Page 8 of Smoke and Fire
She fell quiet while I bustled behind the counter, prattling about anythingbutthe Jess books. Hands folded and perched atop her adorable almost-ready-to-pop belly, Lizbeth peered out the window and toward the smoke stack with the same smudge of concern I’d had.
“You heard anything about the fire?” she asked.
“Not yet.”
Her brow formed into wrinkled lines.
“Huh.”
“You?”
“Not really, just that they sent a fire crew up there yesterday. Has the loft rented out yet?”
Her voice lifted with a moment of hope, and I hated to dash her dreams. Bethany and Maverick had decided to use the loft of the Frolicking Moose as a HomeBnB instead of leasing it out for months at a time. Lizbeth had spent the last couple of weeks throwing together Pinnable boards, then bringing them to life up there. In between local antique stores and bargain shopping, she’d created a whole new esthetic.
“Mountain chic,” she’d said. “It’s a new thing.”
The whole apartment was put together in a charming, mountain-esque suite that I constantly wanted to live in. A cozy leather sofa. Queen bed made from rough slabs of timber. Pillows so fluffy I could sink into them for hours.
Despite a busy tourist season, renters had been minimal. I suspected Bethany and Maverick kept forgetting to update the listing or set it live or something. Several times they’d forgotten to tell me to expect someone, and renters had come to the Frolicking Moose seeking keys.
Small disasters.
“Ah, no,” I said to Lizbeth. “Not that I’ve heard of, anyway.”
Lizbeth’s hopeful expression dropped into a frown.
“Huh. Did you ever get a hold of Jada?”
I wracked my brain to remember who she meant until I recalled the local doctor. Jada was a middle-aged woman that ran the clinic in town and trained horses on the side. A gentle woman with a dazzling smile and full lips. She always looked like a million bucks. Rumor had it her legendary gumbo could cure all ills.
“Ah . . .” I hedged to buy time. Lizbeth and Jada were bibliophiles and close friends. Lizbeth had offered to introduce me to Jada when I expressed an interest in becoming a nurse. Further research into the idea turned me away. Blood, guts, and squalling babies?
Not my thing.
My previous job as a manager of a hardware store lent me more to a paper-oriented career, not a bodily-fluids one.
“I sort of moved away from the medical field as a route for my next thing,” I finally managed. “A little too . . .”
“Gross?”
“That’s it.”
She laughed. “I agree. Jada’s also a horse trainer, too. If you wanted to look at that route.”
“Animals definitely appeal to me. I put a call into the local veterinarian office to see if I could shadow them for a day but haven’t heard back. Isn’t there a town attorney, too?”
“Kinoshi, yes. He’s brilliant.”
The sheepish feeling of being a bit too old to be doing this overcame me again. Most people ran through life options at seventeen, not twenty seven. Settling into a relationship with Jakob at twenty-two, then letting his life absorb me, is exactly why I was only a decade or so late.
Late, Inner Me said,is better than never.
“Truth.”
“What?” Lizbeth piped up.
“Oh, nothing,” I called, cheeks burning with embarrassment. “Just about done.”
