Page 3 of Frosting and Flames

He stops mid-sentence as he comes out from behind the oven and turns, making eye contact with me. His mouth shuts, nostrils flaring.

It’s Nick Henderson. Why is Nick of all people in my bakery?

“What’s going on?” I ask through dry lips. I lick them, unconsciously, and his gaze drops to my mouth.

“Rachel!” Hailey exclaims, and it’s only then that my gaze breaks from Nick and my brain processes the rest of the scene.

There’s a fine layer of white powder over the oven and floor. Is it flour? No, it’s not the right consistency. Also on the floor is an overturned tray of cupcakes, pink frosting smeared on the tile.

My gaze travels up, eyes widening at the soot on the ceiling. Soot?

I inhale, a sharp, acrid odor in the air. What the hell happened here? Was there… No, they didn’t seriously set fire to the place, did they?

“I thought you were shopping,” Sydney says, glancing around shiftily. Beside her, Hailey looks guilty as hell.

“You were acting suspicious on the phone,” I choke out, whatever’s in the air getting in my lungs. I cough into my elbow. “Was there a…” I trail off, unable to say the word.

Especially with Nick here.

“It was small,” Sydney rushes to explain, only half-answering my question. “So small you don’t even need to worry about it. Go enjoy your day off.”

I stare at her incredulously. Not worry about it?

“It wasn’t their fault,” Nick says quietly. “My guess is something with the oven malfunctioned. I could inspect it for you.”

I focus on his Aurora Fire Department shirt rather than look at his face again. “I… No, that’s okay.” I don’t want him here longer than necessary. “You were the one who put out the…” I still can’t say the word out loud.

He nods, sticking his hands in his pockets.

“Thank you,” I whisper, the words getting stuck in my throat.

“Of course.”

My eyes squeeze shut at the sincerity in his voice. I must be hearing that wrong. He only did this because he had to as a firefighter.

“Holy shit. What happened here?”

I spin around, my heart leaping with gratitude for Jae as she gazes wide-eyed around the kitchen. I must not have locked the front door after coming in.

Leaving Sydney and Hailey to answer Jae’s questions, I push through the doors to the customer side of the bakery, taking in a lungful of air not tainted with extinguisher residue. I move to the front door, but don’t lock it quite yet, gripping the push bar.

Mom and Dad have only been gone one month out of their six-month world cruise and we’ve already set fire to the place? What else will we do by the time they get back? Flood it? Completely blow it up?

The doors to the back open, and I turn, expecting it to be Sydney making another declaration of innocence, but it’s Nick. The room instantly seems smaller.

He stops with a fair amount of distance between us, but it’s still too close. My skin itches from the inside.

“I’ll need to make a report,” he says, and I nod. That makes sense. I should contact our insurance agent to see if we need to file a claim, too.

Shit. Will our premiums increase because of this?

“Do you want help cleaning up?”

I blink, taken aback. “Aren’t you on the clock?”

“I could come back after my shift ends.”

“Why?”

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