Page 47 of Be My Baby

“Max!” a loud voice yelled through the window in the booth.

“I’m okay!” he rasped, his choking coughs weakening his voice.

He grabbed the key for the deadlock from where he hung it at night, on the wall next to the doors and slammed the slide latches back. The bolt clicked over and he shoved out into the fresh, cool night air, coughing and retching.

Hands reached for him and dragged him through.

Max glanced behind him as neighbours dragged him out. The flames had reached the bar and were headed for the dining room.

No.

He jerked toward it without thinking.

Strong hands gripped his shoulder. Max looked up. Harry Edwards held firm.

“No. Harry, I…” Max sucked in a deep breath and immediately started coughing again, bending double.

“Believe me,” he started, then pulled Max away toward the middle of the road that was being cordoned off by the police. “I understand. But there’s no way in hell I’m letting you back in there.” He nodded behind Max. An ambulance pulled up as he watched. The local firies barrelled past him, dragging a hose toward the door. “Get yourself over to that ambo. Get checked out.”

“I didn’t breathe in much,” he wheezed.

Harry frowned. “Not the point. You’re getting checked out. Your mother would have my guts for garters if I let anything happen to you.”

Harry motioned to someone behind Max and someone else took him by the elbow, escorting him toward the waiting ambulance.

The paramedic checked his breathing and handed him an oxygen mask. “Put this on.”

“Max!” Simon yelled and sprinted toward him from behind the cordoned off barrier, Amy right behind him.

His brother reached Max and turned him, checking him for injuries. Seemingly satisfied that he was all right, Simon threw his arms around him and squeezed tight, expelling the air from his lungs.

Simon gripped his shoulders in both hands, forcing Max to look at him. “Don’teverdo that to me again. You scared the living hell out of me.”

Max’s gaze was drawn past Simon to where locals hurried toward them, in various states of dress, all faces he knew well. His chest constricted seeing them all there. He just nodded as they surrounded him, hugged him, checked him over and generally made a fuss.

A massive crack rent the air and Max flinched as he spun toward the Cow. The upper floor windows exploded, shards of glass spewing into the air. He stumbled backward, his arm raised against the heat he could feel even from there.

His heart shattered right along with them.

“NO!”

He pulled away from Simon and stumbled a few steps, then sank to his knees at the edge of the road, his heat blanket fluttering away in the hot breeze, forgotten.

The entire building was engulfed in angry blazing orange and red. Flames leapt, licking into the night sky, sparks and embers spitting and crackling in orange clouds, thick, dark smoke eddying throughout the air. The gut-wrenching scent of burning wood, plastic, and other, unknown substances mixed and eddied around them, surging with the heat-laced breeze.

His whole life was in there. He’d poured his very heart, soul, and every single cent he’d had into the Cow, making it the best it could possibly be, the place the locals wanted to meet at.

It was the very reason he’d kept going.

It was the reason he got up every morning, the reason he was now financially secure—enough to not have to worry.

Someone fell to their knees beside him, arms going around his shoulders, their rapid breathing evident by their gasping breaths. He turned his head slowly, registering the embrace, the comfort being offered.

“Millie,” he whispered.

She kneeled beside him on the bitumen road, a robe tied around her. She hadn’t taken the time to get dressed. He reached up one hand to rest on her arm and faced the destruction of his dreams while she tightened her hold.

“It’s gone. It’s all gone.” His voice cracked, disappearing.

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