A Pizza to Die For (21 page)

It was one of the bravest things I’d ever seen in my life, even if it was done out of a sense of pure self-preservation.

As the log flew through the air, Karen whirled around and fired a shot at Gina. She went down, but there was nothing I could do for her. The only thing I could think of was to make sure that her sacrifice wasn’t in vain. The wood hit Karen’s chest, and as she struggled to put out the flames licking at her robe, the gun flew out of her hands.

The log wasn’t finished with its purpose, though. A nearby tablecloth caught fire as the log rolled past it and ended up wedged against the heavy fabric of the curtains.

I didn’t have a second to waste. I jumped toward the gun, but Karen was too fast for me, and too close to it. Ignoring the flames leaping up her robe, she grabbed for the weapon, and I fought to get control of it.

“You’re burning up,” I said as the heat of the robe hit my face. I could feel the hairs on the back of my hand start to burn from the proximity of the flames, and yet she was still fighting me. How could she take the pain? “Let go, Karen, or you’re going to die.”

“Not today,” she said as she kept wrestling me for the gun. Where was she getting this strength? No matter what the source, I knew she couldn’t keep ignoring the pain forever.

My life boiled down to getting control of that gun, regardless of what was going on around me. I could see the flames and smoke begin to fill the restaurant, but I refused to let go.

I was starting to wonder if any of us would make it out alive when I finally got control of the gun.

As I pointed it at her, Karen finally realized what was happening to her. She began to scream, ripping at the robe in an effort to get it off her. I ran to the nearest fire extinguisher to try to help her, but as I grabbed it and turned it upside down, I looked up just in time to see Karen swing a chair at my head. If I hadn’t stepped back at the last second, I knew in my heart that I would have been hit.

I ducked, and the strike was so close that I could feel it knock my painter’s cap off. Without another thought, I shot her in the face, not with the gun, but with the fire extinguisher, and then I put her clothes out once she was down on the ground.

I stood there staring at her for a few seconds, wondering what I should do next. In a heartbeat, I knew that there was only one thing I could do. I wasn’t about to save myself and abandon the woman who had tried to save me. If Gina had the slightest chance of surviving, I was going to see that she got the opportunity.

I rushed to Gina’s side to see if there was anything I could do to help her, worried that I was too late.

As I knelt down beside her, I saw that her arm was burned, and one shoulder was leaking blood. I started to cry when I saw her eyelids flutter, and then she looked at me. “Where is she?”

“She can’t hurt you anymore,” I said.

“Thanks,” Gina said.

I started to get up, when she grabbed my hand. “Don’t leave me.”

“I’ll be right back. I need to get something to put on your shoulder.” I ran to a table and grabbed a cloth napkin that was untouched by the fire. I planned to carry her out of there if I had to, but I didn’t want her to bleed to death as I did.

I pressed it against her shoulder, and she winced in pain.

“Sorry,” I said, “but I’m getting you out of here.”

“Save yourself,” she said softly as the flames began to lick around us.

“You helped me,” I said. “Now it’s my turn.”

As I thought about carrying her out of there, I realized there was no way I could do that. The front of the restaurant was now engulfed in flames. If we were going to make it, we had to go out the back way.

“This is going to hurt,” I said as I reached under her arms and started to drag her out the back.

I knew I had to be hurting her, but there was nothing I could do about it. As we made our way back into the kitchen where the flames hadn’t expanded yet, I started to feel the heat slacken. It gave me strength to keep going, but I wasn’t sure we were going to make it before the flames or smoke overtook us. I was exhausted from the ordeal, but I forced myself forward, until we reached the door.

I was about to open it when the door burst open and Timber Ridge’s volunteer fire department came rushing in.

To my surprise, the first set of hands that reached me were David Quinton’s. It appeared that he’d thrown himself after them in search of me without the least bit of regard for his own safety. I was just glad I’d been able to meet him at the back door.

As he helped me outside, paramedics began working on Gina immediately. I’d done all I could. Now it was in their hands.

David helped me to my feet as he said, “Eleanor, you’re okay.” As promised, he was dressed as a gangster pirate, with billowing clothes, a plastic sword at his side, and a fedora instead of a headband.

“I survived it, anyway,” I said, coughing from the sting of the smoke in my lungs.

After a nearby paramedic gave me some water, he asked, “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” I said as the water instantly soothed my ragged throat.

“I don’t know about that, but you’ll do for now.”

I looked at David and asked, “How did you know I was here?”

“Maddy called me when she couldn’t get you on your cell phone. What happened to it?”

I pointed toward billowing flames still burning inside. “Karen threw it in there.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you a new one.”

“That doesn’t matter. Nothing does, right now.”

I felt the cool night air envelope me. The smoke and fire had taken their toll on me, and I felt myself weaken at the knees.

David was there, and he grabbed me before I could fall.

And to be honest, I didn’t mind, not one bit.

He looked a little shy all of a sudden. “Sorry about that.”

“Why are you apologizing for keeping me from falling?”

I looked up at him, and wondered why it had taken me so long to see what had been right in front of me all along.

He must have seen something in my eyes. “I’m afraid it’s a little too late for me,” he said solemnly. “I fell a long time ago.”

And then he kissed me.

I had to admit—even with my shortness of breath—it managed to steal the last bit of breath away from me.

It had been worth waiting for.

Chapter 19

I
was still trying to catch my breath when Bob interrupted by grabbing us both wildly. “Maddy’s not in there, is she?” He was dressed as a king, with royal robes and a crown. The man was nearly in tears, and I could see that his legs were fighting to keep him standing.

I turned to look at the firefighters still battling the flames inside.

I was about to tell him that my sister was safe when two EMS personnel put the gurney that Gina was on into a waiting ambulance.

“It’s her,” Bob said as he started toward Gina.

“It’s not Maddy. She’s safe,” I said as another coughing fit overtook me.

Bob looked at me and then the gurney as they moved it into the ambulance. “Are you sure?”

“I’m positive,” I managed to say.

That’s when Maddy appeared, so delicately beautiful in her costume, looking as though she’d just stepped out of a fairy tale. “Eleanor, are you okay?”

I didn’t get a chance to answer as Bob cried out, “You’re all right!” sweeping her up into his arms as he said it.

“Of course I am,” she said, fighting his embrace. “I wasn’t anywhere near the fire. Put me down.”

After he did as she asked, my sister looked at me and asked, “Eleanor, you look rough.”

“I’m a little tired, but I’ll be fine,” I said, and then I coughed some more.

A second gurney came out of Italia’s, and there was no mistaking the scorched robe that Karen had been wearing. I wondered if she would be able to survive the ordeal she’d caused, but her welfare wasn’t my concern anymore. She’d abused our relationship and had tried to kill me. What happened to her next didn’t matter.

“Was Nathan all right when you got there?” I asked her.

“He was a little startled when I burst through the door, but it didn’t take me long to bring him up to speed.”

“Yeah, about that. I was wrong. Gina was innocent.” I wanted to tell them all how heroic she’d been, but I didn’t have the breath to say any of it.

Maddy nodded. “We figured that out, too. Too many classes Karen took pointed the finger at her, didn’t it?”

“Sis, you listened to me?”

“I hear more than you might think,” she said with a smile.

Nathan finally joined us, his hair disheveled and a wild look in his eyes. “Where’s Gina? Is she alive?”

“She got burned and shot in there,” I said, my voice quickly fading. I had to get the rest of it out before it was gone completely. “They took her away in an ambulance. Nathan, she put herself in harm’s way trying to save us both.”

“She’s a Sizemore, isn’t he?” he said proudly. “I’m going to go see her.”

“We’ll give you a ride,” David said.

“Why are we going to the hospital?” I asked him.

David looked into my eyes and said firmly, “Because you need to be seen by a doctor, and I won’t take no for an answer.”

Everyone looked at me, waiting for some kind of reaction, but all I did was smile. “You know what? That sounds like a good idea.”

Maddy said, “Don’t worry about the food, Eleanor. Greg and Josh can sell the ghost pizzas.”

“Okay,” I said as one of the paramedics finally got around to me.

I squeezed David’s hand and said, “Sorry about that dance I owe you.”

He laughed a little too loudly as he answered, “There will be plenty of time for that later.”

As they put me on a gurney, I thought about insisting that I could ride to the hospital with everyone else, but it was just starting to hit me.

I’d nearly died in there and, at least for the moment, I was done taking chances.

I was cleared by the hospital personnel after a thorough examination, and I changed into some fresh jeans and a T-shirt that Maddy had picked up from my place on the way over. They all insisted that I go home and go straight to bed, but I wasn’t going anywhere until I found out how Gina was doing. I heard one of the doctors say that she’d been lucky. They’d brought in extra staff for Halloween mishaps, so she went to the head of the line.

Kevin Hurley came in a little later, and sat down beside me. “You okay?”

“I think so,” I said.

“Karen Green, huh?”

“Yes.” Neither one of us were spending many words with each other, me because every syllable seemed to hurt, and him because our chief of police was reticent by nature.

He nodded, then said, “I’ll need a statement.”

“Later,” I said.

“Good enough.” He turned to go, and then said, “Glad you’re okay.”

I grinned over at David, who had been watching us the entire time.

“Me, too,” I said.

The doctors came in ten minutes later and talked to Nathan briefly.

I held my breath as I waited for him to fill us in. Nathan was crying when he turned to us, and I prepared myself for the worst.

“She’s going to be all right,” he said. “The bullet didn’t hit anything vital, and as soon as she’s discharged, she’s coming back home with me. That’s where family belongs: together.”

I couldn’t agree with him more.

There would be plenty of time tomorrow to deal with what had happened, but for now, I had just one goal in life, and that was to share a dance with David Quinton.

There was music playing over the loudspeakers, and I offered my hand to him.

He didn’t get it at first. “Do you need some help standing up?”

I just smiled at him. “No. I want that dance.”

He grinned at me as he pulled me into his arms. “I can do that.”

As we moved slowly in time with the music, he said, “Sorry it’s not the Halloween Blowout.”

“I’m not,” I said. “This is better.”

As we danced on, he said, “You know what? You’re right.”

Tonight might have marked the end of the month, but in my life, it was the perfect time for a new beginning.

It didn’t take a wall of flames to tell me it was time to tear down the last of the walls protecting my heart and let someone else in.

I’d come too close to dying not to take advantage of every second I had left.

It was a gift I meant to cherish every chance I got.

My Very Own Version of Deep Dish Pizza

I know that Chicagoans are justifiably proud of their deep dish pizza, but living in the South as I do, it’s not always easy to come by. Over the years, I’ve created my own version of deep dish pizza, and I’ve found that it takes the edge off of any hunger! The crust tastes like a blend of pizza crust and biscuit to me, and the layering of desired toppings are varied enough to suit just about anyone’s taste.

Since I don’t claim to be an expert, I’ve substituted an eight-inch square baking pan for the standard deep dish pan, but a cake pan will do just as nicely. Also, I put just one layer of toppings, the way my family likes, but if you’re in the mood to eat, by all means add another layer to the pie!

½ cup warm water
ounce active dry yeast (½ packet or 1 teaspoon; I like the pizza
dough yeast)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons table salt
3–4 cups bread flour, sifted with salt

In a large mixing bowl, combine the warm water and yeast, stirring it in until it dissolves. Next, add the olive oil and mix briefly. Now add 2 cups of the sifted flour and the table salt, and mix until it’s all incorporated. Slowly add more flour until the dough loses some of its stickiness. You can do this in a mixer with a dough hook as well.

On a floured surface, turn out the dough and incorporate more flour until the dough loses its tackiness. Knead the dough just long enough to incorporate the flour.

In a bowl that’s coated with cooking spray, drop the ball of dough in, spray it, and then cover it with plastic wrap. It needs time to rise to double its original shape, which can take from one to four hours. I like to put the bowl in the oven with just the light on. This keeps it out of the draft and also allows enough warmth.

As it rises, prep the other ingredients, which follow on the next page.