Page 21 of Smokin' Situation

Patting her flank as I lined her up outside the door swing, I dragged the door open and held my hand out to where Rhey was dutifully waiting for me.

Clicking my tongue at Phi, I got her as close to the side of the truck as possible before I stepped onto the running board. Pulling Rhey in front of me, I lifted her up by the waist as she threw a leg over each side of the horse’s back.

“Move forward!” I shouted so my voice would carry over the sound of the wind.

Depositing the reins in her lap, I grabbed the back of the saddle while I secured my boot in the stirrup, only letting go to swing myself onto the horse behind Rhey.

Wrapping my arms around her, I grabbed the reins and steered Phi away from the side of the truck, my eyes widening as I looked at the tree line in the distance.

Orange embers floated toward us on the next gust of wind; the glow of an active blaze visible on the far side of the road through the break in the trees. Turning the horse away from the fire, Igrabbed one of Rhey’s hands, securing it to the horn on the front of the saddle.

“Hold on tight!” I yelled, scanning the cluster of trees we’d emerged from before.

Phi pushed back through the brush, picking up the pace as soon as we hit the trail. She could sense the danger and probably the spike in my anxiety. I momentarily feared I was pushing her too hard with the additional weight of another rider, but she determinedly followed the path back toward the ranch without hesitating.

Rhey leaned back into my chest, her body hidden underneath the blanket wrapped around her, but I could feel her heartbeat thumping through the thick material, probably just as worried as I was about the situation she’d gotten herself into. I couldn’t believe that she’d ignored a barricade to get up here and then doubled down, deciding to take an abandoned road. If I wasn’t busy trying to scan the trees to make sure that we weren’t headed directly into more danger, I would have gone off on her for being so reckless.

Getting yourself dehydrated because you were stubborn was one thing, putting yourself directly into a dangerous situation was just the fucking next level of idiocy.

She was lucky that I was apparently just as reckless, riding to the rescue on a fucking Appaloosa instead of waiting for an emergency rig to go fish her out of that heap of a truck. It hadn’t been in terrible shape before, but if the broken axle didn’t total the thing, being burned to a crisp by a wildfire would take it out.

At least she hadn’t been inside at the time. Thank fucking God for that.

Pinching my eyes closed, I tried to shake the images from my brain—the sounds of phantom screams and the sharp, jarring memory of what it’d felt like as I lay helpless, pinned down and unable to move as fire licked up my gear.

When I opened them, I cursed as I watched the orange glow in the trees up ahead showing the fire had jumped the road and was headed directly for the trail we were on.

Wrapping one arm tightly around Rhey’s waist, I yanked Phi’s reins with the other and spun her away from the trail. If we could get across the river that bordered the northern edge of the ranch, there was a cluster of unused rental cabins hidden between the mountain and a small lake.

The smoke was too dense headed back to the ranch, and I didn’t exactly have enough time to stop and see if I could get enough of a signal to navigate us out of here. There wasn’t a guarantee I’d get us back before sunset anyway if we had to go around the fire, and there was no way in hell I was risking getting lost in these woods after dark. If the fire didn’t catch up with us, the smoke inhalation would.

Rhey’s fingers clutched the back of my glove tightly, her other hand gripping the saddle as I steered Phi through the trees and into a valley of rolling hills that stretched halfway across the property. With a quick squeeze of my thighs, the horse took off into a fast trot, eating up the distance between the forest and the river crossing, the smoke dissipating back into a light haze that made the sight of the burning mountain to the north look almost ominous.

What had just been a small plume of smoke visible on the horizon this morning had left a wake of destruction in its path. As I slowed Phi to a walk near the riverbank, I tried not to focus on the glowing horizon that had nothing to do with the approaching sunset. Acres of the mountain were on fire and unless Mother Nature intervened with some rain, acres more would be destroyed before this was all over. Sending up a quick prayer for the firefighters that were still out there working the ground crew, I focused on getting us further away.

Seraphina had likely been making this crossing long before I came to the ranch, finding a low point in the water and slowly making her way across. Once we were back out in the open, she let me guide her toward the lake, the small body of water expanding the closer we got, the cluster of cabins coming into view.

Ten more minutes and I could get her fed, watered, and bedded down for the night. And no, I wasn’t talking about the infuriating woman wrapped in my arms.

Rhey’s grip on my hand hadn’t let up, but I wasn’t arguing, it kept me present so I didn’t let the wave of anxiety I could feel building inside me take over. At least for now. I’d had enough panic attacks in the last few months to know it was only a matter of time. I just hoped the adrenaline would keep it from building until I got off this horse.

The modest barn behind the cabins was a welcome sight and judging by how her gait picked up as we neared it, Phi knew exactly what it signified. Getting my heavy ass off her back and hopefully a meal. She deserved it with how calm she’d remained, and it further earned my respect and loyalty. She may have been a trail riding horse for the ranch guests before, but now she was mine, and I was going to spoil her rotten once we got back to the main ranch in the morning.

If there stillwasa ranch in the morning.

The fire was still miles out, and we were safe for now, but there were no guarantees.

Annie

Hiseyes.

I’d recognized the eyes of the man who’d wrenched open the back door of my truck to pull me out. And while I wasn’t a hundred percent certain that my rescuer via horseback was Tripp, I kind of hoped it was.

He wasn’t wearing a uniform, and I didn’t think that the fire department had started wearing thigh hugging jeans, riding boots and cowboy hats. There was something about those eyes, though.

But since we’d been a bit preoccupied with escaping a wildfire that had gotten too close for comfort, I hadn’t exactly had time to ask him to take off the bandana covering his face and make an introduction. Although, at this point, he was probably the opposite of happy to see me, even if I’d never been so thankful to see another person in my life. I knew it was my fault that we were both in this situation, but seeing him again had sent a jolt of relief through me so bone deep that I’d happily take any amount of ire directed in my way because of my reckless actions.

Brilliant golds and pinks painted the sky above the mountain tops with a beautiful watercolor display of nature’s beauty, but as I peeked out of the blanket I’d had pulled around my head and shoulders, my eyes scanned lower in the horizon, my breath catching in my chest as I saw the sheer destruction that had turned the mountain I’d lived half my life on into a desolate, charred landscape.

---