Nerds on Fire (45 page)

She couldn’t give in to it just yet
because she needed to launder the clothes she took from her
bedroom. Although not close to the guest wing, smoke had
infiltrated most of the house. With a heavy heart, she located the
key to the guest cottage, handed the box of food to her father, and
then led the way. Everyone helped set up the furniture from the
storage closet before they left after a series of hugs. Leo and
company offered to take Nina home. She accepted.

Trixi was thankful Mark hadn’t managed
to rent this cottage out yet. Otherwise, Lauren would have had a
roommate for the night. She still might, if the damage to the house
was extensive. Gran was safe with Miriam and she could return to
her old home with her son for an extended stay if necessary. Trixi,
as the owner of this house, needed to remain nearby.

Wondering what they would find after
they conducted a thorough investigation, she was also afraid of the
outcome. Someone had gone too far tonight. She thought the man
responsible for their earlier troubles was still behind bars. He
had no proof Chrissy had hired him to harass Trixi, but they did
have proof he had been doing the harassing, as five credible
witnesses caught him in the act. Since he was on probation at the
time, he remained incarcerated.

Trixi followed her father into the
kitchen. He tucked the food away as she plodded into the laundry
room. She stuffed all of her clothes inside the washer, not
bothering to sort them, then started the machine.

“
Why don’t you go shower,
baby?” Her dad stood in the doorway, in companionship with her,
offering his support but not pushing her in any way.

Thankful for him, she nodded. “Okay.”
She walked into his arms. “Thank you for staying with
me.”

“
You’re welcome. Are you
sure you’re all right?” There was a heavy dose of worry in his
voice.

“
I need to shower and
finish this laundry so I have clean clothes for work tomorrow.”
Since she didn’t know the answer to his question, she instead told
him what she did know.

As he had when she was little, he
brushed the smoky hair off her face and then leaned forward to kiss
her forehead. “You need some sleep.”

“
I’ll go
shower.”

“
Did you eat?”

Trixi made a noncommittal noise
because she couldn’t remember. It didn’t matter, so she flashed him
a fake smile then padded upstairs to shower off the smoke and ash
still clinging to her. She tucked her smoke-ridden clothing into a
bag and when her dad knocked, handed them out to him. He promised
to add them to the current load and she thanked him
profusely.

Then she set about showering. The
smoke and ash dissipated with her efforts, but she doubted the rest
of the nightmare could be washed away so easily.

She longed to crawl under the covers
and forget all about today.

Chapter 44

The next morning
brought a sunny, perfect autumn day. She dressed in her freshly
laundered clothing and made her way downstairs. Vestiges of last
night’s shock hung on. Her father met her in the kitchen with a
steaming mug of coffee. He pointed to her phone which he must have
remembered to plug in last night.

“
You’ve gotten several
calls.”

Trixi thanked him and accepted the
coffee. Sipping the brew, she scrolled through the numbers. Two
were from the fire department, one from Katy, one from Mark and one
from Gran. All of them needed to be answered.

She called the fire department first.
The man who answered told her that due to the rain cooling the
embers, it was safe for them to start the fire investigation. He
indicated the sooner they could do so, the more evidence they would
find.

“
Please come and go as you
need to.”

Once finished, she called Katy and
then Gran. Both simply wanted to know how she was.

How did they think she was? Her house,
at least part of it, had burned down, her boyfriend broke up with
her, and she lost a small patient at work, all in the course of one
day. All these traumatic events indicated to her that her life
couldn’t be much worse at the moment, but maybe she was
over-dramatizing things.

She managed to answer their questions,
hopefully satisfactorily and then rang off, her mood bleak. At this
point, her stomach was growling from missing supper last evening so
she found the sleeve of bagels she brought and sliced one for her
and her dad. Then realized she’d have to turn this oven on, since
it wasn’t her range, always on. This one required preheating... a
new wave of despair threatened to smash her.

“
Use the toaster, love,”
her father instructed kindly.

Trixi sent him a grateful look, aware
if an oven could cause this much stress, she might need to take a
day or two off to figure out how to live again. When the thought
slid through her brain, she picked up her phone to make a call to
Louisa. Who as soon as she heard Trixi’s house had caught on fire,
was immediately supportive and although it meant more work for her,
told her to take as long as she needed.

“
It will be for today and
maybe tomorrow,” Trixi said firmly. “Not any longer than two days.”
Her spine straightened again, and determination coursed through
her. She would get through today, and then return to work. Normal
hadn’t been defined for her yet, but this was within her power to
figure out.

No longer was she a kid who needed a
parent or family members to make decisions for her. She was
perfectly capable of doing so herself. She valued the input of
those family members, as many of them offered excellent counsel.
But she was a woman in charge of her own destiny now.

This awful series of events
had shown her while she had bent she hadn’t broken. With her new
resolve came a stronger one
—
the realization she would
not
break. Not today and
not tomorrow either. Many people dealt with life’s pitfalls, maybe
not all on the same day, but through the course of their lives.
They stood up, dusted off the clinging dirt, and carried
on.

Trixi would do no less. She had to
sort out her house, and then perhaps she could sort out what
happened with Mark. Another thought slipped in, one she examined
from all angles. Her relationship wasn’t finished. Deep inside she
now resolved they weren’t over. Unless Mark absolutely didn’t want
to be with her, she needed to stop being a wimp and show him who
she was.

It was unfortunate that it took an
utterly miserable day like yesterday for her to figure out who
Trixi Duvall was. If this is what it took though, she would choose
the miserable day.

This new freedom sent euphoria
soaring. She turned to smile at her father, a genuine
smile.

“
I don’t know what just
happened, but I’m glad,” he said softly.

“
I think I just grew
up.”

“
You’ve been grown up a
long time, Trix.” He tucked a hank of hair behind her ear. “You
just never noticed.”

“
Thank you.” At least now
it was true.

The bagels popped so she set them on
plates before handing one to her father. He kissed her goodbye a
few minutes later, seeming more content to leave her.

Just as she was figuring out what she
needed to do next, her phone rang.

It was Mark. Whose earlier phone call
she hadn’t returned.

“
Hello, Mark.” He couldn’t
tell from her voice what her emotional state was, but it didn’t
sound upset.

“
Hi. I expect you’ve been
on the phone all morning.” He wasn’t certain if his attempt to keep
his voice neutral succeeded or not. He didn’t want to further upset
her but also wanted so much more for her than he had
given.

Wishing he could take back his
unfortunate role in her disastrous day yesterday, he instead had a
lot to make up for. Whether she would allow this was still in
question.

“
Yes. The fire investigator
is coming out soon. He thinks that because of the rain, the ruins,”
her voice cracked and subsequently so did his heart, “should be
cooled enough for them to conduct their investigation.”

“
Good. I’d like to know who
did this.”

“
So would I.” This time
there was no doubting the heat in her tone.

“
How long did he think it
would take?”

“
He didn’t say.”

That made sense. “Let me know the
minute you hear.”

“
Okay.”

“
Are you okay?”

After a long pause she said, “Yes, I
think I am.”

She might as well have taken his
scalpel and jammed it into his heart.

The hard knot in his throat prevented
speaking, so he was thankful when she continued. “Or at least I
will be when this is all settled.” She drew in a shaky breath. “Did
you mean for us to break up?”

“
No
.” The answer ripped from his soul.

“
I didn’t mean for it to
happen either.”

“
What
did
happen?”

Another pause before she noisily
exhaled. “I think I got scared at how well our relationship was
going.”

Katy had mentioned this but it still
puzzled him. “I’m not following.”

“
It was going too well. So
we either had to make a deeper commitment or split up.”

Ah, now this made total
sense. “
That’s
why
we split up.” This is what Leo and Katy were trying to tell him
yesterday.

“
Yes, I think so. I was
running scared. I didn’t know how you were feeling...”

His stomach twisted. “I was afraid you
were planning to leave me.”

“
I can’t imagine why I’d be
stupid enough to ever do so.” Her voice veered into
exasperated.

Suddenly the world seemed like a much
nicer place. “I’m glad. I can’t imagine not having you in my life
and those few hours when we weren’t together aren’t something I
ever want to repeat.”

Before she could comment, he was
paged.

“
Are you at work already?”
she asked.

“
Yes, I got called in
during the night.”

“
Oh. I’m home today, but
I’m hoping to be back to work tomorrow.”

“
What about tonight?” He
hurried to the scrub room, not wanting to hang up with her until it
was absolutely necessary.

“
What about it?”

“
What are you doing
tonight?”

“
I don’t know.
Why?”

“
Are you free to go on a
date with me?”

“
Oh,” she said on a
surprised laugh. “Yes, yes I’m free tonight.”

Relief soared through him. “Good. I’ll
be home at the usual time, I hope.” A frantic nurse flagged him
down. “I have to go.” Regret threaded his words.

“
Okay, bye.”

“
Bye, honey. I’ll see you
tonight.” It took everything in him to end the call, but work
wasn’t just beckoning, it was demanding, so he answered.

Chapter 45

Trixi pressed the end-call
button and gripped her phone tighter for a moment. Rising, she
quickly loaded the dishwasher drawer and then turned to see what
else needed done. Nothing, but then the fire inspector and his team
arrived so she donned her damp, smoke-infused coat and met them at
the side of her house that was no more.

The fire hadn’t consumed the entire
guest wing, but the outside bedrooms on both levels were gone. The
stairs didn’t look safe and most of the sitting room had been
exposed to the elements. Mark’s bedroom wall had a gaping hole in
it, but someone had covered the exposed parts with plastic and
tarps. Everything looked smoke damaged, but maybe many of the
furnishings were salvageable. She hoped so because most were
heirlooms from both families.

Mark’s study hadn’t been affected
other than minor smoke damage, because the wind blew the smoke down
the hall and into the kitchen. Her kitchen had therefore sustained
damage, but his office didn’t. Their fitness room barely
smelled.

She opened every window in the house
in the hope of airing the place out.

After a lengthy inspection of the
premises, the inspectors met with her. “The rain washed away a lot,
so we’ve got all we can find here.”

“
Does this mean I can move
back in?”

One of the inspectors handed her a
card. “I’d call these guys first and have them come and clean up.
They’re professionals and will have this place feeling like
new.”

Trixi glanced at the card, and
recognized the name on it. They were well known in the area. “I’ll
do so, thank you.”

“
You have a place to stay
until they finish?”

“
Yes.”

“
Good. We’ll assess the
information we have and run some tests, but I’m pretty certain this
was caused by what looks like a short in the wiring.”