Hard to Resist - By Kara Lennox Page 0,31
was straying dangerously close to the topic that got her all upset.
“I call 9-1-1,” Samantha said solemnly.
“That’s right. But you do it from the neighbor’s house—after you get out. If you smell smoke or see flames, you don’t stop to call anybody, you don’t stop to grab anything.”
“What about Bashira?”
“Cats are pretty smart about getting out of a fire. Bashira can take care of himself.”
“Nuh-uh.” Samantha shook her head fiercely. “Dumb cat was hiding under the bed.”
Ethan looked at Kat, who shrugged. She couldn’t see telling a child to leave her beloved pet behind in a fire, even if searching for Bashira was what had gotten them into trouble in the first place.
At least Sam was concerned about the cat’s welfare. For a while, Kat had worried that Samantha blamed poor, hapless Bashira for the fact they almost hadn’t escaped the fire.
“Mr. Basque, how does the fire truck know where to go?” Samantha asked.
“You give your address to the 9-1-1 operator, and she tells the driver of the fire truck. Then there’s a computer right in the truck that shows a map of the whole city. It shows the driver exactly where to turn.”
Samantha looked impressed.
Next, Ethan suggested they run through a fire drill. “You only have one door and no fire escape,” he said, “and if your path to the door is blocked by smoke or fire, you need to learn how to go out the window.”
Samantha, who’d been thawing out slightly, immediately tensed at the mention of fire, smoke and windows. “No. Mommy, I don’t want to do the safety inspection—and it’s been way more than two minutes.” She clung to Kat.
Kat picked up her daughter and squeezed her reassuringly. “All right. I guess that’s enough safety for one night. Do you want to pin on your badge and wear your hat?”
“No.”
Kat looked at Ethan helplessly. “Can you thank Mr. Basque for helping us to be safe?”
“Thank you,” she said, almost grudgingly, her face buried in her mother’s shirt.
“I guess that’s my cue to exit,” Ethan said. The look he gave Kat spoke of regret and sadness. Kat knew his feelings were hurt, having a little girl reject him. Kat didn’t feel too hot about it, either.
* * *
WHEN KAT SWUNG HOME for lunch the next day, she was feeling optimistic, despite her lack of sleep. A thunderstorm had blown in during the night, scaring Samantha silly. She’d never been afraid of storms before, but Kat had again found herself sharing the twin bed with her daughter and a cat.
That morning had dawned clear and pleasantly cool, however, the sky a brilliant blue. The air had a fresh-scrubbed after-storm scent to it. Everything looked green and shiny, and Sam had awakened cheerfully.
When Kat opened the gate, she was surprised to find Ethan in the backyard, using a circular saw to make a cut in a long four-by-four. For a few moments she paused to simply admire the play of muscles across his back as he worked.
When he set the saw down to make another measurement, she moved closer and he saw her.
“Hey, Kat.” He smiled, his even, white teeth glinting in the sun.
“Hey, Ethan. What’s all this?”
“It’s a fire escape. Well, it will be. I was cleaning up some broken branches in the yard and I really looked at your windows, and I saw how high up they are. There’s no safe place to jump.”
“This is for my apartment?” she asked incredulously.
“It needs one. And I want you and Samantha to feel one-hundred-percent safe. If she’s scared at the idea of jumping out a window, now she won’t have to be.”
“But don’t you think that’s going a little overboard? We’re not going to be living here that long.”
His enthusiasm sagged a bit. “I’m improving the property, and a fire escape will benefit any tenant I end up with. Anyway, I enjoy this kind of thing. I’m not allowed to moonlight until I’ve been on the job a while, but I can at least work on my own projects.”
Whether he enjoyed it wasn’t the issue. Kat couldn’t deny how uncomfortable this made her feel. Ethan was going to a lot of trouble for her. Paint and a new kitchen, he might have done anyway. But this? Lumber was expensive, and a fire escape was a huge project.
“I was going to buy us a rope ladder,” she said.
“Now you don’t have to. Is something wrong? I thought you’d be pleased. Is everything okay with Sam?”
“She had a bad night last