"I don't think you are," Bella said, following him as they hustled from her room. "You're not supposed to put anything but pans in the broiler."
Noah froze, mentally retracing his steps, then turned to her. "What broiler?" Oh, hell. He hurried back to the kitchen and held out his hand for her to stay in the hall. "Stay put for a sec."
He reached for the hand towel on his shoulder but came up empty as he stepped to the browning green beans.
Beep.
"Freaking smoke detector," he mumbled. Where did they keep pot holders? He flicked off the top burner, scooting the crisped green beans off as they smoked. But that wasn't nearly enough to cause the haze in the kitchen.
Beep.
The casserole? How was he screwing up a simple dinner! He pulled the oven open, and black smoke billowed out. "What the-"
Then flames jumped. His dish towel! "Shoot!"
Beep.
There was a fire in the oven from the dish towel he'd tossed in below. He slammed the door shut. Beep. He switched the gas off and rushed to the window to throw it open and let some of the swirling air out. Beep. "Hey, Bella. Go open the front door."
He needed a cross draft to blow this place free of the stink. Beep.
"Ohhh-kay dokey."
Her giant leaps were more for fun and less for distance, and beep, Noah tried the oven again. The fire raged inside. He needed a fire extinguisher. Beep. No, he needed the fire alarm to chill. Where was that? He looked down the hall, and there was the noisemaking culprit.
He dragged the chair to the hallway, ripped the smoke detector off the ceiling, and pulled the battery out with tactical efficiency. Good to see his skills could still be put to use.
Beep.
He glared. It still had a charge even as they remained surrounded by smoke. "Go toss it in the front yard, would ya, Bug?"
She didn't miss a beat and skipped away, only to return with a report that it broke into two pieces on the sidewalk. Her lips rounded as though she were in trouble, but he couldn't have planned it better if he'd tried.
"Good work. Now to fix this-"
The distant call of fire alarm sirens brought everything to a standstill. Only in Eagle's Ridge would someone call the fire department when they heard a neighbor's fire detector and saw a little smoke out a window.
"Are they coming here?" Bella asked.
His head dropped, and slowly he nodded. "Without a doubt."
Noah turned back to the oven, and his eyes dropped to the storage cabinet underneath. But it wasn't a storage cabinet. He stomped to the sink and checked below it, where he found the obligatory fire extinguisher as the sirens blared closer.
"This wasn't on any of the mommy blogs." He pulled the broiler drawer open with his boot, and there sat the charred remains of his dish towel.
Just to be safe, he popped the pin and aimed the nozzle. There was no doubt that he'd just made the front page of the Eagle's Ridge newspaper. Then after pulling the oven open, Noah needed to douse his casserole inferno and sprayed it to a wet, white, foamy crisp.
"This is exciting!" Bella announced, perched on top of a chair.
"Riveting." The sizzling mess was completely extinguished in all of its rancid, acrid glory, and Noah turned as boots stomped into the kitchen.
Hello, Eagle's Ridge Fire Department. They entered Lainey's house-in full gear-with the man in the lead holding the broken smoke detector.
"Noah Coleman?" The man with his broken fire detector stopped in the hallway.
They even had him by name. Small town gossip at its best. "That's me. Sorry about the-"
"This is yours?" The man held up the two pieces.
"Yup." Noah crossed his arms. "I was wondering where that got to."
"I did that!" Bella piped up. "I'm sorry."
"It's fine, ladybug. Don't worry about it." Or the overreacting firemen in our house.
The word CHIEF was emblazoned on the man's jacket, and he tossed it onto the counter. "Since you're new in town-"
"Hold on a second." He wasn't new in town. Any embarrassment he'd had over blackening Lainey's kitchen wall and stinking the house up ceased to exist. "Let's be clear, sir. No, I'm not new in town. I was born and raised in Eagle's Ridge. My father's father was a founder, and I take great pride in that. I left for a service calling, and I'm back for a calling too. Are we clear on that?"
Their stare down was interrupted when Bella inched between them. "Am I in trouble for tampering or disabling a smoke detector device?"
"No, sweetheart."
Noah appreciated the tone the man took with Bella as she repeated the warning that she must've heard on an airplane. "I didn't catch your name."
"Fire Chief Bernie Pope."
"Good to meet you, sir. Given the circumstances." Noah gestured. "But I think you can see everything's taken care of now."
The fire chief brushed by for his inspection as Bella chatted with a familiar face about their gear. The inspection of toasted green beans and casserole took far too long, but the man was making his point. He was in charge, and Noah had caused him to suit up and work when there was nothing to be done.
Noah softened his stance and recalibrated his approach. "Look, I'm sorry you had to come out."
The chief grunted as he took notes.
"I didn't call."
Pope shook his head. "No, your neighbor said smoke was pouring out of Lainey's house."
Wasn't that the neighbor Lainey had promised would be a helpful resource one day? "Pouring might've been an overstatement."
"Humph."
Noah had no idea if that was an agreement or not. "But hey, for your troubles. I just reopened Nuts and Bolts. If you or any of the guys need a tune-up, swing on by. I could use something to do, and it'll help me get the word out I'm back and opening up."
Pope chuckled. "Trust me, son. Not many don't know you're back."
What was that supposed to mean? "Then come by, anyway."
"Pretty busy." The chief took a picture with his cell phone.
Undeterred, Noah stood in his line of sight and extended his hand. "On the house."
Pope stopped, noting the intrusion in his work, and studied Noah's hand. His heavy jaws worked side to side before he gave a nod. "We appreciate what you're doing for Bella." The chief met his grip, and they shook. "I'll let the guys know you're knocking twenty percent off."
"That wasn't the offer I made."
Pope pocketed his notes and phone and waved goodbye to Bella. "But it was the one that I accepted."
Noah needed the business but didn't want handouts. Then again, that was what he'd just offered. Maybe the chief felt the same way. "All right, then."
"Scrape out what you can when the oven cools. Scatter baking soda. Wet it with white vinegar and let it soak. Then attack it with elbow grease if you don't want to use chemicals, like Lainey."
"Thanks." Right now, Noah would rather rip the appliance out and start over, but he had to worry about feeding Bella. And not pizza because that would somehow scar her for life.
Unlike her mother, who never did anything wrong, ever-except take care of everyone and follow every rule and handle every possible concern except when it affected herself. "Don't worry. I won't douse the thing in ammonia."
Or do anything for now. Except maybe text Teagan and see how badly he'd screwed up his little ladybug.
CHAPTER FIVE
The five o'clock hour at the grocery store was like social hour in Eagle's Ridge among the working moms and last-minute dinner-prepping crowd. Teagan chatted her way through produce while Will shrugged out of the polite chatter with one purpose in mind-pepperoni pizza.
Baking a frozen pizza sounded far easier than reheating last night's roast beef and potatoes. She already had salad makings at home, and the roast beef leftovers would keep for another night. Besides, somewhere at the bottom of her purse was a coupon for stuffed crust pepperoni. If that wasn't fate calling them to the frozen food aisle, Teagan didn't know what was.
A burst of colorful caftan whirled around the far end of the chilly aisle as Teagan made her way toward her son drooling over the dinner options, and she could tell by the way that Hildie Fontana gripped her colorful shawl while her mouth moved a mile a minute on a cell phone conversation, meant for all to hear, that something juicy was happening in the social boundaries of the county.
Truthfully, Teagan used Hildie as a behind-the-scenes source of useful information. She did so sparingly, but getting the dirt sometimes helped her decipher situations at school that might not be apparent.
Hildie hung up her phone, ditching it with great fanfare in her giant purse as she hooked Will for a hug before stopping in front of Teagan. "Make sure to get a chocolate chip cookie next time you're near my shop, Will. It's been a while since you've stopped by."
Teagan smiled. Hildie loved men, young and old.