Page 24 of Getting Lucky

“That’s exactly what I said,” Stella agreed amidst a flurry of other comments.

But Jack had already left the kitchen, and he had much greater concerns than what was—or wasn’t—on the menu for dinner. Jezebel was perched on the wrought iron bench out back, hissing at the fryer, which had overturned and caught a three-foot by three-foot section of the lawn on fire. The grease was slowly spreading down the hill, moving toward the kitchen.

“I smell something burning,” he could hear Dottie say. “Is the stuffing still in the oven?”

“Addy!” Jack shouted. “I need a fire extinguisher! And possibly baking soda!”

He heard multiple gasps and cries inside, but his attention was focused on containing the fire before it reached the house or the fence. He’d seen an extinguisher when he’d helped clean out the shed to create a studio for Adalia a couple of months ago, and they’d put it in the detached garage. The door was locked, but it only took one good ramming with his shoulder to get it open. The extinguisher was on the shelf, thank God, so he grabbed it and ran back to the fire.

It had inched closer to the house, but his new concern was Lurch, who was holding the garden hose.

“Lurch!” Jack shouted. “Stop!”

Lurch waved as he turned on the faucet. “Not to worry! I’ve got this covered.”

Then he sprayed a stream of water directly at the flames.

As Jack had expected, the reaction was instant. Flames shot up into the trees, sending Jezebel leaping off the bench in protest. He heard a few screams, and he pulled the clip out of the extinguisher and started spraying the flames closest to the older man as he made his way to the faucet and turned it off. Lurch’s sleeve was smoldering, so Jack doused it with the extinguisher and then grabbed his free arm and dragged him to the porch, where everyone had gathered to watch the flames. “Get away from the house! Go out front, and someone call 911!”

But someone must have already called—likely one of the neighbors—because he heard distant sirens approaching them.

Stella and Dottie grabbed Lurch’s arms and pulled him inside while River ran out the door with another, smaller, extinguisher. Finn was trying to herd everyone out front, and considering the resistance he was getting, Jack wondered if he had the hardest job.

Jack and River sprayed the flames closest to the house, but the water had spread the fire.

“River! Let the firefighters take care of it!” Georgie called out, her voice shaking with fear.

Then, as though obeying Georgie, River’s extinguisher ran out. He took a few steps back toward the porch. “Jack, we can’t contain it. Come on!”

But Jack wasn’t ready to give up yet. His extinguisher was larger, and he was determined to save the house. It was his house, his and his sisters’ and even the half-brother who still hadn’t acknowledged him, and he wasn’t going to give up on it. He’d hang in as long as he could, or at least until the fire trucks pulled up. The smoke burned his nose and he started to cough.

“Jack!” someone called out in a panic.

He glanced over his shoulder to see Maisie on the back porch with Iris. They were both watching with horror in their eyes, but Iris was sobbing loudly.

“Maisie!” he shouted. “Get my sister out of here! And make sure to tell the firemen it’s a grease fire!”

“Stop, Jack!” Iris cried out. “Let it burn!”

Then his extinguisher ran out, and even though he was tempted to ask Maisie to get the industrial-sized bag of baking soda Adalia had gotten at Costco, he knew it wasn’t enough to contain the fire, or even keep it from reaching the house.

Maisie ran down the steps and grabbed his arm with both hands, tugging. “Don’t be a hero, Jack. Your sister needs you.”

He glanced down at her in surprise, and then she was pulling him up the steps, and he was following. Just like he’d followed her through the party weeks before. Almost like he couldn’t help himself. He wrapped his arm around Iris’s back the moment he reached the top of the steps, and it caught him by surprise when a coughing fit racked his chest. Maisie and Iris led him through the house and out to the front yard.

Maisie tried to get him to sit on the front step, but he was determined to make sure the firemen knew what they were dealing with.

“Where are you going, Jack?” Iris called out as he pulled free and walked toward the fire trucks that were now parked at the curb.

“I told you we’ve been here before,” one of the firefighters said to his buddy. “You owe me ten bucks.”

“I only agreed to pay up if the crystal statue of the naked old guy is here.”

“It’s not,” Jack said, pissed they weren’t taking this seriously. “And it’s a crystal dick, not a crystal statue. There’s a grease fire in the back yard. An overturned turkey fryer. That guy over there”—he motioned toward Lurch, who was sitting under a tree—“needs to be checked out. He tried to douse it with water and may have been burned by the shooting flames.” Then he started to cough.

“Sounds like you need to be checked out too,” the first guy said.

“Just go save my damn house,” he grunted.

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