Page 34 of Shortcake
Thank God for the firemen who pulled into the driveway behind the moving truck and interrupted our shouting fest before it got really bad.
A bunch of men, suited up, jumped out of the truck and charged up the driveway toward the stairwell to my apartment like something out of a movie.
The front door of Higgins’s—or rather, Conrad’s—house swung open again and a worse for the wear Harper came out.
The dark bags under her eyes greatly contrasted the greenish-white pallor of her skin. If I had to guess, I’d say she probably spent the night on the bathroom floor. “What the hell’s going on?!” she asked, her voice hoarse and raspy.
“Language!” Conrad snapped, pointing at his daughter.
Her eyes fell on me. “Dad? Isn’t that the bartender from last night? Oh God, please don’t tell me that after you picked me up, you two hooked up—”
“No,” Conrad and I both shouted at the same time, but my cheeks went hot all the same.
Conrad’s eyes quickly cut to Warren’s and he put a hand out. “We didn’t.”
“Okay,” Warren said, then gave me a weird look, like,why should I care?I shrugged in response. Who the hell knew what this guy was thinking? I was pretty surehewas in shock even though I was the one who just escaped a fire. And Conrad in shock made him an asshole if last night and this morning was any sort of pattern.
Harper blinked, her bleached hair now frizzy and falling out of the messy bun on top of her head. “Then why is she here? And why are there fire trucks?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer her… so I didn’t. It wasn’t my daughter. Therefore, it wasn’t my problem.
Instead, I walked Eleanor and myself over to the bench in the front yard and plopped down to wait until the fire chief had an update for us.
“Apparently, she lives there.” Conrad pointed to the garage.
Harper squinted, staring for a moment, then turned around to go back into the house. “I’m going back to bed,” she grumbled.
I knew how she felt.
At least I had my coffee…
Or at least, half of my coffee.
I looked down, to find a dead mosquito floating on the top.
Dammit.
* * *
“Mice.”Bob Collins, Maple Grove’s fire chief took turns looking me and Conrad in the eyes as he recounted what they’d found inside.
“Mice?” Conrad repeated.
“That’s right.” Bob’s mustache bounced as he spoke, the edges brushing his bottom lip with each word. “Infested the garage and chewed through the wiring in the walls. We’ve shut off the electricity for the building. You’re going to need an exterminator and to rewire the apartment.”
Conrad’s face went paler than it already was as he fell to a seat on the same bench I’d been sitting on just a few minutes before.
“How long will that take?” I asked.
Bob shrugged. “That’s a question for your electrician.”
I looked at Conrad who was rubbing the back of his neck. “Do you have an electrician?”
“I’ve only been in town for a week,” he snapped. “In this house for a day. So,no, I don’t have an electrician.”
It was just a question. He didn’t have to be such an asshole about it. I bit my tongue and turned back to Bob. “So I can’t live there?”
Bob shook his head, jotting something down on a clipboard. “Afraid not, Addy. But my guys will go in with you while you pack up what you need.”
