by Kim Redford
“Where are you staying?” He grasped the ends of the towel in his fists—as if to control his impulse to reach for her again—while he gazed at her.
“Twin Oaks B&B.” She spoke crisply to prove she could be just as matter-of-fact as he after their hot embrace. “I checked in before I came over here. I left Hannah trying on Ruby’s red cowgirl boots.”
“Sounds about right.” He chuckled at the image, flashing his dimples again. “Y’all aren’t staying with Hedy?”
“Hannah can have a lot of energy. I didn’t want her to disturb Aunt Hedy’s life.” Lauren felt renewed worry at the thought of her adorable child. Hannah hadn’t been the same outgoing little girl since the loss of her father, even if Jeffery hadn’t made much effort to be a dad. Now Hannah seemed more cautious—as if life wasn’t completely trustworthy. Lauren had tried to mend that wound in a variety of ways, but so far nothing had worked. She hoped Wildcat Bluff was a step in the right direction to heal her daughter.
“I bet she’s like the wild child you were.”
Lauren smiled, only too glad to be pulled out of her internal worry. She put her hands on her hips in mock annoyance. “Like you weren’t in the middle of it all?”
He laughed, shaking his head at the memories. “If there was trouble, we could find it.”
“Or make it.” She joined his laughter.
“Weren’t we lucky to be raised in Wildcat Bluff?”
“That’s what I want for Hannah.” She grew serious, letting her laughter die away. “I’m raising a free-range child.”
He appeared confused by her words. “Is that what they’re calling kids nowadays?”
“That’s what they’re calling children raised the way we were in this county.”
“Oh, I thought somehow we were wandering into free-range eggs, chickens, or cattle territory.”
She chuckled, enjoying his lighthearted banter.
“Are you back in Wildcat Bluff to stay?”
“I’m here for Aunt Hedy and to see how it goes with Hannah.”
“Maybe you’ll figure out you belong here—with all of us.”
She smiled in response, knowing they were both skirting around the truth that the old sparks were blazing between them. But they were older and wiser now. They’d already been down that path and moved beyond it.
She was back in town for Hannah and Hedy. She wouldn’t let whatever she personally might want or not want play a part in her decisions.
Chapter 2
Kent Duval’s mind whirled as he tried to reconcile his teenage love with the young widow and mother standing before him. Lauren had the same honey-blond hair, chocolate-brown eyes, and to-die-for body that had distracted him from his studies in high school. Now she was so much more. And every last bit of her was setting him ablaze in a way he hadn’t felt in a long time.
Why did she have to wear a sweet little hot-pink sundress with spaghetti straps that revealed her tanned, toned arms and her long, luscious legs? She wore flip-flops—a sandal he considered dangerous to anybody’s safety—that revealed her pretty, high-arched feet with toenails painted a peachy color. She’d cut her beautiful hair that had once almost reached her waist to a short and sassy style that grazed her shoulders. He couldn’t twine her long locks around his hands anymore to bind her to him, but her hair was still soft to the touch.
He was glad to see her—just how glad was evident in the hard pressure he felt exerting on the zipper of his jeans. He quickly dropped a hand to the waistband and slipped the critical top button into place before he accidentally exposed a whole lot more than his chest. He couldn’t deny she was causing him to get hotter than a firecracker on the Fourth of July.
To cool down, he turned his thoughts to the Blue Norther that had dumped ice and snow all over Wildcat Bluff County last Christmas Eve, but his body was having none of it. Spring was coming on strong and Lauren was standing before him, so there was no getting around the earthly renewal of the birds and the bees. Cold weather was giving way to that perfect time of year when a young man’s fancy turned to—Lauren.
Still and all, he was a fool to get caught up in the past. Lauren was now a city gal. She had a precious little girl to raise and the memory of a lost love to fill her heart. There was no way a living guy with all his flaws could compete with a guy who’d been rendered perfect by his instant removal from the Earth. Best not toy with bad mojo. And yet, this was Lauren—his former sweetheart—and she stood before him looking wistful and smart and delectable. Just like the old days.
He resisted the urge to take her in his arms again to comfort her or head down a path that was dangerous to his heart. He’d thought for years that what they’d had between them was well and truly done and gone, nothing but raging teenage hormones. Now he wasn’t so sure.
Maybe she’d caught him by surprise. Maybe he was still on the rebound. Maybe he’d lost his good sense. Last thing he wanted or needed in his life was a hot gal with a sad past. His former fiancée had cured him of a cowboy firefighter’s desire to rescue every woman who washed up on his shore. Not everybody needed help, particularly flashy city gals named Charlene who—in the end—disdained country guys.
About the time he balled his hands into fists to keep from reaching for his old flame, he saw Ash, the station cat, saunter up, wearing a spring-green bow around his neck. He sat down in front of Lauren, looked up with bright, silver eyes in his handsome gray face, and yowled an imperative greeting. Kent just shook his head. Ash was a sucker for all the gals, and they adored him in return.
“What a pretty kitty.” Lauren immediately crouched down, held out her fingers to be sniffed, and then petted Ash’s broad face with gentle strokes.
“That’s Ash.” Kent watched the cat turn his head and give Kent a slit-eyed look of pleasure while Lauren stroked down his back to the end of his long tail. Typical Ash. He always got more than his fair share of attention from the ladies. Kent wished he could trade places with the cat and feel Lauren’s soft hand stroke across his own body.
“You’re such a handsome boy, aren’t you?” Lauren crooned while Ash arched his back against her hand. “And where did you get that pretty bow?”
“That’s Hedy’s doing,” Kent said. “He gets a special bow to celebrate the seasons and holidays.”
“And he doesn’t rip them off?”
“Are you kidding? This is Hedy we’re talking about. You know how animals will do just about anything she wants.”
“So true.” Lauren chuckled, throwing Kent a warm glance as she continued to stroke Ash’s back. “Kids, too.”
He laughed with her. “I’d say that goes for all of us.” He looked down at Ash. “Where’s Hedy?” He didn’t expect an answer from the cat, but not much got by Ash’s super senses.
Ash yowled in reply, gave Lauren’s hand a thank-you swipe with his long pink tongue, and then bounded through the open doorway into the station.
“Maybe he knows something we don’t,” Lauren said as she stood up.
“I bet he knows lots of stuff we don’t, but he’s not saying.” Kent chuckled as he gestured after Ash. “Let’s go inside and see if we can run down Hedy.”
“Sounds good to me.” She glanced up at the building, then back at him. “This station is new, isn’t it?”
He looked at the fire station with its bright-red metal roof, five bay doors, and the regular door in front of them. “Yep. We still use the original station for the older rigs, but we really needed to update and add room for our new apparatus.”
“How did Wildcat Bluff County afford it?”
“Remember when we volunteered in high school? We’re all still doing the same thing. Donations. Fundraisers. Grants. Took us five years to put together enough dough, but we did it.”
“Impressive. I can’t wait to see inside.” She gave him a soft smile before she stepped through the open doorwa
y.
Kent hesitated, glancing at the horizon. The sun was going down in the west, casting long streaks of crimson and orange across the clear blue sky. He felt a cool breeze spring up, rustling the leaves of the live oaks. He wanted to find Hedy before it got dark, but most likely she was running errands and he’d gotten het up over nothing. Still, she just wasn’t her usual feisty self of late.
He followed Lauren and Ash inside the small lobby with pale-gray walls, letting the door swing shut behind him.
Ash leaped up and sat in the middle of the simple gunmetal desk and gave Kent an intense stare.
Across from the desk, two shockingly bright-orange chairs that had to date from the late sixties rose in all their glory from the dark-gray vinyl floor. The matching chairs had been donated by a generous patron, but Kent had yet to see anybody sit in them. They appeared more Midcentury Modern eclectic than firehouse practical. But you never looked a gift horse in the mouth.
He tossed his towel on the back of the desk’s practical office chair. He snatched his bright-yellow Wildcat Bluff Fire-Rescue T-shirt with a crimson firefighter-EMT logo from the top of the desk where he’d dropped it while drying off and looking for Hedy. He pulled on the T-shirt, tucked it inside the waistband of his jeans, and glanced over at Lauren.
She stood with her hands clasped behind her back as she studied the arrangement of colorful firefighter photographs in simple black frames hanging on the wall. “These are wonderful.”
“Thanks. Hedy had them framed and put up.”
“You took them?” She cocked her head as if in consideration. “Of course you did. I’d forgotten how you used to snap us with your camera.”
“Got the bug and never lost it.”
“I’m so glad. Great drama and heroics in your photos.”
“I do my best, but it’s just a hobby.” He felt a rush of satisfaction at her compliment, but she’d always been supportive of anything he’d done.
“It’s more than that and you know it.”
“Lots of fine selfies out there nowadays.” He shrugged, not about to blow his own horn. “Anyway, Hedy said we had to do something to coordinate with the orange chairs.”
“She’s right.” Lauren laughed as she looked from the photographs to the chairs and back again. “The bright-tangerine chairs do match the orange in the fires.”
He just shook his head in response as he walked over to the desk, not about to get into decoration with anybody—particularly a woman. He’d always come out on the short end of that stick.
Ash looked up and yowled, holding down a yellow sticky note with writing on it with his front paws.
“What’ve you got there?” As Kent picked up the note, he heard the phone ring in the watch office next door, so he hurried in there. He picked up the receiver from the multiline phone on top of the gray laminate work surface that stretched across one side of the room. “Wildcat Bluff Fire-Rescue. How may I help you?”
“Kent, it’s Hedy.”
“Where are you? I’ve been looking for you.”
“Didn’t you get my note?”
Kent looked down at the yellow sticky note in his hand. “Just now.”
“I called to you in the shower, but I left the note in case you didn’t hear me.”
“Are you okay?” He quickly reached over and turned down the knob on the radio, another donation in the form of a miniature 1930 reproduction wood radio with a big, bronze Superman “S” on the front. He didn’t know if the giver thought firefighters were superheroes or had an ironic sense of humor. It didn’t matter because the radio worked just fine—nondigital and all—since the sound was connected on a system throughout the station.
“Why do you ask?” Hedy said on an impatient note.
“It’s just—”
“No matter. I’m over here in Sure-Shot at a fire site.”
“How bad? What do you need?” Kent glanced up to see Lauren standing in the doorway with a concerned look on her face. He nodded to let her know he was taking care of the issue.
“Hold your horses. Billye Jo called me. She thinks it’s just vandalism, but she’d like the fire on record.”
“Okay. Thanks for getting right over there, but if you’d waited a minute I’d have been out of my shower.”
“Think I’m not up to checking on a fire, deciding what needs to be done, and calling in volunteers after I’ve made my determination?”
Kent swallowed down his knee-jerk response to throw her words back at her. Everybody respected Hedy and she had to know it. She just wasn’t herself. He was doubly glad Lauren was back in town because maybe she could find out if Hedy had a secret that was gnawing at her. “Hedy, you know I trust you. Now, what rig do you need me to bring out there?”
“Booster is plenty. The fire is behind the old gas station.”
“Sinclair?”
“That’s the one.”
“I’m on my way.”
“Thanks.”
Kent hung up, feeling uneasy in the pit of his stomach. Fires always made him edgy. He glanced at Lauren. “Remember how to fight a fire?”
“As if anybody actually let us fight a fire back then.”
“Right. But Hedy taught us the basics.”
Lauren nodded in agreement. “I doubt I’ve forgotten anything she taught me.”
“That’s what I thought.” He hesitated, remembering Lauren wasn’t a carefree girl any longer. “There’s a small fire behind that Sinclair station in Sure-Shot. I’m going to run over there and make sure it’s contained so it doesn’t spread. I’ll take our new booster. It’s got a three-hundred-GPM pump capacity and two-hundred-gallon water tank.”
“Sounds impressive.”
“It’ll do the trick. You want to come along and help?”
She glanced down at her dress, then back up at him.
“You can find spare jeans and a T-shirt in the day room. Just in case you might need it, I’ll toss in an extra set of firefighter gear for you, too.”
She smiled, brown eyes lighting up with interest. “Sure-Shot. That little community still exists?”
“You bet. And they still breed the finest horses around here.”
“Let me call Ruby. I doubt she’ll mind taking care of Hannah a little bit longer.”
“Just tell her you’re going on a booster run and she’ll more than understand the need.” He crushed the sticky note and lobbed it into a trash can beside the filing cabinets. “Look, I can call Sydney or Trey to help if you don’t want to leave your daughter the first day back in Wildcat Bluff. I probably don’t need any help at all. Hedy’s there.”
Lauren put her hands on her hips and leaned toward him. “I appreciate the thought, but you’re not going to get rid of me that easy. Do you actually think I’m going to pass up an opportunity to go to Sure-Shot, ride in the booster, and put out a fire?”
He grinned, liking her can-do attitude that was so much like the girl he’d known so well. “Now, if you’d added ‘and spend a little quality time with Kent Duval,’ I’d think that list couldn’t be better.”
She laughed, turning toward the lobby, and then glanced back. “Okay. You’re on the list. But I’ll expect a reward.”
He stilled, feeling his heart pick up speed as images of hot, naked bodies tangled in the cool, soft sheets of his king-size bed flooded his mind. But no, they weren’t going down that path. “Barbeque?”
“From the Chuckwagon Café?”
“Where else?”
“Perfect! It’s been too long since I’ve eaten the best barbeque in Texas.” She stepped into the lobby, and then called back to him. “And once I put on a Wildcat Bluff Fire-Rescue T-shirt to match yours, I’m never giving it back.”
He followed, chuckling at her sassy words. “You know, that’ll make you a fire-rescue volunteer for sure.”
S
he stopped, put a hand on her waist, and thrust out her hip like she had in her younger days. “Guess that’ll make me a cowgirl firefighter.”
“Oh yeah.” He figured she was the only one who could put out the wildfire she’d ignited in him.
Chapter 3
Lauren rode shotgun in the bright-red booster with Wildcat Bluff Fire-Rescue emblazoned on the outside doors. She felt a little guilty for leaving Hannah longer at Twin Oaks, but her daughter had been having a great time baking chocolate chip cookies with Ruby when Lauren had called them on her cell phone. Ruby had insisted they were fine and to take care of the fire.
Hannah needed to experience a wider circle of friends, particularly those who could teach her about country life where she would feel safe to spread her wings. And maybe Lauren needed to ease up on her own self so she could live life more fully and enjoyably after being so intently focused on her daughter and work in Houston.
She felt a familiar sense of loss at the thought of her former job in a Houston hospital. She’d enjoyed her work there as a physical therapist until the department had been closed for cost reduction. With just a little help, support, and encouragement, rehabilitation could work wonders on the body and psyche of folks recovering from injuries and surgery.
With nothing to hold her in Houston—like school for Hannah or work for her—she had decided to use her savings to take a chance on Wildcat Bluff. She could stay in touch with her friends and coworkers by phone and Internet. She hoped she could find a way to build a new life in a familiar and supportive environment, but only time would tell if that was possible. At the least, she could help Hedy in her store and in her life until she made sure her aunt was back to her old self.
Lauren plucked at the faded denim of the too-big jeans and sighed to herself. She’d taken special care with her appearance for her first day back in Wildcat Bluff, and here she was wearing borrowed clothes. At least she had a fine yellow fire-rescue T-shirt to go with her rose-colored flip-flops and straw handbag. She might as well give up trying to look stylish and go for efficient.
She swallowed a chuckle, knowing her concern about her appearance was laughable when compared to putting out a fire. She glanced at Kent. Nothing comical about him. He wore basically the same thing she wore, but he made his attire look hot and trendy. She noticed the easy way he handled the steering wheel with his big hands. She well remembered his roaming fingers on her bare flesh, a little rough from rodeo and oh-so-strong. Yet gentle, too. She clamped down on her mind that was veering off like a dodgy steer trying to outmaneuver a rope. She needed to focus on the here and now.
