They all looked kind of similar to Alder. I guess these were his brothers.
The first appeared to be the oldest. He was a bit gruff. He also had a beard like Alder, but with wisps of gray here and there. The second was slimmer than his brothers. His eyes told me he was more of the brains in this operation. He was clean shaven and lean. The third looked a little younger than Alder. He had a wild, unkempt look about him, tossled hair and beard. Finally, the fourth appeared to be the youngest, with his dimpled baby-face. He took in the scene with wide, unsure eyes
Working together as a team, they quickly connected a firehose to a large tank. I initially thought it must’ve been a propane tank, but now I realized that it was full of water. The five of them worked to stretch the hose toward a spot where I was standing.
“Stand clear, miss,” instructed Alder.
I moved a few feet away, but I wanted to see them put out the fire. By now it had spread to the entire tree, lighting the night like a torch. Alder rushed back to turn on the water as the other four men braced themselves with the hose.
“Ready?!” called Alder.
“Fire it up!” called back the eldest.
Alder turned on the water and the hose filled with water. I kind of thought four was overkill to hold it, but when I saw the force of the water, I realized that it was just common sense. They were, after all, standing on top of a snow-covered cliff. Would be pretty easy to sleep and fall, but with the four of them the hose didn’t budge.
I watched as the water rained down on the tree and on my car. The fire in the hatchback quickly went out, as did the fire on the truck. Putting out the branches was much more difficult. The group swung the hose around and rained down water on the burning tree. Everywhere, including my car, the water started to form ice. If all my worldly possessions weren’t ruined by the fire, they were certainly finished off by the water and the ice.
Staring down at the mess, I thought about jumping. That would solve my problems. Me and the car, dead in a ditch. I must’ve walked too close to the edge. Alder pulled me back.
“You okay?” he asked. “I hope you’re not thinking what I think you were thinking.”
I snapped back to my surroundings. I wanted to assure him. “No. I’m not suicidal. However, I am having the worse day of my life and the days leading up to now weren’t so great to begin with.”
As I stood there, I remembered happier times with my mom. Sitting in the kitchen with her as a little kid as “Mama Said” played on an oldies station. She would make dinner and sometimes bake a pie.
“Mom,” I asked one day. “What’s it like being a grown up?”
“It’s just like being a kid except you have responsibilities,” she explained. “Like paying bills, having a job, raising, children.”
“I don’t know if I want to have kids,” I said. “Did you want to have kids when you were my age?”
“Well, I wasn’t sure,” she said. “You are a little young to be thinking of children.”
“What kind of job should I have?”
“You can have any job you want, baby,” she assured. “It depends on what you like to do and what you’re good at.”
“I like to play with dolls,” I suggested.
“No-no,” she laughed. “They won’t pay you to play with your dollies, girl!”
“Then what will I do?” I asked.
“Well, you might work in an office or you might be a teacher,” she suggested. “Do you like what your teachers do?”
“No, it’s boring,” I said. “I don’t want a job that’s boring.”
“Well, work is usually pretty boring sometimes, baby,” she said. “Even if you’re a housewife, it’s not all excitement. Look at me! If I didn’t have you to keep me company, I’d go berserk!”
“So you had me to keep you company?”
“Kinda,” she admitted. “But when you get a job, you will have to work hard at it. Like your dad. And hopefully, they’ll pay you more and more money and then one day, you can retire.”
“It sounds hard,” I said.
“Well, it is hard,” she admitted. “But there are plenty of rewards that come with it.”
“Like what?”
“Like meeting a nice man. Like your father,” she smiled. “You’ll meet a nice man someday. You’ll have friends and a house, but you’ll have to work to have it and to keep it.”
“That’ll be nice!” I smiled. “Will you come visit?”
“Of course I will, little Lila! I’ll visit you whenever I can!” she smiled.
But it turns out that was a lie. Mom couldn’t take it living with dad and left. And here I was, struggling, stuck on top of a mountain with five strangers. My life was in tatters and sliding down hill fast, just like my dead car.
“Um, ma’am,” asked Alder, uncertain. “Do you want us to call a car for you?”
“Yes!” I said decisively, putting on a brave face. “I’m sure the Uber driver won’t mind making the drive where I just killed my car! And I’m sure a taxi service won’t charge me an arm and leg to get me down the mountain!”
I was ranting again. Even my negative voice was trying to get me to stop, but I couldn’t. My guts were scorching like the burned tree. Things inside me unraveled.
“Get down the mountain. Yes.” My voice grew. “Get me back down there because I have nothing. Literally nothing down there. This is all I have now. The clothes I’m wearing! Sure. get me down the mountain. I mean, that’s probably where homeless people go, right?!”
I opened my mouth to laugh, but tears came out instead. I couldn’t help it now. I was broken. I imagined the firefighters were probably pretty uncomfortable just standing there watching me sob, but then a strange thing happened. One of them, I assume Alder, wrapped his arms around me. I pressed my face against his flannel shirt. He smelled masculine and was warm. I just kept sobbing into his heat. Some part of me sensed multiple hands were hugging me, but I was too upset to know for sure.
Whoever these guys were, I was at their complete mercy. I mean, they could literally turn me out into the cold to die. Fortunately, I wasn’t getting a creepy vibe from any of them, but I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly. All I could do was sob into this stranger’s chest.
Chapter 2:
Ash
This woman had started crying and Alder looked at me like a deer in the headlights. I gestured for him to pass her over to me. Poor thing. I hate to see a woman cry, especially one as beautiful as this one.
“Is this who knocked on the door?” I whispered to Alder over her head in my chest .
He nodded and then gestured to the skid marks and where the car fell off the cliff. Boy, did this woman make a wrong turn.
“Ma’am?” I lowered by chin, so I could talk softly.
“Lila,” introduced Alder.
“Ma’am, I’m Ash, Alder’s brother,” I said, trying to engage her. “Are you going to be okay? Maybe you could tell me what happened?”
“I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. “My car– I was coming to the resort– For a job and then I parked– But my car–“
“She parked in that last space,” Alder tried to interpret. “The one on an incline. Her tires must’ve been really bald. It just started sliding right down the hill.”
“Why the hell did she drive all the way up here?” I was shocked that anyone would drive in this snow.
“She said she was looking for a job at the ski resort. Must’ve gotten all turned around,” said Alder.
“Let’s just get her a cab and get her out of here,” suggested Elm, the second oldest of us.
“Man, show some compassion,” said Teak, the second youngest. “She’s obviously been through a lot. Look at how she’s crying.”
“I don’t know what our liability is here, Ash,” said Elm. “And no offense, lady, you seem a little…unstable.”
“I don’t think she can hear you over her own crying,” said Alder, not making a finer point of it.
“I-I-I don’t
want to be a bother,” sobbed the woman. “Just c-c-call me a cab.”
“The nearest town’s 25 miles away, they’re not going to come up here,” I insisted. “Not in this.”
“That Indian guy that drove me from the airport that time, he’d drive anywhere,” suggested Elm.
The other brothers shot looks at him.
“I’m just saying,” said Elm.
“Let’s get her inside,” I concluded. “She’s gonna catch cold out here.”
“No, please, I’m bothering you–“
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” I assured. “You stay with us at least until the snow stops. They maybe we can figure out a way to salvage your car.”
She laughed again. It was in that hollow, hopeless way that someone about to die might laugh. I was really worried about her. The only thing worse than letting a crazy stranger into your house is letting one die on your stoop.
“Fine. Thank you,” she said. “You guys are very nice and I’m– I’m just a mess right now. Normally, I’m not like this.”
Still under my arm, I started to walk her back to the cabin while the other brothers put the hose away.
“It’s really not that big of a deal,” I assured her. “We have some extra room and we don’t get a lot of visitors up here.”
We got her inside, but when I slid my hands off her shoulder, she hesitated to let go.
“It’s okay,” I assured her. “You’re safe.”
She finally let go.
“Thanks,” she said, embarrassed. “I really have to thank you guys for this. It’s been a rough week. Rough life. Ha!”
“So, uh, you were looking for a job up at the ski resort, eh?”
“Yeah, I know they’re not open for the season yet, but I’m kinda desperate for a job right now,” she admitted. “Do you know if they’re hiring?”
“Honestly? I don’t think so,” I told her. “They do most of their hiring in the late Spring to avoid situations like this. I mean, you might get lucky, but…”
“Oh,” she said, sadly.
It was that “Oh” that really got me. I felt like I had taken the air out of her sails just as she was getting pumped up. I sat at Elm’s desk. He normally did the paperwork for our business. I spotted an ad on Craigslist printed out. Elm and the others walked in and Elm immediately spotted what I was holding.
“No,” he whispered.
“It just so happens, we’re hiring,” I declared to Lila.
“You are?” She almost smiled at the hopeful news.
“No, we are not!” insisted Elm. “You don’t even know her last name and you want to offer her a job?”
“What’s your last name?”
“Rhodes.”
“Now I know her last name.”
“You are not in charge of the hiring and firing for the family business,” reminded Elm. “Get up from my desk.”
I gave Elm his seat. He got himself organized as the other brothers came in and got situated.
“Man, I don’t know how we’re going to get that hose empty before the water freezes,” said Alder. “We put it in the storage closet.”
“I don’t want everything wet in there,” I reminded him.
“I put a bucket underneath each end of the hose,” said Teak. “Thinking ahead, brother.”
“I’ll just give my brothers a few minutes to settle down,” explained Elm. “We didn’t expect to be outside, so…”
Lila looked at the pictures around the room. Some of them went back to the early 1900’s. One photo in particular was labeled “Barrett Mountain”. Lila noticed a “Barrett’s Handmade Furniture” label on Elm’s desk.
“Wait a minute,” said Lila impressed. “Do you guys own the mountain?”
“We own a lot of the land,” explained Alder. “But we don’t own the whole mountain. I don’t think anyone can own a mountain really.”
“How long as your family owned…the area?” asked Lila.
“Since I was two,” explained Ash. “That’s when they brought me up here. The rest of these guys were just a twinkle in my daddy’s eye.”
“You got any brothers or sisters, Lila?” asked Alder.
“No,” she said sadly. “My dad passed not too long ago and my mother abandoned us when I was a kid.”
“Oh, my God,” exclaimed Teak. “That’s awful. I’m so sorry.”
“It was a long time ago,” Lila assured. “Must be great for you guys to have so many brothers to rely on.” She paused, then looked straight in my eyes, curious. “Any of you guys have wives yet?”
I just sort of threw up my hands. My other brothers looked away, a little embarrassed. The mountain wasn’t exactly a singles club.
“Really?” Lila’s eyebrows shot up. “I’m shocked. I mean, you all seem like fine looking gentlemen, if I’m not being too forward.”
“We don’t get to meet a lot of ladies up here,” I explained. “Still, it’s beautiful, if you love nature, but it’s hard to meet people when you have to drive 25 miles to the nearest town.”
“Yeah, we tend to want to run all our errands in one day,” explained Teak. “Kinda hard to buy food, get gas, buy supplies and find a wife all in six or seven hours!”
The boys laughed. It was kind of a running gag with us that it was hard to meet women in this line of work. Lord knows there weren’t many women in the profession at all and hell, you just didn’t meet anybody living on a mountain.
Unless, of course, their car broke down driving up the wrong mountain.
“All right, gentlemen, if you don’t mind,” reminded Elm. “I do have a job interview to conduct.”
“We’re just trying to get to know her, Elm,” said Oak.
“Um, if she’s going to work here, you’re not going to date her, understand?” explained Elm. “Do you have any idea the kind of liability we’d be exposed to if you did?”
“We should still get to know her,” insisted Oak.
“That’s part of the professional interview process. Now are you going to let me conduct the interview or are you going to keep interrupting?”
“Oh, just conduct the interview already,” I said. “You’re such a prickly pear sometimes.”
“Someone in this family has to be.” sniffed Elm.
“Don’t be nervous,” Alder said to Lila. “He’s like this.”
Elm stared daggers at Alder, who sat down next to me. We were both smiling and suppressing a laugh. It was fun to push Elm’s buttons sometimes.
“Do you have a resume?” asked Elm.
“Uh, it was in my car,” said Lila. “I can make you another.”
“No resume,” Elm said as he wrote it down.
I gave him a pointed eyeroll, thinking give her a break.”
Elm responded. “I guess a resume is not all that important. Have you worked in an office before? What’s your experience?”
“I was at a Temp Service for about a year and a half,” explained Lila. “I worked in a variety of offices settings. This is like, uh, lumber yard?”
“The nomenclature is that we’re lumberjacks,” explained Elm. “We harvest wood.”
“Harvest? That sounds like you’re farmers,” said Lila.
“We’re not farmers,” said Elm, bristling. “Why would you think that?”
“Why are you getting so angry?” I teased.
“I’m not getting angry,” snapped Elm. “I’m just trying to conduct a professional interview in a professional setting and you’re undermining me.”
“Sounds angry,” Alder added as he hung up his jacket. “You drinking Red Bull again? You know what that does to you.”
“The analogy doesn’t make sense, okay? We’re not growing trees over fifty years and cutting them down,” insisted Elm. “Some of the trees have been up here for hundreds of years. And no, I haven’t touched Red Bull. Because we’re out of it.”
“So you don’t replant them?” asked Lila.
“Well, yes, technically,” admitted Elm. “We sometimes do
replant them.”
“That’s mainly my job,” said Teak. “Usually I go back and replant where we can.”
“Oh,” said Lila. “But you don’t water them or feed them.”
“Well,” admitted Elm. “When you plant the initial sapling, sometimes you want to put in the fertilizer and maybe water it a few times, if it’s summer and it’s drying. Which we can do because we work in the same area for a few weeks sometimes. So, yes, we do water and feed the plants.”
“So…like a tree farmer?” asked Lila.
“Are you listening to this?” snapped Elm to us.
“Her logic sounds pretty good to me,” I said, stoking the fires. “We plant and feed the trees. That’s what a farmer would do.”
“Noooo.” insisted Elm. “A farmer has a farm.”
“So really, it’s the rows of dirt,” added Alder. “You know, the plowing. If we had that, then we’d be farmers.”
“And a tractor,” I added. “Farmers all have tractors and straw hats and overalls.”
“You guys are all ridiculous and being totally contrary to this process,” barked Elm annoyed. “Can you just be quiet, please?”
“We kind of have a tree farm,” offered Teak.
“Stay out of this, Teak.” warned Elm. “You’re not in this conversation right now.”
“He does bring up a valid point,” said Alder, trying not to laugh.
Elm put down his pen and started rubbing his temples. We were really riding him, but frankly, there was nothing else to do in this snowstorm.
“You know if I built a scarecrow,” I suggested.
“Well we’d have to get some crows,” said Alder.
Lila looked away, biting her full lip and trying not to laugh.
“Wait, do farmers have crows?” asked Teak. “I thought they just showed up to eat the crops or something. Do they eat the worms?”
“The bugs, so that the corn is bug-free,” laughed Oak. “Oh, man I could go for some corn right now. I’m going to put that on the list with Red Bull.”
Loved by the LumberJacks_A MFMMMM Reverse Harem Romance Page 2
