Trouble in Sudden Falls: A Sudden Falls Romance (38 page)

Lisbet shrugged, as if she knew there were no good explanation for her behavior. “You have everything I ever wanted. You went to college, you had a successful career in a big city, got married to a rich man. You
lived
… And you always had Eli, who worships the ground you walk on, and I’m still stuck here in Sudden Falls working as a clerk at the courthouse with no husband, no career and no hope of doing anything else. And it’s all your fault. Your little trick with the seam-ripper cost me everything.”

Maddie shook her head. “You’ll never know how sorry I feel about what I did to you. But don’t think for an instant my life has been all roses. I ended up in a job I hated with a man who couldn’t keep it in his pants and who trashed my career. I can’t walk down the streets of this town without people sneering at me for what I did to the town darling. You need to let it go, Lisbet.” She coughed again, a racking explosion that started somewhere near her toes. “And I need to get some fresh air.” Her vocal chords that were tight and raspy.

She followed Lisbet out of the store. As the door closed behind her, she heard dogs barking from the vet clinic next door, which was unusual.

“Oh,
noooooo
,” Lisbet whispered.

Maddie followed her gaze. The wind must have carried embers from the store to the vet clinic next door. The roof of the old house containing the animal hospital smoldered, and smoke billowed from one of the attic windows.

Without waiting for Lisbet, Maddie raced across the parking lot, not stopping until she reached the front door of the clinic. It was locked. She checked her watch. It was still before 8:00. A cursory glance at the parking lot told her none of the vets were in yet.

She raced around the side of the building to the back. Here, the dogs’ barking was much louder. “Lisbet!” she yelled. “Help me get this door open.”

Lisbet rushed over, still trailing her charred leather jacket. The back door had nine panes of glass, separated by a wood frame. “Give me this.” Maddie tore tearing the coat from Lisbet’s limp fingers. She slid her arm into the sleeve of the jacket, pulled the end of the sleeve into her fist to protect her hand and punched the lower left pane of glass next to the lock. It shattered with surprising ease.

Maddie let go of the end of the sleeve and felt around until she found the deadbolt. With a sigh of relief, she discovered it didn’t require a key from the inside. She turned the lock, carefully slid her arm out and whipped open the door.

The back room of the clinic housed three rows of cages on each side of the wall. They weren’t completely at capacity, but they might as have been. The top row of cages held cats, the bottom two, dogs, smaller on top, larger on bottom.

The dogs’ barking was significantly louder inside, but she could still hear the wail of a fire engine siren over it. “Go tell the firefighters we’re going to need their help!” she yelled to Lisbet who stared at her in horror.

“
Go!
” Maddie screamed.

Eli pulled to the right as two trucks from the Sudden Falls Fire Department flew by him, bubble sirens strobing and blaring.

Must be a big one. The impending storm probably wasn’t helping things much. The saplings that had been recently planted along Oakwood Avenue were bent at an alarming angle from the wind. He pulled from Oakwood Avenue onto Main Street and his stomach dropped. Plumes of smoke streamed from the roofs of both Maddie’s store and the Vet clinic next door, broken by licks of orange flame.

Fear clogged his throat, choking off his breath as he pulled the SUV into a parking spot across the street and leapt out, heading straight for Maddie’s store.

“Excuse me sir, you’ll need to stand back.”

“Where’s Maddie O’Callaghan?” he demanded even as he scanned the people standing on the sidewalk and milling about across the street. Fear turned to anguish when she came up missing. Maybe she’d already left. He glanced at her parking space. Her car was there.

“Who?”

“The woman who owns this shop. Where is she?” The window in the front of the old Victorian house shattered and fire and smoke surged out.

“Stand back,” the firefighter said. “I’m sure everything’s under control.”

Right then, in spite of the firefighters’ best efforts, the fire overtook the roof, which partially collapsed.

He wouldn’t be able to live if Maddie were still in there.

Without thought for his safety, or the foolishness of his actions, Eli darted around the firefighter and into the store, desperate to find Maddie.

Maddie heard a crash above her. Opening two of the cat cages, she dragged the hissing, spitting felines out and made a mad dash for the back yard where she confined them to one of the four dog runs. She prayed none were climbers or they’d be gone.

A firefighter in full gear dashed in. “We need to hurry,” he said through his oxygen mask.

She gave him an incredulous “Ya think?!” look before grabbing the next two cats. She felt instantly grateful for his help, however, when he found a couple of leashes and started leading the bigger dogs out.

Another firefighter came in, followed by Lisbet and between the four of them, they cleared out the critters in short order. Taking care to stay out of the way of the emergency personnel fighting a losing battle against the fires raging through both her store and the vet clinic, she made her way to the sidewalk where she found Rogan and Becca standing and watching. Everyone seemed to have their eyes trained on her store.

“What happened?” Another round of coughing hit her.

“She’s here!” Rogan yelled toward the firefighters.

Maddie straightened, to look into Rogan’s haunted eyes. “What happened?” A chill rushed through her even as heat rolled in waves from the burning buildings.

“Dad thought you were in the store. He ran in after you.”

Maddie’s legs refused to support her and the only reason she didn’t land on the sidewalk with a splat is that Rogan caught her around the waist and helped ease her to a sitting position on the ground.

He sat next to her and awkwardly patted her shoulder. “When the firefighters couldn’t tell him where you were, he ran in. They tried to stop him and one followed to help find you.”

Maddie watched her store burn, transfixed. Eli was in there. He might be dying. He might already be dead. Tears formed behind her eyes. She suddenly couldn’t be positive. If he died without her telling him that she loved him, she’d regret it for the rest of her life. Why had she held back? Why hadn’t she trusted him?

He was willing to risk his
life
for her and she couldn’t trust him enough to say “I love you”?

She wanted to throw up.

Maddie held her breath and waited, biting her lip so hard she drew blood, though she barely noticed.
Please let him be okay,
she prayed.

If he comes out, I won’t waste another minute
, she promised, as if making a bargain would do any good.

Chloe Tremont, one of the vets from the clinic, came over to where Maddie sat, still watching the front of the building and praying. “I wanted to say how much I appreciated your help. The firemen told me that you nearly single-handedly rescued all the animals.”

Maddie shook her head, never taking her eyes off the building. “Glad I could help,” she whispered. But if she hadn’t she would have been out front and Eli wouldn’t have raced into the wrong building to save her.

What would she do without him? Maddie’s eyes glazed over and she finally closed them.

“There they are.” She heard the murmur to her right and her eyes snapped back open.

Eli was supported around the ribs by the arm of a large firefighter. Maddie nearly levitated and streaked straight for the ambulance where several emergency workers steered him.

Eli looked up, his face covered in black, even his eyelashes were sooty, his eyes even more vividly blue in contrast. “Oh, thank God. You’re okay.”

The paramedic helped him to sit on a gurney and handed him an oxygen mask. Eli held it in place with one hand as he beckoned her to his side with the other.

Maddie snuggled in under his arm, wrapping hers around his chest. “I love you,” she said. “I’m so sorry I didn’t say it before! Oh, God. What would I—what did you—why did you—Oh, God. I’m… I love you.!”

Eli squeezed the arm wrapped around her shoulder, pulling her that much closer. “Yeah, me too” he rasped, his throat completely ruined by the smoke he’d inhaled.

Maddie cupped his face with one hand, noting that a bit of his hair had gotten singed. How close had she come to losing him today? She didn’t even want to know. “Please marry me.”

“Is that a question?”

“This is me putting it all out there. Saying I trust you. I’m sorry it took this for me to realize it. I’m sorry I didn’t immediately tell you I loved you a long time ago. I have, you know. For years.”

Eli smiled behind the oxygen mask. He took it off long enough to say, “I think some part of me knew that.”

“Are you going to answer?”

His eyes twinkled above the mask and she knew she had nothing to worry about.

“When it comes to you, ‘no’ is never an option, Maddie,” he said, dropping the oxygen mask to the bed beside him and tilting her face for a kiss.

Epilogue

“I Madeline Marie O’Callaghan take you, Eli Caleb Redmond for better or worse…”

Maddie gazed upon the face of her groom and felt her heart knock into her ribs. For once, though, it wasn’t fear. Her heart pounded out of love and excitement. It was amazing how much difference three months could make in a person’s life.

The sun shone brightly on their afternoon wedding. A perfect beginning to what she was sure would be a great life. Or maybe a perfect
middle
, since they’d started their lives together as infants.

“You may kiss the bride.”

Eli leaned in and brushed his lips over hers. She tasted his warm, familiar scent as his tongue sneaked past the barrier of her lips and she melted into him. She couldn’t wait until she could get him alone.

They finally broke apart when the minister cleared his throat.

Eli pulled back, a wicked twinkle in his eye. They’d had a discussion about the appropriateness of tongue kisses during the wedding. Clearly her concerns had fallen on deaf ears—not that she was complaining.

The four-piece chamber ensemble played the recessional and Maddie walked back down the aisle on the arm of her new husband.

As she passed a good portion of the population of Sudden Falls, she reflected on how much things had changed in the past few months. They came to a standstill in front of the entrance to the tent that would house their reception and waited for the throng to pass so they could greet everyone.

Rogan as best man escorted Emma as matron of honor up the aisle and they came to stop next to Eli and Maddie. Rob slipped around the side of the congregation to stand next to Emma and Maddie had to grin at the way he seemed unable to stop touching his wife. Maddie assumed—though she’d never in a million years ask Emma—that Rob had finally confessed his secret and that Emma had taken it considerably better than he’d assumed she would.

Rogan had taken Eli’s suggestion and not attended summer classes at the college. Instead, Eli had given him a job at his company, which Rogan had taken to like a fish to water. He planned to take classes at the community college starting in the fall and then transfer to the Computer Science program at Ohio State the following year. Maddie suspected highly that Eli and Rogan would be taking the computer security world by storm. Rogan and Becca kept in touch, but they would probably never be extremely close. Rogan held himself somewhat in reserve when it came to his mother—though fortunately, not with Eli and Maddie.

Amy and her mother, Donna, came through the line and gave her best wishes. Maddie saw a significant look pass between Amy and Rogan right before he gave her a brief hug. They were still dating, and while it appeared Amy’s mother wasn’t
thrilled
with the union, it was clear that Rogan had wormed his way into her heart in spite of her best efforts to stand firm.

Lisbet came through the line, tentative at first—as she always seemed to be around Maddie, even though they’d buried the hatchet. It helped that Maddie had neglected to mention that she knew how the fire at the store got started. Also, that the town of Sudden Falls had honored Maddie and Lisbet with a citizenship award for their help in saving the patients at the Sudden Falls Veterinary clinic.