“What’s the matter?” I ask softly, and his head snaps up.
“Why are you up?” He doesn’t bother answering my question.
“I got a call from the unknown number.” I shrug. “This time, he spoke.” He flies off the bed and comes to me.
“What did he say?” he asks at the same time we hear a soft knock. “Fuck, that’s Kallie.”
“What’s going on?” I look at him while he walks past me, going downstairs to open the door.
“Hey.” I hear Kallie, and then I walk down the steps, and the two of them just look up at me. Kallie has tears in her eyes.
“What happened?” I ask again, and this time, my heart starts to speed up because they both look like someone died. “I’m starting to freak out.”
“There’s a fire.” Beau starts to say something, and it’s like my everything is going on around me, but I’m not there. I see their lips moving, but all I can do is listen to the galloping of my heart.
“Beau.” I hear Kallie say his name. “I think she’s going down.”
He rushes to me, but my ass hits the step before he can get to me. There is screaming somewhere, a bloodcurdling scream. “Ethan,” Kallie says his name, and I turn to see him standing at the top of the stairs with tears running down his face. Kallie runs past us to gather him in her arms. “It’s okay, buddy,” she tells him.
“Baby,” Beau says, “you need to look at me.” I blink, turning to see him, noticing that I’m now sitting in his lap.
“Why?” is the only thing I can say. “Why?” I whisper again and again. He gets up and walks back up the steps, going to his room.
“I have to change, and then we can go,” he says, putting me down. My hands fall in my lap limp, my whole body is limp. He rushes to the closet, coming out dressed in jeans, when the buzzing starts again. Looking down, I see it’s Beau’s phone with Jacob’s name flashing across the screen. “Yeah,” he answers. “We’re leaving now.” He looks at me. “How bad?”
He doesn’t say anything else; he just puts his shoes on, then gets my shoes on, and I’m carried out to his truck. I don’t see anything, and I don’t register anything until he turns the corner, and the sight of orange flames fill the sky. I gasp, seeing that a fire truck is already on the scene, and the water is going. “Oh my God,” I say, watching the flames getting higher and higher. Beau stops the truck, and I get out. My hand holds the door as I take in the sound of wood crackling. I start to walk toward my bar when I’m pulled back by Beau.
“You can’t go too close,” he says, and I stand here hopeless, watching everything that I have ever worked for go up in flames. The sound of the windows breaking makes me jump a bit. “We need to find Jacob.”
“It’s gone.” My eyes fixate on the sight of the bar. I remember when I bought it; I thought I owned the world that day. I sat in my studio apartment, looking over the deed to the bar. There was nothing that you could have said to erase the smile on my face that day. I owned something. Something was finally mine, and I was going to show everybody that I could do this. I would make them eat their crow when I owned the most successful bar that ever was. It took blood, sweat, and tears, but I did it. There were more tears and sweat, but I did it. I put my bar on the map, and people would come from two counties over just to be at my bar on a Friday and Saturday night. I provided for my son and for myself, which is the only thing I ever wanted. “It’s gone.” I repeat when I see a part of the roof has collapsed. “It’s going to be all gone.”
Beau stands behind me with his arms around my shoulders. We stand here just watching the fire spread until the whole roof collapses. It almost sounds like a tree falling in the forest when it takes down other trees around it. “Jesus.” I hear Jacob’s voice beside me, and when I look over, I see him clearly in the dark night with the fire lighting up the sky. “I just spoke with Blake,” he says. “He says it could take a couple of hours before the fire is out.”
“Do you want to go?” Beau asks, and all I can do is shake my head. The three of us stand here and watch as my bar burns down to the ground. Little flakes of ash float through the air like snow. I wipe the tears away with soot on my hands. The whole time, Beau holds me, his hold never loosening, and it’s a good thing because I don’t think I would be able to stand. Every time another piece of the bar collapses, he kisses the side of my head.