Chapter Eight
All she had to do was hit Enter, and then she’d find out whether Zach had any social media profiles. After their dinner at the diner, she’d thought about popping his name into a search engine and seeing what she could find, but she hadn’t.
That all changed after spending hours with him the previous night.
She hadn’t gotten very much sleep because she’d wanted to send all the emails.
And then she’d done what they’d talked about doing, but didn’t get around to—make a list of everything that needed to be done in order to ensure her traveling live Nativity play would be a success.
Now that she had time to think, she recalled Zach’s comments about the high-profile people she wanted to contact.
There’d been something about the way he’d spoken that had surprised her.
Then again, not all people liked celebrities, but with Zach, it had seemed more like cynicism, as if he despised their very existence.
Perhaps he had reason to. He’d said he’d lived in LA and had been exposed to actors and actresses. Perhaps he’d been called to save a well-known person’s house, and they hadn’t even thanked him or his crew for saving it.
All in all, she just wanted to see if she could find out more about the man. About who he was. If he had any family.
Not to mention, they’d almost kissed, and she’d wanted it to happen so badly. She wished she’d just taken a chance and done it. But that slight hesitation had been enough for him to back away and leave.
She wanted to know all she could about firefighter Zach Langley, and while asking him would be the most sensible thing to do, she had a feeling he wouldn’t be as open to that as she hoped.
“Just do it, Tilly. He might be one of those people who didn’t have any social media presence.” Saying it out loud didn’t make it any easier for her to hit the Enter key.
Why was she being so silly about it? In the past she’d always searched up names of the guys she’d gone on dates with. It had saved her a couple of times when she’d found out they appeared to be in relationships. Some people really were jerks.
Wait!
Was that the reason she was so reluctant to find out what she could about Zach?
Was she unconsciously worried that he had a significant other?
Given her track record, it would make sense, but Zach didn’t seem the type of guy who would cheat on someone.
She may have thought he wasn’t married, but that didn’t mean he didn’t still have a partner in California.
Lots of people did long-distance relationships successfully.
There was only one way to find out for sure.
She hit the Enter key and the screen started to fill with links.
She clicked on the top one that said Talk show host’s son saves campers from certain death.
“Oh my God! What?” Tilly couldn’t believe what she was reading.
Zach had been part of a hotshot crew that worked a massive fire in Northern California.
A group of campers had gotten lost, and if it hadn’t been for Zach thinking he’d heard something and following his instincts, they likely would’ve been killed.
As it was, the crew and the campers had to take shelter in the special fireproof tents the teams used.
A plane also dumped fire retardant, which doused the flames enough for them to make a run for their vehicle and get away.
But what shocked Tilly the most was who Zach’s mother was. The very woman she was trying to get to come to Marietta—Kathryn Lancaster.
Why didn’t he say anything to her when she first mentioned Kathryn’s name?
Tilly sat back and thought through their first encounter—Zach may not have said anything about his connection to Kathryn, but he’d darted out of the diner as if he had the fires he fought nipping right on his heels.
It also explained his touch of cynicism when he talked about sending individual emails to pander to their egos. He had firsthand experience with celebrities and how they acted.
Clearly, his relationship with his mother was strained. There was no other explanation for him keeping his relationship to Kathryn to himself.
Unless he just wanted to keep his life private.
Not an unreasonable thought, considering how tough it would’ve been to grow up surrounded by the glitz and glamor of Hollywood.
Turning back to the screen, Tilly clicked on one of the video links of Kathryn’s show, the one where she’d interviewed the people Zach and his crew had saved.
As she watched the clip, a smidgeon of understanding of the strained relationship between mother and son became clear.
During the interview, Kathryn ignored the other members of Zach’s team and pretty much ignored most of the campers, her sole focus on her son.
On how she’d felt, hearing the news he was in danger.
The tears that had welled up in her eyes as she recalled how frightened she’d been when she hadn’t been able to reach him.
The people in the audience appeared enraptured by the performance, but every time the camera panned to Zach, his expression got blanker and blanker, as if he was disassociating himself from the whole event.
This interview was completely different from the snippets she’d seen on social media and from the show she’d watched a few days ago. Then, Kathryn had looked at her guests and been supportive as they’d spoken about the trauma they’d gone through.
Why had she been so different when it had come to her son?
Was this why he’d moved to Marietta? To get as far away from his mother and the press as possible? Because there was no way this event hadn’t thrust him into the limelight, especially with the way his mother had acted.
For the next hour Tilly clicked on links to news articles and more television interviews, and in each one, his mother was by his side, talking over him.
Inserting herself when it had been clear that the person wanted to talk to Zach and Zach only.
Or the other members of Zach’s team, because Zach himself had looked like he wanted to distance himself from everything.
As much as Tilly had admired Kathryn Lancaster, watching her now, Tilly’s opinion changed.
She really didn’t want Kathryn connected to her event, no matter how much publicity it would bring.
One of the reasons she’d had Kathryn at the top of her list was because of her show.
Of her compassion. But this put her in a whole new light.
If Marietta won, not only would it hit all the news stations in Montana, but with Kathryn’s involvement, there was no way she wouldn’t do a segment about it on her show, giving the town and all the businesses even more exposure. And her son.
Tilly’s main hope for highlighting the wonderful town she’d grown up in was to help the businesses grow. Bring more tourists in. Some of the local residents may not like it, but over the last decade or so, the town had expanded with more and more people settling in Marietta.
What did she do now?
Did she tell him she knew who he was and his connection to Kathryn?
Would he believe her when she told him that she wouldn’t tell anyone about it?
It wasn’t her secret to tell. There were many secrets she kept hidden, like the time she’d caught Chrissy and her first husband, Beau, who’d been her boyfriend at the time, in a compromising position when they’d been juniors in high school.
Or the time she’d found Sunny smoking behind one of the greenhouses. She may have just been trying it out, but Tilly hadn’t breathed a word about it to her parents at the time.
But none of those things compared to what she now knew about Zach.
Although, surely his fire captain and his colleagues knew who he was and what he’d done. There was no way the fire department wouldn’t have investigated his former places of employment before they employed him. Had he asked them to keep it quiet?
“None of that matters,” she muttered as she closed her laptop. “All that matters is that he’s safe and he’s here and we’re lucky to have him.”
Talking out loud was really a habit she should try to curb. Perhaps it was time to get a roommate or a pet to talk to. Or she could go out and do things instead of staying home.
Like now. She needed to go find Zach. There were questions she needed to ask. Only she had no idea where he lived, and seeing as it was almost midday, it was clear that he wasn’t going to contact her, like he’d said he would before he’d left the night before.
Tilly startled when her doorbell echoed down the hallway.
Maybe it was Zach? But her phone, which was fully charged, had remained quiet next to her.
Nervous energy sizzled through her as she pulled the hem of her fluffy pink sweater down over her hips and ran a hand over her hair, smoothing down any flyaway strands.
Without checking the peephole, she flung the door open. Chrissy stood on her doorstep and Tilly dropped her smile.
“Well, you don’t look happy to see me. Expecting someone else?” her sister asked.
Tilly pulled her sister into a hug. “What are you doing here?”
“Can’t I come and see my baby sister because I miss her?”
Tilly may have a reputation of being a little flighty, but she wasn’t na?ve. Her sister was here for a reason and it wasn’t to do with what she needed to bring for Thanksgiving lunch in a couple of days. “Of course you can, except that you don’t. Unless you need something.”
“Hey, you know that’s not entirely true.” Chrissy masked the hurt with an overbright smile and Tilly wanted to snatch her words back.
“Sorry, I don’t know why I said that. Come in. Do you want something to drink?” She moved down the hallway back to the kitchen, her sister following.
“I’d love a juice if you’ve got it.”
“I do.” Tilly grabbed a glass and poured the juice into it. “Is everything all right at the farm? Is Mom okay?”
Now that Eunice Bloom had moved into a small apartment a few streets over from Tilly’s place, her social life had blossomed, and she was always off doing something.
Things she hadn’t been able to do while she’d raised her three daughters and supported her husband at the flower farm.
Something her mom had willingly and happily done, but now she was enjoying her freedom.
“Mom’s good. She and her neighbor Meredith have gone to Bozeman to do some Christmas shopping. They’re supposed to be back in time for Thanksgiving.”
“I’m glad she’s out and about with friends. She deserves this time to live her life and do what she wants to.”
“I agree. Mom said she and a few of her new friends were planning a trip to Disney World in the new year to get away from the cold here. They’re going to get matching T-shirts and buy matching Mickey ears when they get there.”
Tilly laughed. “That sounds amazing. We should do a family vacation there and do what they’re doing. It would be wild if we could have T-shirts with flowers on them and ‘Bloom Family Vacation’ printed under them.”
Chrissy rolled her eyes. “Can you see Ryder wearing a flower-emblazoned T-shirt? And he’s not a Bloom.”
“Absolutely I can see it. He’d do it because he loves you. And he may not carry the Bloom name, but he’s marrying into the Bloom family.”
“He would do that, wouldn’t he?” A dreamy look crossed Chrissy’s face. Tilly couldn’t remember ever seeing her sister look this goofy, even when she’d been in the throes of teenage love with Beau.
A shaft of envy pierced her heart—Tilly wanted that. Wanted to have a man who would look at her the way Ryder looked at Chrissy. The way her father had looked at her mother.
“Are you here to talk about Thanksgiving, then, with Mom being away and all?”
“No, that’s all sorted. You don’t have to bring anything.” Chrissy shifted in her chair, and Tilly’s suspicions that this wasn’t just a sisterly visit for the heck of it were confirmed. “I heard you were doing some big event and came to see if you needed an extra set of hands with the planning.”
Tilly badly wanted to believe that her sister’s offer was from the goodness of her heart, but she wondered if the mayor hadn’t reached out to Chrissy. But that made no sense, considering Chelsea had asked Zach to help her.
But Zach has a job, where he’s on and off, and he can’t be with you every day to make sure you get things done.
That wasn’t anything Tilly didn’t already know, and Zach’s main job would be to deal with getting the permits. She still planned to do everything else herself—well, as much as she thought she could.
Tilly looked directly at her sister. “You heard right, and I’m fine. I’ve got it all under control, and I do have some assistance. Thank you, but I’m good.”
“Who’s helping you?”
Tilly didn’t know why she didn’t want to tell Chrissy that it was Zach.
It wasn’t like the whole town wouldn’t know when they started doing things together, because even though she was happy to do it all, she suspected that Zach would put a hundred percent in when he was off shift, no matter how many times she’d tell him she was managing it.
He was that sort of guy. “Chelsea organized it for me. One of the firefighters.”
“A firefighter! Does she think you’re going to burn the town down?”
Tilly’s mouth dropped open at Chrissy’s insinuation. She may be a bit “start-stop” with things, but she’d never been so careless as to cause harm to anyone or any property. “No. And I can’t believe you’d say that.”
Chrissy reached out and grabbed her hand, and Tilly had to stop herself from yanking her hand back. “You’re right. I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.”
“Apology accepted, and Zach is helping me with permits for everything and making sure that none of the businesses are breaking the fire code with how many people they’ll have on their premises.”
Chrissy leaned forward, her eyes alight with curiosity. “Permits and fire codes. What have you got planned, Tilly-Pilly?”
Tilly smiled. “I’m not saying a word.”
Her sister pouted. “You’re no fun. But seriously, if you need help, all you have to do is ask. You know that.”
“I do, and thank you for the offer, but”—she pointed at the pile of paper on the table—“it’s all being handled.”
At least she hoped it was. Because if it wasn’t, she was in big trouble.