by Erin Wright
“What betting pool?” Georgia asked innocently.
“Exactly.”
“Who’s running the betting pool this year?” Tennessee asked in Georgia’s ear. Georgia spun on her heel to glare at her cousin. What was up with people sneaking up on her tonight?! She opened her mouth to yell at her or answer her question or…or…something, when she saw Moose standing right behind Tenny.
Her mouth went dry. He looked damned delectable tonight, there was no doubt about it. He was wearing slacks instead of jeans for once, and as good as she thought Wranglers looked on him, somehow slacks looked even better. Which should be illegal, honestly. His dress shirt – no tie – wasn’t buttoned at the top, leaving a triangle of skin peeking out at her that she suddenly wanted to lick, just to see what it tasted like.
Her eyes jerked up to his, and she saw he was smiling slightly at her in greeting. He didn’t seem to realize that she’d been undressing him with her eyes, and for that, she was eternally thankful. In the distance, she heard Levi begin to answer Tennessee’s question and was vaguely grateful that they hadn’t noticed her obsession with Moose’s throat.
Shit, that made her sound like a damn vampire or something.
She tore her eyes away from the tempting spot – again – and up to his face. “Hi,” she croaked. She cleared her throat and moved to his side so they were both facing Levi and Tenny, who were busy joking about whose job it was gonna be to clean up the donkey shit at the end of the night. Tenny’s face looked positively radiant as she chatted with Levi, and the weight in Georgia’s stomach just grew heavier. Of course she looked radiant. Her date was the cutest guy in five counties. Georgia would be ecstatic too if she were on Moose’s arm tonight.
Which she wasn’t. She totally wasn’t, and she totally never would be, and she was totally fine with that.
Totally.
“Ready for the big game?” she asked Moose, trying to force her mind to focus on something other than what she totally couldn’t have. “Going to do some stretches beforehand?”
Moose let out a belly laugh. “All I have to do is stay on a damn donkey and try to throw an orange ball through a big metal hoop. I don’t think I need to do any stretches to warm up for this.”
“Good point. I was just thinking about not placing an illegal bet on the game, but before I chose which side to absolutely not bet on, I was wondering – is the basketball coach on the teacher’s team? Or is she skipping out tonight?” The high school basketball coach was five months pregnant, and didn’t always have the energy needed to keep up with the teens, let alone do anything extra. Georgia wouldn’t blame her for passing on the fundraiser.
“She’s at home; I guess she had some pretty bad morning sickness all day today. Does that change your nonexistent bet?”
“I am sad to say that it does.” She sent him a pitifully sad look and he let out a gust of laughter.
“Now hold on a good long minute, how long have you been friends with me? And even with all our years of friendship, you were willing to bet against me, and for your high school biology teacher?”
“Considering the high school biology teacher is my dad, yeah, probably. Although he didn’t tell me that he’d be playing tonight. I wonder if he weaseled out of it somehow.” Her dad wasn’t exactly the kind of person who rode donkeys or played basketball regularly, let alone played basketball while riding a donkey. She would’ve been surprised to see him there, although it was for a good cause, so maybe. Stranger things had happened in the history of the universe.
Maybe.
“We should probably go chat with Jaxson and see when the game is going to be starting. The natives are getting restless,” Levi interjected.
“Good idea. Ladies.” Moose nodded to Georgia and Tennessee and then turned to walk away with Levi, two fantastic asses on display as they went.
“He has an ass you could bounce a quarter off,” Tennessee said with a lusty sigh as they both openly ogled the display.
“Hold on, what? Moose?” Georgia asked, confused. She could’ve swore Tenny had been looking at Levi’s ass when she said that, and…well, that just didn’t make any sense.
“Oh yeah, Moose. Of course.” Tennessee’s cheeks were a little flushed, and she was staring at the far wall of the gym.
“Wha…wha…Please don’t tell me you like Levi,” Georgia finally stuttered out. Her mind could hardly grasp the idea. Georgia had dated Levi for three years; she knew that he was a good-looking guy, and a nice one, too.
In comparison to Moose, though…
Choosing Levi over Moose was just plain insane, and that wasn’t even taking into consideration the fact that Uncle Robert would have a heart attack if he knew.
“He’s…” Tenny trailed off as her gaze shifted upward, apparently completely fascinated by the banner hanging from the gym’s rafters that celebrated Sawyer’s volleyball state championship in 1984. “Levi’s just really different.”
“And, in case you haven’t noticed, he’s not Moose,” Georgia hissed. She was trying to point out the obvious without letting the panic overwhelm her, but she’d be the first to admit that she wasn’t doing a very good job of it.
Tennessee couldn’t like Levi. Tennessee was marrying Moose. It was the joining of the two reigning families in Long Valley – the owner of the local John Deere dealership, and the owner of the largest spread of farmland in three counties. Their children would be farming kings and queens.
It was settled. It had been their whole lives.
“Be honest with me for a minute,” Tenny whispered, finally tearing her eyes away from the volleyball banner hanging from the eaves. “Have you ever seen Moose look at me like he wants to tear my clothes off?”
Georgia just stared at her normally meek and mild-mannered cousin with her mouth hanging wide open.
“Think about it,” Tenny continued when Georgia didn’t say anything. Couldn’t say anything. “We’ve been practically engaged since we were born. Moose didn’t have any more say in this than I have. Do you know what it’s like to be forced into marriage by your parents?! It’s like we’re in the 15th century or something. Just because our dads are golfing buddies and BFFs for life doesn’t mean that I want to marry Moose! And really? Moose? It’s hard to feel attracted to someone named Moose.”
“His name isn’t Moose, it’s Deere,” Georgia protested automatically, even as her mind was spinning, her gaze unfocused as she tried to take it all in. Tennessee didn’t like Moose? Tennessee didn’t want to marry Moose?
How was this even possible? Georgia was just sure that next, her cousin was going to announce that she was actually an alien from Mars. It would sound practically normal compared to what she’d just said.
“I know what his name is!” Tennessee whisper-shouted.
Georgia’s head whipped back and her eyes finally focused on her cousin’s face – beautiful and perfect and way prettier than Georgia could ever be. Tennessee probably could’ve made it in the modeling world if she’d wanted to. She had the kind of look that would stop a man in his tracks – had stopped many men in their tracks. Georgia had seen it happen again and again over the years.
She used to mind – being the Plain Jane cousin was not exactly something people tended to be thrilled about – but she’d long ago moved past it. She would never be stunningly gorgeous like Tenny…but she also didn’t have to spend two hours every day curling her hair and eyelashes, and wrangling every other hair on her body into submission that could potentially be plucked, curled, shaved, or straightened. She didn’t have Uncle Robert as an overbearing father or Aunt Roberta as an overbearing mother.
She figured that all in all, she’d lucked out.
But tonight, she tried to look past the perfectly made-up face and hair and clothes, and into Tennessee’s soul. It wasn’t a view that Tenny allowed very often; she was agreeable and pretty and reasonably talented in music and cooking, and really, that was all that was required of her to become an excellent wife and mother to
Moose’s children. She didn’t tend to present much else to the world, and it was a little weird for Georgia to try to see anything else.
“I hate the piano!” Tennessee burst out, a wild look in her beautiful aquamarine eyes. “Hate it! You know who loves music? Virginia! She has more musical talent in her little pinky than I do in my whole body, and she actually likes her damn cello! If I never saw another piano in my whole life, it’d be too soon.”
Georgia’s mouth opened and closed a few times, trying to suck in air and not really succeeding. Hated piano? Who was this woman and what had she done with her cousin? Tenny probably spent two hours a day on the piano. How could she do that if she hated it?
“Laaaddddiiiieeeesssss and gentlemeeennnnn!” The voice of Kurtis Workman, the local microphone jockey, boomed out over the speakers, and the gym instantly grew quieter. If it was a gathering, auction, game, or any other event where someone needed to work a microphone, Kurtis was the person to call. He actually enjoyed every moment that he had a microphone in his hand, as weird as that seemed to pretty much every other person in Long Valley. And, let’s face it, the world. “Tonight, we have the Sawyer Fire Department vs the Staff of the Sawyer High School facing off in this year’s round of donkey basketbaaaaall! Up first, we’ve got—”
Georgia clamped down on Tennessee’s arm and started dragging her towards the exit. They could laugh at overweight high school teachers trying to stay on the backs of stubborn donkeys some other time. Right now, Georgia and Tenny had some talking to do.
Chapter 6
Georgia
Georgia sucked on the water hose of her CamelBak for a moment, taking in the view below her as she tried to catch her breath. The sun was shining, the wind was registering as slightly less than hurricane strength, and there were a few balls of white dotting the deep blue sky. All in all, it was as pretty as a postcard. She looked across the wide valley to the Goldfork Mountains – the craggy, snow-covered tips reaching for the brilliant sky – and bit her lower lip. They were taller than the hills she was climbing, and thus still had a fair bit of snow on them. Maybe it’d be enough to get them through the year…?
The farmers didn’t seem to think so, though, and neither did the state ag department. The official word put out by several farming organizations and the State of Idaho was that this was going to be a damn awful year to be a farmer (couched in more technical terms, of course). The credit union president had handed down the edict already – no large operating loans this growing season, period. Nobody was sure there’d be enough water to even get the crops to maturity, and farmers without crops…well, they were what you would call broke-ass farmers.
Not exactly prime lending targets.
Her breath was finally even again, and so she took off up the steep incline, keeping a close eye on the meandering trail. It consisted of packed dirt with roots and stones sticking up everywhere, which meant one misstep could result in a broken ankle or twisted knee. She was so far into the hills at this point, there wasn’t even a prayer of a cell phone signal; she’d lost that over an hour ago.
The trail switched back again and Georgia followed the curve, climbing ever upward. As she went, she started to go through her to-do list in her mind, but then mentally came to a screeching stop when she came up empty-handed. She didn’t have a to-do list, at least not today.
Honestly, it was a struggle to remember that it was actually a Wednesday, and not the weekend. The HR manager at the main branch had called over last week and had given her a stern talking to that she had too many vacation days piled up. She needed to take some time off, ASAP. In deference to the woman’s “request,” Georgia had put in for a vacation day today.
It still felt strange, though, and although she was enjoying her hike, a small part of her was glad that she’d only put in for one day. She could go back to work tomorrow and get some projects done then. Top of the list was the report on car loan defaults – if she didn’t get that turned in soon, the main branch would be on her ass about that, also.
She didn’t think that telling the head of the finance department that she’d been mandated to go on vacation by the head of the HR department would win her many brownie points.
She sighed. Someday, bureaucracy would be the death of her, she was just sure of it.
She spotted a movement out of the corner of her eye and she froze, her head whipping up. She was in bear country, and although she had bear spray on her, it was inside of her CamelBak. Not exactly convenient if a bear was about to charge at her.
But thank God, it wasn’t a bear – only a dog. A Dalmatian, actually, with a beautiful white coat and faded black spots all over. It had fluffy ears, not smooth ones like the other Dalmatians she’d seen, but damn, it was gorgeous anyway. It was skittering along the tree line, looking over its shoulder at her as it slunk from bush to bush.
“Hi, handsome,” she called out softly, holding out her hand and snapping her fingers. “What’s a good-lookin’ boy like you doing all the way up here? Where’s your owner?”
The dog disappeared behind a thick tree trunk and then stuck his nose out the other side, staring mournfully back at her.
“You’re a shy thing, aren’t you,” she said just above a whisper, trying to get closer to the dog without doing something stupid like stepping on a branch and sending him running off into the trees. “It’s okay, I won’t hurt you, I promise.” She made some kissy noises, feeling a little ridiculous as she did it, but she figured most animals liked that sound. At least, she assumed they did.
This dog seemed to be the exception, though. He had moved again and was now trying to hide behind a larger boulder, apparently going with the “If I can’t see you, you can’t see me” line of reasoning. Unfortunately for the dog, his hindquarters were sticking out for all to see.
Not exactly stealthy.
As she got closer, she could see that they were hindquarters that seemed to be shaking, with the tail tucked up tight between his legs. Her heart broke a little at the sight. What had happened to the poor thing?
She stopped and rummaged around in her bag to find her stash of beef jerky. It was supposed to be her afternoon snack on the way back down the hill, but nothing spoke to a dog’s heart like jerky, right? It had to work better than the kissy noises, anyway.
“Come here, boy,” she whispered as she crept closer, holding the jerky out. “Come here – you’ll like it, I promise!”
She could see his nose sticking out, wiggling in the strong breeze as he tried to weigh the promise of beef jerky against agreeing to get that close to Georgia to eat it.
“Who did this to you?” she whispered, moving ever so slowly towards the cowering dog. “And where is your owner? You have to have one – Dalmatians are too damn expensive to just be abandoned on the side of the road.” She didn’t know much about dogs, but even she knew that purebreds were costly. Not to mention that the dog had a collar on, although unfortunately there were no tags dangling from it. But a collar meant human ownership. So where was that human owner?
Just as she was almost to the boulder, she smelled it. Something…weird.
Well, not weird per se, not if it had been June, anyway. But she was smelling the distinct odor of a campfire, which…out here in the wilderness at the beginning of May?
Just…why?
It was still way too cold to camp at night out here, and most roads were closed until Memorial Day. She hadn’t expected to run into another soul on a weekday – not this far up, and certainly not at this time of the day.
But…her nose was quivering as much as the dog’s. That totally smelled like a campfire. Was someone out here roasting marshmallows?
She straightened up and left the dog behind for a moment to work her way further up the trail to another outlook over the valley. First I find a random-ass Dalmatian wandering around, scared to death of people, and now I’m smelling campfire smoke. This day is just getting weirder by the—
And that’s when she saw it.
&
nbsp; A thick column of black smoke was rising into the sky from the pine forest below. Faintly, she could hear the pop and crackle of pine sap being boiled off by the heat, and through the trees, she spotted the occasional orange flame, dancing in the wind.
There was a wildfire raging through the forest.
Directly downhill from her.
More specifically, in between her and her car.
“Oh shit!” she gasped, unable to yell, her heart taking off as she tried to take it all in. A wildfire? In the beginning of May? Who’d ever heard of such a thing? Fire season shouldn’t be starting until this summer, at the absolute earliest. There were no wildfires in May. It was against the law…or…or something!
“Oh shit!” she got out again, this time as a strangled cry. That damn dog…she couldn’t leave it behind.
A Dalmatian out wandering in the wilderness and a wildfire roaring up through the forest.
Of course.
Her body wanted to go into flight mode and she felt the muscles tense up in her, readying to take off at a full sprint, but she fought the impulse. She could freak out later. She could panic and run in circles all she wanted, once she got home. Right here, right now, she couldn’t afford to. She had to think through the problem logically. It was a puzzle, a puzzle that had to be solved so she could live.
So a puzzle with life-and-death consequences. No pressure or anything.
She rolled her eyes at herself – sarcastic, even in the face of death – and forced her mind to go through her choices. There wasn’t a way to get down the hill, through that fire, and back to her car. Not gonna happen. She mentally tossed that choice out the window.
Staying where she was seemed like a pretty shitastic choice too, mostly because it appeared that choice would end in a fiery death. Not exactly the way she’d wanted to end her time here on earth. She mentally tossed that choice out the window.
