I could have lost her.
Following that thought comes another.
I’ll do anything to keep her.
“Mitch.” Her voice is still rough from the smoke. “Thank you. For setting this up, and earlier… I don’t know what I would have?—”
“Shh.” I stroke my hand down her hair. “Don’t think about that. You’re here. You’re safe.”
She sighs and sags against me. “I know. It’s just… it doesn’t feel real yet.”
“I know.” I kiss her head again. “What can I do, Pen? Do you want to go to bed? Watch TV? If you’d like some fresh air, we could sit out on the patio. Anything you like.”
She leans back to look at me. Her eyes are still pink from the smoke, but they’re just as beautiful as always. “Could we just… talk for a little while? There are some things… I know it’s late. But after tonight… I don’t want to wait.”
My heart lurches.Is that good? Or bad?
But I don’t ask Penny that. Instead, I loop my arm around her shoulders and lead her over to the couch. Once we’re both seated, she immediately scoots over so she’s pressed up against me. Her uninjured hand reaches for mine.
I take her hand and rub my thumb across the back of it. “What did you want to talk about, Pen?”
“Well.” Her teeth dig into her lip. “When I was in the apartment, and I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see you again…”
“Pen.”
“But it’s true. I wasn’t sure. Not that I didn’t trust you. But the fire… it was spreading so fast.”
“I would have come for you. No matter what.” My voice is rough. Thick with emotion.
“It was so dangerous, Mitch. What you did. Climbing up a burning building like that, without equipment… You can’t tell me you would have done that if you were responding to a fire while you were on duty.”
I won’t lie to her. “No, I wouldn’t have. But I wasn’t responding to a regular fire. You were up there. And I would have done anything?—”
A loud buzzing from my pocket interrupts me.
Penny startles. Her hand convulses around mine.
“It’s just my phone,” I reassure her while reaching for it. “Though I’m not sure who’s texting this late.”
Pink tinges her cheeks. “Right. A text. I knew that.” She shakes her head. “I’m just extra jumpy tonight.”
“That’s completely normal.” Once I wrestle my phone from my pocket with my opposite hand—because I’m not letting go of Penny’s, not unless she wants me to—I look down at the screen. “It’s from Dave.”
“Fire marshal Dave?” she asks.
“Yeah.” Dave Enniston isn’t just the fire marshal in Sleepy Hollow, he’s also a good friend and fellow volunteer fire fighter. He’s the one who’ll head up the initial investigation into the fire at Penny’s place. But given that itjusthappened, and it’s basically the middle of the night, I wasn’t exactly expecting to hear from him yet.
But it’s clear from his text he wasn’t wasting any time.
Hey, just finished the walkthrough. With it being Penny’s place, I didn’t want to wait. The house is a total gut, which comes as no surprise. No fatalities, thankfully. The first floor resident was working the night shift, and woman on the second floor is on vacation in Cabo.
Before I read on, I turn to Penny. “Dave did the walkthrough. Since it was your house, he didn’t want to wait. He said your neighbors were out of the building when it happened. So they’re both okay.”
She releases a heavy sigh. “Oh, good. I knew Monica was on vacation, but I wasn’t sure if Will was working tonight or not.”
“They’re both fine,” I assure her. Then I wrap my arm around her and tug her closer, so she can read the rest of Dave’s message along with me.
It looks like the fire originated from several power strips chained together in the first floor apartment. No sign of arson. I’ll follow up more tomorrow once it’s light out, but I wanted to let Penny know right away. Since I’m assuming her phone was lost in the fire, and I heard she was staying with you tonight, I thought you could tell her. She can call me any time with questions.
