Where the Heart Is Read Free Page A

Hank’s spare shirts, which he kept in the back of the SUV. Everyone had taken turns checking on the animal.
    â€œSumner!” Hank came toward Derek. “Can I drop you and the cat at home? The other guys have got the engine.” The extra tender truck had left hours ago.
    â€œActually, do you mind dropping me at the Archers’?” It was half the distance to Derek’s loft in town, and Emily Archer would be happy to take care of Ashley while Derek got cleaned up and caught a few hours of sleep.
    â€œNot at all.”
    Ten minutes later, Hank drove up the quarter-mile drive leading to the Archer family home, a huge arts-and-crafts–style mansion. The drive was lit every hundred feet, and because it was Christmastime, the bulbs had been changed to alternating green and red. Though it was still dark, the lights on the house had shut off hours ago. If they’d been on, the glow would’ve lit up the countryside—it wasn’t quite a Griswold Christmas, but it was close. Robert and Emily Archer loved the holidays. In fact, Derek had never known anyone who loved them more, and it was thanks to them that this time of year had finally begun to mean more than just painful memories.
    He shook the past away as Hank pulled into the circular drive and dropped him at the base of the stone steps. Derek picked up Ashley, thanked Hank for the lift, and dragged his tired body up to the front terrace and massive entry.
    He unlocked the door and let himself in.
    Robert Archer rushed out of his office, which was just off the entry hall, coffee cup in hand. He’d always been an early riser. Tall and slim with thick gray hair that still boasted a few strands of dark brown here and there, he was fit and robust for sixty, which wasn’t surprising given his passion for cycling. “Derek? What brings you here at this hour?” His gaze fell on Derek’s outfit and he said, “There was an actual fire?”
    Derek was one of sixteen volunteer firefighters in Ribbon Ridge, and in his five years of service they’d never had more than a burning pan on a stove or a backyard fire that had started to get out of line. “Yeah, a small house out on McMurtry Lane.”
    â€œNot Mrs. Boatwright’s?” Robert knew everyone in Ribbon Ridge, and he certainly knew every bit of real estate. He owned probably 60 percent of it, and his family had founded the town over a hundred fifty years ago.
    Derek shook his head. “The other one.”
    Rob wrinkled his nose beneath his reading glasses. “Vic Enders owns that place.” Vic owned a bunch of properties in Ribbon Ridge and neighboring towns. He was notorious for being a slumlord, and Rob took pleasure in stealing properties out from under him before Vic could run them into the ground and take advantage of the tenants.
    Derek was sorry Chloe had rented from the deadbeat. He hoped she didn’t have trouble dealing with him, particularly since the evidence they’d found laid the blame for the fire cleanly at his feet. “Faulty wiring in the walls. Looks like he tried to upgrade the electric to meet code, but cut some corners.”
    Rob shook his head. “What a shame. I feel sorry for his tenants. They okay?”
    â€œI think so. It’s just a single woman. New to town.”
    Rob inclined his head toward the kitten in Derek’s arms. “Is that her cat?”
    Derek stroked the animal’s soft fur. “Sort of. At least she is now.”
    â€œWho’s here?” Emily Archer, the woman Derek considered his second mother and loved every bit as much as his first, came into the entryway. “Derek! Why are you standing there in your gear? You look exhausted. And what is that, a kitten?” She bustled toward him, her robe drawn tight over her petite frame. Before Derek could protest, she’d swept Ashley from his arms, not that he’d expected anything less. Emily’s heart was a force