enough urgency that they scheduled an emergency inspection of the temporary kitchen for the next afternoon.
She left the insurance issue to Alicia Moore. The director would be responsible for getting them to sign off on allowing the residents back on the property.
When all the appliances had been delivered, she gathered together her crew of workers. They had long hours of plumbing in appliances and roughing in countertops ahead of them. She needed to give them some extra motivation.
“When I first came back to Lake Bittersweet, all I could think about was when I was going to leave again. But today, I remembered what’s so great about this place. We take care of each other here. We might disagree, even fight—but in the end, we’re there for our neighbors. Right? Just imagine, we can personally keep forty elderly people from being homeless. I thank you, my dad thanks you, and you’ll all eat for a month for free at Alvin’s Burgers and Blues. Are you with me?”
The cheers and applause made her heart swell; there really should have been a soundtrack. Chariots of Fire, perhaps.
Besides, it was true. She hadn’t thought about leaving Lake Bittersweet since she and Jason had gotten together—well, maybe briefly, when Dominic had suggested London. But only briefly.
Throughout the day, she served as everyone’s main point of contact. If anyone had a question about where to go next, who to pick up, where to drop the blankets, what freezer to put a casserole into, they called or texted Kendra.
The biggest glitch came when her phone died and she had to dash into the SweetBitter Cafe to recharge it, since her car charger was too slow.
While her phone was plugged in, Rick plied her with quad-shot espressos and homemade donut holes. A small group gathered around her to get updates. Everyone seemed to have watched the live stream of Jason and the rest of the crew battling the fire.
“Check out this part,” Rick told her. He flashed his phone at her, and showed her a shot of Jason emerging from the glass double doors of the nursing home, a frail elderly woman in a housedress in his arms. She was gazing up at him with a look of pure adoration. “Ai muchacho bellino curado.” Rick had a quirk of making up Spanish curse words. “Now that’s a hero. I think we need that on a fireman recruitment poster.”
The crowd chimed in.
“I saw that clip on Instagram.”