Chapter 17
Friday night, the Kids Theater was lit with lights and excited buzz as locals cheered their heroes—the firefighters and WMA officers who stopped the fire.
As the ceremony ended, Elizabeth exited a row of Dorseys with Granny and Pops. On stage, the heroes were taking pictures, holding up their commendations. Ryder stood in the center of it all, smiling, shaking hands.
That’s when an odd sensation flipped through her. Like she was proud of him. As if he was hers. When the mayor singled him out during his speech for leading his team to safety during the crown fire, she felt as if she might burst with pride. For him. Not herself.
“He’s a good man,” Will said, coming up behind her as she entered the theater’s lobby.
“All of them are good men.”
“But not all of them are special to you.”
Saying nothing, she pushed through the doors and into the summer’s evening sun as it draped gold flags between the buildings and through the streets.
Gardenia Park was circled with food trucks, and a brass band played patriotic songs to continue the celebration.
Will followed her onto the sidewalk, gathering with the rest of the Dorseys.
“Hey, Will, did you have a chance to read my email?” she said.
“Yeah, took a peek right before I left work.”
“You need a new accounting system.” For the past two days, Elizabeth had been looking into the WMA fraud, finding more anomalies along the way.
Besides the bug in order fulfillment, she’d found other glitches and back doors in the antique system.
It was possible for Dorsey employees to hide fraud or skim a few dollars into a private account.
Which, so far, she’d found no evidence of.
“We’ve duct-taped our old one together for so long,” Will said. “All our processes work. Everyone knows their job.”
“You may be losing money, Will. Someone inside Dorsey cut that lumber. We don’t know who. And someone picked it up.”
“Dan said the same thing. He’s noticed accounts marked ‘paid,’ but when he reconciled, the dollars didn’t add up. He’s personally checking all log-ons and accounts.” He sighed. “I won’t say how much we’d love for you to stay on board. Help bring us all the way into the twenty-first century.”
“That’s good,” she said. “Since you already said it.” And now would be a good time to tell him about her recent decision.
“I need a few days off next week to go up to Wharton. I need to…” What? Try to get in? “Check on my courses and find a place to live.”
“If you need to go, go.” Will roped her in for a side hug. He was probably her favorite cousin, but his kindness was making it harder and harder to leave. “I’m going to miss you, by the way,” he said. “Are you taking it easy? Granny said you’re still pulling a heavy load at Ella’s.”
“Not a heavy load. A few nights a week and part of Saturdays.”
He gave her the big-cousin eye, then greeted some friends. Elizabeth hung back, waiting for Ryder to exit. Catching his eye, she smiled and waved. He headed her way but was cut off by a group of congratulators.
Elizabeth moved on, finding Granny, offering to buy her a hot dog from the Fry Hut’s truck. She’d just lathered onions and mustard on her hot dog when Ryder came up behind her.
“Care to get out of here?”
Elizabeth set down the mustard bottle. “Lead the way.”
They sat on the steps of the fire tower, surveying the burnt region and how the sunset trimmed the black horizon with gold.
“It’s so stark yet so beautiful,” Elizabeth said. “Is it wrong to say that?”
“No. Fires are damaging and horrendous, yet the regrowth can be so powerful.”
As he spoke, a gentle summer rain began to fall from the singular cloud passing over them.
Ryder glanced at Elizabeth, ready to make a run for it, but she didn’t move except to lift her face to the rain, eyes closed, the napkin from her hot dog wadded in her hand.
“Pops would say God was refreshing us and the land,” she said quietly.
Ryder almost felt like an eavesdropper on a private conversation. Yet a peace that only comes with the rain of heaven settled over him.
As the soft drops soaked in, his skin cooled, and his heart warmed with love for this woman. If he kissed her, he’d sink all the way in. So in many ways, having the kissing question off the table was a relief.
“Granny says I haven’t given love or Hearts Bend a chance.” She rested against the side of the tower, where a post held the rickety steps against the fire tower cabin. “That my ambition is in my head, but not my heart.”
“Granny D. never struggled to speak her mind. All that matters is what you think. What you want.”
“I know. I mean, I’ve been taught to consider all sides. To hear the other argument, learn what I don’t know.” She shifted her gaze to him. “I’ve decided to go to Wharton next week.”
“You were accepted? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“No, I’m still wait-listed.” By her sigh and shift in her posture, she was weary of it all. “I’m going to see if I can’t charm them into letting me in.”
“What do your Granny and Pops say?”
“I’ve not told anyone but you. Too embarrassed. For all my big talk, I’m not even in the fall class.”
“Doesn’t mean you won’t get in. There’s always next year.” He shifted a little closer to her, mopping up the water on the thirsty tower steps with his jeans.
“I don’t want to wait another year.”
“Is there any truth to what your granny said?”
“I don’t know.” She looked away. “But I have to try.”
If she was determined to go, let her go. Saying his heart thumped whenever she was around or that he still wanted to kiss her so badly his lips buzzed sounded desperate, like a badly penned poem.
“Enzo texted he still wants me in Colorado.” He wasn’t sure why he brought it up. Maybe so he didn’t look like the “stuck” hometown guy next to her ambition.
Another cloud passed over them, and for a solid thirty seconds, the rain fell in buckets, soaking them to the bone. As suddenly as it appeared, the cloud drew up its shower curtain and slowly drifted toward the horizon, allowing the sunset to rim the evening with gold.
“I guess that cloud told us.” Elizabeth swiped watery streaks of black mascara from her cheeks. When she turned to Ryder, they laughed in harmony. “Do I look like Frankenstein’s wife?”
“Hardly.” He let his gaze linger on her face, with her sapphire eyes sitting in pools of black. “You look beautiful.”
She looked away. “Liar.”
“It’s true.” He reached for her hand and tugged her against him, wrapping his arm around her.
After a moment, she whispered, “Are you really falling in love with me?”
“Does it matter?” In truth, he’d always been a little bit in love with her.
She shoved away from him, fixing her attention on the soft steam rising from the burnt land. “We needed rain.”
“Elizabeth, you made yourself clear. You’re leaving. You’re not contagious, but you’re not kissing me or anyone else. Don’t feel bad—”
She flew against him, lassoing her arms around his neck, and pressed her lips to his cheek, up to his eye, then down to his jawline. He pulled her onto his lap and returned her affection, kissing her chin, then down her neck to the edge of her collarbone peeking above the neckline of her T-shirt.
He breathed her in—the subtle, wild fragrance of her skin and the scent of her hair that was like the rain—and sank into a moment he hoped would never end.
But as fast as she moved into him, she jumped up, stepping into the cabin of the fire tower. “I wish it would rain again. I’m burning up.”
“Elizabeth—” Ryder reached for her. “Do you love me too?”
“No, I can’t. Even if I did, I’m still going.” She broke free and leaned against the far side of the cabin’s half wall. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done”—she pointed to his face—“that.”
“I’m not sorry. That was a pretty great kiss.”
She laughed and turned to him. “I’m not sure anyone else would think so.”
“But I do.”
She sobered. “It changes nothing.”
“Yeah, but it’s good to know you love me.”
She exhaled and looked over at the burnt spruce trees. “Yeah, I think I do.”
Things changed after that rainy kiss. Elizabeth lowered her walls, and as they worked on the fire tower Saturday, Ryder kissed her cheek anytime he wanted. Never mind that it only deepened the hum on his lips and the ache to taste hers.
Once she leaned to kiss his cheek as he looked up to ask for more pine board, and their lips almost collided. He was so startled he shot a nail into the tower floor, barely missing his foot. Warning: Don’t hold a nail gun when you might accidentally kiss the lips of the woman you love.
Sunday, he awoke with a tug to go to church. The aftermath of the fire reminded him that Someone greater than he lived.
Ryder arrived late—Fred and Ginger had decided to play hide-and-seek when he let them out—and Jeff Simmons met him in the foyer with a bulletin, then led him to a seat next to his cousin.
“Elizabeth,” he said with a curt nod, sitting straight as if being in the cloud of her gentle, fragrant scent didn’t mess with him.
“Ryder,” she said, mimicking his tone, then laughing softly, bumping his shoulder. The air between them had definitely changed.
After church, Granny D. invited him home for lunch. He stayed through dinner and a family game of Catan, grateful for every minute in Elizabeth’s presence.
Monday, he met her for dinner at Ella’s. Tuesday morning, she flew out of Nashville for Philly. Call him crazy, but he felt it the moment she lifted off.
Now he drove back from the Mace Bluff Recreation Area—someone had spotted a six-foot snake—and after relocating the fella, he headed into town for some lunch. A sandwich from Java Jane’s sounded good.
As he parked, his attention fell on a new old shop in town. Earth-n-Treasures. The previous owners, the Marshalls, had retired years back, and the shop sat dark and alone. But it looked like someone had brought it back to life.
Curious, Ryder wanted to see inside. The Marshalls used to sell antique jewelry as well as their own designs. Perhaps Jewell did the same.