Southern Secrets (Southern #7) - Natasha Madison Page 0,4
flames work their way through the four walls. One of the firemen comes over to us, walking straight up to my father. "You need to step back." He puts his hand on his helmet as he listens to the scramble from his walkie-talkie. "The whole thing is going to go." He looks over at my father. "Jacob, we need you to secure the perimeter. No one in or out."
"Already on it. My guys have been called and have started closing down the roads," my father says, turning to look at us. "Guys, I need you to move away."
He comes to stand in front of me, and I don’t notice the tears running down my face. "It’s going to be okay, honey," he says and wraps his arms around me. "Everyone is safe."
"I know," I say in a whisper, and I move out of his arms because I know he has work to do.
"You going to be okay?" he asks, and I nod. He doesn’t have time to make sure I’m okay. "Ethan," he calls out to my brother. "I’m going to need help."
Ethan kisses Emily’s head and walks toward my dad. "We need to get some tape up all around."
"I can help," Asher says from beside me, and we both look at him.
"Asher," my father says softly. "Are you sure?" He looks over at the barn. "You just lost …"
"Yeah," he says, putting his hands on his hips and letting out a deep breath. "I just lost everything. Not the first time either." He looks over to the barn, his eyes squinting. "With my luck, it probably won’t be the last." He bends his head and walks away toward my father's truck, where Ethan is grabbing the yellow tape.
"I can’t even imagine," I say softly and look over at my father. "What can I do to help?"
"Honestly," my father says, looking around. "The only thing we can do is stay out of the way."
He bends to kiss my cheek before walking away.
I watch as he walks over to the men hovering around his truck. I see my father pointing in different directions and giving orders. My eyes fall on Asher, his shoulders slumped as he listens to my father. I want to rush over to him and tell him it’s going to be okay. I want to hug him and tell him I’m here for him. When he came onto the scene six months ago, I thought he was the sexiest man I’d ever seen. Then we started working side by side, and I found out that he had the best intentions. He would give you the shirt off his back if it would help you. Every single day, I lusted after him more and more, but I knew it would go nowhere. It didn’t stop us from flirting with each other, but in the end, neither of us would be willing to take that step.
The sound of cracking has everyone looking back over to see one side of the barn start to teeter and then slowly crumble to the ground. The heat comes toward us right away, and I put my hand toward my face. It happens in slow motion, and I don’t even know I’m holding my breath. The remaining walls sway side to side as if they're balancing on the edge, and in a blink of an eye, the rest of the barn comes crashing down.
I put my hand in front of my mouth to muffle my scream. I feel heat beside me and look to see Chelsea there, her arm going around my shoulder. "It’s gone," I say, wiping away a tear rolling down my cheek. No matter how many I wipe away, there are more to follow. “It’s all gone.”
"We’ll get it back," she says softly, and then I feel someone put their hand in mine and look over to see Willow.
Her own tears are on her face. "It’s going to be okay," she says. "It’s going to be okay."
I just nod my head as we watch the firemen work at putting out the fire. "We should go," Emily says. "Get out of the way."
I nod and then turn to walk away. I take a couple of steps, then turn back to take one more look at it. With the back of my palm, I wipe away the tears that continue to fall, no matter how many times I wipe them away. "It’ll be okay," Willow says from beside me.