“So, not a lot to deal with, then,” she said sardonically. “How long will it all take?”
“A month, maybe. Possibly longer. We’ll start drainage as soon as we’ve got everything under control, but after that, it’s really in your landlady’s hands. My colleague should have explained this to her on the phone already.”
A month.
She’d be moving back into Mum’s. Another five steps backwards. Mum would be thrilled to have her house full of grandchildren again, but Eiley would only be reminded of the emptiness, and then the panic, that had come after Finlayhad left and she’d been unable to stay afloat alone. Staring at the old yellow paint on her ceiling for hours each night until Saff needed feeding or Brook crept in to sleep beside her. The unending noise in her brain, racing questions merged with this strange, hollow static that made her wonder if any of this was even real.
She would have to drag them into a new routine, and then another after that when they eventually came back. It had taken Sky months to get used to the idea of a new home. He was at a turning point, finally attending forest school after lots of trial and error in different places. Moving out would be a domino effect: upsetting the balance here meant everything would topple.
And she couldn’t protect them from it.
Her eyes stung with tears that she desperately tried to blink back. She tried to move around him again, but he stepped in front of her to block the entrance.
“Please!There’s … There’s a stuffed octopus with one eye up there that my son really really loves. It makes him feel safe.” They’d lost him in the supermarket once, and Sky had sobbed his poor little heart out.
“Okay. We’ll get it for him when we’re able.”
It wasn’t enough. She needed todosomething. “If I can’t go upstairs, can I at least try to rescue some of the books near the front of the shop? The higher up ones must be okay but I can’t leave them in the damp. I won’t get in your way, I swear. Just … There has to be something I can do. It can’t all be ruined.”
His torchlight dove down to her shoes – or, rather, shoe – and he cleared his throat. “Probably not a good idea.Not sure if you’ve noticed, but it’s not very safe in there even for those of us wearing both shoes.” And then he squinted, torch dancing around her knees. “Are those T-rex jammys?”
She glared, feeling more foolish now than ever before, which was saying something, considering she’d suffered plenty of embarrassing moments over the years. Plenty just today, even.
She tied the belt of her robe tighter around her hips. “They’re stegosauruses, actually.”
Sky’s love of dinosaurs had taught her that, which was why she’d bought them in the first place. Anything to see his face light up.
“Ah. Either way, no need to ruin those bobby dazzlers, eh? I’d advise you to go home. Come back in the morning. We’ll take it from here, octopus and all.”
“There are books in there that need saving!” Eiley insisted. “I’ll change my bloody shoes.” She wouldn’t. She didn’t have anything to changeinto. “Just let me back in!”
The firefighter huffed. “What aren’t you getting here? It’snot safe. We don’t know if the ceiling’s going to hold all that water.”
“Then give me your helmet!” If it was anyone else, she would never have dared act so stubborn, especially not with an emergency responder. These people were working through the night to help her, to stop her world from crumbling. But it washim, and he was making fun of her, which was probably valid considering the circumstances, but it still irked her.
“You’re quite the little firecracker, aren’t you?” His eyes danced with amusement, a challenge somewhere in them thatleft heat radiating beneath her skin despite the cold. Nobody had ever called her that before. She wasshy wee Eiley.A doormat, Cam had said when she’d first told her about her problems with Finlay.
Well, no one would walk over her tonight. “I’m not little.”
“I think we’ve already established, what with your yay high-ness, that you’re relatively little.”
“Maybe you’re just too tall!” she snapped, putting her hands on her hips. “Is it even healthy, being all the way up there? Don’t you get altitude sickness or something?”
“Nope, but cheers for the concern. Did you come up with these insults when you were staring at me the other day, then?”
She wanted to kick him. Very, very hard. Possibly between his legs. As it was, she snatched his helmet from his hands, because maybe being labelled afirecrackerhad empowered her and maybe she loved the books, her job, her kids’ home, too much to be told no this time.
Leaving him stunned, she strutted back into the store, sopping shoe and stegosaurus pyjamas be damned.
6
Warren stomped in after Eiley, half-tempted to haul her over his shoulder and remove her forcibly. She was certainly small enough. Small, but bloody mighty. He was only trying to do his job, and she was making it impossible.
Wading through the flood water in her pink and green dinosaur pyjamas and one remaining trainer, she looked ridiculous. And absolutelynotadorable.
Confusion crossed Nate’s face as he noticed Eiley marching into the storage room, disrupting the debris on the floor. Warren shook his head, sending his friend a silent promise that he’d deal with it – which was probably a lie, because he was quickly learning that he hadnoidea how to deal with a woman like her. Everything he said was wrong, every sentence painting her cheeks pinker and etching her forehead lines deeper. He was trying toprotecther, for Christ’s sake. Not to mention she’d stolen his helmet, which meant they were both at risk.
If the chief found out about this, he’d be fucked.
