california christmas dreams (18 page)

“No... No...” He rubbed his temples. “I’m trying to say...”

“Wow,” she said, sitting back in her chair. “This hasn’t happened to me in a long time.” She slanted a glance at him. “I feel a little betrayed. I thought you were paying attention to me, to Meredith Alcott.”

How did this conversation get to this point? He was totally baffled. “You don’t understand.”

“I don’t want to talk about it right now,” she said, standing up, looking suddenly tired. The breeze ruffled her hair and a look of loss and disappointment shadowed her eyes. “Maybe you should go.”

“Merry,” he said.

“I need to be alone right now.” She stared at him.

Did he see tears in the corners of her eyes? How the hell was he going to fix this? His opened his mouth to say something.

“Please, Jake,” she repeated. “You know the way.” She turned and walked into the house, slamming and locking the door.

He sat stunned, not certain what the hell had happened. Here he’d thought he’d tell her that he liked the real woman more than the fantasy, and not one word had come out right. He never would’ve brought the subject up.

His phone rang and he took it out of his pocket. His father. He considered not answering, but what the hell else could go wrong? He might as well get the next calamity over with.

“Jake,” his father said, his voice breathless and hurried. “We have a problem.”

“What’s up, Dad?”

“Fire, and it’s coming toward the park.”

“I’m leaving Merry’s home. Do you want me to tell her?”

He heard his father hesitate. “I want to speak to her myself. I’ll call her as soon as I hang up with you.”

“I’ll be there as quick as I can.” He skirted the house, following a small brick walkway that meandered through her garden. He got into his car and started it. He backed out of Merry’s driveway, thinking he should have just knocked on the door and told her about the fire, but he didn’t think he could face her just yet.

* * *

Merry couldn’t believe a fire was threatening the park. She’d changed out of capris and her silk shirt into plain jeans and a cotton T-shirt. Even though John had told her to just stay home, she couldn’t. She might not have as much invested in the park as he did, but she’d come to love it. She entered the freeway and gunned her Prius to merge into the fast-moving traffic. She could not bear the thought of that beautiful park burning down.

The worry about the fire receded in her mind as thoughts of Jake came to the forefront.
Dumb. Dumb. Dumb,
she thought. What was she going to do? Her earlier conversation with her sister had done little to help her.

She should never have slept with John’s son. That had been asking for trouble. And now she was probably right behind him as they both raced to the park and the threatening fire. Though what she would do about the fire, she didn’t know. What was she going to do about Jake? She didn’t know that, either. Hell, she couldn’t hang on to a thought. Just the sense of regret she’d felt when he’d confessed his crush on Chloe. She hadn’t let her guard down with a man for a long time.

Today, she didn’t seem to know much of anything.
Where was my brain?
she thought.
I’m smarter than this. I got my man merit badge a long time ago.

She swerved as a car cut in front of her. She wanted to pound the steering wheel in frustration. She wanted to pound Jake in frustration. He was in the entertainment business. He understood how the fantasy worked. How could he think she was just an extension of her TV character? He was smarter than that. He should have gotten over being starstruck a long time ago. A man who saw the crazy in his celebrity clients should know better. Why would he even get involved with her when all he saw was the illusion?

Even with the air conditioner going, the smell of smoke filtered into the cab. More than one fire darkened the sky today, casting a yellow haze over the city. She turned on the radio and found three fires blazing and a city stressed out as mandatory evacuations were being ordered for those in the fires’ paths. People thought Los Angeles was wall-to-wall people, but in reality there was still a lot of open land with vegetation that turned bone dry once the rainy season ended. A heavy rainy season meant more growth and a greater chance of fire.

Jake was an idiot. And the worst thing was, she was an idiot, too. She had let the glamour and romance of the evening sway her common sense. She should never have invited him in for a drink. She should never have unlocked her front door. She should never have let him kiss her the first time. She should never... Her mind skittered around her thoughts.

Once this fire thing was cleared up, she would finish what she started. John wouldn’t need her to be at the park every day once the restoration was done and the park redesigned with the seasonal displays laid out. She would probably be able to work at home and go to the park to consult with John. Then she could do some work on the side. Maybe one of the video offers would pan out.

An hour later, she pulled into the parking lot and parked next to John’s Mercedes. The pall of black smoke made her cough. A few cinders swirled around her head. The wind was a roar that snapped at her hair. She could smell smoke, and when she shaded her eyes she could see fire trucks on distant hillsides and firefighters in full gear. A tanker plane roared overhead, circled the burn area and a few moments later dropped fire retardant on the flames.

She heard the roar of a bulldozer and watched as it wheeled across the parking lot. Jake was driving it, a yellow hard hat on his head, his face firm with determination. She didn’t wave as she bolted across the hot tarmac and into the park. John was in the center courtyard with all the maintenance people.

“We’re going to bulldoze as much of the vegetation beyond the easement as far from the park perimeter as we can get before the flames get here,” he said. “I want two teams. Mark, you and your people water down the roofs of the stores. Jose, you and your team work around the carousel. Keep everything as wet as you can. Don’t worry about water, we’re on a well.”

“What can I do, John?” Merry asked as she approached.

“I don’t know, Merry.” He looked calm, but panic hovered in his eyes. He turned to gaze at the hills where the flames flickered.

Merry imagined she could hear the crackle, even though the fire was still several miles away.

A line of cars following a fire truck turned into the parking lot. As the cars parked, people started getting out and walking toward John. Firemen opened the side panels in the truck and began to unroll hoses and attach them to the fire hydrants.

“Merry,” John said suddenly. “I want you to go into my office and your office and save all the computers you can and your plans for the park. Pack them in your car. If we lose anything, we’ll still have our plans.”

Merry nodded. She passed a knot of people half running toward John. She recognized the woman, Bonnie, who owned the pub. “We came to help, John,” she said.

Other people nodded. They were all dressed in old clothes, holding shovels and chainsaws, ready to fight the fire. A few had tied wet bandannas across their faces to filter out the smoke.

“I can’t ask you to help, Bonnie,” John said, his tone serious. “You’re civilians. The fire department is going to want you out of the way.”

“We’re not leaving. This park is an icon and I’m not going to let it burn down. My parents brought me here when I was a child and I bring my children,” Bonnie said firmly.

“Me, too, John.” A man Merry didn’t know spoke up. “I worked the concession stands three summers in a row and that money helped me through college. I’m not going to let this park burn down if I can help it.”

As John started organizing Bonnie and her friends, more cars poured into the parking lot and more people rushed up to John with shovels over their shoulders. John had a bemused look on his face. Jake had parked the bulldozer and was talking to a fireman and a police officer. He kept glancing at the crowd around his father.

Merry watched him. He raised an arm and pointed to the side of the park. Though the park was required to have a vegetation-free easement, it was still vulnerable. Flames had been known to leap across eight lanes of highway.

Merry went into her office and started packing up her laptop, along with all her drawing pads, her notes and her schedule of events. She packed up her car and then went back to John’s office for his laptops. John loved computers and not only had a Mac, an iPod and an iPad, but two PCs and a couple of dozen flash drives. She found a box for the flash drives and dropped them in. Then she started unhooking all the power supplies and closing the laptops. How John could work on so many different computers at once mystified her.

The door opened behind her and she turned to find Jake standing in the doorway, his yellow hard hat still on his head and a soaking-wet bandanna in his hand.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asked.

“Your dad told me to get all the computers, so I’m getting them and putting them in my car.”

“You should be home where you’d be safe.”

“Thanks,” she said, her voice vacant of any snark. “But I’m not leaving. I’m going to help all I can.” She owed it to John.

“This is dangerous.”

“Life is dangerous. I just braved the freeway going eighty miles an hour. Fighting a fire is nothing. Are you going to run away?”

His face tightened. “This is my dad’s life.”

“It’s mine, too.” She wanted him to go away, to leave her to her task. Looking at him brought the hurt back, and she didn’t know if she wanted to smack him or kiss him. “Go do what you have to do. Let me do my job. We will deal with this later.”

He stomped out into the smoke and Merry slammed the door after him. When she finished with the computers, she headed to Noelle’s store to see what she could save and found Connor Bentley, the mayor, inside already packing.

“Mr. Mayor,” Merry said in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“Merry.” He wrapped newspaper around a glass piece and set it carefully in one of the blue totes Noelle used to transport her glass. “Are you here to help? Take this.” He handed her a glass bowl.

“You’re the mayor. Should you be putting yourself in jeopardy? I should think you’d have people to do this for you.”

“I know your sister is on her way to San Francisco. I had to make some effort to save her product. It’s...it’s just too beautiful.” He gazed at a glass butterfly that looked as though it was ready to fly away.

“Yeah,” Merry said, trying to keep her surprise down. Was the mayor sweet on her sister?
Good Lord, I don’t have time for this.
“Concentrate on the top two shelves. That’s the expensive stuff. The smaller items are easier and faster to redo if they’re lost.”

Connor nodded and reached up to bring the larger, more expensive pieces down. Merry wrapped newspaper around them. Through the window, she saw Mark with his crew hosing down the roofs. Streams of water dripped along the eaves. The smoke was getting thicker and heavier. More sirens sounded as more fire trucks and firefighters arrived.

“I’m going to get my truck and just drive it up here to the door and we’ll pack this away. Then we can start on the T-shirt shop and save as much as we can.”

Merry simply nodded. He opened the door and a burst of smoke nearly choked her as it swirled in. The wind had died down a bit, but glowing cinders continued to swirl and litter the central courtyard. One of Mark’s crew watered down the cinders before something caught fire.

The fire was closer. Merry stood in the doorway shading her eyes. She heard the distant crackle and felt a touch of primal fear. Everything about fire was frightening to her.

Connor parked his truck in front of Noelle’s store and Merry helped him load the totes. The T-shirt shop hadn’t unpacked any boxes yet, so Merry helped put them in his truck. When it was loaded, he drove away. Merry watched him turn onto the road and roar off.

The smoke grew heavier and the air was harder to breathe. Merry coughed as she wet down a bandanna to tie around her face.

“Ma’am,” said a firefighter, “you need to leave now.”

She hadn’t noticed the fire was almost to the park. Hundreds of people worked tirelessly, but the fire was getting too close. Merry closed her eyes, trying not to cry.

“Merry,” Jake said. He’d parked the bulldozer and climbed down to stand next to her. “The roller coaster is on fire.”

“Your dad was thinking about a new one.” Merry walked to the edge of the walkway and stared at the flames consuming the bracing on the roller coaster.

“You’re pretty calm about it.”

“I worked with Maddie Blake and she set at least one thing on fire every week. I carried my own fire extinguisher.” John was herding people toward the parking lot. He looked so dejected, Merry wanted to put her arms around him. Everything he’d worked for was likely to be gone in a minute.

“Merry,” Jake said, “it’s time to leave.”

“But...”

“The insurance will cover this. Dad will be able to rebuild.”

“If he wants.”

“I’m not risking your life over the park.”

John stood at the edge of the parking lot, staring at the fire. The flames weren’t as high and fierce as they had been before, but the embers were hot.

“Bonnie is serving meals for everyone at the pub. Go on and I’ll meet you there.”

Merry nodded. She didn’t want to leave, but even she could see that nothing she did anymore would make a difference. She skirted fire engines parked helter-skelter in the lot and made her weary way to her car. A glance at the clock on the dash told her it was nearly six. She’d been here for over six hours and realized she’d eaten nothing since breakfast.

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she watched the park recede into the distance, eventually swallowed completely by the yellow smoky haze.

Chapter 11

T
he pub was crowded with the people who had worked to help save the park. Despite the crowd, very little talk occurred. Everyone watched the TV mounted over the bar. A commentator showed the flames and gave a history of the park. An aerial view showed the roller coaster in flames and firefighters blasting it with water.