Winnie gasped as a stack of paper napkins sitting on the counter burst into flames. While she swung the towel at them, Sugar Beth snatched a scatter rug from the floor and began beating at a wisp of flame licking at a wall calendar. She heard the sound of a siren. Her eyes were stinging, and it was getting harder to breathe.
“This is stupid. The fire department’s coming. Let’s leave while we can.”
“Not till they get here. I can’t let this spread downstairs.”
The store held irreplaceable antiques, and Sugar Beth could almost understand.
“The towel!”
Sugar Beth spun around in time to see a dish towel drop to the floor in flames. She smothered it with the scatter rug, coughed. “You’re giving me back Diddie’s pearls, or I swear to God I’ll lock you up in here.”
“Bite me.”
The smoke was getting thicker, the sirens closer, and Sugar Beth decided Winnie had pressed her luck for long enough. She tossed down the scatter rug, took a quick step forward, and threw a hammerlock around her neck.
“What are you
“Putting an end to negotiations.”
“Stop it!”
“Shut up. The trucks are almost here.” Sugar Beth pulled her toward the door.
“I’m not going anywhere!” Even though Sugar Beth was taller, Winnie must have been working out because she was strong as an ox, and she started to break away. Sugar Beth used a neat trick she’d learned from Cy Zagurski and dragged her into the hallway.
“Ouch! That hurts. You’re twisting my arm off.”
Sugar Beth began maneuvering her down the steps. “Play nice, and I won’t break it.”
“Quit it!”
“Save your breath.”
They were nearly at the bottom when she made the mistake of easing the pressure. Winnie immediately tried to bolt back up the stairs, but she’d breathed in just enough smoke to slow her reflexes, and Sugar Beth put her in another choke hold. “Quit being an idiot!”
“Let me go!”
She wasn’t certain how much longer she could have held on to her if the first fire truck hadn’t pulled up in front of the store just then. Winnie saw it, too, and finally stopped struggling. Through the broken door, Sugar Beth watched people getting out of their cars and realized a small crowd had begun to form.
She also realized she’d just been handed a golden opportunity. Granted, it was the kind of opportunity a more honorable person would resist. Colin, for example, wouldn’t think of it. Neither would Ryan, and certainly not Winnie. But the fire didn’t seem too serious, and none of those stuffed shirts had Sugar Beth Carey’s particular gift for enjoying the moment.
The firefighters jumped from the truck and rushed toward the broken door, but before they could get there, Sugar Beth stuck out her foot and tripped Winnie. Since she was a naturally considerate person, she made sure she caught her before she fell into the broken glass.
“I’ve got her!” she called out to the pair of firemen who’d just broken into the store. “I didn’t think I was going to be able to carry her all the way down the stairs-she weighs a ton-but the Good Lord was watching over both of us.”
She plastered her hand across Winnie’s mouth. “Don’t try to talk, honey. It’ll make you cough again.” She waved the fireman toward the stairs. “She’s fine. I’ll get her outside.”
One of them began to break away to come to her aid, so she took her hand off Winnie’s mouth just long enough for her to start to sputter again. “See! She’s breathing fine. But it’s a mess up there.”
He joined the others, and as they stormed past, Sugar Beth dragged Winnie out onto the sidewalk, not an easy task, since Winnie was fighting mad. “You’re going to be okay now, honey,” Sugar Beth announced just loudly enough for the small group of onlookers to hear. “I’d have died myself before I left you up there to burn. And I’m no heroine, so don’t you dare thank me again.”
The EMTs rushed up and grabbed Winnie, which was a good thing, because she was starting to bite. Sugar Beth hurriedly backed away. Dulane Cowie, who looked a lot better in a cop’s uniform than he’d looked picking his nose in fourth-period study hall, rushed up to her.
“Sugar Beth? Did you carry Winnie out by yourself?”
“It’s amazing what you can do when a person’s life is at stake,” she said modestly.
Winnie had begun arguing with the EMTs, and a woman Sugar Beth recognized as an older, chubbier version of Laverne Renke waved from just behind the police line. “Hey, Sugar Beth, what happened in there?”
“Hey, Laverne. I saw smoke when I was leaving the bookstore and ran over to see if I could help. Winnie was being so brave trying to fight the fire by herself. I’m just glad I was around to help.”
“I’ll say,” Laverne replied. “It looked like she was unconscious when you carried her out.”
Winnie heard that, and she stuck her head around the EMT to shoot Sugar Beth a furious glare.
“Probably just breathed a little too much smoke,” Sugar Beth said quickly.
Dulane gazed toward the second story. “She was lucky you were there.”
“Anybody would have done the same thing.”
The EMTs still had Winnie, and the smoke had begun to clear from the upstairs window. Sugar Beth watched along with the crowd. Before long, one of the firemen emerged and headed toward Winnie. Sugar Beth decided this was an excellent time to make herself scarce, but just as she began to head to her car, a tan BMW screeched to a stop behind the fire trucks and Ryan leaped out, barefoot and dressed in jeans and a gray T-shirt.
He ran for Winnie and pulled her to his chest. Since they were barely eight feet away, Sugar Beth could hear every word. “Are you all right?” he said.
“Yes, I-I was frying chicken-Charise has been sick, and… The phone distracted me. The oil got too hot. It was stupid.”
“I’m so sorry.” The emotion in his voice made Sugar Beth suspect he might be talking about something more than the fire. She’d seen a lot of men in love, and Ryan fit right in.
She lost the thread of conversation for a few minutes as she convinced another EMT that she hadn’t suffered any harm. When she finally got rid of him, she saw Ryan push a lock of hair from Winnie’s grimy cheek and search her face. “What I said yesterday… I didn’t mean any of it.”
Winnie gave a wobbly nod.
A young fireman Sugar Beth didn’t recognize came forward. “You’ve got a lot of smoke damage, Mrs. Galantine, but it could have been worse.” He turned to Ryan and indicated Sugar Beth with his thumb. “It’s a good thing the lady over there showed up. She carried Mrs. Galantine downstairs. Your wife could have been seriously hurt.”
Winnie had temporarily forgotten about Sugar Beth, but the fireman’s praise brought it all back, and her eyebrows slammed together. Ryan spun around. “Sugar Beth?”
Winnie opened her mouth, all ready to blast her, only to have Ryan pull her to his chest again. “My God… Are you sure you’re all right?” He seemed to be having a hard time breathing. “You have to come home now. It’s over, Winnie. You don’t have any choice.”
He didn’t gloat, and he wasn’t even the tiniest bit smug, but Sugar Beth could see Winnie withdrawing. Looking deeply unhappy, she took a small step backward and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear with sooty fingers. “Not yet. Not until we’re both sure.”
“I’m sure,” Ryan said, his voice thick with emotion. “I’ve never been more sure of anything.”
“I’m glad for you.” Winnie reached out and touched his cheek tenderly. “A little longer.”
Even from where she was standing, Sugar Beth could feel Winnie’s love for him, but Ryan didn’t seem as perceptive. Instead of relaxing and giving her the room she needed like any person with half a brain would do, he continued to press. “You have to come home. You don’t have anywhere else to go.”
Winnie got all starchy, and Sugar Beth found herself thinking that even the best of men could be stupider than dirt.
“I’ll stay at the Inn,” she said.
