The days that followed were a blur of calls and visits and a seemingly endless parade of flowers.
It was too much to process.The building, despite the best efforts of the fire department, was lost.All their data for the lab was gone.
When the head of the lab came to see her, Annie openly mourned the loss of their research.
He stared at her for a moment, a look of bewilderment on his face.“Annie,” he leaned in, eyebrows furrowed, “it’s a shame, of course, but all I care about is that you’re alive.”
This made her burst into guilt-filled tears.
There were a lot of tears over the coming days, most of them between her and her mom.Annie caught her mom staring at her more than once before bursting into tears.
“Mom,” she’d groan.“I’m fine!”
Her mom would only sniffle, hug her, and fuss away.
Annie most certainly was not fine, but she wasn’t going to burden anyone with it.Mercifully, the twins had no idea anything had happened.All they knew was Mom was home a lot more the following week, which meant more time to fight for her attention.
The normalcy of their reaction was comforting, because horrifyingly, even Roy called, panic evident in his voice.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”he asked.
“I’m fine,” she lied, because if there was anyone she was going to talk to about how she felt, it wasn’t Roy.
Two days after the smolders were out, she met with Chief Hank and a special fire investigator.She told them what she’d seen from the window when the fire started.They cast each other a look but said nothing.
Annie was desperate to know what had happened.She asked Hank if he knew about the threat against the fire department.He only nodded.
She wanted to tell him about Lauren – the cavalier way she’d talked about the fire department losing their case.The way she’d gotten an extremely expensive car out of the blue, how it seemed she’d almost confessed something at the fundraiser.
It all seemed connected, but the thought was too horrible to entertain.How could Annie tell Hank about it if she didn’t even know what was going on?She wasn’t going to accuse Lauren of starting the fire.It was too insane.Saying her friend had tried to kill her?Overwhat?
Annie’s head spun even thinking of it.Perhaps she was a terrible judge of character after all.
She decided to hold her tongue until she was sure whatever she reported was the truth.Chief Hank seemed to know what he was doing, and to top it off, the entire community was up in arms.A reward was raised for information, and another team was brought in to examine the wreckage.
Everyone was talking about it.
Everyone except Miles.
Since his heroic rescue, he’d made himself scarce.The night of the fire, he stopped by the house and stood in the doorway,
“You’re feeling okay?The doctors checked you out?”
Annie nodded, still unable to put the experience into words.“I don’t know how to thank you for what you did.”
“I was just doing my job,” he said gruffly.
His expression was hard, and there was no laughter in his eyes.
“You saved my life,” she whispered.“You risked your life to save mine.”
“All part of the job.”He looked down, shaking his head.“Let me know if you need anything.”
And with that, he turned his big, broad shoulders and walked away.
A week later and still not a word.Not a check in, not a stop by.Only Bella came to visit, and despite inviting Miles along, he never appeared.
Where had the warmth gone in their friendship?It could be as simple as him moving on.He had a new girlfriend, and maybe he realized their friendship could make her feel insecure.
