by Jodi Thomas
Alex radioed the major, filling in details as she patted her little brother. When she clicked off, Alex looked at Noah.
“Where’s Truman?”
“He’s over there yelling that the men should forget about the trees and go in to get Rea. She’s at the house. Every fireman here has already told him it’s impossible.”
“Will the fire reach her?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so. She’s got a plan. Truman even said he told her a story about how his grandmother survived a prairie fire once by climbing in the root cellar and putting wet blankets over her. I just hope the old guy remembered to show Rea where the root cellar is.”
Alex made Noah sit down, then checked in again with the major. In what seemed like minutes they heard other sirens coming in. This time the calls went in immediately. Clifton Creek and Bailee were already sending men with police escorts.
She walked beside Hank when he passed. He went to his truck to get extra gloves. She didn’t speak; she just watched him. She needed to be near him.
Then he looked up at her, and for one moment she knew he was remembering their time together. “When this is over . . .”
“I’ll be waiting,” she answered, and then he was gone to do what had to be done and she stepped back into the role of sheriff.
By the time the fire began to crawl from the trees to the grass, a hundred men and six fire trucks stood by to fight. In an hour, there was nothing but smoke and ashes.
Hank loaded Alex, Noah, and Jeremiah into his truck and drove past the orchard, still standing. He crossed onto his land and stopped long enough to cut fence before he pulled around the apple trees and headed down the path toward Jeremiah’s house. No one said anything, but they all let out a long breath when they made out the shadow of the house in the distance.
“Better fix that fence before fall,” Jeremiah grumbled. “I don’t want your cattle crossing onto my land and eating apples.”
“I’ll do that,” Hank promised as he bumped his way over a plowed row and splattered mud for twenty feet when he pulled into the yard.
“Looks like it flooded,” Noah said. “Where’d all this water come from?”
“She downed the tank.” Jeremiah grinned. “That niece of mine is a smart girl.”
Reagan stepped out of the house just as they reached the steps, and she was smothered in hugs.
Everyone talked at once. No one was listening, but Hank didn’t think it mattered. He could feel a weight rising off his shoulders. It was over.
Jeremiah invited them in for supper, a slightly burned pot roast, but Hank and Alex begged off, knowing they still had a great deal of work to do.
As he circled Noah’s truck, half buried in what looked like the remains of a chicken coop, Hank saw the boy lean down to hold Reagan, and he noticed her pull away. A strange reaction from a friend, he thought, but they were just kids; they’d have years to figure it out. Hell, he was still working on it.
Alex must have noticed it, too, because she slid across the seat until their bodies touched from knee to shoulder. “I’m not an easy person to get along with,” she whispered,
“and I suspect I won’t be easy to love.”
“You’re not telling me a thing I don’t already know. I’ve loved you for years and I can testify it’s not easy.”
She kissed his neck, almost making him drive off the path. “My place when this is over?” she whispered.
“It may be late, but I’ll be there. And this time, baby, we’re not rushing anything. I’m taking all the time I need to show you how I feel about you.”
The fire this woman was starting in him was a slow burn that would take days to put out . . . maybe even a lifetime.
He didn’t touch her when they got out on Lone Oak Road. He didn’t dare. He wasn’t sure he could let her walk away if he did.
Chapter 51
WHEN ALEX GOT BACK TO HER OFFICE, THE MAJOR WAS packing up. “We got him,” Alex said.
“The fire got him,” the major corrected. “I’d been watching him for two days. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something wasn’t right. I even ran a background check and only came up with one fact: He was bankrupt. But that wasn’t enough.”
“Why do you think he did it?” Alex asked.
“We’ll probably never know. I had my eye on Brad Rister first, thinking with the divorce and getting kicked off the fire department team, he had nothing to lose.” She shrugged, silently admitting her first hunch was wrong. “Hank called in to say Brad was out with the others fighting tonight, and from the looks of it he was sober. Willie Davis loved the excitement too much and went a little crazy during the fires, so I watched him, too. Once I met his uncle, Trooper Davis, I figured crazy ran in his family.”
Alex smiled. “You read people so well, you should move to Harmony.”
“I’ve got my twenty years in, I just might. But to be honest, I’m not a great judge of people when they’re not suspects at the scene. I can’t seem to tell the good ones from the bad ones when it comes to me. All my life I keep finding a prince that turns into a toad when I kiss him. Several years ago I gave up and decided to just do my job. Know of any knights in shining armor?”
“Nope, but I’ll keep my eyes open.” Alex liked the major. She helped Katherine load all her computers into her rental car. “Where next?”
“I have to go to Washington for hearings, and no one knows how long those will take. I’d far rather be out in the field working than talking about it. Maybe I’ll take some time off when I get back to Texas.”
“Good idea.” Alex hugged her, hoping that if the arson specialist were ever again to come to town it would be for a different reason.
After the major left, Alex looked over at the fire station and noticed that the trucks were still out. Which meant Hank was still at the site, probably waiting for everything to cool down so they could retrieve Andy’s body or what was left of it.
She remembered something Andy had said one night as he manned the emergency calls. He’d said, “Life without thrills and danger isn’t worth living. It’s oxygen in my blood. I have to have it or I’ll die.”
Alex wished he’d found another way to get those thrills. In the end, he probably didn’t want to hurt anyone. He was just after the buzz.
She stretched, realizing it was Saturday night and all she wanted to do was go home. The air was still tonight, and she thought she could smell rain in the wind.
Climbing into her Jeep, she took the long way home, wanting to avoid the mess on Lone Oak Road. She drove slowly, watching big white clouds roll across the evening sky. The country was so beautiful, it took her breath away sometimes. The openness of it. The way you felt everything around you was untouched.
A half hour later, she was in the shower when she heard someone call her name. Grabbing a towel, she stepped out, and there was Hank standing in her doorway making no attempt not to look.
Chapter 52
MONDAY MORNING NOAH, STILL PATCHED AND BRUISED, came back to school.
Reagan tried to act like she hadn’t missed him terribly. Everyone wanted to talk to him. They wanted to relive his accident at the rodeo and hear all about how he saved the old Truman place from fire.
Noah “Preacher” McAllen was surrounded, and he loved every minute of it. She could almost see him famous, fighting off reporters and girls. Some people are born to ride fame. Whether he liked it or not, Noah would follow in his father’s footsteps. He’d be a legend one day. The only question in her mind was, would she still be his friend?
The only time all morning she thought he noticed her was once in history class when he looked over his shoulder and winked at her. Other than that, he was in a crowd, and Reagan hated crowds.
At lunch, she thought she’d have time to talk to him, but when he walked out without his usual sandwich in one hand and drink in the other, she knew he was just stopping by to say hello before joining his friends.
“Busy?” he asked, propping up
one long leg on her bench.
“Not very,” she answered, telling herself she didn’t care one way or the other if he stayed.
“Have time to come along with me? I got a strange text message from my sister this morning. She wants me to pick up food she ordered at the grocery and drive it all the way out to her place.”
“She sick?”
“I don’t know. I think maybe so. No one’s seen or heard from her since Saturday night. She told me to leave the bags on the porch and don’t bother to knock.”
“She must be really sick.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of. My folks took off for parts unknown yesterday. If Alex is dying, I’m all she’s got.”
Reagan stood. “I’ll help.”
Fifteen minutes later, they had picked up the groceries and were pulling up in front of Alex’s cabin. They eyed the huge black Dodge parked beside her little house.
“Good,” Noah said. “Hank’s here to help. He’ll drag her to the doctor if she’s bad off.”
Noah climbed out of the pickup. “You better wait here in case she’s got something contagious.”
Reagan nodded. The last thing she wanted was to get sick. She’d spent all day yesterday talking Uncle Jeremiah into making some improvements around the place. He’d even said he’d paint the house. She noticed the boxes of spring flowers on the sheriff’s porch and decided she’d talk her uncle into flowers as well.
Noah carried the bags of groceries to the door and walked into the cabin without bothering to knock. Two minutes later, he stormed back to the pickup and got in. Banged his head against the steering wheel several times, putting swear words together in such a mixed-up order they made no sense.
Reagan panicked. “What’s wrong? Is she dying? Oh, no, she’s not dead already. Oh, God.”
“No,” Noah looked up at her. “She’s fine. So is the fire chief. But me, I’m double scarred for life. First I see my parents in bed and now I walk in on my sister and Hank Matheson. I’ll probably be in therapy for years.” He hit his head one more time for good measure. “I swear, I’m living in a porno movie.”
Reagan laughed. “Did you give them the food?”
“Yeah, but they didn’t look too interested. Both of them yelled at me, then forgot I was there by the time I reached the door. My sister makes those funny little sounds my mother does, and that is way more information than I need to know.”
He started the truck and backed out to the road.
Reagan talked about everything she could think of except Alex and Hank, but Noah remained silent until he reached the parking lot. When she climbed out, he stayed in the pickup. “Tell everyone I’m too tired or that my side is hurting. I’m heading home.”
Reagan thought he looked pitiful, but she couldn’t tell if he was sick, tired, or hurt from banging his head. “Preacher, I won’t tell anyone.”
“I know, Rea. You’re the one person I know that I can trust with just about any secret that comes along.”
He drove off before she could respond. She felt sorry for him. They were within six months of the same age, but sometimes she swore she was a hundred years older than him. Reagan had a feeling she always would be.
That night after supper, she did her homework, then tried to call Noah on her cell. There was no answer. She thought of calling Alex and telling her to check up on him—after all, she was his sister—but Reagan figured Noah would get mad if she did anything like that. He’d probably gone home and gone to bed in a quiet house.
Uncle Jeremiah came in from working on the tractor they’d used to plow up his grassland before the fires. He claimed Noah must have poured dirt into the engine.
He stopped in the kitchen for a drink of water and watched as she picked up her books. “You ever consider all McAllens could be nuts?”
Reagan was tired of him complaining to her about Noah. “Nope. It never crossed my mind.” She thought of adding that she knew so few men who seemed sane that it was hard to gauge normal.
“Well, you should think about it some, since you got one hanging around here all the time.”
Reagan was tired. She’d spent all morning worrying about Noah not speaking to her and all afternoon thinking about how he trusted her with his secrets. Worrying about him could turn into a full-time job if she didn’t watch it. “All right, Uncle, I’ll consider whether all McAllens are nuts tomorrow.”
He frowned. “Might want to do it sooner than that. There’s one tied up out in the drive.”
“What?” The old man was making no sense.
“When I came in from the shed, he was sitting in the bed of his pickup. He asked me to tie him up tight, and since I owed him a favor, I did.”
“Thanks,” she said as her uncle poured out the rest of his water and put the glass back in the cabinet, a practice Reagan hated. “I’ll go see what he wants.”
She walked out the back door. It took a minute for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, and then she moved to Noah’s truck and leaned over to look in the bed. “You want to tell me what you think you’re doing?”
He tugged on the ropes. “The old man did a great job of tying me up.”
“Preacher, tell me.”
He stared up at the full moon and said, “I think I got us figured out.”
“There is no us.”
“I know, and I think I know why. You keep thinking I’m going to turn into a werewolf or something and attack you. Every time I get within a foot of you, you jump. Well, I’m tied up, I can’t hurt you, and I’m staying here all night to prove I won’t change.”
“Look”—Reagan climbed up and sat on the side—“maybe I just don’t like being touched. Not by anyone.”
“You didn’t seem to mind it after the fire when Alex hugged you, and Jeremiah, and even Hank. It was only when I tried that you stepped away. Rea, do you have any idea how that makes me feel?”
“Why don’t you go hug on one of the cheerleaders? They’re all rounded and soft and I don’t think they’d mind a bit.”
Noah pulled against his ropes. “I don’t want to go hug on anyone, Rea. I just don’t want you to be afraid of me. What do I have to do to convince you that I’m never going to hurt you?”
She smiled. “You know, Preacher, I think you’re doing it right now. You mind if I hang around and make sure no werewolf shows up?”
He didn’t move. She slipped into the bed of the truck and stretched out a few inches from him. Not touching, but closer than she usually got to him.
“This blanket smells like a horse,” she complained.
“That’s who I borrowed it from. Put your head on my shoulder and I’ll be your pillow.”
She hesitated, than rolled closer and lowered her head against his shoulder. “Doesn’t smell much better,” she whispered.
He ignored her comment.
They lay watching the stars for a while before he whispered, “Any chance you’d kiss me?”
“No,” she answered. “But, I might snuggle a little. It’s getting cold and I guess if you’re tied, you’ll be safe enough.”
“I hadn’t noticed the cold,” he answered as she moved against him. After a while, he added, “You know, Rea, we’re almost hugging.”
She didn’t answer.
“Rea?” He pushed at her head with his jaw.
She shifted, moving closer and turning her face up.
“Rea? Are you asleep?”
When she didn’t move, he leaned over and kissed her lightly on the mouth. Then he tugged one hand free of the rope and pulled his jacket over them both.
He put his hand back inside the loop and turned his face toward hers. “You know, I lied, I do want something. I want you next to me.” He kissed the top of her head. “I wish I could tell you how much I love your hair. I think it’s really something.”
She didn’t move as she felt his breathing slow, and then she spread her hand out lightly over his chest and felt his heart. He was proving he could be trusted, and in a few years she’d
tell him how much that meant to her.
Chapter 53
RAIN
REAGAN WAS ALMOST ASLEEP WHEN A PLOP OF WATER HIT her arm. Then another and another. All falling from hundreds of feet to land and splattering into tiny beads.
At first, she tried to ignore the drops, but Noah jerked awake beside her.
“Untie me, Rea, it’s raining.” He kicked at his bindings.
She laughed and shouted above the thunder. “What do you care if you get wet? You won’t shrink.”
“I might. Haven’t seen rain in so long, I don’t know what will happen.” He lay flat as she untied his arms. “We might both shrink. I’d end up your size and you’d be about leprechaun height.”
Scrambling, she pulled the ropes free, and they jumped from the truck, laughing. The downpour hit just as they reached the house. Sheets of rain blocked out everything beyond the porch.
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and they watched the heavens open as they breathed in the fresh smell of a spring rain.
When it slowed, he tugged her a bit closer and lowered until their noses almost touched. “You okay with this?”
She was shaking, but she nodded and he closed the distance between them with a light kiss. He let her go and stared down at her. “Still okay?”
“Yes.” His kiss hadn’t brought back the nightmares she thought it would.
“Friends?”
“Friends,” she answered.
He jumped off the porch and ran for his truck. “See you tomorrow, Truman.”
“See you tomorrow, McAllen.”
A FEW MILES DOWN THE ROAD, HANK LIFTED ALEX FROM the bed and walked out of the cabin and into the rain.
She came awake squealing, then laughing when she realized they were standing nude in a downpour.
“Want to dance?” he asked.
“In the rain?” She laughed.
“No, not just the rain, forever.” He offered his hand as if they were on the dance floor at Buffalo’s.
