Page 8 of To Hold and Protect

“Miss Willow!” Everly yelled, clapping her hands. “I love her.”

“She’s nice,” Andrew said.

“Ev, inside voice, please. What did you learn in school today?” That was an effort to distract his daughter from effusing over Miss Willow.

“Daddy, did you know we need trees to breathe?”

“Wow, really?” Aaand she was off. He nodded at all the right places as he carried her to their rooms on the first floor. He left her in her bedroom to play with Ember, Duke, and Jellybean while he showered the day away.

After dinner, Kade took Harper and Duke out for a ride. “And ice cream,” Kade whispered so Everly wouldn’t hear.

As he and Everly walked to their studio, her tiny hand in his, he glanced at the second-floor window of the Landry house, where a light shone around the edges of the curtain. Was that her bedroom? He’d thought he’d seen the curtain move when they’d been playing football with Everly and had wondered if she was watching them.

Get your mind off her bedroom.

“Daddy, I’m going to paint Miss Willow a picture, and we can take it to her.”

“What are you going to paint for her?” He’d get Harper to go over with Everly when she finished the painting because he was not.

“I have to think about it. I know! We can go ask her what her favorite thing is.”

They were not going to ask her...anything. “If you’re painting a gift for her, it needs to be a surprise.” He opened the door to the studio to let her and Ember in. “After you, my lady.”

She giggled. “You’re silly, Daddy.”

“Yep, that’s me. Silly Daddy. You ready to start a new canvas?”

“No. I have to finish Duke and Jellybean.”

“Better get to it. You have an hour, then it’s bath and story time.” He wouldn’t start a new canvas until after she was in bed, otherwise he’d lose track of time and paint right past her bedtime and she’d paint right along with him.

Ember went to the bed Parker had placed near his easel. She was the only animal allowed in the studio. Duke had gotten in once and the result had been a dog with a coat of many colors, a ruined half-finished painting, and a colorful floor. Ember was content being near him and having a rawhide to chew on. Eventually, she’d go to sleep.

He got his brushes and oils ready, and because he needed to actually sleep at some point, he set an alarm for midnight. It was something he had to do to keep from coming out of his painting fog and seeing the sun shining through the windows.

“Daddy, I found the ladybug!”

He smiled. “Yeah? Where’d she put this one?” He had her convinced that there was a ladybug fairy who came while she was sleeping and added a ladybug to her paintings.

“It’s on Jellybean’s ear. Come see.”

An alert blared from his phone as he walked toward her to see the magical ladybug, and his little girl sighed, knowing what that meant.

“Daddy has to go, Ev.”

Another even bigger sigh. “I know.”

He picked her up. If he didn’t carry her back to the house, she’d go at the speed of a snail. Ember, having learned that the sound of his alert tone meant it was time to go to work, was at the door, her body vibrating with eagerness as she waited for it to open.

Andrew had gone home after cleaning up the kitchen from dinner, but Parker had set him up to also get alerts. He lived with his parents three miles away and would be here in minutes to stay with Everly, even if Kade and Harper were home, since they, too, could be called away without notice.

Honestly, they’d be lost without Andrew. He wasn’t blood, but he was a valued member of the family. Just don’t try to help him with anything that he considered a part of his job. He could get testy.

As soon as Parker was able to hand Everly over to Andrew, he and Ember headed for the address of the fire. Since his official SUV was being serviced, he’d put his fire chief’s jacket and helmet in the Hellcat’s trunk.

The fire was at another vacant house, this one on the opposite side of town. Greg Greenlander, his captain, was standing in the front yard when Parker arrived. His firefighters already had the fire out, and were inside, looking for hot spots.

“Stay,” he told Ember after cracking the windows a few inches. He stopped next to Greg. “Doesn’t look like a total loss.”

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