Chapter 18
“And I think that’s all we have to do, like that’s not enough,” Phoebe said as she tapped her notebook.
“We can do it. We still have three weeks, and things are coming together better than I ever thought.”
“I feel the same way, except...I’m scared too. We can’t really afford to have anything get in our way.”
“If it does, we’ll just work through it. But for now, I think it’s time to get to work.” Tillman started to stand, but he paused and sniffed the air. “Do you smell smoke?”
Phoebe’s eyes widened. She hadn’t been thinking about it, but now that he mentioned it...
“Yes!” She stood quickly to her feet, trying to think of where the smoke could be coming from. “We had some guests here this week, but we only do campfires in the evening. We shouldn’t be smelling the campfire from last night. But I can’t think of any other reason why anyone would be burning anything,” she said as she sniffed the air again. Definitely it was clogged with smoke. She could actually see that the horizon was slightly blurred out because of the big cloud of smoke, which she hadn’t noticed until just then.
How could she have been so involved in everything that she hadn’t noticed smoke?
The horse barn wasn’t on fire. She could tell that from standing there. The back door was open, and they could see the whole way through. Everything seemed fine, even if the horses did seem a little restless from what she could see of them in their stalls.
“It’s probably nothing,” Tillman said, but his actions belied his words as he left his notebook on the table, along with his phone, and moved around the building so he could get a better look at the house.
“The house is fine,” he said, although Phoebe had caught up to him and walked by his side and saw that the house was not on fire at the same time he said it. She had remembered to turn the oven off, she was sure of it.
But there was definitely smoke in the air.
“The hay barn is on fire!” her brother Asher hollered as he went jogging by. “We’ve already got the fire company on the way. We’re grabbing hoses from every spigot we can possibly find and pouring water on the fire.”
He disappeared around the edge of the barn.
“I’m going to follow him. See if I can help.”
“I’ll be right there. I’m going to grab our books and put them somewhere safe.” She didn’t want to lose all the work that they’d done, and those notebooks contained most of it. Although they did have notes on their phone, the notebooks held far more information.
It wasn’t that she didn’t feel a sense of urgency to help with the barn, but she knew it was full of hay. If it was on fire, it was almost certainly going to burn to the ground. And that was not her being doom and gloom, it was just her experience. A barn full of hay was almost impossible to put out. She’d never seen it done before or heard of it, either.
Not that she wouldn’t work as hard as she could to put the fire out along with her siblings. It was just...probably not going to happen.
She grabbed the notebooks from the table, tucked them under her arm, and jogged through the horse barn, and the previously quiet morning had seemed to explode in activity, with her siblings running everywhere, and she noticed several people who must have been guests on the ranch. She hadn’t had much contact with the guests lately, since she was no longer doing much cooking and her entire being was pretty much focused on the rodeo.
Regardless, she raised a hand at the newcomer, who called a greeting to her, but she didn’t stop. At the house, she burst in the back door, throwing the notebooks on the table and seeing Alaska turn from where she was staring out the window.
“Ezra texted me that there was a fire,” she said. “What’s going on?”
“I heard the hay barn’s on fire. You should be safe here. It’s plenty far away, and even though the implement shed might potentially catch fire, or even the small animal barn, you’ll be fine. You and the kids will be absolutely safe in the house. The first priority will be to save it.”
“I wish I could help. But I wouldn’t be much help with two small children.”
“No, but maybe you could direct the firemen to the proper place, in case they don’t see it when they pull in.”
Phoebe wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing to do or not. It would probably be obvious to anyone who arrived where the fire was. Already she could see flames leaping to the sky from the hay barn as she hurried back out of the house and met Priscilla coming toward her with a bucket.
“Here, we’re going to use the spigot in the yard. We don’t have any more hoses, but we can fill up buckets.”
“Is this going to do any good?” Phoebe couldn’t help but ask. It seemed like an exercise in futility.
“It’s probably not, but I can’t just stand there and watch it burn, you know? Maybe once the firemen get here, I’ll be able to just step back and give up.”
“Yeah. Okay, I get that,” she said, taking the bucket that Priscilla handed her and hurrying to the spigot that came off the well that had been dug in the yard of the big house.
“We should order more hoses,” Priscilla said, “in case this happens again.”
“I don’t think if we had a hundred hoses we would be able to put the fire out. Once hay starts to burn, it’s like a tinderbox.”
“Yeah. I guess. I just...want to find a solution.”
Phoebe understood what she was saying, but she also understood the futility of throwing a bucket of water on a raging fire. It just wasn’t going to do any good at all. Even the firemen probably weren’t going to do much besides keep the fire from spreading anywhere else.
When the fire trucks pulled in, Phoebe was filling up her fourth bucket.
She watched Alaska run out with the children, directing the fire trucks to the fire that was already at least three stories high, the flames leaping in huge grasping waves, black and orange and angry colors mixing with the cheerful blue of the North Dakota sky. Funny how a day that was so happy and wonderful could have turned so dark and sad. Aside from the thousands of dollars’ worth of hay that had been in the barn, the structure itself was going to be a huge loss. But it would have been a lot worse if it had been the house.
That in itself made Phoebe grateful, and she said a silent prayer of thanks. Laughing a little at herself that she was thanking the Lord, when the firemen hadn’t even put the fire out yet. But how could she not thank God for sparing the house? And she assumed there were no fatalities, since no one was ever in that barn except when they were going in to get hay.
Which made her wonder how in the world it had caught on fire. Maybe the faulty wiring.
“I guess that’s it,” Priscilla said as she stopped beside Phoebe, her bucket empty, her hair bedraggled, her face dirty.
“I guess. I’m just wondering how in the world that barn caught on fire. No one’s ever in it unless we’re getting hay.”
“I heard that one of the kids from the people who are staying at the dude ranch was smoking behind the hay barn with his girlfriend. That’s something I overheard one of the guests talking about, so I don’t know for sure if that’s it or not.”
“Oh, that makes sense. They probably flicked their cigarette over their shoulder and never gave it another thought.”
“Exactly. We should maybe add a little bit of fire safety to some of the things we talk about when guests first arrive. Most of them probably don’t understand how combustible a barn full of hay is.”
“Yeah.”
She watched the barn, the oldest structure on the property, continue to burn as the firemen stretched out hoses and other paraphernalia from their trucks and ran toward it. Ezra, his face black with soot, spoke with one of the firemen.
Phoebe imagined that they were probably checking to make sure that there were no people trapped inside. Or animals, although she doubted the firemen would risk their lives to save the lives of the animals.
At least she hoped they wouldn’t. As much as she loved her animals, she wouldn’t want a person to risk their life for them.
A tall figure with the firemen, although not dressed in fire gear, caught her eye.
The fire company in Sweet Water was all volunteer, and it wasn’t uncommon for men to leave their job and go directly to a fire, especially if they thought they could help out in the early stages.
But...that figure was Tillman.
She smiled as he held onto the hose and helped the firemen drag it to the closest position they could get to the fire.
He seemed to know what he was doing as he worked with the other men. Perhaps he had been a volunteer firefighter in his hometown before he moved.
Regardless, Phoebe found her eyes drawn to him, caught on him, and not wanting to look at anything else.
“I do believe he’s a good man,” Priscilla said from beside her. She’d totally forgotten that her twin was standing there.
“I think so too. It’s been...fun working with him. I’m kind of surprised to say fun, but it has been.”
“It’s always fun to work with someone who does their share or does more than their share. And does it well. Work stops being a chore and starts being something you look forward to.” Priscilla obviously knew what she was talking about, and Phoebe had to agree. “I can see you two together. Have you given it any thought?”
“He’s too wrapped up in the drama of his ex and whether his children are being taken care of, and he just has a whole lot of things on his plate. The last thing that man needs is to step into a relationship, especially a serious one, which is the only kind of relationship I would be interested in.”
“Yeah, we weren’t exactly brought up to be one-time flings, were we?” Priscilla said with a humorous laugh.
“No. Definitely not, and I think that’s right.”
“Sometimes, no matter how hard you try to do the right thing, no matter how well you think you know someone, they can change. Or hide their true selves.”
“I know. I feel so terrible that things didn’t work out for you. I wish there was something I could do. I was just as buffaloed by your ex as you were. I believed him when he said all the things he did to you. I thought you guys would be together forever. It stinks.”
“Yeah. It does. But if you’re going to take a chance on a guy, Tillman’s a good bet.”
“I’m thinking in the same direction, but I’m also thinking the things that I just told you. He’s not ready.”
“I wouldn’t let him slip away.” Priscilla gave her a last smile and then said, “I think I’m going to go into the house to make sure Alaska and the kids are okay, and get cleaned up a little. There’s going to be a lot of work to do once the fire is out. Although, most of it’s going to need to be done with big equipment.”
“Yeah.” Phoebe didn’t say anything more, but she just wondered how much that was going to cost. They had insurance, but she had no idea whether that would be covered under it or not, and in her experience anyway, insurance companies had a way of wiggling out of covering things. They almost always paid a claim less than what it deserved, but she supposed they followed the fine print, which was necessary.
She didn’t know how long she stood there watching Tillman work, even going so far as to move a little when he went around the side of the building, holding the hose so it could spray at a different angle.
She thought about Priscilla and the mistakes she had made, although they had seemed like good decisions at the time. A person never got any guarantees. That was pretty much the only guarantee life would give you. There were no guarantees.
She was standing beside the driveway when a car pulled in.
Recognizing Mrs. Greene from church, she smiled as the lady got out of her car and hurried over, carrying a container in her hand.
“I’m so sorry. My husband is on the fire company, so I knew he was going out to a fire at your place. I was in the process of getting supper ready, since I have a meeting this afternoon, and I thought I would go ahead and bring you guys the salad. I’m sure people are going to be hungry, and whether it’s your family or whether it’s folks who come to help, I wanted you to have some food to feed them.”
She handed the container over.
“Why, thank you. That’s awfully kind of you. I suppose I should be in the house working on cooking up a meal. Because you’re right, people are going to be hungry.”
“Oh, that’s what neighbors are for. You’re probably in shock, although it could be worse. It could have been the house.”
“I said a prayer of thanks for that very thing not that long ago,” she said. “I’ll make sure you get your dish back.”
“I have my name taped on the side. No rush.”
Mrs. Greene hurried back to her car, and Phoebe stood holding the dish. It looked like the firefighters had pretty much given up trying to put out the fire, and they were just making sure to dowse the area that was closest to the next building, the small livestock barn.
She hadn’t moved to go in the house when she noticed Tillman walking over. His face was covered in dirt, and his hands were filthy as well. He had rolled up his sleeves, and his muscular forearms were covered in soot and ash and dirt streaked with water from the hose.
“I’ve been keeping an eye out for you. I started to get worried when I didn’t see you.”
“Don’t worry. I think I have a little bit more intelligence than to run into a burning building.”
“As I’ve been fighting this, I’ve been thinking about how this is going to set us back for the rodeo.”
“I wondered that too, but I really don’t know. The insurance should cover the rebuilding, even if it doesn’t cover the debris removal. I think it will replace the hay as well, although I don’t know what it was valued at. The price of hay has gone way up since we purchased it.”
“Yeah. That seems to be the way it goes. You never quite get what you need to out of it.”
“Sounds like you’ve some experience,” she said, hoping that her comment invited him to say more if he wanted to. Although, they should be talking about the rodeo instead. But really, they couldn’t know how this was going to affect them until they knew what it was going to cost.
“Just a few auto claims. It’s never quite what you need and never quite fast enough, and there’s always a loophole where they get out of paying for something that sets you back. You sit there and scratch your head and wonder why you had insurance in the first place.”
“Yeah. That sounds very familiar.”
She smiled, because what else was there to do? They could get upset about it. Fine print was fine print, and when a person bought insurance, at least for her, she never really thought about all the things that could go wrong, or in case sometimes she did, it was just too expensive to add all the contingencies onto it. They couldn’t afford to pay the premium if they were covered for every single little thing.
The insurance company couldn’t afford to stay in business if they covered every single little thing.
“I’m sorry about this,” Tillman said after a few moments of just standing and watching the flames burn.
“Not your fault. And there’s no reason to be sorry. It’s a blow, for sure, but it’s not a shock to the Lord.”
“No. I suppose it’s not.” He kept his eyes on the flames and said, “It’s kinda fascinating to watch fire burn, in an odd sort of way. I’ve always been drawn to flames.”
“It must be a human thing, because I’ve been standing here holding this salad, knowing I should go in the house and help start cooking, and all I can do is just watch the fire. It’s fascinating in a grotesque sort of way.”
“I’m already on the payroll, but you know if there’s anything I can do, I’ll help out. And I suppose if this means that we need to shut down the rodeo, or postpone it, or something...”
“Again, I think it’s too early to know about that, but I’m sure there’ll be a family meeting later. And I’m sure you’ll also be invited. I heard Ezra say that he said that you could come the next time we talk about farm finances. You’re here, you’re working just as hard as any of us, you deserve to know.”
“Thanks. I guess I would like to know. It’s always good to know what you’re working toward.”
“Yeah. You inspired me when you said that about the rodeo. I thought maybe we were being a little too ambitious, but when you’re working toward something, and you know exactly what it is, it makes it a little bit more tangible. You know?”
“Yeah.”
They stood for a bit more, and Phoebe got the feeling he was just enjoying standing beside her. Like she grounded him or something. She definitely felt more at ease when he was beside her.
“All right. I suppose I’d better head back. I just... I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
The look he gave her made her stomach do a slow turn and made it impossible for her to move her eyes away from his.
It was almost like he was saying he cared, in a special way, about her.
Of course he cared. He cared about everybody on the ranch. They all did. But he hadn’t gone out of his way to make sure that anyone else was standing away from the fire, just her. That made her...special.
She swallowed against the sudden tightness in her throat. “Be careful.”
She figured he would be. He had children to live for after all, but she wanted him to know that she cared as well.
“I will be,” he said, his face turning up into a small smile.
Their eyes held for just another second before he turned and walked away. She watched his easy stride, the way his arms swung at his sides, the confident manner in which he held himself, his wide shoulders and firm direction.
Priscilla was right. He was a man worth taking a chance on. If only he didn’t have so many things happening in the background. She didn’t want to wait forever, although...she figured she probably would.