Page 38 of Smokin' Situation

“You have no idea,” I laughed, taking a deep breath and coughing as the lingering smoke made my throat burn.

“Let’s get you a mask, and you can help me get the horses ready.”

“I don’t want to leave Tripp,” I said instinctively, wanting to help.

“Fire Chief won’t let you get within twenty yards of that crew,” she said, steering me toward the barn by my shoulders. “Hudson and my dad have already tried. We’ve been loading up the horses and taking them in pairs to the fairgrounds just in case the fire gets any closer. Even if it doesn’t reach this far, the air quality is gonna be terrible for a while.”

“Do you know how far up the ridge it got?” I asked, knowing the answer before she responded just by the wrinkle that formed between her eyebrows.

“I’m sorry, babe,” she whispered, pulling me back in for a hug. My shoulders shook as the shock of everything set in. “Everything north of the highway is gone.”

She held me while the tears took over, mourning the only home I’d known since I was twelve years old. The place that’d been a refuge after our parents died in a small engine plane crash on the first solo vacation they’d taken since we were toddlers. Reese andI’d been orphaned overnight and sent to live with our grandmother in the middle of nowhere Colorado.

It’d been a stark contrast to the life we’d had before, leaving behind the bustling city of Denver. Suddenly, the looming mountain ranges in the distance had become our home, much to our dismay. But as we settled in, welcomed by the community our dad had grown up in, I’d slowly come to love Sage Springs.

Charley ran her gloved hand down the back of my head, letting me cry it out until a pair of hands closed on my shoulders. I didn’t even need to turn to know who it was, spinning and tucking my head beneath Tripp’s chin while he wrapped his arms around me.

“You gonna be okay to stay here with Charley and Marty while I go down to help?” he asked, tipping my chin toward him and using his thumbs to wipe the tears from my cheeks.

Nodding, I tried to get myself under control. “Please don’t do anything reckless.”

Even though I couldn’t see his mouth, I could tell he was smiling from the way his cheeks pulled up, the smile lines at the sides of his eyes creasing. “You mean like riding into a fire on horseback to rescue some crazy woman?”

I nodded, wrapping my arms tightly around his back, squeezing. “I need you safe.”

“Baby, I’m trying to stay on the Chief’s good side, so you don’t need to worry about me riding off to rescue any more damsels in distress. That was a onetime gig. And I don’t regret doing it for a fucking minute.”

He held me until I released him, pulling back to look up at him. “Please be careful.”

Tripp pulled down his mask, reaching to tug mine out of the way before he cupped the back of my head and pulled me in for a firm kiss. He replaced my mask, pulling his back up and nodding before he turned and headed toward a beat-up pickup truck parked beside the barn. I watched as he opened a lockbox in the bed, pulling out his gear.

Charley wrapped her arm around my shoulder as we watched him get ready, my eyes tracking every movement as he stepped into his boots and turnout gear, pulled the heavy pants up, and fastened the suspenders over his strong shoulders.

“It’s like cowboy firefighter porn,” Charley joked loudly, breaking the tension as we watched him pull on the rest of his gear minus the heavy coat, his cowboy hat replaced with a hardhat.

Tripp took one lingering look at me, nodding as he fastened his mask into place. He reached back into the truck bed, pulling out a shovel and an axe, propping them over his shoulder as he headed into the field to join the rest of the ground crew.

After he was out of sight, Charley tugged me back into the barn and put me to work, showing me how to get the horse’s gear ready for transport once the trucks returned. It was strange to watch her in an entirely new setting than I was used to seeing her, but she was completely in control, running the barn much like she ran the bar on a busy night.

It helped to have a distraction from the worry that’d plagued me since we’d been awoken by the fire station alert this morning. But at least I knew the two most important people in my life were safe. Reese was probably kicking ass in the ER at the hospital, and Tripp was doing what he loved.

“That’sthelastofthem,” Marty shouted while he latched the back of the horse trailer, slapping the side hard and giving a thumbs up to the ranch hand driving the truck.

The gravel crunched underneath the tires while he drove away, leaving a trail of dust in its wake.

“What do we do now?” I asked, pulling off my gloves and handing them to Charley.

“Now we go back to the lodge and get cleaned up. You’re welcome to a room tonight, Annie,” Marty offered, wrapping his arms around our shoulders and steering us toward a pickup truck outside the barn with the logo for the West Peak Ranch emblazoned on the side with the outline of a mountain peak in the background. “The guests have mostly checked out because of the fire. As long as you don’t mind making your own bed, you can have one of the suites.”

He led us to the truck, handing each of us a bottle of water before he started the ignition. I took heavy sips of water as the trees blurred in the windows as we drove past; the smoke followed us the mile or so to the main lodge, lingering like a fog outside. It was eerily quiet when we walked inside, the typically bustling lobby empty, which was rare during the summer.

Reese and I had taken riding lessons at the ranch once upon a time, our grandmother making it known it was an essential skill for living in this area, but since she’d passed away, we hadn’t kept horses in the small barn behind our cabin.

It was all gone now, along with fond memories of going on trail rides with our grandmother when she could still ride. Those trails had probably been taken out by the fire, too.

“You need anything?” Charley asked, leading me up a staircase to the second floor, but I wasn’t really listening, my eyes drawn to something on the other side of the room.

A large panoramic window faced north at the back of the lodge, and I felt my tears returning as I walked through the second floor living area to look at how much the landscape had changed in such a short period. It was chilling to see it now.

---