She buried her face into his chest fighting off tears.
“I need to call Chloe.”
“Okay, one thing at a time. How close is your place from here?”
“Umm, three blocks, why?”
“I’m only right around the corner. You need to sit down and I’m hungry. We’ll go to my place where you can call Chloe and I’ll make us some dinner.”
“Okay.” She didn’t think she could take any more crisis and she had no strength left to argue.
Kody grabbed her hand and started down the sidewalk away from The Sand Bucket, but Alix didn’t move. He turned to question her.
“Thank you. I couldn’t do this without you.”
He would never know how much comfort she felt whenever a smile lit his face.
***
This beautiful woman continued to surprise Kody every time he turned around. His heart swelled at the genuine sincerity in her voice. So much so that he immediately wrapped her in his arms. Could have been a mistake but he felt her immediately relax, telling him he’d done the right thing.
“Come on sunshine, let’s go get some food. Everything’s going to be okay. I’ll be with you through it all.”
Not ten minutes later, they’d arrived at Kody’s apartment. He rented the top floor in a three-story Victorian home less than a block away from the shop and the firehouse.
“Kody this is so beautiful, you live here?”
“Thanks, mine is the third floor, there’s a staircase around the side. An older couple owns the home and I’m positive they’re both deaf so I pretty much have free reign.”
She giggled as Kody led the way up the steps and unlocked the door, stepping aside to let her go in first.
“How did you get so lucky to find this place?”
“Friends of my grandparents actually; I think they pretty much know everyone in town. I got hooked up with them a few years ago doing some odd maintenance and when they decided to convert the top floor and rent it out, I offered to do the work if they would let me rent it from them.”
“You did all of this? It’s amazing.”
“Thanks. Make yourself at home; I’m going to find some food for us. Then we need to talk about the fire. That inspector is a real hard ass and doesn’t miss a beat, I’m sure he’ll probably call you first thing in the morning.”
“Great. Will you talk to him for me?”
“I’ll go to the meeting with you, don’t worry.”
Kody was clanging pots and pans in the kitchen while Alix got comfortable on the couch and powered on her cell to call Chloe.
“Dang it, my phone is dead, would you mind if I used yours?”
“Sure, it’s on the coffee table. There’s a charger next to the chair too if you want to see if it fits your phone.”
For the next fifteen minutes, Alix explained in detail the how’s and why’s of the shop fire and that there was no need for her to go to the shop right now and she’d call her when it was time to meet with the fire inspector. Then she plugged in her phone to charge so she’d get that call she was expecting.
Kody served their dinner right at the coffee table so they could be comfortable.
“Did you get Chloe all up to date?”
“I did, she was freaked out. She wanted to go see for herself, but I told her they had it all locked up and roped off or whatever they do and that I’d call her when the inspector sets up a meeting for us.”
“Yeah, really, that’s best for now. You don’t want to disturb anything in there before the big guy goes in to check things out. Here, now eat. I know it doesn’t compare to what you make but its food.”
