Page 79 of The Guy Who Became My Grumpy Boss

An older, but no less handsome, man approached us. “Do you work for the hotel?”

We both shook our heads.

I honestly had no idea how this should go. I was surprised they weren’t charging the building with fire hoses at the ready, but it seemed they were content to do things slowly.

“I’m Captain Grant. Can you tell me what happened?”

Amelia pointed at me, and I explained what I’d seen and what I’d done about it. When I said the sprinklers had gone off after a few seconds, the man frowned.

“No one turned them off?” he asked.

“Not that I know of.”

His frown deepened, and if I hadn’t been admiring Peter just moments before, I might have been tempted to get this guy’s number.

“We’re going to have to take a look around,” the man said.

“Will you have to shut the hotel down?” Amelia asked.

“We’ll need to clear the building, then assess what happened before we can move forward.”

Amelia stepped aside as the captain took one woman and one man and strode into the building. After they disappeared, she looked at me. “The candle company ended up with people in the hospital, and we start a fire and end up with the fire department at our retreat. Is our building, or maybe the block it’s on, cursed perhaps?”

I laughed. “You never know.”

The two of us followed the others back inside to the ballroom.

“Where was the fire?” Captain Grant asked.

“This way.” I retraced my steps and took him to the fire blanket. He wore a small tank on his back the contents of which I had no doubt would smother anything left, and he was ready as one of his guys pulled my solution off the problem.

I stayed back and watched as he explored the area, checked the blanket, poked at the carpet, and had one of his guys find a way to look under the floor.

Amelia stood beside me. “Maybe I should have just given everyone two days off.”

“And miss this?” I threw my hands out. “This will go down in company history. Songs will probably be sung about it andeverything.”

Amelia snorted. “I appreciate your point of view.”

“There’s no real harm done.” I glanced around. “People have mostly put their shirts back on, and I think they’re genuinely sad about not being able to finish.”

Amelia followed my lead. “You’re right, they do look disappointed.”

I made a face. “Maybe we can use the parking lot.”

“Did you notice the state of the parking lot?”

I hadn’t.

“We might have to donate the food and call it good,” Amelia said.

This hadn’t even been her idea in the first place, but even she sounded sad about the possible outcome.

“We’ll think of something,” I said.

We continued to watch as the fire guys and gal explored the area looking for hidden damage.

Now that I saw the crime scene, so to speak, I wondered how the fire had started. What looked like a small mound of boxed food now lay charred. There was nothing else around it, and unless the team had concealed something inside, there was no reason for it to have caught on fire.

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