Page 14 of Fired Up By the Mountain Man
He pushed her against the wall of the shop next door and stood blocking her view.
“Hey, I can’t seea…”
“Shush will ya, and give me a minute?” He turned around to face her, their bodies barely a hair from touching. She couldfeel his breath on her face, his cologne assaulted her senses and his body heat was extraordinary.
“I’m trying to figure out if it’s actually a person; I don’t wantusto scare him off.” He was whispering so soft she could barely hear him. Or maybe it was because her heart was beating so loud in her ears she couldn’t concentrate on any other sounds. If she hadn’t known any better with their current situation, she could have thought he meant to kiss her. Would she welcome it? You better believe she would!
Instead, Cole placed his finger over her lips and whispered for her to be quiet, then turned back toward the dumpster, creeping closer with each step. What the heck was he doing? Should she follow him? The smart thing to do would be to call the police.
Any decision she had been contemplating was crushed when she heard her screen door slam open, crashing so hard against the wall the hinges broke leaving the door hanging by a thread. A dark figure bolted from the building followed by that mass from the dumpster, she now knew to be another person. They both disappeared so fast she couldn’t tell which way they’d gone after they left the alley.
A split second later Cole had rushed up, prepared to creep around the door frame to look in the kitchen, when an explosion occurred, knocking him on his butt as flames shot out the door. Maeve screamed then made her way to where Cole lie lifeless on the ground.
“Oh God Cole, are you alright? Please be okay.” Maeve didn’t hesitate to let the worry show as she ran her fingers over his newly trimmed crew cut looking for any bumps or road rash from hitting the ground so hard. She moved back to his face where she found charcoal marks from the fire. His elbow wasbleeding and she’d already checked his pulse, but she didn’t know much about that sort of thing. Instinct told her to rest her head on his chest to feel the movement of his breathing.
Thank god, she could feel his chest moving up and down. He was still alive. The blast must have just knocked him out. She softly ran her fingers over his brow, then used her t-shirt to wipe his face off.
“Cole please wake up. Come on.” She lowered her cheek to his, worrying that there was a chance he wouldn’t wake up. Should she do CPR? It’d been a very long time since learning the technique, she wasn’t sure she’d even do it right. Looking into his lifeless face again, she moved her hands to his shoulders, shaking him ever so slightly.
“I only just found you, I can’t lose you now.” She couldn’t bear to say goodbye, even after only knowing him a few days. He’d burrowed into her heart already.
Chapter10
Cole felt like he’d been hit head on with a ton of bricks and his back hurt like hell. No way could he explain what just happened, he must have passed out. He’d been able to hear Maeve’s poetic voice oozing with worry as he felt her hands run all over him, presumably making sure he was okay. Was he? Things were pretty dark but then he hadn’t yet tried to open his eyes.
The pressure and heat she exuded just from the simple touch of her hand to his chest warmed him throughout his entire body and she smelled like a mix of vanilla bean and cherry blossoms. He didn’t think he wanted to wake from this dream. Oh, but her shop…shit.
He pried open his eyes to the most beautiful sight looking down at him, barely concealing her tears.
“Hey beautiful.”
“Oh, thank God, you’re okay…I was so worried, you hit the ground so hard.”
“Yeah, I’m starting to feel it. Can you help me up?”
Maeve grabbed his hand with both of hers, her little frame pulling as hard as she could.
“Where did those creeps go, did you see?”
“I only saw they disappeared in the dark down the alley so I’m not really sure, I was more worried about you. Are you sure you’re okay? You scraped your elbows, there’s a little blood on them.”
“I’ll be alright, we need to find a fire extinguisher, there’s fire in the kitchen.”
Cole headed toward the back door of Maeve’s shop to see how bad the fire was inside.
“There’s an extinguisher just to the left of the back door next to the cabinet. Please be careful.”
“Hey, good thing I’m a trained firefighter huh?”
“Well yeah but without any gear?”
Cole shrugged his shoulders, dismissing her observation as he peeked in the back door. Whoever those idiots were, they must not have realized the gas and electric had been shut off after the first fire so they probably couldn’t get anything to light. He asked Maeve to call 911 while he put out the small fire in the middle of the kitchen floor.
“Looks like they took some trash out of the bin to burn with some gasoline but I’m guessing what exploded was the aerosol cans. Must be why they ran out of here so fast. Do you use cooking spray?”
“Yes I had three or four cans on the storage shelf and a new one I just opened this week above the stove.”
The sounds of the station alarms meant his buddies would be invading the space momentarily, so he and Maeve needed to get out of the way.
