water onto the flames, trying to beat the blaze into submission.
“Forget about the boat,” Griff said, his brows pinching together. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it does.” A sob escaped her lips. “It was your grandfather’s fishing boat. You told me that. And Delmonico’s. All that history being destroyed.” Her teeth chattered as she spoke.
“You’re cold,” he said, his voice strangely calm. “Here, take my shirt.” He deftly unbuttoned it and lifted it around her shoulders, but the shivers didn’t ease at all. She was finding it hard to breathe. Any air she managed to inhale felt like fire against her throat. Her chest rose and fell quickly in an effort to get the oxygen she needed.
“I think you’re in shock.” Griff put his hands on her arms, rubbing them fast to try and get some warmth into her, but nothing in her was responding.
In spite of the heat radiating from the pier, she felt so cold. As though ice had replaced the blood in her veins, and was freezing every organ. The tremors in her body increased, making her shake like crazy, her legs barely able to keep her standing.
A moment later, they buckled beneath her, and she was falling to the concrete. That’s when she felt them – those strong, sure arms, wrapping themselves around her and saving her from impact.
He lifted her against him with a whoosh, her frozen skin pressed against his heated chest. She turned her face against him, her skin desperate for warmth, as she tried to keep breathing.
“Stay with me, baby. It’s going to be okay,” he murmured into her hair. She tried to mumble that she wasn’t planning on doing anything else, but the words froze against her tongue. The last thing she heard before everything turned black was Griff’s worried voice.
“Any paramedics here?” he shouted out. “I need a goddamn medic right now.”
* * *
“Is Autumn okay?” Ally asked Griff as she and Nate carried crates of coffee over to the fire crews and onlookers.
Griff was sitting next to the ambulance. Inside, the paramedics had managed to warm Autumn up with a heated blanket that was still enveloping her. She was awake and talking to them, though the shivers hadn’t quite gone away.
He could hear her telling them she was wasting their time. They had much more important people to take care of, that she would be fine if they let her leave.
Griff’s lips twitched, relief flooding through him. “Yeah, she sounds better. They’re getting her warm and she’s bitching, so that’s good.”
Ally laughed, looking relieved. “She’s had such a bad day. With her dad and then you.” Her voice was pointed. “And now the pier. No wonder it got to be too much.”
“Yeah, well a lot of that is my fault.” He pressed his lips together. “I was a dick.”
“Glad you realize that.” Ally gave him a tight smile. “Here, have a coffee. You look like you could do with a warming up yourself.”
From a brief chat he’d had with Lucas, the fire was under control, but still burning. The worst of it had hit the restaurant and the office, but there was smoke damage to everything that wasn’t burned. Not that he gave a shit. Everybody was safe and that’s all that mattered.
Just thinking about Autumn being in the office only hours before made him want to throw up.
He should have been with her when she found out about the fire. If he hadn’t been such an ass, he would have been. She and Lydia were supposed to stay at his place, after all.
Lydia…
“Have you seen Autumn’s sister?” he asked Ally, his brows dipping.
“No.” Ally shook her head. “She left the pier when we did and headed home.” Her eyes widened. “You think she’s still asleep at the cottage?”
“She could be.”
“I’ll get somebody to go and check on her.” Ally nodded at him. “You stay here with Autumn.”
“Wasn’t planning on going anywhere else.”
“She loves you, you know?”
He swallowed hard. “No, I didn’t know.” But it warmed him more than the coffee cupped between his palms. “I know I love her, though.” And that the thought of losing her made him feel sick. “If she’d been on the pier when…” his voice cracked, and he looked down.
Ally set the extra coffees down and slid her arm around his shoulders. “She wasn’t,” she said softly. “She’s fine. You told me yourself. Don’t start beating yourself up for things that aren’t your fault.” She bumped her shoulder against his. “Beat yourself up for being an asshole instead.”