Page 79 of Five Alarm Kiss

“Checking that you’re okay,” he guessed. “I get it.”

“Something like that,” she said, typing out a quick text.

Laurel

No, they weren’t damaged. And I’m good too.

Mom

Wonderful. Can you bring them by today, sweetheart? I’d like to get them in the mail.

Laurel took a deep breath, then blew it out slowly.

Laurel

Sure. I’ll do it this afternoon.

Better to take them over, than keep getting texts.

Mom

Perfect. See you earlier rather than later.

Subtle, Mom.

Laurel

She pinched the bridge of her nose. Why did conversations with her mom, whether in person or not, always give her a headache?

“You sure you’re all right?” Jake asked.

“Fi—good. I just have to go to my apartment later and grab something for my mom.”

“Can’t it wait? Disaster cleanup won’t be done this early. I’m sure your mom won’t mind.”

“You don’t know my mom,” Laurel mumbled under her breath.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she said quickly. “Just some invitations for a big fundraiser she’s organizing. Won’t take any time to drive over there and grab them.”

“On it,” Jake said. He turned left at the intersection instead of right.

“What’re you doing?” she asked. “Britt’s is the other direction.”

“But your apartment is this way,” he said.

“Jake, you don’t have to drive me.”

He flashed that devastating smile of his. “Too late.”

In truth, it only took about fifteen minutes to get to her apartment from where they were. The invitations were in her bedroom, so hopefully, they didn’t smell like smoke. She really didn’t want to have to deal with her mom if they did.

Disaster cleanup was still there, like Jake predicted. They’d vacuumed up the foam—or whatever they did to get rid of it—and had taken out the burnt stove and all of the destroyed cupboards. Huge fans were pointed at sections of the carpet that had gotten soaked, and the workers were now tearing out the kitchen drywall, since they were going to have to replace it.

Laurel wasn’t expecting to get emotional. It was a low-end rental, for goodness’ sake, but the fact it’d been her home for the last few years, compounded by the knowledge that she’d been the one to cause all the damage, made her tear up.

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