Chapter 16: Fire

I didn't scream.

I thought I would, and nothing came out.

I ran into the hall in my T-shirt and pounded on my father's door with both fists.

"Dad! Fire! Get up!"

I heard him grunt and swear in Dutch.

I took the outside stairs down three at a time.

The air at the bottom was hot and full of sparks, drifting over the gravel.

The steam shed was forty feet from the shop.

The whole river end of it was gone to flame.

The roof over the boiler was sagging in the middle, glowing at the seams.

The office was on the near end of the shop, and its window was orange.

"Cullen!"

The office door banged open before I reached it.

He came out barefoot in his jeans, coughing, with his T-shirt over his mouth.

"Arie," he said.

"I woke him. He's..."

He was already past me and taking the stairs up.

I dialed 911 with my thumb shaking so hard I hit the wrong numbers twice.

"DeVries Boatworks, River Road, Saugatuck. The steam shed. It's spreading to the shop. There's a man up there with a heart condition."

The woman on the line told me to get away from the building.

I didn't.

Because the sketchbook was in the office.

Third shelf, in the box marked BRITT, SHOP, with the clipping and the spec sheets and the templates leaning against the wall beside it.

Everything I had that said the chair was mine.

I pulled my T-shirt up over my nose and went in.

The smoke inside was low and gray and thick.

I couldn't see the shelf, so I found it with my hands.

The box was hot on top.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Dating Daddy's Best Friend from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.