She inched back and finally looked at the house, horror registering again.
“It’s not bad, E,” he assured her. “Kitchen fire. They’ll have it out in a few minutes. Minor damage, I promise.”
She held on to him, both of them watching the crews in action. “Declan, I need to tell you something,” she said, reaching up to put her palms on his face to make him look at her. “It’s important.”
“What is it?”
“I was so wrong last night. I love you. I trust you. I’ll be with you through good times and bad.” She squeezed him tighter. “I cannot and will not live another moment without you in my life.”
He held her tighter, his eyes stinging from tears and smoke, the words like a balm that made them disappear. “That’s…everything, Evie.”
She pushed back, insistent. “No, no, you have to hear me, Declan. I want forever. Together. I don’t care about a job. I don’t even want to be a dean. I want to be a neurologist. And I want to be with you…and whatever family we have. Whether or not there’s a baby, I don’t care. We can adopt. We can foster kids. We can have a dozen dogs, I don’t care. I just want…my best friend.”
He squeezed her against him. “Then we want the same thing.”
“Except this house?”
“If you want to live here, we will,” he said without a second’s hesitation. “I love the place, Evie. I see everything it is and was. And I want you to be happy and where you belong.”
“No, no, no.” She shook her head, vehement. “While I was in that cellar? I had a better idea.”
“You were down there, only minutes from death, having better ideas?”
She managed a smile. “Sometimes when you’re in the worst moments of your life, you get clarity.”
He closed his eyes and dropped his forehead to hers. “And sometimes it takes twenty years and a few grandparents to give it to you.”
“Declan!” Chief Winkler called from the command post. “I need you over here!”
“Go.” Evie pushed him. “I have Judah. I’m fine. You go do what you do best, future Chief. Save this house. I have big plans for it.”
“Evie, I love you.”
She closed her eyes and whispered, “I love you, too.”
With one kiss on her forehead, he took off toward the command post.
Chapter Twenty-eight
Declan climbed out of his truck so he could go around to the passenger’s side to help Max out, scanning the many vehicles in the drive and on the street in front of his mother’s home. A full house for the major family meeting today.
As Evie got out of the back seat with Judah, she did the same. “Déjà vu all over again?” she asked with a sad smile.
“It does feel like that morning,” he said, reaching for her hand. “We just spent the night together, and the future looks bright.”
“So bright.” She squeezed his fingers. “And tonight…”
“A standing ovulation?”
She laughed. “Egg-zactly.”
He cracked up. “All right.” He tipped his head as he got to Max’s door. “Hang on to that mood, E, because this could be tough.”
Once he helped Max out, they all walked up to the two-story brick house where he grew up, not surprised when the door opened and Colleen stood there, waiting.
“Welcome, everyone.” Declan’s mother reached for him, and instantly he could tell something was different with her. For the first time in decades, Colleen Mahoney looked…relieved. Like the weight of the world was off her shoulders. He knew exactly what that felt like. He’d been feeling it for two weeks now.
“Sorry we’re a little late,” Declan said. “We all met with the construction crew.”
“Everything on schedule?” she asked.
“They said the new kitchen and downstairs bedroom will be done by Christmas,” Evie said.
“Which I have a hard time believing,” Max said, adjusting his Navy ball cap. “But I don’t care since Judah and I are comfortable at Declan’s house and happy to stay there.”
Colleen beamed at him. “Max Hewitt, your spirit is an inspiration to everyone in this town. You know people are still talking about how brave you were during the parade, riding alone like the hero you are, when the fire trucks were flying up to your house.”
“Ah, I loved the attention.” Then he leaned in to ask, “Are my girls here?”
Laughing, Colleen led them toward the back. “Yes, Max, Yiayia and Gramma Finnie are waiting for you.”
They headed into the large addition that Declan’s dad had built with his own hands, including a bar, a wall of bookshelves, and a stone fireplace where a portrait of Captain Joe Mahoney sat on the mantel.
The entire family was here to greet them, including his brothers, sister, uncle, cousins, and, of course, the grannies, who lit up at the sight of their new best friend and, if family rumors were true, drinking and card-playing buddy.
Declan greeted Deputy Jerry Hanson from the sheriff’s department, along with Chief Winkler, a woman who wore an NCSBI polo shirt and carried a clipboard, and an older man who’d taken off his ball cap and settled on a barstool who Declan immediately recognized as the arson investigator who’d helped him.
“Kirby Lewis,” Declan said, greeting him with a handshake, then introduced Evie and Max.
After a moment, everyone settled to let Sharon Baker, who represented the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, walk them through the new report, which confirmed that the first fire at Gloriana House had indeed started because linseed oil-soaked rags combusted in the heat.
In addition, she confirmed that the second fire, two weeks ago, had started because an oil lamp in the kitchen had been tampered with by James Bell, who had taken them apart looking for his lighter.
After answering their fire-related questions, Deputy Hanson took over to fill them in on the suspect, a former volunteer firefighter who’d confessed to attempting to start a fire at Gloriana House twenty years earlier on August 28. He’d failed in that effort, but only because the rags combusted on the other side of
