The fire had gutted the inside of Kirsty’s shop. The smoke had damaged her home upstairs. What didn’t suffer flame or smoke damage was ruined by water. Now the interior of her building was a black, burnt-out mess. Kirsty stood in the front window of Lake’s shop, surrounded by her family and friends, watching the clean-up. Lake held her tight against him.
“Looks like we won the war,” Betty said. “Kirsty’s business is dead.” Everyone scowled at her. “What?” she demanded. “I’m not talking about anything you can’t see for yourself.”
“Don’t worry,” Kirsty’s mum said. “We’ll help you fix things. I’m sure there’s a lot you can salvage.”
“Aye,” Shona said. “The fire was superficial. The structure is fine.”
There was nothing superficial about it. Anything that was left would land in the rubbish skip.
“You don’t get that smoke smell out,” Jean said. “Nothing removes it.”
Kirsty’s mum glared at Jean.
“I’m sure what we can’t salvage will be replaced by the insurance company,” her mum said with confidence.
Kirsty’s heart sank. Lake squeezed her tighter. With his arm round her shoulder, things were slightly easier to bear. Having him there, knowing he was okay, put all material losses in perspective. She looked at the sodden mess that was her life. It could have been worse. Not much worse, but still. She took a deep breath. There was no avoiding this.
“I don’t have any insurance, Mum,” she said.
She felt Lake stiffen beside her.
“You don’t have any insurance?” Her mum’s voice was a high-pitched squeak.
Kirsty shook her head sadly.
“I got rid of it to free up money for advertising.”
Her mum’s mouth fluttered open.
“Well, that was bloody stupid,” Betty said loudly.
Kirsty couldn’t disagree, so she kept her mouth shut.
“We’ll figure something out,” Lake told her as he kissed the top of her head. “We’ll all pitch in. It’ll be fine.”
He sounded so sure of himself that Kirsty found herself believing him, even though logic told her that it really wouldn’t be fine.
“What about the war?” Betty demanded. “What about not helping the enemy? What about winning?”
“The war’s over,” Lake said evenly.
The look he gave Betty made her clamp her lips shut and fume. Kirsty squeezed him in thanks and heard him grunt. She’d forgotten about the ribs, and even though they were both bandaged and strapped, they were still fragile. She patted the cable knit jumper he wore instead, looking at him instead of the shop, because she honestly didn’t know how she was going to get up in the morning and find the energy to deal with this. She sighed heavily. She would deal with it the way she’d dealt with everything else—one thing at a time. That was all she could ever do. Lake kissed the top of her head and her heart warmed. At least this time she wasn’t alone. This time she had her mum, the women of Invertary and Lake. Already things were looking up.
As Lake watched the smouldering mess that was Kirsty’s shop, he badly wanted to beat Brandon all over again. Unfortunately he was locked up in Invertary’s only jail cell and Officer Donaldson had been clear about Lake not being on the visitors’ list. He shook his head grimly. It was going to be one helluva clean-up and he had no idea how they would rebuild without insurance money. He flicked through a list of guys he could call for help. People owed him favours. That would make a big dent in the refurbishment, at least.
The door to the shop crashed open and Alastair rushed in, out of breath and frantic.
“What is it?” Lake called to him.
He knew this wasn’t going to be good. Kirsty shifted in his arms to see who he was talking to.
“Have you seen Rainne?” Alastair said.
The women turned. As soon as they set eyes on Alastair their smiles turned to frowns of worry.
“No, I haven’t,” Lake said. “I thought she was with you.”
“She was.” The boy spat out the words.
He stalked across the shop floor and thrust a piece of paper at Lake. As Lake read it his anger grew. Kirsty stilled beside him as she realised what the note meant.
“She’s run away,” Lake said.
The women gasped.
“Oh my goodness!” Kirsty’s mum said.
Alastair threw up his hands in despair.
“How could she do this?” he wailed. “I told her to stay here. I told her that I would look after her, that we could have a fine life together. Why would she do this? Why would she sneak away in the night as though she’s ashamed?”
He stood with his hands on his hips, glaring at Lake, expecting an answer.
“She might have left with her mum and dad?” Kirsty said.
The boy shook his head vehemently.
“They’re at the campsite on the edge of town. I already went there. They were waiting for her to turn up and leave with them. She didn’t.”
Kirsty’s jaw dropped. Lake clenched his. It wasn’t anything he didn’t already know about them.
“Maybe they didn’t know you were hurt?” Kirsty said hopefully.
He loved her for thinking that, but he knew different.
“They knew everything,” he said. “It’s the only story in town. They thought the fire would send Rainne running to them. They were waiting for her.”
Kirsty and her mother exchanged a look. Lake could see that they didn’t understand. He knew for a fact that Kirsty’s mother would have clawed through the burning rubble to get to her.
“They are shameful people,” Betty said with a disgusted shake of her head.
“Where is she?” Alastair wailed. “Why would she run away like this?” He rounded on Lake. “This is your fault,” he said as he pointed at him. “She said that you and her parents were fighting over her. What did you do?”
Lake looked down at Kirsty. This wasn’t the time to talk about that. He needed to think things through before he talked to Kirsty. His plans had changed. He had changed.
“It doesn’t matter now,” he said at last.
“It matters to me,” Alastair shouted. “Tell me. Tell me what you said that made her run away from me.”
Lake closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them the women of Invertary were glaring at him. They already knew that they weren’t going to like his answer. Betty pursed her lips.
“It’s between me and Rainne,” he told the boy tightly.
“No, it’s not. It has to do with all of us,” Betty said.
“Betty,” Lake warned.
“Lake here,” Betty said, ignoring him, “told Rainne that he plans to put the shop on the market come Monday.”
Lake shook his head as shock rippled around the room. Although Kirsty still held him, he could already feel her put distance between them. Under his breath, he cursed Betty.
“It’s not settled,” he said.
The truth was that he didn’t know what he was going to do yet. All he knew was that his plans to leave Invertary weren’t as pleasant as they’d been months earlier.
“He’s leaving us,” Betty told everyone. “He’s leaving all of us.”
Kirsty dropped her hand from his waist.