Burned by Lovel (Firefighters 0f Long Valley Book 4)

by Erin Wright

  After his cousin pulled the coveralls on, Troy led the way through the mill and towards a back storage area where a stockpile of wheat had gone rotten when the roof sprung a leak that no one noticed for two weeks. The smell of fermenting wheat was enough to knock a grown man on his ass. Troy had been avoiding the task of cleaning it out because it was one of the worst jobs in the mill, and honestly, not even a masochist would enjoy the task. Which was why he didn’t just assign someone else to the job – if Troy wasn’t willing to do it, he couldn’t ask someone else to.

  Unless they were asking to do it, in which case of course Troy would agree. Who was he to tell his cousin no?

  Yup, this would cure Bryce of whatever insanity had grabbed a hold of him right quick like. An hour of shoveling putrid, rotting wheat, and Bryce would be begging for a ride back to his parents’ house.

  Chapter 22

  Penny

  Penny skimmed down the list of help wanted postings, looking for that magical unicorn where the employer wanted someone with little advertising experience, lots of unhoned potential, and were located in a big city with decent-enough pay that Penny could actually afford to eat on a semi-regular basis.

  Definitely a magical unicorn. Maybe even a technicolor, time-hopping magical unicorn. When she’d graduated from college, she hadn’t realized how difficult it would be to actually get a job in her field. Everyone would want to hire her, right? But taking a six-year break from it to take care of her mom had hobbled her in ways she just hadn’t imagined at the time.

  Hobbled. Such a nicer way of saying completely screwed me over.

  She spotted it then. PRESTIGIOUS ADVERTISING FIRM IN SEATTLE WITH RARE GROUND-FLOOR OPENING. She clicked on the listing and began scrolling through it, on the hunt for the usual verbiage that would throw her out of the running from the get-go: Five year’s experience required. Or sometimes, even ten year’s experience was being demanded. It was definitely an employer’s market, not an employee’s market.

  She got to the end of the listing, and slowly scrolled back up again, in shock. She had to have just missed it. She’d look again. The pay was too high, the benefits were too good, for them to not have strict requirements in place.

  It wasn’t until she’d read through it another two times before she really started to believe it was a possibility for her. I could actually work in Seattle! With a deep breath, she began tailoring her resumé specifically for this job. She didn’t do that with every job, but she did with the ones that she really, really wanted.

  And she really, really wanted this one.

  The memory of Troy’s intense green eyes and short, spiky eyelashes popped into her mind, unbidden, but she pushed it away just as quickly. Now was not the time to go soft. This was her chance – she could feel it in her bones. She couldn’t let a cowboy get in the way of making her dream come true, no matter how stunning his eyes were.

  Chapter 23

  Troy

  It was the end of week one of Bryce’s stay at his parents’ house, and as far as Troy could tell, his cousin had had a personality transplant while in the military. There was nothing else to explain the miracle away. Despite Troy giving him every dirty, disgusting job he could think of, Bryce never once complained, tried to hide, or even looked grumpy. The harder he was working, the happier he seemed to be.

  Definitely a personality transplant.

  They were driving home late on Saturday night, both of them yawning and feeling more than a little worn down at the pace required by the mill, when Bryce turned to Troy. “Do you work this hard all the time?” he asked around another yawn.

  “No, only during harvest-st.” He hated the stutter, but as usual, his cousin passed it on by without comment.

  “That’s good. I was starting to think you were some sort of Superman, to keep this up week after week. I haven’t pushed myself this hard since boot camp. I think the Air Force should send its recruits to work at the mill for a month. They’d come out the other side hardened warriors. Or at least in a lot better shape.”

  Troy laughed a little at that. It was true that during harvest season especially, the mill wasn’t for the faint of heart. Which was why he was still more than a little stunned that his cousin hadn’t wimped out yet. Troy was used to the brutal pace, and always knew that at the end of the season, he had normalcy to look forward to. Bryce, on the other hand, was doing this on his vacation.

  Troy felt a slightly larger sliver of guilt work its way through his soul at that thought. Come Monday, he’d take it a little easier on Bryce, if he was still up for helping out.

  “Harvest-st season is always rough. You picked a good time to come help out.” His cousin snorted with laughter at that, and Troy turned to him for just a moment, daring to take his eyes off the road so Bryce could see how serious he was being. “No, honestly. Having your help this year has made this the easiest fall I can remember in a real long time.”

  He kinda felt like he was having an out-of-body experience, saying something like that, but it was true nonetheless. He was gonna miss his cousin when he went back, something he’d never expected to have happen. He’d liked his cousin all right growing up, but it was hard not to resent him when he’d caused so many problems and heartaches to his parents. Maybe Aunt and Uncle Horvath weren’t perfect, but they deserved respect from their son, and that wasn’t something Bryce had ever bothered to give them.

  Until now.

  After Troy’s little speech, he could tell there was something Bryce wanted to say in return, and it was important. It was there in the air of the truck – an expectancy. Since Troy spent a lot more time listening than he did talking, he’d become quite the observer of people and no matter how much of a personality transplant Bryce’d had, he was still human. Something was up.

  “I know the mill is yours,” Bryce said in a rush as Troy pulled into his regular parking spot at the house and cut the engine, “and I’m not trying to take that away from you. But do you think there’s a job for me there, too?”

  Troy stared at his cousin in the darkness, trying to read his expression in lighting an owl would struggle in. There was no moon tonight, and living far out in the countryside like they did, the only light was from the dim stars overhead.

  “Let’s go inside,” Troy said finally, wanting some light to be shed on the subject – literally.

  Sparky jumped out of the bed of the truck and trotted to Troy’s side, following them inside where she made a beeline for her food bowl.

  “You’re wanting to work at the mill?” he asked Bryce, once they were settled down on the couch. “For how long? You’re leaving again in a week.”

  Bryce shook his head. “When I told Mom and Dad about the bonus, they just assumed I was gonna take it. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to get their hopes up, but these two weeks are for me to figure out what I’m gonna do. I haven’t signed the re-enlistment papers yet. I love the Air Force and all it’s done for me, but I’m ready to move on. The money is a big enticement, but I’ve been saving for a while, so actually, it’s not nearly as big of an enticement as you might think. I’ve got quite a bit more than that in savings.” He shrugged.

  Troy nodded, trying to keep his face flat as he thought through what Bryce was saying. He hadn’t realized it at the time, but Bryce was right – he’d never actually said he’d re-up. Everyone had just assumed it when he’d told them how big the bonus was.

  “You want to work at the mill, though?” Troy asked, not bothering to hide his surprise. “You may not want to re-up but that doesn’t mean you have to come back to Sawyer and work in the Horvath Mill.” Maybe all this was, was a failure of imagination. Maybe it just hadn’t occurred to Bryce that there were other options. As nutty as that seemed, it seemed less nutty than Bryce wanting to work at the mill.

  Just then, Sparky laid her head on Troy’s lap, apparently done with her evening meal. She closed her eyes in blissful repose as Troy stroked her head. She wasn’t real comfortable around
Bryce yet – she was sitting on the far side from him, almost like she was using Troy as a shield between them – but pettings were worth venturing this close.

  Bryce chuckled a little at that. “I think I deserved that,” he said ruefully. “As hard as I tried to get out of work as a kid, I imagine it seems more than a little bizarre that I’d suddenly be developing an interest in it.”

  Troy didn’t say a word; he was sure his face said it all.

  “Joining the Air Force was the best thing I ever did. Taught me how to think about others before myself. Taught me how to get my lazy ass out of bed, and work hard. But the longer I’ve been away, the more I’ve come to miss Sawyer. At first I thought I was just romanticizing it, you know? Remembering the good stuff; forgetting the bad. And I’m sure there’s some of that going on. But that’s why I wanted to work this past week at the mill and with Mom at home, without the pressure from you or Mom and Dad knowing what I was thinking about. Otherwise, you know Mom would’ve spent the last week dropping hints the size of nuclear bombs about how much she misses having her children around, and whatever did she do wrong that her kids all left home and moved far away. If she thought she had even a smidgen of a chance of convincing me to stay here, she would’ve used every ounce of guilt she could muster on me to make me do it. And Mom can muster a lot of guilt.”

  Troy laughed at that. He didn’t know if his cousin was romanticizing anything else, but he sure had a clear-eyed view of his mother. They both loved her dearly, but guilt was one of her favorite trips to send others on.

  “You’ve been here for my parents, unlike any of us three kids ever were,” Bryce said seriously. “When the rest of us were running for the hills, you were working your ass off at that mill and taking care of Mom and Dad through it all. Some might think it’s nepotism that you’re the operations manager of the mill, but it isn’t. You work as hard as my dad does, and that’s really saying something. You deserve that mill when Dad finally retires. But I’d like a place there too, if you’ll have me. I don’t want to start at the top – I’ll start as the shop boy, pushing a broom. Work my way up the ranks, if I ever do. I trust you to be fair and treat me like you would any employee. I just need to know if I have a place before I turn down the Air Force.”

  Troy sat and stared in silence at his cousin for an eternity, stretching into two. Bryce didn’t shift on the couch, or get antsy, or demand an answer. He just waited quietly for Troy’s verdict. He probably knew as well as anyone that rushing Troy into a decision just didn’t work. Troy didn’t do rushed.

  But in this instance, it was all coming together so perfectly, it hurt a little. There was an ache in Troy’s chest – a hope that stung from its perfection. If he tried for this and it didn’t work out, it’d devastate him. It was so much safer not to give it a shot, not to ruin what little he knew he had.

  But if he could make it work, he could have so much more…

  “Bryce, I’ve got an idea.”

  Chapter 24

  Penny

  She hummed as she put her lipstick on and then dabbed her lips with a tissue. There – perfect.

  Troy had insinuated that tonight was going to be a special night, and whatever he had in mind, she wanted to look damn good for it. She had good news of her own – she’d just finished the final round of interviews via Skype with Edge Advertising, Inc, and was waiting to hear back on whether she got the job. It was down to her and two other finalists. She had a damn good feeling about this one. Everything had just seemed to click together.

  I’ll have to leave Troy behind, though.

  The pain of that lanced through her and she nearly groaned out loud at the thought. If only he’d come with her – they could both start over fresh in Seattle. She could work for Edge Advertising while Troy could…

  She heard his knock on the front door before she managed to come up with a job for him. Well, something, anyway. Seattle was a big place. Lots to do. He could find something. He’d enjoy it more than working at the mill, for sure. No matter what he tried to tell himself, working there seemed to be sucking the soul right out of him.

  “You here?” Troy called out as he walked in.

  “Coming!” she said, and headed down the hallway and into the living room. She came to an abrupt stop when she saw Troy. “Handsome” didn’t even come close to describing him. That was a bit like describing the sun as “bright.” Well, yeah, of course, but there was so much more to it. He was wearing a charcoal-colored suit, light purple shirt, and eggplant-colored tie. He looked downright debonair.

  Citified, even.

  Stunning, that.

  “Wow,” she breathed. “Troy…you’ve been holding out on me! All this time, you’ve had me convinced you’re nothing but a country boy.”

  “I am a country boy,” he said with a boyish grin, “but I also know how to find upscale shops on occasion.”

  “Color me impressed,” she murmured, and slipped into her sparkling spiked high heels. Now with his height advantage reduced, it was easier for her to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him down for a quick kiss. “I could stand to see this city boy a little more often,” she murmured against his lips.

  Of course, she wouldn’t be seeing him much if she got the job and moved to Seattle, but she chose to ignore that problem. She’d gotten pretty good at blocking that fact out of her mind over the past several months and was now a certified pro in Avoidance Behaviors.

  Hmmm…too bad that wasn’t a skill she could market on her resumé.

  Troy helped her into the truck and then hurried around to his side, pointing the truck towards Sawyer, or maybe Boise. He still hadn’t told her where they were going, and despite her rather blunt hints over the past couple of days that he really ought to give her something to go on, he hadn’t let out a peep. She thought about pulling her skirt up her thigh a little and showing some skin; see if she could get him to break then, but decided that waiting to find out wouldn’t actually kill her. She should behave herself. It’d be embarrassing to explain to the sheriff that they’d ended up in the ditch because she’d been doing her best to seduce the truth out of Troy.

  “Any follow-up on the new resort?” he asked as they drove, passing the ever-present fields of Black Angus cows. The deciduous trees dotting the fence lines were all a brilliant red and orange, and she wondered for a moment what the train ride would be like now that it was fall.

  I won’t find out because I’m leaving. Probably.

  Which I’m happy about. Definitely.

  “No, not at the moment. The developers are looking for some deep-pocketed investors so they’re sort of stalled out until they get the funding lined up.” She shrugged. “The letters to the editor have died off; there for a bit, that’s all we were running on the opinion page. It seems like everyone has an opinion, and a strong one at that. Either this is the best thing to ever happen to Long Valley, or the worst idea in the history of mankind. There doesn’t appear to be an in-between.”

  Troy chuckled a little at that. “I guess I’m the odd ball out, then,” he said with a shrug of his own. “I can see the good and the bad. I’m not sure how to feel about it.”

  “So how are things going with your cousin Bryce?” she asked. “You haven’t said much since he got home and you started working his ass off. Is he still working hard, or has he started wimping out on you?”

  “Would you believe, he’s turned into a damn hard worker. Never would’ve guessed.” He shook his head in wonder. “I keep wanting to feel his head for a fever. Doesn’t seem a damn thing like the same guy I’ve known all my life. The military sure does work miracles.”

  She reached over and intertwined her fingers into his. “Sounds like the Air Force is the best thing that could’ve ever happened to him. Is he heading back soon?”

  “I’m…I’m not sure,” he murmured, but he seemed…off. Like he was holding something back. Before she could ask him what he was thinking about, he lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to
it. “How’s your mom taking that loss to the Cleveland Indians? I bet she was a bear to be around after that. Going into an extra inning and then st-st-still losing against-st Cleveland…”

  Penny laughed. “Two days. Two days of mourning. Wore all black. I was just sure she was going to dot ashes from the fireplace on her forehead.” She shook her head as she chuckled again. “I don’t care about baseball, which makes her just nuts. What I’m thrilled about is the clean bill of health from the doctor that she got just yesterday. Said she’s healthy as a horse and will probably outlive me. Which, considering how stubborn my mom is, is probably true. If the Grim Reaper came knocking at the door, I think she’d just tell him to buzz off.”

  “I’m pretty sure she already has,” Troy said softly. “Twice.”

  “Hmmm…Good point. My mom is tough as nails. The Grim Reaper is probably scared of her at this point.”

  They both laughed, but again, Troy seemed…stiff. Hesitant. They came in the far side of Sawyer, but instead of passing on through to Boise, he took a left into the parking lot of the old mill, where he cut the engine.

  The old mill?

  He grinned at her, a boyish excitement mixed with nerves that practically vibrated off him. She opened her mouth to ask him what was going on – this was an awfully dirty place to wear such fancy clothes – but he shook his head. “You’ll see,” he said mysteriously, before hurrying to her side of the truck to help her out.

  Her arm through his, they made their way across the parking lot, the intrigue growing by the minute. The sliding doors on the side of the mill were already open, and draped above the doors were twinkling lights, casting a warm, soft glow into the twilight of the evening.