She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t you ever say that again, Chris.” She knew her tone was scolding. “It’s not you. And it has nothing to do with the fire. Don’t take that guilt on yourself. The fire was an accident. You understand?”
“I shouldn’t have gone to the woods to make the s’mores.”
“No, you shouldn’t. But that was misjudgment. I don’t blame you for the fire. Mr. Nelson doesn’t blame you, and neither does the entire Indian Lake Fire Department.”
Chris shook his head. “Mr. Nelson said we had to make restitution.”
“Yes, well, I talked to him about that. He admitted that he was too hard on you boys.”
Eli touched Chris’s arm. “He said we did make restitution by helping with the trenches. I believe Miss Beatrice.” He looked at her. “Mr. Nelson felt bad for yelling at us, didn’t he?”
“How did you know that?”
“Because he gave us the ball caps. And he let me wear his own hat. And, Chris, he let you wear his gear. Remember?”
“Yeah.”
“See? Mr. Nelson was showing us he was sorry.”
“But he didn’t say he was sorry,” Chris muttered.
Beatrice touched Chris’s cheek. “Your brother is very smart—and he’s right. Rand is like my father was. A man of action. He doesn’t say much, but he feels things deeply. He might not have said he was sorry, but he showed you instead. He showed you that he loved you.”
“You think so?” Chris asked, his eyes growing wide.
She saw wonder shining in Chris’s eyes. “I do.”
“I want to thank him. I wish I could talk to him.” A smile bloomed over his face. “I know! I could write him a letter.”
Eli’s face filled with discouragement. “I can’t write a letter. I’ve never written a letter.”
Beatrice smiled at them both. “A letter is a fine idea. A thank-you note. That’s what we could do. Eli, you could paint a picture and that could be the front of the card. Then I’ll help you compose what you want to say for the inside.”
“Awesome,” Chris said and high-fived his brother.
“Yes.” She smiled and stood up. “A fine idea.” I just might do the same thing myself. She picked up the watering can. “Come on. We need to fill these cans back up and get the rest of the saplings watered before we start that thank-you note.”
As they walked across the road and toward the camp, Eli said, “We should help with your chores, Miss Beatrice. You still walk kinda wobbly.”
“It’s only been one day since the doctor took this new boot off. It feels lighter not having anything on my leg. Kinda funny, actually.”
“But you’re all healed, right?”
“The doctor says I am.”
“I’m sorry you got hurt,” Chris said lowly, not raising his head to look at her.
She put her arm over his shoulder. “It was an accident, Chris. Accidents happen to people. Part of it was my own fault.”
“How do you figure?”
“Rand said that if I’d stayed away from the fire and let the professionals do their job, I wouldn’t have been injured. I’m afraid I’m the guilty party here, Chris.”
“Still...”
“Stop. Okay? Let’s forget it and put it behind us. Besides, I’m doing just fine now. And who knows? In a couple weeks, I could be running sprints.”
“Sure, you will,” Eli chuckled.
“I can run very fast when I want to, Eli. I ran like the wind when I saw you in that fire.”
“Yeah. You did. And I’m glad.” He lifted his hand and slipped it in hers as they walked. “Real glad.”
“So am I, Eli. So am I.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
LATE AFTERNOON ON the Friday before the Labor Day weekend brought a bank of rain clouds over the camp as the Kettering sisters waved goodbye to Beatrice and Maisie.
“That’s the last of them,” Maisie said. “Except for Eli and Chris, of course.”
Beatrice watched the Ketterings’ black Mercedes disappear down the country road. She glanced up to the sky. “I can’t believe it. We’ve needed rain all summer and now it looks like it’s going to pour.”
“But if we’d had a rainy summer, the kids would have been stuck in their cabins or in the dining room begging for activities and complaining they were bored. We were fortunate that they all had a summer to remember.”
“They did, didn’t they?” Beatrice sighed.
“And so did you, I’m thinking.” Maisie winked. “You hear from Rand?”
“Uh, no.”
“Why not?”
She shrugged her shoulders and hugged her arms around her middle. “Dunno.”
Maisie lifted her chin and frowned. “I’m not buying it. I figured he would have been on the phone texting you every day.”
“Why on earth would you say that?”
“Aw,” she snorted. “Who could miss those looks he gave you.”
“What looks?” She dropped her arms.
“Seriously?” Maisie’s eyebrows rose. “How could you not notice? Were you too absorbed with the accounting books? The number of jars of peanut butter we ordered?”
Beatrice lowered her eyes.
Maisie slapped her clipboard to her right thigh. “I have to pack my gear. I have orientation at my new job in a couple hours.”
“What new job? I thought you were teaching this semester.”
“I am. But this is a second job.”
“Maisie, the camp is your second job. Weekends this fall, remember.”
“I know that. This is, er, uh, for after school. Sorta.”
Maisie blushed and glanced back at her clipboard.
“You’re helping out that wholesaler. Whazzis name again?” she asked jokingly. “You’re not talking about a job, are you?”
“Hey! You tell me what guy isn’t work?” Maisie giggled and jogged in reverse toward the women’s counselor cabin. “I’ll email you a report.”
The Labor Day holiday brought the closing of the camp for the summer. The kids had been picked up by their parents earlier in the afternoon. The counselors would leave that evening. Only Beatrice, Amanda, Eli and Chris would remain over the weekend. Beatrice hoped by Tuesday, they’d have word from Zoey Phillips about a foster home for the boys.
Beatrice walked around the back of the dining hall to check on Bruce, who was securing the kayaks on stainless-steel racks. She walked up to him as he adjusted a red strap with the ratchet. “Next summer, I’d love to have a little boathouse to protect the kayaks from the weather instead of just tarps and straps.”
“We move them into the dining hall, and they do all right. But I get what you mean. It’s never-ending, isn’t it?” he asked.
“What?”
“The improvements.”
“I know. The minute I think I’m ahead, something else pops up or becomes a necessity. But the kids deserve the best.”
“And you’ll make sure they get it.” He smiled.
“I’m trying. Once you get this done, you can head on out as well.”
“Cindy’s gone?”
“Yes. She left an hour ago. Maisie is about packed.”
“All right, then. I’ll see you next weekend.” He glanced across the little lake. “It was a good summer. Fire and all.”
“It was.”
She walked away.
It had been a wonderful summer. It was the summer she’d fallen in love.
She started up the steps of her cabin when she heard the roar of a truck’s tires against the gravel in the camp drive. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Rand’s monster black Toyota Tundra.
She grasped the railing for support, her hand trembling. Her heart froze.
I should drop dead right now. Maybe I’m already dead. I’m seeing things. Mir
ages. Illusions.
He got out of the truck. He was wearing black slacks, black boots and a black short-sleeved knit shirt with a banded collar as he stomped across the gravel, the stones spitting out from under the heels of his boots as he strode purposefully toward her.
What was he doing here? She thought he’d moved away forever.
“Beatrice!” he called.
Her mouth was dry. She could barely speak. “Y-yes?”
“You called me and you didn’t leave a message,” he said.
“Oh, that...”
“Didn’t you want to talk to me?”
“It was a butt dial.”
“Was not,” he retorted. He came to a stop on the step below hers. “You meant to call me. You said my name. Then you hung up.”
“It was a mistake.”
“Why?” He moved even closer, and as he did she noticed his eyes twinkled with merriment, as if he had a secret he was dying to share.
And was that a glimmer of a smile on his lips?
“Because—”
Stop, Beatrice! she scolded herself. Don’t tell him how much you miss him. How much you love him.
He’d only tell her again that they were better off being apart. She stared at him. But then, if he thought that, why was he here?
Besides, she knew now she had to take the risk. She lifted her chin. “Because I wanted to tell you...”
He reached out and gently took her hand. His eyes gleamed with a soft light that gave her hope.
“Tell me what, Bee?” he asked in that velvet tone she remembered he’d used right before he’d kissed her.
She blinked and tried to put her thoughts in order again.
“How—how much I appreciated everything you did for me. That I want to pay you back. I went to the bank and I got a check. I’ll make good on the rest—in time.”
The lights in his eyes danced with a bit of delight. “I heard all about that. I talked to my mother.”
“She told you about our visit?”
“She did. She also told me what a dolt I’ve been. But by the time I talked to Mom, I already knew I’d made the wrong decision.”
“Wrong?”
“Everything about it was wrong. First of all, I made it too quickly. You scared the living daylights out of me, Bee.”
Her lips parted as she started to speak, but he put his fingers over her lips.
“Don’t say anything. I need to apologize to you, probably every day for the rest of my life. I should never have left. You had to feel abandoned. Betrayed. Here I was telling you that I would never hurt my family because they mean so much to me. But I treated you abominably and you’re the one I love with all my heart. I don’t blame you if you hate me forever.” He lowered his hand but his eyes still probed her face, her every flinch and blink as if trying to read her mind. “But I hope you don’t.”
She was in shock. Disbelief.
“What did you just say?” She felt a lightness fly through her being.
“You have every right to hate me.”
“No, the other thing. The loving me thing.” She felt giddy, as if she’d spun around and around with her arms spread out like the kids did on the grass before they all fell down laughing.
“I love you, Bee. I think I fell in love with you when I saw you run into that fire.”
“You said I was foolish and rash to do that.”
“I said a lot of things because I didn’t or couldn’t face the truth. I was afraid. I’ve been smoke jumping from one end of the country to the other because I’ve been scared.”
“Because of what happened with Perry.”
“Yes. Because of my guilt. My past. That’s what I told you I was doing. But the real truth was that I was running away from loving you.” He moved up the step and put his arms around her. “I can be that guy you want. I don’t have to fight fires. I’d rather change my lifestyle, Bee, than be without you. These past two weeks apart from you was just about more than I could stand. I want you to be happy. I want to be the guy who makes you happier than you’ve ever been.”
“Rand, I can’t do that.”
He stiffened. “You can’t love me or you won’t love me?”
She held her palm on his strong jaw and rubbed the faint stubble on his cheek with her thumb. “Silly. I’ll love you ’til the day I die. I can’t not love you—I realized that these few weeks without you. What I meant was that I don’t want you to change anything for me. You are the most unique individual I’ve ever met. Without you and people like you, this camp, people’s homes and businesses wouldn’t exist. Folks in this town need you to protect them and look out for their welfare. I wouldn’t dream of taking you away from that calling. If anyone needs to change around here, it’s me. I’ve come to that revelation. I meant it when I said you remind me of my father, and I was proud of his courage and commitment to others. For a while, I forgot how proud I was of him. You were right, I took on my mother’s fears. But I can’t live in fear anymore. A person can die from the flu. A car accident. It’s all a matter of fate. I want to live every day I have with you.”
“You mean that, sweetheart?”
“I do,” she assured him. Her thumb touched the edge of his lips. “But I have to say, I don’t like the idea of you being gone so much. I missed you these past few weeks. A lot, really. Even when I thought you never wanted to see me again.”
He lowered his face toward hers until their noses touched. “I’ve been an idiot. And you can tell me so anytime you want. I deserve it.”
“Idiot.”
“Thanks.”
His lips pressed against hers, tentatively at first, as if he was testing the truth of her words. But when she put her arms around his neck and leaned into him, he deepened the kiss. The thrill of his mouth against her lips and the remembered taste of him ignited a warmth inside her that burst through her body like a bolt of lightning striking dry kindling. This kiss might end, but her love for him was everlasting.
Rand might have jumped from a plane into life-threatening fires, but Beatrice jumped into Rand’s love with her body, mind and soul. There was nothing she wouldn’t give him. Nothing she wouldn’t do for him.
When he tore his lips from hers, she grabbed his face with both palms and pulled him to her for another kiss. She would never tire of being in his arms and she wanted him to know it.
When she pulled away, Rand rested his forehead against hers. “There’s only one thing, Bee.”
“Name it,” she whispered, wondering if she’d ever catch her breath again, and at the same time she couldn’t wait for him to take her breath away once more.
“Promise you’ll marry me?”
“Oh, Rand. Are you sure? Very sure?”
“As sure as the sun burns and the moon glows.”
“Yes!” She kissed him again as he put his hands on her face. “I will.”
“You’ve made me so happy,” he laughed. “I didn’t believe I could feel this kind of joy.”
“I think we’ll always bring each other joy,” she said.
“I believe you,” he replied.
“Good. Because I have an idea.” She smiled at him, love and joy bursting inside her like fireworks.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Labor Day
MRS. BEABOTS’S 130-YEAR-OLD Victorian house was decorated with pots of red geraniums, white impatiens and blue salvia. Tiny American flags had also been planted throughout the front gardens. She’d draped red-and-white-striped festoons along the white railings on the front porch. The wind caught an enormous American flag and blew it out from an extended pole attached to the third-floor gable.
Cars not only filled the driveway all the way back to the “carriage house”—which Luke Bosworth had converted into a garage—but were also along both sides of Maple Boulevard. A line of couples and f
amilies walked toward the house carrying food to share, children’s toys and gifts for the hostess.
As promised, Beatrice had checked with Mrs. Beabots and made certain Eli and Chris were invited as well. Since the boys had become friends with Annie and Timmy Bosworth, as well as Danny Sullivan, who was the first to sign up for her new fall day-camp weekends, both Beatrice and Rand knew the boys would have a good time.
From the back seat of Rand’s truck, Chris was staring out the window at all the cars. Eli, in a car seat that Rand had installed, took one look at the police station that was across the street from Mrs. Beabots’s house and whistled. “Wow. She lives close to the cops!”
“That’s right,” Rand said. “Better be on your best behavior today.”
Beatrice turned to face Eli. “Don’t let him tease you. Honestly, Rand.” She clucked her tongue. “Besides, the boys already know Danny Sullivan’s father, Trent Davis, and he’s a cop.”
“Detective,” Rand corrected.
“And he’s famous,” Chris added. “Everybody knows he arrested the entire Le Grande drug gang.”
Beatrice laid her hand over the seat and rested her chin on it. “And how did you hear about that?”
“Danny showed us the article that appeared in the newspaper about him last summer.”
“Is that right?” Rand asked.
“It is. And the article was written by Mr. Abbot. He’s married to Isabelle, and her sister, Violet, is a cop, too. She’s going to be at the party,” Chris informed them.
“You sure know a lot more about this party than I do,” Beatrice remarked.
Eli put his fingers over his mouth and giggled. “And we know something else you don’t.”
“Hey!” Rand said, quite gruffly, glancing in the rearview mirror and shaking his head at the boys. Then he quickly smiled at Beatrice.
“We’re here!” He pulled the truck into an open parking place a block away.
Eli whistled again. “Wow. Look at all these cars! Mrs. Beabots sure has a lot of friends.”
Rand unbuckled his seat belt. “Any woman who bakes as well as she does would absolutely have lots of friends,” he joked.
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