Page 230 of Broken Daddy

With a shrug, she got up and grabbed a piece of wood with her good hand.

Hmm. Wait. That wasn’t going to work. She set it back down and reached for the handle. Ooh that was hot, she used a cloth next to the fireplace to protect her hand and opened it. A whoosh of heat hit her, making her eyes water.

Wow.

There was some real heat in that fireplace.

Well, duh. It’s a fire, Devi.

Shaking her head at herself, she grabbed the piece of wood again and shoved it into the fire. Only, it didn’t go fully in. Obviously, she hadn’t given it enough of a shove.

Shoot.

She didn’t want to reach in and push it with her bare hand. What to do? Then she noticed a metal poker sitting next to the fireplace.

All right.

That seemed easy enough. Grabbing the poker, she shoved the wood in and embers flew out, landing on the floor.

“Oh no! Oh shit!” she cried, worried the embers would catch and create a fire.

So she stomped on the fire with her slipper-clad feet. The smell of burning rubber filled the room, making her wrinkle her nose and quickly take off her slippers. Then she noticed that the door to the fire was still open and smoke was starting to fill the room.

“Shit! Shit!” She quickly grabbed the handle, hissing as the heat stung her hand. She’d forgotten the cloth. She quickly shut the door.

Her heart was racing as she sat down right there on the floor.

“Ouch,” she grumbled.

So. That was a disaster. How come it looked so easy when Hayes did it?

“Devi, I’m home,” he called out as the back door opened. “Why does it smell like smoke in here? Devi! Fuck!”

He raced in and stopped as he saw her sitting on the floor. Then his gaze moved from the fireplace to her slippers.

“Devi, what the fuck happened?”

“I didn’t realize working a fireplace could be so hard,” she grumbled. “It was starting to go out so I thought I would put some wood on. Only the piece of wood kind of got stuck. So then I used the poker to push it in and embers fell out onto the floor. I was worried that the cabin would go on fire! So I stomped them out with my slippers. I think I’ve ruined them, though. I’m so sorry.”

He'd bought her those slippers and she’d wrecked them. And the look on his face told her that he was really mad.

Awesome.

She was such an idiot.

“I don’t care about the slippers!” he snapped. “I’ll buy you twenty more pairs of slippers. What I care about is you. Did you hurt yourself?”

“No. I’m fine.”

Well, her hand stung a little but she thought it was best not to mention that.

“Then why are you sitting on the floor?” he asked, moving closer.

“I don’t know. I got a bit panicked, I guess. I know it’s stupid.”

“It’s not stupid.” He ran his hands over her, checking her good hand. “What’s this?”

Oh drat. It was slightly red.