Christmas in Eternity Springs (15 page)

Jax arched an eyebrow toward Claire. “So, Miss Christmas. You share your mistletoe often?”

She scolded him with a look. “Actually, at least once a day. Mr. Pritchett stops by for his kiss every afternoon.”

The look in her eyes challenged him to ask, so he obliged her by guessing, “How old is Mr. Pritchett?”

She wrinkled her nose, obviously unhappy that he'd guessed her ploy. “Ninety-two this month.”

“You vixen, you.”

Now she rolled her eyes and headed back inside, calling over her shoulder, “What brings you by this crisp autumn morning, Mr. Lancaster?”

“Two things.” He caught up with her, snagged her hand, then pulled her beneath the nearest doorway. “This.” He kissed her thoroughly, and his tone was husky as he added, “And this. Nicholas has been invited to a birthday party on Friday the fourteenth. I won't have to pick him up until ten. So, Claire, would you like to go to dinner with me that evening?”

“A date.”

“Yeah. A real, honest-to-goodness, official date. Our first. I know it's still a couple weeks away, but I worried your social calendar might fill up.”

Her smile bloomed like a daffodil in spring. “I'm free on the fourteenth, and I'd love to go to dinner with you then.”

“Excellent.” He kissed her once more, then said, “I've gotta run. I have a job at Vistas Art Gallery today, and if I'm not mistaken, you have an angel waiting at your door.”

Claire twisted her head around to see Celeste with her hands cupped against the glass, peering inside Forever Christmas. She rapped firmly on the door.

“Now I'm embarrassed,” she said. “She'll tease me mercilessly, you know.”

“Maybe I'll stick around and watch for a minute.” Jax stuck his hands in his pockets. “I do love to see you blush.”

She made a strangled sound, then opened the door. “Good morning, Celeste. Sorry I'm a few minutes late opening but—”

“Claire, dear. I have troubling news. I was having coffee with Savannah and Zach this morning when Zach got a call. Do you have Tinsel with you today?”

“No. Why?”

“Oh, dear. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there's a fire out at the Three Bears.”

 

Chapter Ten

I never realized that positive thoughts could offer a lifeline.

—CLAIRE

“Wildfire season is over!” Claire exclaimed, certain there had to be a mistake. Before the sentence left her mouth, Jax was out the door.

Celeste said, “I know. I'm not sure it's a wildfire. Honey, could you have left something on in Baby Bear that might have malfunctioned? The gas fireplace?”

“No.” Claire hurried toward her checkout counter where she kept her purse and keys. “I haven't used it in days. I didn't even make coffee this morning. I have to get out there. I have to get to Tinsel.”

“Yes, but first we should stop by the sheriff's office and tell the dispatcher to radio Zach and let him know that Tinsel is inside Baby Bear.”

“Do you know his number? I'll call him.”

“Better to use the radio,” Celeste advised, her bright blue eyes dimmed with concern. “His phone is sure to be tied up. With a volunteer fire department, that tends to happen—no matter how much training our people receive.”

Claire was startled to hear the wail of a fire engine as she hurried out to her parking spot in the back of the building. The sheriff's office was only a short walk away, but she'd take her car so that she could head up to the valley right after delivering her news.

She was scared to death for her puppy. Fires were horrible things. She'd never forget the time a house burned across the street from the home where she'd grown up in a north Dallas neighborhood. It had happened fast, the result of a lightning strike during a springtime thunderstorm. No one had died in the fire, thank God. The owner's dog had alerted the family to smoke that had begun to pour from the second-story attic while they ate their supper down in the first-floor kitchen. Everyone made it safely out of the house—though with seconds to spare.

Claire and her parents and her younger sister, Michelle, had stood on their front lawn and watched flames envelop the house as firefighters fought a losing battle to save it.

Within half an hour, it was over. Claire would never forget the devastation on the neighbors' faces as they viewed the smoldering ruins.

It was a twenty-minute drive to Three Bears. What would she find upon her arrival? Fear wrapped a noose around her throat.
I never should have left Tinsel crated. I don't care what the experts say. I'm not doing it again. I'll keep a crate at the shop
.

Celeste followed on her heels and climbed into the passenger seat of Claire's SUV. They delivered the message to the dispatcher in less than five minutes.

Five minutes seemed to take five hours when a fire was burning. The twenty minutes up to Three Bears took a lifetime.

“Who discovered the fire?” she asked Celeste as they took the first hairpin turn on the road to Three Bears.

“Cole Hoelscher's wife gave him a drone for their anniversary, and he was taking it up to Lover's Leap to fly. He spotted smoke, checked it out, and called it in.”

“Was he sure that it was Baby Bear that's on fire?”

“No. He said the big house, so I'm assuming it's Papa Bear. Hopefully, that's all that is involved.”

“Okay. Good. That's good.” Claire found that bit of news reassuring. “I'll bet Tinsel is scared to death.”

Celeste didn't speak, but reached over and gave Claire's leg a comforting pat.

Claire's car was one of a line of vehicles heading up to Three Bears Valley as members of the volunteer fire department responded to the call. She was glad to see them, but she really wished that she were in the front of the pack instead of the middle. She'd have driven a lot faster if she were leading the way.

She held her breath as they finally approached the curve in the road that provided the first look down into the valley.
Please, God. Let Tinsel be okay.

The car rounded the curve. Claire's gaze went straight to Baby Bear. “Oh, dear God. No.”

The roof was on fire.

*   *   *

“It's arson,” Jax said to Sheriff Zach Turner. He'd arrived at the scene moments after the sheriff and before the fire truck.

“Yep. Has to be. All three places are on fire.”

“How far out is the pump engine?”

“Four minutes, they say.”

Jax looked at the flames climbing across the roof of Baby Bear. “Claire's dog is in the small one. I don't think we can wait on gear.”

The blanket Nicholas had used to cuddle beneath on their trip from Washington was still in the backseat of Jax's truck. He grabbed it and a hammer and headed for the creek.

“Wait a minute, Lancaster,” Zach called. “I'll go. I've had training.”

Running toward Baby Bear with a soaked blanket in his arms, Jax called, “Me, too! I lived on a nuclear submarine. We had fire training all the damned time!”

That rescuing a puppy from a burning building hadn't been part of that training wasn't something he wanted to dwell on at the moment.

He hoped like hell that whoever had built these cabins had used fire-retardant shingles. Smoke figured to be the biggest problem at this stage of the game. He also hoped like hell that she hadn't moved the spot where she kept Tinsel's crate since his previous visit. Jax needed to get in and get out without any delays.

“At least the place is small,” he muttered to himself as he covered the last few yards to Baby Bear, dread slithering through him at the possibility of what he'd find. He prayed he wouldn't be forced to make a terrible choice, but as Nicholas's only living parent, he couldn't be reckless.

A glance through the window reassured him. A little hazy, but no visible flames. Draping the wet blanket around him, Jax decided to try the door before he broke the window. He gave it two sharp kicks and sprung the lock.

He heard Tinsel's whimpers the moment he stepped inside, and he breathed an inward sigh of relief. He wouldn't have wanted to face either Claire or Nicholas if the pup had suffocated in her crate.

Keeping low, he made his way to the crate and in less than a minute and without incident emerged safely from Baby Bear with a shaking puppy in his arms.

“Damn, man,” Zach Turner said. “That scared the crap out of me. I hate fire.”

“Me, too.” Jax's response was heartfelt. But even as he stood in the safe morning sunshine scratching Tinsel behind her ears, his gaze strayed back to the cabin where flames continued to spread across the roof.

Zach said, “We're gonna work this from the least engaged property to the most. Tackle Mama Bear first, then come here.”

Jax thought of all those boxes of books he'd hauled up to the attic. She hadn't brought much else. The books must be a treasure of hers.
She's going to lose them.

Well, better books than her puppy.

He remembered the one box marked “Favorites” that she'd asked him to carry to her bedroom. Dare he try?

Make up your mind. Every second counts.

He shoved the dog toward the sheriff. “Hold her a moment, please.”

As he headed back toward Baby Bear, he heard Zach exclaim, “What the hell!”

Jax scooped up the wet blanket on his way and darted back inside the cabin. The smoke was heavier, but still not too bad. He'd give himself no more than a minute and a half. Entering her bedroom, he surveyed the area and cursed. It had been too much to hope that she'd have been slow to unpack the box.

She'd brought in a five-shelf bookcase. He scanned the titles. Mostly children's books. Christmas-themed children's books.
Grooge, my ass.
Tattered and taped spines suggested oft-read stories. He glanced around, spied her laundry basket—it contained only a pair of red thong panties.

Miss Christmas!

Making an instant decision on what to save, Jax went to work. He emptied three and a half shelves, and when the basket was full and instinct told him to get the hell out, only paperbacks remained. He picked up the basket and dashed for the door.

Outside, Zach identified what he carried and slowly shook his head. “You are one crazy guy. If you even think about going back in there again, I'm going to arrest you.”

“I'm done. What can I do to help?”

The sheriff pointed toward the fire truck. “See the guy on the radio at the front of the ladder engine? He's our chief. Go ask him.”

By now cars and trucks and SUVs were spilling into the small valley, and soon what appeared to be the majority of the residents in town pitched in to help. With the fire at Mama Bear out and a full crew working at Baby Bear, Jax went to work battling the blaze at Papa Bear.

What had everyone nervous was the not insubstantial risk that the increasing breeze would kick up the flames and spread the fire. Locals told Jax that although it was late in the season for wildfires, the beetle kill had been especially bad just over the hill from Three Bears Valley, so there was plenty of dead wood to burn.

When the fire chief finally declared the fire out, the collective population heaved a sigh of relief. Then talk turned to the cause and the probability of arson raised the threat level all over again.

“Jax?”

He turned away from his discussion with Lucca Romano and Cicero to see Claire standing with Tinsel clutched against her chest. Her gaze was round, her gorgeous brown eyes luminous with the remnant of tears. “Hey.”

“Can I speak with you a moment?”

“Sure.” He excused himself from the conversation and placed his hand on the small of her back, guiding her away from the crowd. When they'd walked far enough to have some privacy, Claire turned to him. “They told me what you did. Jax … I don't know what to say. That's the most stupidly heroic thing anyone has ever done for me, and I feel like I should scold you for taking such a risk, but I can't. I'm so grateful.”

“I couldn't let Tinsel get hurt. She's a sweetheart, and besides, Nicholas would have killed me.”

“He'd have killed you if you'd died in that fire!”

“Now, that's silly. He can't kill me if I'm already dead.”

“You obviously don't watch zombie TV.” She poked his chest with her finger. “Enough of that sort of talk. Jax, going in after Tinsel was above and beyond the call. Going back after my books…” She shook her head. “What in the world were you thinking?”

“They are your treasures. I didn't want you to lose them.”

“They
are
treasures, and I'm glad they didn't burn up but they are only things, and no
thing
is worth risking your life!” Frustration flashed in her eyes as she added, “You are Nicholas's only parent!”

I even like the way she scolds.
Jax reached out and scratched Tinsel behind the ears, then smiled down into Claire's reproachful gaze. “Believe me, I considered that. If I had judged it to be too risky, I wouldn't have gone into Baby Bear at all.”

“Okay. Good.” She nodded decisively. “That's good. It makes me feel better.”

He gave Tinsel another good scratch. “My judgment is pretty good, Claire. You can trust me.”

Her lips twisted and he heard a bitter note in her voice when she spoke again. “Trust isn't my strong suit.”

“Oh, honey.” Jax shook his head, then gave in to his desire to touch her and trailed the pad of his thumb down her cheek. “I've decided it's going to be a goal of mine to make you forget all about that lawyer. What's his name?”

“Landon. Landon the Lying Lizard Louse.”

Pursing his lips didn't keep them from twitching. “Quadruple L.”

She smiled, shrugged, and when her eyes filled with tears, dipped her head and rested it against his chest. Softly, she said, “I was so scared.”