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“That’s right, Moretti.” Kendra tossed Gina a sassy flip of her hair. “Back off.”
“Fine, but you’re going to need to handle it pretty soon. Sooner or later, all relationships reach that point where you either go forward or you stall out. At least back me up on that, Carly.”
Carly made an apologetic face at Kendra. “She’s right about that one.”
“Whatever. We’re having fun and it’s working and I really need to make some calls right now.” She checked her phone, which showed a new string of texts. “This is like an airlift operation, except with pickup trucks and a FedEx van.”
“We’ll finish up here. Just let us know if there’s anything else we can do.”
“Thank you, that’d be great.” Kendra gave them each a quick hug, and stroked Teddy’s silky hair. “Catch y’all later.”
“Tick-tock,” Gina called after her as she hurried away.
Operation Respected Elders took up the rest of Kendra’s day and most of the night. She rallied all the servers and kitchen workers to make food not just for the displaced seniors, but for everyone who was pitching in to help. She coordinated vehicles to shuttle back and forth from the nursing home to the residents’ various destinations.
As soon as Jason gave the all-clear, she called in the work crew she’d lined up to construct a temporary kitchen in the undamaged dining room of the nursing home. She coordinated the delivery of the appliances she’d retrieved from storage, where they’d been living since the latest renovation of the Blue Drake’s kitchen. Before close of business, she contacted the local health department and explained the situation with enough urgency that they scheduled an emergency inspection of the temporary kitchen for the next afternoon.
She left the insurance issue to Alicia Moore. The director would be responsible for getting them to sign off on allowing the residents back on the property.
When all the appliances had been delivered, she gathered together her crew of workers. They had long hours of plumbing in appliances and roughing in countertops ahead of them. She needed to give them some extra motivation.
“When I first came back to Lake Bittersweet, all I could think about was when I was going to leave again. But today, I remembered what’s so great about this place. We take care of each other here. We might disagree, even fight—but in the end, we’re there for our neighbors. Right? Just imagine, we can personally keep forty elderly people from being homeless. I thank you, my dad thanks you, and you’ll all eat for a month for free at Alvin’s Burgers and Blues. Are you with me?”
The cheers and applause made her heart swell; there really should have been a soundtrack. Chariots of Fire, perhaps.
Besides, it was true. She hadn’t thought about leaving Lake Bittersweet since she and Jason had gotten together—well, maybe briefly, when Dominic had suggested London. But only briefly.
Throughout the day, she served as everyone’s main point of contact. If anyone had a question about where to go next, who to pick up, where to drop the blankets, what freezer to put a casserole into, they called or texted Kendra.
The biggest glitch came when her phone died and she had to dash into the SweetBitter Cafe to recharge it, since her car charger was too slow.
While her phone was plugged in, Rick plied her with quad-shot espressos and homemade donut holes. A small group gathered around her to get updates. Everyone seemed to have watched the live stream of Jason and the rest of the crew battling the fire.
“Check out this part,” Rick told her. He flashed his phone at her, and showed her a shot of Jason emerging from the glass double doors of the nursing home, a frail elderly woman in a housedress in his arms. She was gazing up at him with a look of pure adoration. “Ai muchacho bellino curado.” Rick had a quirk of making up Spanish curse words. “Now that’s a hero. I think we need that on a fireman recruitment poster.”
The crowd chimed in.
“I saw that clip on Instagram.”
“It was on the news too.”
Kendra couldn’t wait to tease Jason with the fact that he was about to be in the news all over again. This time, he’d have to handle his own press, but she knew he’d have no problem now. He’d really come into his own since he’d become fire chief. So confident, so commanding—but still funny and sweet.
She couldn’t wait to see him tonight.
Rick filled her Hydro Flask with espresso to go, then gave her a big sloppy kiss on the cheek. Then an extra one.
“That was for Jason,” he said with a wink. “Don’t go skimping, either. Make it a good one.”
Rick would have been proud of how she delivered that kiss, once she and Jason were alone together at the end of that exhausting day. Since Holly sometimes volunteered at the nursing home, she’d offered to spend the night at the Blue Drake in case any of the seniors needed anything. That meant she and Jason had the entire house to themselves.
They fell into each other’s arms like two storm survivors. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him long and deep and slow. It wasn’t a kiss meant to arouse, since they were both worn out. It was more about coming together, connecting, appreciating. Cherishing. He’d been a hero for a lot of people today, and she wanted to make sure he knew it.
“Wow,” he said when they finally separated. She ran her tongue over her tingling lips. “That kiss just set a new world standard.”
“Black excellence.” She winked, and he laughed, then shook his head wearily.
“I could use a shower. There was a line for the shower at the firehouse.”
