“I’m coming out now.”
Out in the dark of the highway, lights flash and flare, a siren cutting through the night. The fire is so loud. It’s a toothed maw, chewing its way through the wood of my farmhouse. If the house could come down, so could the porch.
The porch roof seems unsteady under Austin’s feet. “Okay,” he says. “We’ve got to climb down. This side.”
He points to the left and I jerk to the right. “Why not the other side?”
“My god, Brooke, you’re going to argue with me when your house is burning down?”
“Why that side?” My teeth knock against one another. Sweat beads on my temples and rolls down, but I’m shivering like it’s the middle of a Montana winter. “Why not the other side?”
Austin sighs. He’s still going to sigh at me when my house is burning down. “There are bushes. It’s a ten, twelve foot drop. I thought you’d want me to land somewhere soft.”
“We’ll both have to land, in case you forgot.”
“You are unbelievable.” He scoops me up in his arms and takes two steps toward the left side of the porch.
“Wait, wait. I can jump.”
“You’re shaking like a damn leaf. I’m not throwing you off the roof and hoping for a safe landing.”
“Why do you care what happens to me? You hate me.” I’m shivering so hard that the truth can’t help but come out. We’ve crossed some invisible line and I suck in my first breath of fresh air since I woke up. It’s so violently pure that it hurts my lungs. Pure, and laced with the scent of Austin’s skin.
Austin locks eyes with me, and my heart stutters, stops, starts again. “You think I’d watch you burn alive just ‘cause you can’t stand me?” He shakes his head. “God, Brooke. What kind of man do you think I am?”
The worst, I try to say, but Austin chooses that moment to bend his knees and jump. For a breathless moment we’re falling. I squeeze my eyes shut, and then—impact. He rocks back, taking a second to steady himself, arms pulling me in tight to his chest. I can feel his heartbeat through his shirt. My entire soul bends toward him. I want to press my cheek against the flannel and let him hold me like this forever.
No, oh my god, no. No, I don’t. Fight it, fight it, whatever this is, fight it. “Let me down.” The resulting hacking cough is the least sexy I have ever sounded. “Let me down, Austin.”
“Fine.” But he doesn’t let me down right away. He steps out from the bushes and goes to the patch of grass in the center of our turnaround drive. “Here.”
The fire truck comes barreling up the driveway, kicking up loose rocks. They park on the side of the loop and the firemen from the Paulson Fire Department leap out. Chris Easton, who graduated in Austin’s class, sprints over at a surprisingly high speed for a man decked out in firefighting gear.
“Anyone inside the house, ma’am?”
I open my mouth to answer and a jagged laugh comes out instead. My lungs still feel like they’re on fire, and a strange pain arcs through my chest. Nobody else is home. My sister doesn’t live here anymore. And I’m fine with it. I’m really fine with it. This is serious. I need to get it together. I try again and let out a wheezing cough. “No. Nobody’s inside. Just me.”
Chris reaches out and puts a hand on my arm. “You all right? The ambulance is right behind us.”
“Oh, no, no, no ambulance.” The hacking is really selling this. “I’m fine.”
“She’ll be in the ambulance,” says Austin.
Chris looks from him to me. “Did you go in there and get her out?”
Austin crosses his arms over his chest. “I was closer.”
The cool of the night wafts over my exposed ass and I sneak one hand down to tug at the hem of my shirt. It does nothing. Still, I’m not nearly as exposed as Austin was yesterday at the river. With his massive—
Stop. Stop.
Chris looks like he might scold Austin, but instead he takes his hand from my arm and gives him a hearty pat on the shoulder. “Don’t go into burning houses, Bliss. And go on down to the hospital with her. Make sure you’re both okay.”
“Will do, captain.”
The ambulance trundles over the drive, the doors opening crisply in the night. The paramedics come and wrap me in a blanket. The sound of their voices blends with the breeze. I can’t take my eyes off the house. The roof buckles under the weight of the water from the firetruck, smoke billowing high into the sky, along with everything from my past. And maybe my future, too.
Chapter Seven
Austin
Morning light streams down from a big blue sky, flooding my window. It’s late. Later than I usually get up. My muscles ache like I did something stupid last night. Yeah, it was stupid to run across our property line and run up the stairs of a house that was already ablaze. The back of my neck pricks with sweat at the thought of those flames licking at my heels.
I put my legs over the side of the bed and rub my hands over my face. Saving Brooke Carson wasn’t on my agenda when I went to bed. I can’t stand Brooke. There was a decent possibility she’d refuse to be saved by yours truly.
But that’s no reason to let a person be burned alive. And I didn’t let it happen. My dad would be proud.
A light knock sounds at the door to my bedroom. “You doing okay, you big hero?” Luke stands at the door wearing a crooked grin, breathing hard. “I did all your chores for you this morning out of the goodness of my heart.”
“The goodness of your heart, huh?”
“Yeah. And you were sleeping like the dead. What happened last night? You didn’t say much when you got home.”
When they released me from the hospital, it was the wee hours of the morning and Brooke was gone. Hard to say where she went. Judging by her cough, they might’ve admitted her. Or else someone gave her a ride home. Either way, the bed in the next room at the emergency department was empty, the sheets pulled up tight. I steal a glance out my bedroom window. Doesn’t look like she’s come back to the ranch, but then...where would she go. “What do you mean, what happened? The Carson’s place burned down.”
“And you hauled Brooke out of there?”
For a moment I feel the weight of her body in my arms and the way she gripped my shirt in her hands, so tight it still had a wrinkle when I got back home. “I did.”
Luke leans against the doorframe. “What made you go over there?”
“I don’t know.” For the life of me, I can’t say what woke me up in the middle of the night, or what made me look toward her house from my bedroom window. “The whole back of the house was on fire when I saw it. All I had time to do was call 9-1-1 and go over there.”
“I’m surprised she wasn’t already outside. Doesn’t seem like the type to hang out in a burning building.”
Brooke isn’t the type to stand around while fire eats her from the outside in. A cold shiver, like a fever taking root, stirs at the base of my spine. She had looked so lost in that room while the smoke poured in and swallowed her up. Big brown eyes caught in a deadly indecision. If I hadn’t shown up...
“Must’ve been sleeping hard.” I go to the closet and pull out a fresh shirt. I don’t know how to describe the way she looked to Luke, and I don’t want to. “It wasn’t right to sit here and watch it happen.”
“Well, no shit. Why didn’t you wake me up on the way out?”
I shoot him a look. “Like I’d let you run into a burning building.”
“Oh, but you have express permission?” Luke’s blue eyes dance. “You’re not the only one who wants to be a hero.”
“You’ll have plenty of chances. And nobody thinks I’m a hero, except for you.”
“Are you kidding? Mayor Wendell’s gonna hang a medal the size of Montana around your neck at the next available opportunity. News is all over town by now.”
I grab a fresh towel from the laundry basket perched on the chair at the far wall. I’d ask Luke how the whole town knows, but that’s pointless—they know everything. That’s wha
t it’s like, living in Paulson. All it takes is one nosy person in the emergency room waiting room and the entire state knows your business. “No, he won’t, ‘cause I’m not taking a medal.”
“You don’t think our ranch is going to win the competition?”
“You get a billboard for that, not a medal.” I push past Luke on the way to the bathroom. “I gotta get going.”
“Next door?”
I stop in the middle of the hallway. “What do you mean, next door?”
“Are you going to check up on Brooke, or should I?” Suddenly, he’s very interested in the topography of his fingernails. They had a brief fling once. It didn’t last. They say opposites attract, but in Luke and Everly’s case they smash together like a firework and fizzle out at the first sign of a flame. “It’s the neighborly thing to do.”
“I don’t think she’s there. There’s no house to come home to.” My heart does a weird, slow turn, squeezing itself into a too-small space. “She probably won’t be back today.”
Luke nods. “No, probably not. But when she is, she’ll probably be real glad to see you.” He waggles his eyebrows. “Real glad. You saved her life, after all.”
“Oh, please. If I see her over there, I’ll check up on her. Is that what you want me to say?”
“Is that what you want to do?” He’s giving me a sly look and I don’t get it. Is he encouraging me to date his ex? Is that what he wants? If so, why? Nothing good ever comes of dating a Carson woman. He should know that better than anyone. “Or are you just scared of her?”
“Scared?” Luke scoffs. “I’m not scared of her. She doesn’t like me, that’s for certain. Besides, I did have plans later on this afternoon, if you...if you didn’t need anything.”
“I’ll be all right.” First things first, shower. Then I need to go down to city hall. “You did all my chores for me, so I guess it’s fine if you go see Julie May.”
My brother’s face flushes a deep red and he tries to hide it by rubbing the pad of his thumb over his forehead. “Nobody said I was going to see Julie May.”
“There’s no shame in letting her read to you.”
“Read to me?” He wrinkles his nose. “Why would she read to me?”
“Secret afternoons at the library?” I arch an eyebrow at him. “Just assumed she was having a little storytime.”
Luke clumps down the hall with as much dignity as he can. “You’re an ass, Austin.
I watch him disappear down the stairs. I might be an ass, but he’s a man in love. Can’t even deny it.
* * *
The last person I expect to see at City Hall just before the lunch hour break is holding on to the counter in the lobby with the same tight grip she had on my shirt last night. Just as well. I want her to hear that I’m committed to participating in this thing with integrity. I’m here to set the record straight. No matter what she heard in the crowd yesterday, I’m sure as hell not cheating.
Brooke leans over the marble countertop, her voice rising into the vaulted ceiling even though she’s trying her best to keep it down. I can tell by the red flush of her cheeks and the strained tone in her voice, and I have the strangest urge to rub the small of her back. That would be about as smart as dunking a kitten in the bath. She’d hiss and spit and claw, and I’d come away bloodied.
“Mrs. Howard, I know I said I wasn’t going to compete, but I—I wasn’t in a good state of mind.” Brooke flashes Mrs. Howard a big grin that looks like it hurts. Her hair is swept up on top of her head in a bun, and she’s wearing—by god—she’s wearing a pair of hospital scrubs. Did she come straight here? Why wouldn’t she stop at home first? “Let me back in.”
The rubble of her house flashes back into my mind. Because there is no house. Clearly, she’s borrowed a t-shirt and scrubs from the hospital, and that’s all she’s got.
Mrs. Howard gives her a damp-eyed look. “Brooke, honey, you know I’d let you compete in a heartbeat, but—” She lowers her voice. It has no effect. “What are you going to compete with? I heard everything at Sweetwater is—is gone.”
“It’s not gone. I still have a barn, and some of my fall harvest left. And some livestock.”
“Mr. Howard said he heard from Al down at the gas station that you sold your cattle.”
“I have a few cattle left,” Brooke insists. “Just let me sign up again. It won’t be that hard. I’ll even fill out the form. I’ve got my signing hand all ready.” She waves her fingers in front of Mrs. Howard. “See? All ready to go.”
“There was just the one registration,” Mrs. Howard says gently. “The sponsor—”
“Who is it?” Brooke’s voice is rising, more desperate than I’d care to witness. “Who is it, because I’ll go talk to them myself.”
“The sponsor wanted a limited entry period, so that we could get the most dedicated—”
“I am super dedicated.” Brooke’s almost-shout blasts through all of City Hall, turning heads. Lots of people are on their way out for their lunch break, shoes loud on the marble floor. She freezes. “I’m very dedicated to this. It’s true that I’ve had a rough time since Everly moved out, but—”
Now I do feel like an ass, hovering over by the little seating area near the counter. I didn’t know Sweetwater was in any kind of dire straits. I half-assumed that Everly would come back and forth to help Brooke run things, now that her dad’s gone, but that’s obviously not the case.
“I can’t let anyone else sign up.” Mrs. Howard looks like she genuinely regrets this. “But...hmm. Maybe...”
The librarian’s head swivels, like she’s searching the space for a solution. Her eyes remind me of a lighthouse, casting feelers into the dark. Oh, shit. I’m in the dark. I try to duck down behind one of the sofas.
“Mr. Bliss,” she says, voice lifting in a way that plucks the string called honor at the center of my core. “Maybe you and Mr. Bliss could partner together. Split the winnings, as it were. There is a nominal cash prize.”
Brooke drops her head back and gazes toward heaven. “A cash prize? Peter didn’t say anything about that.”
“Oh...” Mrs. Howard flutters a hand by her mouth. “Don’t tell anyone. It was supposed to be a surprise.”
My mind clicks and whirrs like something out of the science fiction novels I like to read when I can’t sleep. Pairing up with Brooke would be a terrible idea. She’d never agree to it, and even if she did, how would we get along? Like a struck match to dynamite, that’s how. But if somehow we could get along, if somehow we could work together.... Click, click, click. Boom. If we could work together, then nobody would think I was cheating. She’s the one who latched onto that in the first place. She’s the one who misunderstood Hal.
Brooke lets go of the counter and drops her hands to her sides. “Well, thanks, Mrs. Howard. There’s no way that’ll ever happen, so—”
“Wait.” Now my voice is the one to bounce back at me from the high ceiling. Brooke whips her head toward me, eyes twin flashes of lightning, and I almost back out. Don’t do this, whispers the sensible part of me. I slap it back down. “You could join us at Bliss Ranch. We could both have half the billboard if we won.”
She glares at me. “What’s your motive? Are you trying to be the hero again? Didn’t get enough of that Good Samaritan high last night?”
My god, she is something else. “Come here.” Brooke dismisses this with a quick shake of her head. I can feel Mrs. Howard’s eyes on us. I can feel the town’s eyes on us. So I step up close and bend to speak into her ear. “If we work together, you can see for yourself that I’m not cheating. And I know you need the winnings. Your house burned down.”
“Why don’t you remind me again,” she says, a sharp edge to her voice. Tension radiates off her like a fireplace kicking out heat. “But...” She draws her bottom lip between her teeth and a charge shoots down between my legs. “You have a point.”
“I think what you mean to say is, thanks for saving my life, Austin. Yes, I would love to partn
er up with you. You’re my only chance. And you look mighty fine naked.”
Why am I doing this to myself?
“Thanks for saving my life,” she says grudgingly, face redder than the sunset, and then a big breath goes out of her. “I...mean that.”
“You sound like it.” I put a hand on her shoulder and am shocked when I don’t burst into flame. “You doing okay?”
She shrugs me off. “I’d be better if I were back in the contest. I need this now.” Brooke works her jaw. “Are you actually offering to let me work with you, or—”
“What the hell else would I be doing? I dragged you out of a burning house last night.”
“Yeah, and you’ve done other things before.” Her eyes slide away from mine. Other things before. I haven’t thought about it in years, but there it is, at the edges of my memory—Brooke, tears in her eyes, stomping away down the Main Street in Paulson. What was it about? A job? I don’t dare ask her now. “So are you asking or not?”
“It’s the only way to prove I don’t have this rigged.”
“And it’s the only way to rebuild my ranch.” Somehow I get the sense she’s not just talking about the burned-down remains of her house.
It feels like a standoff at high noon, but finally the tension builds until it’s ready to crack between us.
I stick out my hand for her to shake.
Brooke pauses for way longer than necessary.
Then she takes my hand.
“We’ll work together, Mrs. Howard,” I say, dread and anticipation and something like hope taking up all the space in my lungs. “Put her name on my application.”
Chapter Eight
Brooke
Lying in hay is not nearly as comfortable as people make it out to be.
When Everly and I were kids, we went through a Little House on the Prairie phase. They talked about straw-tick mattresses all the time in those books. Nobody had a problem with it back then. I guess my sheet pressed over a bunch of hay in roughly the shape of a mattress isn’t the same thing.
Never the Cowboy’s Bride Page 4
