by Cheryl Wyatt
Bri noticed some of the curt formality had seeped from his tone, replaced by hints of kindness and familiarity. For reasons she didn’t want to indulge, that observation widened the smile she was trying to stave. “She’s occupied at the moment. Need her?”
“I cut out of the trauma center early. Went to town and picked up Jonah.”
“Awesome!”
“Yeah, so if you could make sure the pup is put up, I’ll bring the fish in. Maybe we’ll let one of them stay at your place, so we don’t have an accidental, traumatic lunch.”
Bri giggled. “Yes, that would be horrible. I’ll keep either one, whichever’s easier on you. Although it might be better to keep Mistletoe here, since a fish won’t chew up a sofa over being left alone longer than he thinks he should.”
Ian’s chuckle wended its way around her heart like his hug the other day. She steeled herself against its effects. “I see you at the door now. I’ll let you go.”
She hung up and scooped Mistletoe up, then let Ian in. His hand snaked out as if he was about to scratch the puppy under his chin. Then he recoiled and scowled. Bri snickered. “He starting to get to you, Ian?”
His eyes rose slowly from the dog to her. The look in his eyes glued her to the spot. Then, just as fast as that look swept in, it was gone, replaced by a look as harsh as a blustery winter wind.
Bri set Mistletoe in the kennel Ian had in his other hand. She decided not to comment on the fact that Ian had picked out plush purple bedding and several colorful chew toys the size of Mistletoe’s mouth. The puppy jumped on the toys.
Their squeaking brought Tia’s face out of the puppet tent. “Oh!” She scrambled out and ran to the house, paper in her hand. She eyed Ian in a state of little-girl shock. “You got him his very own house?”
Ian nodded at Tia, then nodded at the table behind her.
Tia slowly turned, then surged to her feet, squealing. “You got my fishy!” She leaned close to the tank and watched the betta swim around his castle. “Hi, Jonah! Welcome home.” She blinked and frowned. “Wait! What if Mistletoe tries to bite him?”
“We thought of that. It might be best if you separated them for now. Keep the pup here and the fish at our house.”
“Well, Mistletoe does need a lot more petting.”
“You know not to pet Jonah, though, right?”
Tia nodded. “Okay.” She peered on the floor. “Oh! I almost forgot.” She bent and swept up the paper and pressed it to her tummy, as if suddenly nervous. She approached her dad. “I made this for you. It’s a squirrel family, like we got at Build-A-Zoo.”
Ian took the paper, true emotion lighting his eyes. Bri looked away.
“Thank you, Tia. It’s beautiful.” He hugged her, and surprisingly, she let him, although she wiggled free quickly. “Although it’s very, very pretty, it’s not as beautiful as you.”
Tia giggled. Then grew serious. “Do you think Miss Bri is pretty, too?”
Awkward. Bri didn’t dare look at Ian.
But he sure looked at her. She could see the look of astonishing respect and gratitude that felt a little too close to adoration. She briefly met his gaze, then looked away. But he didn’t. He stared at her.
And grinned.
Boy, oh, boy, if this prince had any more charm, she was in trouble. Bri decided she’d much rather contend with his brooding.
Tia tugged his sleeve. “Well? Do you?”
Ian cleared his throat. Shifted his feet. “Your babysitter is very pretty.”
Bri didn’t miss Ian’s emphasis to Tia on babysitter.
She was thankful he had wisdom and foresight to handle such uncomfortable conversations and awkward situations.
“I have Brock coming over in a bit to help me knock out that second cabin. We’re a couple days away from finishing that one and starting on the third.”
Which would put them two days ahead of schedule. “I hope nothing happens to ruin how well things are going.”
Ian interacted with Tia for a bit. “I need to work on Miss Bri’s cabin, but I’ll see you in a bit, okay?”
Tia stiffened and leaned away from his attempted hug.
Bri felt bad for keeping him from time with Tia.
Looking frustrated and downtrodden, Ian nodded a departure to Bri and met Brock at cabin three.
“Miss Bri?” Tia said an hour later. “You know that snow we said we wished we were getting? I think it’s here.”
Bri went to the window, shocked to see gray-white flakes falling from the sky. Until her nose caught whiffs of something much more ominous. Not snow. Ashes. Acrid. Close.
“Tia, put Mistletoe in his cage. And quickly put your shoes on, please.” Bri grabbed Tia’s coat and the fish and headed them for the nearest door farthest from the smoke.
Something was on fire.
By the time Bri rushed outside, Ian and Brock were sprinting up the road. Bri turned and nearly passed out.
“Miss Bri, your lodge is burning.” Tia’s eyes bulged.
Bri grabbed Tia and moved her toward Ian’s truck. “I know.” She put Tia inside so the smoke wouldn’t get to her, then dialed.
“Nine-one-one. What is your emergency?”
“I need the fire department right away. My lodge, Landis Lodge at Eagle Point Lake, is fully engulfed in flames.”
“Miss Landis, we received another call on it. We have units en route. Are you inside or near the building?”
“No.” Bri felt like throwing up. She couldn’t watch, but she couldn’t look away. She set the phone in her seat, buckled Tia into the backseat belt of the king cab then pulled Ian’s truck to the trauma center so the fire trucks could get through.
“Ma’am?” said a voice from her seat.
Bri snatched up the phone. “Excuse me, I’m sorry. What?”
“I need to know if there is anyone inside?”
“N-no. But please tell the trucks to hurry.”
“They’re moving as fast as they can. Is someone with you?”
“Sort of. Dr. Shupe and his friend ran toward it. Looks like they have a garden hose and fire extinguishers on it, but the fire looks too big.” Bri’s words came out in huge gulps.
“I’m scared,” came from the backseat. Tia clutched Mistletoe, who must’ve picked up on their fright because he’d started to softly paw Tia and whimper.
“I need to go.” Bri could hear sirens now and she needed to get control of herself and help calm Tia down. Comfort her.
Dear God, Dear God was all Bri could pray as the flames licked trees overhanging the lodge.
If those dry branches caught fire, it would spread and burn down every single cabin on her property.
Bri put the car in Reverse and went to take Tia to the trauma center. Employees poured out of it as the fire trucks pulled in. Kate rushed Bri. “Ian called me. Is everyone okay?”
Bri nodded, tried to help unbuckle Tia, but her hands trembled. Kate took over. Tia reached for Bri, tears bubbling in her eyes. Bri held her close. “It’s going to be okay, Tia.”
“But my daddy. The fire is very big.”
Bri held her closer. “He’ll be careful. The firemen are there. They won’t let him get hurt. Your dad is very smart. He won’t put himself in danger. Okay?”
“But he wants to save your lodge. I do, too.”
Bri almost burst into tears. “Things can be replaced. Things will work out. It will be okay. God will take care of me.” Bri’s voice broke on the sentence, but not her hope.
Mitch had already climbed behind the wheel of Ian’s truck, and some male trauma center employees jumped in the back. Driving to the cabin would be faster.
Kate’s female coworkers grabbed the fish, Tia and the dog and swept Bri inside so she couldn’t see the now-raging fire burn her mothe
r’s dreams to the ground.
* * *
“This couldn’t have happened at a worse time.” Ian tossed his sooty insulated gloves on his desk in the trauma center. Four hours the department had battled the blaze. They’d saved much of the lodge, but the entire west end of it was gone.
Mitch sat with his face in his hands. “She can rebuild.”
“Not in time for the bank. That first cabin has extensive water damage, not to mention the heat blew its windows out, melted the electrical and charred the wood. It’s not livable. We’ll have to tear it down and build it from scratch.”
Pressure sat on Ian’s chest along with a sick, horrible feeling. “I can’t see any way now that she’ll make the bank’s renovation deadlines.”
Especially since two hours before the fire, his second nurse-anesthetist had informed them her formerly laid-off husband had gotten a job and she was moving in four days.
Then Lisa, his only other nurse-anesthetist, in her second trimester of pregnancy, had started cramping in surgery and was now on bed rest as of this afternoon.
That left Ian.
The pressure starting to get to him, Ian began to pace. “I can’t catch a break.” Ian shook his head, then immediately went into problem-solving mode. “What I need is about six more hours in a day. We all do.”
“We’ll just call in longer-term recruits. See if Refuge physicians and the PJs will come rotate between shifts helping at the trauma center and also with the cabins.”
“I know we can count on the PJs, but they’re in a training op for the next two weeks. Meanwhile, her lodge is exposed to everything under the sun. It’s too big to tarp.”
“We’ll figure something out, Shupe.” Mitch rose, clapped a hand on Ian’s shoulder. Then bent his head. Ian realized Mitch was praying whether Ian wanted him to or not. He’d done it on a few occasions overseas when things were going south with Ava.
A sense of peace descended despite the circumstances. It calmed the whirlwind inside Ian’s mind. “This makes no sense,” Ian blurted.
Mitch lifted his eyes but not his hand. “What’s that?”
“This—this feeling of well-being amid tragedy and stress.”
“Just receive it, man.” Mitch went to praying again.
And for once, Ian wasn’t about to argue. Not with the prayer, not with the person praying.
“You need to pray for Bri, too. She’s at wits’ end.” Ian eyed Mitch after the prayer.
“Got it covered. Kate’s there now. Lauren’s rounding up staff from Refuge to help us at the center.”
“Thanks, man. I hate that it’s always me being the needy one.” At once, Ian understood Bri’s struggle with needing help and being vulnerable.
“You uprooted your life to help me open this trauma center, Ian. You’ve helped me through more than you know, just by being you. You’re stalwart and strong. Steady and dependable.”
Ian punched Mitch in the arm. “You’re my BFF, too.”
Mitch burst out laughing. Shoved Ian and they left the lounge with staff eyeing them peculiarly.
Ian’s phone rang as he sat. “Hey, Bri. Everything okay?”
She drew a ragged breath. “Tia’s fine.”
“You?”
“I called the loan officer. He accused me of arson.”
“What?” Ian surged to his feet. “That’s ridiculous!”
“Yeah, well apparently he’s already talked to the insurance company to see if I had anything recently upgraded. The agent was a good friend of Mom’s and gave me a heads-up that the loan officer is snooping around. Why does he want to shut me down?”
“I have a pretty good idea.” Ian had seen a dark sedan with out-of-town plates at the bank on a regular basis. Lem had, too, and had told Ian the guy was a land developer. “I don’t have proof yet, but put it this way—the loan company won’t benefit from your lodge. He’s a known shark. He would benefit, however, from leveling the lodge and building a subdivision on the lake.”
Bri sighed. “I suspected as much.”
“I need to do a routine surgery, then a last set of patient rounds, then I’ll be over.”
“Have you eaten dinner? I was getting ready to cook.”
“Actually, no, but don’t cook. You need a break. Let me take you and Tia out for a nice dinner at Golden Terrace.”
“I—”
“Don’t. You’re not a charity case. You are my favorite babysitter, though. So, how ’bout it. You up for a steak?”
“Are you kidding me? I’ll take two, please.” Her sentence ended in a laugh, causing Ian to grin, too. “I hope Tia picks up on your resiliency, Bri. It’s a life lesson that a lot of people don’t have.”
“Thanks, Ian.” The emotion in her voice caused a softening inside him. For once, he was conflicted about fighting it. “See you in a couple of hours, barring any more traumas.”
“Or freak fires.”
“That you definitely didn’t start. We’ll get that cleared up ASAP, Bri. Don’t fret over it, okay?”
“Thanks for believing in me, Ian.”
“I’ll see you in a while.”
He brushed a thumb over Bri’s photo icon in his phone contacts. “Thanks for putting up with me.” While he’d already disconnected, and knew she wouldn’t hear, he needed to say the words, anyway. If to no one else than himself.
Ian walked toward the O.R. area with many thoughts dawning.
As soon as Mitch had prayed for Ian, he’d not only caught a case of the strangest sense of peace, he’d come to an instant understanding that failures didn’t define a person, only whether the person pressed on in the midst of them.
A person like Bri. And yet even she was about to break.
He brushed another finger over her picture, wishing he could send her strength and perseverance through the phone.
“You always stand at scrub sinks fondling phones, Shupe?”
Ian looked up. Two PJs and a third young man stood in scrubs, grinning. “Hey, Brock. Manny.” Ian shook their hands.
“This is my stepson, Javier. He’s been away at Superman school.” Manny indicated the young man who grinned at the words.
“Javier, nice to meet you. Wow, Superman school, huh?” Ian knew that was a training phase in the pararescue course. “Following in the old man’s footsteps, huh?”
Javier laughed, jabbed Manny’s stout ribs. “Old man’s right.” Javier nodded to Ian’s phone. “So, you gonna keep playing FarmVille on that thing or put us to work or what?”
Ian laughed. “Razz me all you want. We appreciate you guys coming to help us out. But I thought you left on a training op today, though?”
Brock grinned. Nodded at a pretty nurse. “Hey, this trauma center’s hopping. That’s training. Besides, Lauren called us about the lodge gal’s fire. Tragic. So we came back to help.”
Ian nodded. “We could use the help rebuilding, too.”
“Say no more. We’ll take care of calling in recruits. Like an old-fashioned barn raising. Involve both communities.”
Ian knew that meant Refuge and Eagle Point.
He realized that Mitch’s prayer for God to send help just showed up in the form of a team of special operations airmen. “Thanks, guys. Really.”
Thanks to You, too, up there, Big Guy, Ian thought but couldn’t say.
Bri was going to need more help than she’d probably ever needed in her life. The question remained whether she would set aside her wounded pride and let people help. That would make the difference in her lodge retreat making it. Or not.
Chapter Nine
“Did you have a nice time at Golden Terrace last night?” Kate handed Bri woodsy trim for cabin table-runners they were making.
“Yes. The food was excellent.”
Kate eyed Bri over her iced tea glass rim. “I meant did you have a nice time...with Ian.”
Bri scowled. “I was more focused on the steak.”
Kate smirked. “Interested to know if he had a good time?”
“No.”
“Then I won’t tell you about how he grinned like a crazy person the entire time he talked about it before surgery this morning.”
Bri politely ignored Kate. And little jumps her pulse took with every word of Kate’s. A car pulled up outside.
“Lauren’s back.” Kate went to get the door.
Bri stood up to see Tia, in the other room crawling around the rug, pawing and snorting.
Lauren came in and giggled. “Either she’s a very small bear or a very large June bug.” Lauren set fringed material next to the sewing machine. Then unfurled a large quilt.
“It’s gorgeous!” Bri exclaimed. “Who made it?”
“The quilt-club ladies from church. They’re making five more—six if you’d like one for your cabin.”
“I’d hate to burden them—”
“She’d love a quilt, thanks.” Kate grinned. “One of these days, girl, we are going to break you of that indebtedness.”
“But I am a burden...to everyone.”
“And there are bound to be times in our lives when we need help, too. Then it’ll be your turn to help us.” Lauren set about sewing decorative fringe on cabin rugs. “Besides, that’s the quilt-ladies’ ministry. They delight in doing it.”
Bri hadn’t asked them to do all this, but it would save a ton of money and Lauren loved to sew. “I’m glad you’re a professional seamstress in addition to being a stellar nurse.”
Lauren smiled. “I heard he was prepared to buy you two.”
“Who?”
Lauren grinned, and winked at Kate. “Ian. Steaks.”
Bri groaned and bumped her forehead on the sewing table. “You’re worse than Kate.” Bri shot Kate a look. “Did you recruit her to your matchmaking club or something?” Bri asked in low tones, since Tia crawled in the room and was now within earshot.
At least the women had sense enough to be cautious with Tia around. Yips sounded. Tia and Mistletoe played tug-of-war with a tiny yellow-and-red-striped rope.
