"Con?" I half woke up when Jacob spoke quietly on Saturday morning. His hand was on my shoulder and he was leaning close to my ear.
"Mm..." I rolled over to face him, my eyes only half open. "What?"
"I'm going for a run. Do you want me to get you coffee on the way home?"
"Why'd you wake me for that? You know the answer already." I grumbled, closing my eyes again. Jacob just laughed and pressed a soft kiss to my temple.
"Okay. Enjoy your sleep, baby. I'll be back later."
"Bye." I pulled the blankets over my head, falling asleep again as soon as the door clicked shut softly.
I don't know how much longer I was asleep but I woke some time later to the sound of a crash from somewhere. I shot up from the bed and rushed out towards the kitchen, my heart racing.
"Penny?" I called out for my daughter.
"Papa!" Penny's voice echoed from her room and I ran across the house.
"What happened, sweetheart?" When I got to her room, I quickly scanned her body with my eyes to make sure there was nothing wrong with her. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with her where she was sitting up in bed but there were tears in her eyes.
"I heard a loud noise, papa. It was scary."
"It's okay. It scared me too. You want a cuddle?" She nodded and I crossed the room to sit on her bed where she crawled onto my lap, wrapping her little arms around my neck.
"What was the noise, papa?"
"I don't know, baby girl. I'll go and have a look in a little bit when you're not scared anymore."
"I'm not scared."
"Are you sure?"
"Mhm." She nodded but didn't let go of me.
"How about you come with me? Then we'll be able to see what it was."
"Okay." Standing up, I shifted her so that she was sat on my hip and I carried her out to the main area of the house. We wandered around a bit but nothing seemed out of place so we went to the front door, pulling open. "Papa!" Penny had looked out the door a fraction of a second before I did and pointed to the house across the street.
"Oh my-" Flames were reaching up towards the sky, bursting out of the windows and doors. "Penny, go inside and get my phone." I set her on the floor and she scurried off to find my phone.
Out on the street, the other neighbours were starting to pour out of their houses and many were staring at the burning house in shock. I noticed that nobody was on the phone so I figured nobody had called 911 yet.
"Papa!" Penny ran across the front yard, my phone in her outstretched hand. I took it from her and dialed 911, keeping a tight hold of her hand.
"911, what's your emergency?"
"Um, the house across the street is on fire."
"Can we have an address? I'll send a crew immediately."
"Uh, 71 Bowman Street, Warrencrest." I stumbled a little over the number since it was the house across from us.
"A crew is on their way. Is there people inside?" My heart skipped a beat. I hadn't even thought of that.
"I don't know."
"Do you know the residents?" I vaguely knew them from waving across the street occasionally but I'd never actually talked to them.
