"What? What happened?" Chloe asks as she darts for the front door, but Killian scoops her up and deposits her in front of me.
"You can't go inside there, Chloe. It's all wet."
"Why?" she asks.
"What happened?" I choke out the words, my head spinning. Everything I have is inside that bakery – all of my hard work. My future. Chloe's future.
Killian grimaces. "It was the apartment directly above the bakery. A pipe burst and—"
"A pipe burst?" I squeak. "Well, it's a pipe in a small apartment. It can't be that bad, right?"
Killian frowns. "It's not great. The owner wasn't home. So it's been going all night."
No, no, no, no, no.
I tell myself to keep calm.
"Can Chloe stay outside with you for a second so I can take a look?"
"They're in there surveying right now, Lily. It's pretty wet. You should stay out here."
Fuck no. This is my bakery, my equipment. Oh, God. All of the equipment that I bought with my business loan. And my inventory and –
"My insurance paperwork is in the office."
"These guys aren't the insurance guys, Lily. I didn't want to go poking around in your things for your insurance policy. They're an emergency crew I called out – it's better to take care of water damage immediately."
"Not the insurance guys," I repeat stupidly. My thoughts are cloudy. I can't quite think straight, not with my head swimming, thoughts flying in a thousand different directions about things I need to do. I need to call the landlord. And I'll have to remake the cakes. A little water couldn’t damage all of the equipment, could it? It's heavy-duty stuff.
This won't be terrible, I tell myself.
"I can't pay for this, Killian," I say numbly. "The emergency guys, I can't pay for them."
"Your insurance will probably take care of it," Killian says, his voice calm. "Or the tenant's insurance or whatever. I paid for it. We can figure out the details later."
"What's wrong?" Chloe asks. "Can we go inside now?"
"Nothing's wrong, baby. There was an accident with some water in the store and we're just trying to figure out how to get the water out."
"Someone spilled something?" she asks. "You can just wipe it up."
"Good suggestion," Killian notes, and Chloe beams.
"You can't just pay for it," I whisper to Killian, my jaw clenched.
"I'm helping."
41
Killian
Lily keeps it together while she listens to the assessment of the damage, which is considerable. She nods mutely and bites her bottom lip, but not in the sexy way she does when she's with me. Now she does it while pressing her hands together, her fingernails digging into her palm. I stand there like a jackass, listening to the guy basically tell her that her business – her dream – is totally fucked and there's nothing she can do about it.
I mean, sure there's insurance. But that involves reams of paperwork and bureaucrats who will try to avoid paying, or else pay the least amount possible – and probably a clusterfuck between the tenant's insurance and her landlord's insurance and her insurance company. While they drag their feet, Lily's store will be closed for months and everything she's worked for will be destroyed.
So I stand here on the sidewalk, distracting Chloe by playing "I Spy" with stuff that we see around us.
And feeling more helpless than I've ever felt in my life.
Lily keeps it together when she's finished talking to them, and after, she makes a phone call, then walks back over to us, giving her daughter a sad smile. "Hey, Chloe, I called the babysitter. Bethany is going to come pick you up and bring you back to our house to play for a little while."
"Why? You said I could come to the bakery today!"
Lily pales. "Remember how just said there was some water inside the bakery? The guys just have to clean itup and it's not safe for kids to go inside right now."
"All riiiight," Chloe sighs.
She keeps it together until Chloe leaves, painting a bright smile on her face and playing "I Spy" with us like nothing out of the ordinary has happened.
But as soon as Chloe is gone, she lets out a deep breath, one I can tell she's been holding this whole time. She sits down on the sidewalk, leaning with her back up against the side of the brick building fa?ade, and puts her face in her hands. I sit down beside her on the ground. "Please let me help."
She doesn't respond for a minute, but I can see a tear running down the side of her cheek and it just guts me. When she finally does turn toward me, it's with a defeated expression on her face. "It's bad, Killian. And the insurance – it'll be forever before they pay out or the place is suitable again. I'm sure I can get out of my lease, but not having the revenue coming in…" She inhales deeply as she stands up and wipes her palms on her jeans.
“Maybe you don’t have to close the store for months.” I pull myself up off the sidewalk and face her. I can see the fear in her eyes and it makes me feel sick.