One Hot Summer

by Melissa Cutler

  “Aw, let her do it,” Micah’s father said. “What’s the harm?”

  “The harm?” Micah spluttered. “Dad, are you kidding me?”

  Xavier handed his son to Micah’s dad. “I’ll take a helmet, too. Count me in on the race.”

  Alex stood by Micah. “Honey, you can’t be serious.”

  “I’m dead serious,” Xavier said.

  “Okay, well, you’re about to be just dead. Period,” Alex said. “Who’s going to watch the kids if you break both your arms?”

  “That’s all I am now? The child-care provider?”

  Even Remedy cringed at that assessment.

  “Xavier…,” Alex said before giving Micah a pointed look. “Tell him to stop being snippy and melodramatic.”

  “Only if you’ll tell Remedy she’s gonna get herself killed if she pulls this stunt.”

  “Look at those two sticks-in-the-mud,” Xavier said to Remedy, gesturing to Alex and Micah. “At least I finally figured out how to help you two bond. You’re both think you’re the boss of me. I’ll tell you what, while I’m kicking Junior’s ass in a Barbie Jeep you two can commiserate about how impossible I am.”

  Micah pulled Remedy aside. With Ivy tugging on his ear, he bent close to Remedy. “You don’t have anything to prove to my family. Or to your family, either. Or to yourself, for that matter. I love you just the way you are, California princess and all that other stuff.”

  She gave him a tender kiss. How could she tell him how much his love meant to her but how desperately she needed to let loose tonight and get a little crazy? “Life’s too short to play by the rules.”

  “A trust fund safety net won’t save you from a concussion or broken arm.”

  That was over the line. “You keep bringing up my trust fund like it means something significant. I confided that to you, so you’re not allowed to throw it back in my face. And you’re not allowed to try to save me, either, Mister Hero. But you can cheer me on.”

  “I’ll do you one better. I’ll take you to the hospital after you crash and hurt yourself, and then I’ll try to keep my I told you so’s to a minimum.”

  “You’re such a good boyfriend.”

  She leaned in for another kiss. Giggling sweetly, Ivy slapped Remedy’s cheek, then latched on to her hoop earring. After she extricated her earring from Ivy’s shockingly strong grip, she joined Junior, Xavier, and Micah’s brother-in-law Davey in the garage.

  Up close, she got a great view of a line of Barbie dolls mounted on the backs of the Jeeps, frozen in obscene positions, legs spread, some of them fondling each other or locked in embrace. “Nice touch.”

  “I thought so. The wife’s not impressed though.”

  Actually, Junior’s wife, Connie, seemed to be a very tolerant woman, all things considered. The X-rated Barbies must have been the last straw for her.

  Being a gentleman, as Junior pointed out that he was, he let Remedy pick her vehicle first. She chose the classic Barbie Jeep with a Barbie-on-Barbie-on-Ken three-way happening on the hood.

  She putted to the start of the trail. At Bubba’s wave of a flag, they were off. The drive was bumpier than Remedy expected. She had to grit her teeth to keep from biting her tongue accidentally, which was inconvenient, because she couldn’t stop laughing. Steering in the Jeep was nigh impossible, too. The darned thing just seemed to go where it wanted to.

  After the first turn, one in which Remedy turned too wide and scraped up a bunch of bushes, Xavier, his lanky body wedged in a purple glitter Cadillac Escalade, pulled alongside her. He gave her a thumbs-up, but when she tried to return the gesture she lost control of her Jeep. Xavier swerved in her direction and reached for her, trying to help her regain her balance.

  Unfortunately, that sent his SUV careening off the path. She thought she saw him launch out of the Escalade with a yelp, but she was already too far down the trail to look back. In no time, she was neck and neck with Junior for the lead. She pressed the gas pedal. The engine lurched faster, revving menacingly as it thumped and bumped over rocks and around corners. She knew the finish line was in sight because Connie was there, waving a maroon-colored A&M flag. Remedy gunned the Jeep again. She thought she might win when Junior swerved into her, bumping her not to help, as Xavier had, but to try to knock her off course.

  Remedy fought back. She cranked the wheel and knocked her Jeep’s bumper into Junior’s Jeep’s door. His Jeep tipped onto two wheels, but hey, those were the breaks. There could be only one victor and she was determined to take that crown. She cranked the wheel again and slammed into Junior’s vehicle as the trail narrowed and grew steeper.

  The whole front axis of Junior’s Jeep popped off. In seemingly slow motion, the Jeep nose-planted into the dirt. Junior went toppling over the hood of Remedy’s Jeep, taking it out with him. Remedy tumbled onto the dusty trail and knocked her helmet against a bush.

  When she looked up, she discovered she was less than two feet from the finish line, a chalk line drawn into the dirt. Remedy stretched her foot over the line without moving the rest of her body an inch.

  Micah’s whole family erupted in cheers. Remedy raised her hands in a victory salute. Micah’s shadow fell over her. “You okay?”

  “I think so. I won!”

  “I saw that. Nice work. Terrifying in a lot ways, but impressive nonetheless.”

  A bloodcurdling scream rang out behind her. Remedy sat up and turned around. Junior was lying in the trail, Remedy’s Jeep on top of him. His father tried to pull the Jeep off, but Junior’s wails only grew louder. “Get it off me!” he yelped.

  Micah scrambled to help his dad and the two of them pulled the Jeep off Junior’s legs.

  The sight of blood spreading over Junior’s shorts sent nauseating tingles over Remedy’s skin. One of the X-rated Barbie dolls was sticking out of his thigh. She was standing perfectly upright, all perky smiles and bouncy hair, except that one of her legs had disappeared into Junior’s shorts and was surrounded by an expanding circle of red. From the looks of it, he’d been impaled by Barbie’s leg up almost up to her knee.

  “Oh my God, Junior, I’m so sorry,” Remedy said, crawling over to where Junior lay. “Quick, Micah. We need to get him to a hospital.”

  Xavier fell to his knees next to Remedy as the spectators sprung into action, with Micah leading the charge. After a quick visual inspection of the wound, Micah whipped off his T-shirt and folded it into a compress as Xavier wrapped a hand around Barbie.

  “On the count of three, I’ll pull it out,” Xavier said.

  Junior squeezed his eyes closed. “Aw, shit,” he said with a groan. “Just do it.”

  Already nauseated enough at the gruesome scene, Remedy averted her eyes.

  To his credit, Junior made no other sounds but a solitary grunt followed by some quiet cussing as Micah declared the wound small enough not to need stitches. Abandoning the Barbie Jeeps on the trail, the whole party crowd moved as a unit toward the house, assisting Junior and recounting the details of his injury in hushed voices.

  A half hour later, with guilt still gnawing at her, Remedy delivered a cold beer to Junior, who looked no worse for wear, with his thigh neatly bandaged by Micah.

  “I’m really sorry, Junior,” she said. “I know I already told you that, but I should’ve known not to race those Jeeps with you. I’m a klutz and a menace. I don’t mean to be, but I can’t seem to stop myself. I hate that you got hurt.”

  Remedy looked at Micah. “Go ahead with your I told you so’s. I deserve it. I’m a danger magnet.”

  He looked from his older brother back to Remedy; then a grin broke out on his face, followed by his first snort of laughter. Micah’s dad was the next to burst out laughing, followed by Junior’s wife. Pretty soon, the whole party of people were doubled over with glee, save for Remedy and Junior.

  Micah’s dad staggered over to Remedy and enveloped her in a bear hug. “You’re one of us now, honey. Welcome to the family.”

  It struck her in that momen
t how badly she wanted to be a part of Micah’s gregarious, hard-loving family. She wanted to be a part of Dulcet, Texas, in all its contradictions and crazy, disparate parts.

  Micah’s dad slapped Micah’s back. “Son, you’d better get a ring on this girl before she comes to her senses.”

  Her parents chose that moment to text her. She shuffled down the rest of the trail past the finish line and fished her cell phone from her back pocket. The message was from her mom.

  Remedy, we’re so sorry about what happened. We only want you to be happy. You’ll be coming home to Los Angeles soon. I can feel it.

  For too long, Remedy had been conditioned to believe that she could only belong in the narrow bubble of her parents’ world. Why did they insist that she choose them over everything else? Why did it have to be one lifestyle or the other? As Remedy looked over her shoulder at Micah, surrounded by his family, it became clear for the first time where her heart belonged—and where she belonged, once and for all time.

  Chapter Twenty

  THREE WEEKS LATER …

  After a long night of multiple emergency calls followed by a morning of putting his team through their regular drills, Micah had stolen away to his house in the early afternoon for a cool shower and a hot cup of black coffee in an effort to perk up his energy levels. Maybe it was a by-product of nearing forty or maybe he could thank his late-night lovin’ with Remedy, but the idea of crashing for a quick nap was starting to appeal to him, though it never had before. The only thing stopping him from indulging in one was Xavier’s teasing remark about him having the soul of a sixty-year-old.

  The shower helped, and the coffee even more so, but he was still a bit bleary-eyed when he opened his front door for the short walk to work.

  He startled at the sight of a young woman approaching his front porch, a plain paper bag in her hand. “Emily Ford? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  Eyes wide, she raised her hands in surrender, the paper bag dangling from her right hand. “Hey, this isn’t what you think.”

  Micah took the bag from her. “What I think is that I’ve discovered the identity of my secret admirer.” As absolutely unbelievable as that might be. Emily? Really? Because there was no way the two of them were in any way a match. Not to mention that she was Remedy’s coworker, so she knew the two of them were a couple.

  She had the audacity to scoff. “Secret admirer? You wish.”

  “I figured it was Mrs. Mayfield because I saved her cat from a tree last year.” Plus she lived behind him, so it’d be easy for her to sneak over with the baked goods without anyone noticing.

  “Cats really can get stuck in trees, like, for real? I thought that was a myth.”

  He didn’t know what else to do but shrug. Yeah, it was a myth, except for the occasional overly concerned cat owner who doubted their kitty’s climbing or jumping skills. With Mrs. Mayfield, he was pretty sure she’d called the fire department because she’d been lonely since Mr. Mayfield passed.

  “Honest to God, Micah, I’m not some moony, love-struck admirer.”

  “You say that, but tell me this.…” He shook the bag. “Am I going to find in this bag the same cinnamon rolls you make at the resort? Or is it muffins this time?”

  Her mouth screwed up like she’d sucked on a lemon. “Blueberry muffins.”

  Score. Those were his favorite, by far. Even better than cinnamon rolls. It made sense that they were so delicious, seeing as how the best chef in the county had baked them. Baked them with love, apparently. “Am I that obtuse? Because I never once noticed any flirting or signals from you that indicated that I was … that you were … I’m with Remedy, you know, and—”

  “Garrity, stop. Oh my God. I will never understand the male ego. I’m not into you. At all.”

  “Your muffins say different.” Dang, that sounded dumb. And vaguely sexual. “That came out wrong.”

  “Will you listen, please?”

  Clearly, that was the better plan. He clamped his lips shut with a nod.

  She rolled her shoulders, growing taller. “I’m only doing this because I’m helping a friend. A superstitious friend. Who may or may not have a tiny little crush on you. But that’s beside the point.”

  There was only one resident in Dulcet synonymous with the word superstitious. And she was old as Moses and an even worse golf cart driver than Remedy. And, yes, the odds were good that she had a tiny little crush on him. But even with that hunch, Micah wasn’t connecting the dots. “I don’t get it. How does sneakin’ me baked goods help this superstitious friend of yours?”

  “She first asked me to send some cinnamon rolls your way earlier this year because she thought you were cranky—”

  “I’m never cranky.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Fine. She thought maybe the stick you’ve got stuck up your ass during the fire marshal inspections was because you didn’t have a good woman cooking for you. Her words, not mine. She wanted to butter you up before you had to make some key decisions about an event that was coming up on the resort.” She cringed. “And I think I just gave too much away.”

  “You can cut the crap. We both know who we’re talking about. And I’m guessing the event in question was the rodeo for the grand opening of Briscoe Ranch’s new equestrian complex this past April, complete with a fireworks spectacular and an old-fashioned hoedown.”

  “Exactly.”

  “I approved all the elements of that rodeo, yet you’re still being enlisted to bring me sweets all these months later?”

  “You’ve been in a better mood and you’ve been giving your stamp of approval to just about every event at the ranch. She didn’t want to jinx it by stopping.”

  “You can tell her that she won’t jinx it if she stops, because I have a good woman in my life now, like she wanted for me all these years.” And didn’t that feel damn good to say?

  Emily leveled a pointed glare at Micah. “Don’t ever let Remedy near a kitchen appliance. That woman is a walking disaster.”

  “Noted. But that still doesn’t explain why you’ve been going along with Granny’s—I mean, this woman’s—superstitious notions all these months, taking time out of your hellish workday and all.”

  Emily threw her hands up. “I know. It’s crazy. But she was the one who convinced that asshole, sexist son of hers to hire me even though he was of the mind that”—she affected a heavy twang—“everybody knows girls can’t cut it as professional chefs. It’s just the laws of nature.” She shrugged. “I owe her, plain and simple.”

  There was no arguing with that. “For the record, I would have accepted ‘because she’s Granny June’ as a perfectly acceptable explanation for anything she asks you to do.”

  “Noted. Enjoy the muffins.”

  “I always do.”

  After Emily had gone, he looked at his watch. Perhaps a well-timed visit to the resort was in order that evening. Right as the sunset and a certain superstitious friend was taking her evening cocktail on the chapel bench. And while he was there, he’d find Remedy and make things right with her. It was time to get some more love advice … and maybe some ring advice while he was at it.

  Sure enough, he found Granny June exactly where he expected to see her.

  “I had a visitor at my house today,” Micah said after sprawling on the bench next to her.

  “Was it Remedy’s pigeons? I swear they’re getting more and more domesticated now that they’re wild. It’s the darnedest thing.”

  “They’ve been around a lot, too, especially when Remedy is visiting me, but I was referring to Emily Ford. She brought me two blueberry lemon muffins.”

  Granny avoided his gaze. “That was right nice of her.”

  “I thought I’d finally discovered the identity of my secret pastry supplier, but it turns out Emily was just the delivery person.”

  “She sounds like a blabbermouth, too,” Granny grouched.

  Micah bit back a smile. He lifted Granny’s delicate, chilly hand and cradled it in his. “Thank
you for taking such good care of me.”

  She patted his hands with her free one. “Somebody had to. You got crankier and crankier about the rules until you and Ty were going at it like two dogs chained in a yard. And so I said, ‘June, you know just how to fix this.’ And so I did.”

  Micah beamed at her. “So you did.”

  “I’m going to keep sending sweets your way, give you something to feed that woman of yours. She’s a keeper. I knew that you two were meant to be the first time I laid eyes on the two of you together.”

  “On a subconscious level, I think I knew it then, too.” All he had to do now was figure out how to convince Remedy that she belonged by his side, forever.

  “You want me to stop bringing over sweets so Remedy can be the only woman taking care of you?”

  “Actually, if you’re up for it, then I’d love you to keep on with it. Remedy likes the cinnamon rolls for breakfast when she sleeps over. I think she gets a kick out of eating food left for me by an admirer.”

  Granny June gave a hoot of laughter. “What woman wouldn’t?”

  “Your identity can stay our little secret.”

  “I do love a nice, juicy secret.”

  He bent over and planted a kiss on her cheek. She held him in place, patting his cheek.

  “Micah, before you take off tonight, I have something I’ve been meaning to tell you, that I’ve been thinking a lot about since the ballroom caught fire. I don’t know how much longer I’ve got in this world before I go to be with my Tyson, so I’ve got to talk to you before it’s too late.”

  Whatever it was, he sensed distress in her tone and in the agitated trembling of her fingers. Micah stroked her hand with his thumb and waited patiently for her to collect her thoughts and continue.

  “The fire happened on my watch, when I was still running the resort alongside my son. I’ve played that day over and over in my mind and there’s no getting around what happened, but I finally had to make my peace with the truth that there wasn’t anything I would have done differently that day or with that wedding.

  “If we hadn’t provided the wedding guests with sparklers, who’s to say those two young men wouldn’t have started that fire with a cigarette or a lighter from the joints they were smoking? Only the Lord knows the reason that fire had to happen, but I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry. Even though our lawyers strongly advised us not to apologize, I want you to know that I’m sorry for the role our resort played in the fire and that your family and so many others were devastated like they were. It is a guilt that will go with me to my grave.”