Chapter Eighteen Ashley
Chapter Eighteen
Ashley
The town hall is full of people, all talking at once, with fear and panic written all over their faces.
“Ashley.” I hear my name spoken over and above all the other noise, and I’ve never been so thankful to see Tiff in my life.
With Rosie on her lead, I pull Betty across the room faster than I should be dragging an old lady, but I need to get to Tiff as quickly as I can.
“I told you. I knew there was something bad about to happen, but I just thought it was you and Jake being idiots and trying to give me a heart attack.” She pulls me to her and gives me the biggest hug, but I don’t have time for this.
“You and me both, Tiff,” Betty pipes up from beside me, “but don’t you worry, I’m cooking up a batch of my love meatballs as soon as this is all over.”
And although she’s trying to put on a strong face, I can tell she’s rattled. There is a fire heading straight for her home, and I’ve just left her three grandsons in the direct line of danger as they try to save my animals and my home—not hers.
As soon as Tiff releases me from her grasp, I place Betty’s hand in hers. “Take care of Betty and do not let her or Rosie out of your sight. She needs a cup of your calming tea.” They both look at me, confused.
“Wait, where are Jake and the boys?” It now dawns on Tiff that we are here on our own.
“At Windemere,” Betty answers at the same time as I plead with Tiff.
“I need your car keys. Betty’s car is full of her treasures.
” Holding my hand out to Tiff, I can tell by the look on her face that she’s about to launch into one of her big speeches, but I stop her before she gets started.
“Now!” I yell louder than I should. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever yelled at Tiff like that before.
She doesn’t say a word and just pulls out her keys and places them in my hand.
“This negative energy I feel better be connected to the fire, because I swear, if you do anything stupid and get yourself hurt or killed, then I will come find your spirit, wherever it might be, and annoy the shit out of you for eternity. Do you understand?” She squeezes my hand so hard it hurts.
“I love you too. And I mean it, don’t let her out of your sight.” I point to Betty because I don’t trust her not to follow me.
I push my way through a crowd of people holding on to their small animals and calling out to me for help.
I reassure them that Beau is in the clinic and that he will take care of them.
What a welcome to Abbey Falls poor Beau has had, and weirdly the thought jumps into my head that I know he will be coping with today far better than Jeremy ever would have.
It’s quite likely that Jeremy losing his job had nothing to do with his ex-girlfriend.
He was never a very good vet, and I carried him in the clinic for so long, but I never said anything at the time.
I’m now grateful every day for Beau being here.
Running across the park and around the back of the teahouse, I jump into Tiff’s old yellow Volkswagen Beetle.
Revving up the engine and kicking it into gear, I tear out of the back alley and head toward Windermere.
Peering through the windshield, I can see smoke so thick it’s darkening the sky over the farms, so I push down on the accelerator and race into the fire.
I’m almost there when I see a huge orange helicopter carrying water toward the smoke and watch as it flies over the ridge behind both farms before disappearing out of sight into Riversdale Gully.
I hope like hell this is the answer to our prayers and that it will slow the fire down on the mountain.
Turning so sharply into my driveway that I almost tip over Tiff’s little car, I correct my steering then race up the gravel, screeching to a stop in a spray of pebbles and dust. I start to panic when I can’t see anyone and then fling the barn door open, but every stall is empty.
“Shit.” Dashing back out, the smoke is thicker than when I left, making me cough.
I look around me, trying to see any signs of where they have gone, but my gut tells me there is only one possible place and I take off across my front lawn and past the house until I spot Gerald’s deep hoofprints in the ground.
The closer I get to the boundary between our farms, I see the fence that Jake and I once stood and argued over is now lying broken on the grass, and the hoof marks continue on to the Heatherbrae side of it.
Running with so much smoke in the air is hard on my lungs, but I push my body harder than I ever have before.
As soon as I come into the first pasture of Heatherbrae, the smoke gets a little thinner and visibility is slightly better.
There, in the distance, I can see my car down near the dam, and it all starts to make sense.
As I come up over the hill, I see something that makes me stop.
Jake standing in the dam, hanging on to a rope that is attached to Daisy and Gerald. And beside him is Chase, arm around Herb’s neck, while my sheep, pigs, and horses stand around them in the water.
Both Jake and Chase are drenched and not looking particularly happy at their current situation. That’s when I notice the wind shift to the south and push back toward the hills.
“Wind is changing direction,” Declan calls out from beside my car, full of chickens and ducks.
He pulls his phone out of his pocket as I feel mine vibrating in my jeans.
“Alert says the water bombing hit the fire front and that the firefighters have it under control. Advice is to still watch and wait for further updates, but this wind shift will help blow the fire back on itself, hopefully running out of fuel.”
And that’s when it starts, deep in my belly as the relief pours out of me in the most ridiculous way. Standing with my hands on my hips and looking at the most absurdly precious thing I’ve ever seen, I’m doubled over with laughter and can’t stop.
Trying to suck in some air, I yell at Jake, “When you told me the first day we met that it was about to start raining asshole men around here, I didn’t think you meant like this.”
I drop my butt onto the grass, feeling giddy with relief. And just as I let myself fall to the ground, Daisy begins jumping around like crazy, splashing water all over the boys, and I’m starting to understand how they got so wet in the first place.
“I think these belong to you,” Chase calls back at me, tilting his head in the direction of Jake and the rest of the animals.
“Yeah, I think they really do.” Every single one of my lost souls, including Jake, are all standing huddled together. And even though I’m still angry at him and we have some things to sort through, there is no denying that his soul is the one imprinted on my heart until the day I die.
As the firefighting helicopter flies overhead with another load of water to drop, Declan takes a seat on the grass next to me.
“We were a little rushed before, but hi, I’m Declan, and I’m guessing one of the so-called asshole men you speak of.”
He holds out his hand for me to shake, but that doesn’t feel right, so I throw my arms around him instead. “Thank you for saving my family,” I mumble into his shoulder. He’s so gentle and comforting as his arms wrap around me.
“You’re welcome. That’s what we do for family, and you will be family, there’s no denying that.
” Pulling back from my hug, Declan’s hands remain on my arms. “Because there is no man who hates animals as much as my cousin, but for you, he’s standing in the middle of a dam, soaking wet and trying to keep your menagerie safe .
. . Yeah, so I guess, welcome to our crazy family! ”
“Get your hands off my woman!” Jake bellows from the dam, and Declan just laughs.
“See?” he says, pointing at Jake with his thumb. But those two words “my woman” make me feel a little warm and fuzzy.
“Maybe we should go rescue him?” Declan suggests.
“Nah, let him suffer just a bit longer. He still has a lot of groveling to do, so he may as well start now.”
Both of us turn back toward the dam, and Declan puts his arm around my shoulders while I drop my head onto his. I’ve got a feeling Declan and I are going to get on just fine.
My phone is vibrating again, but this time it’s not just a message; someone is trying to call me.
The moment I see the screen, I smile and answer the FaceTime from Tiff, but it’s not her face that fills the frame.
“Betty.” I’m glad I didn’t answer with some smart-ass comment.
“I made Tiffany do one of them timing of the face calls.”
Declan lets out a little groan next to me at Betty’s description, but at least she was close to getting it right.
“You know, so I could see you all. I want to know you are all okay and safe. Where are my boys?”
“I’m here, Gran, and we’re all fine,” Declan answers her. “And besides some charred patches of ground where some embers fell, there is no damage to Heatherbrae. We were lucky this time.”
I pull the phone out in front of us a little so she can see us both.
“Lucky, yes. Good, now where’s Chase and Jake?”
She’s trying to look behind us, expecting to see them, but instead, I reverse the camera on the phone and call out to them, “Wave to your gran, boys.”
To which they both reluctantly lift a hand and wave at her from the dam, but I can tell they’re trying to cover that look of wanting to kill me.
I’m sure they don’t want me snapping a screenshot to capture the moment so I can laugh about it for a long time to come, but too bad, because I’m framing this picture.
“Oh my, how clever of them. Farming suits my boys.” She looks so proud.
Switching the camera back onto me, I smile at Betty and say, “I’m not so sure about that, Betty, but yeah, they didn’t do too bad under the circumstances.”
“Right, now let’s talk about you, my dear. Are you okay?” She looks at me intently, and for the first time since I’ve met Jake, I realize where he gets his soul-piercing gaze from. The one you can’t hide from even if you try.