Alex brushed snickerdoodle crumbs from his lap into the trash can, but shook his head when Lindsey offered him another.
“It sure is. She knew exactly what all those things were. If it’s not in my bunker gear, I can’t promise I’d know.”
Dani laughed. “Yeah, we’re a pair. Wish we could find somebody for full time medical. But thanks, Lindsey, this is great.”
Lindsey was grateful that she was able to be helpful. She might as well, while she was just waiting around.
“Unfortunately, now that we know for sure, we need to lay in the supplies.”
Alex groaned. “Of course. Should have thought of that second part.”
“How long did the last order take to get from the medical supply warehouse?”
Alex turned to the computer and brought up an invoice. “Looks like almost three weeks.”
Dani sighed. “I’m not comfortable with that,” she said as she looked out the window at the smoke that still wafted over the mountain. Lindsey wasn’t a fire expert, but Alex had said that the crew on the ground had lost control of it again after a change in wind direction.
Alex pulled out a chair for Dani and she sat down, hunched over the list Lindsey had made.
“There’s a medical supply company a few towns over,” Dani said. “We just don’t usually buy there because it’s more expensive than the warehouse.” She glanced out the window again from the corner of her eye.
“We haven’t spent much on medical this year,” Alex said as he flipped through a spreadsheet on his computer.
“Right.” Dani stood and looked over his shoulder. “Thanks for putting cost estimates on here, Lindsey. Looks like we have plenty to just drive over the mountain and buy them.”
Alex laughed and wiggled his eyebrows at Dani. “And by we, you mean me, right?”
Dani looked from Alex to Lindsey. “Well, I thought maybe...since Lindsey’s just killing time, she might be willing to go with you.”
Alex nodded, and Lindsey thought the idea sounded fun.
“Sure, I’ll go. You’re right, I have nothing to do. Sorry about that.” They didn’t seem to be pointing that out, that she wouldn’t talk about anything until Travis got there, but she felt bad nonetheless.
“No worries. I’m perfectly happy to wait—even if it did keep me up all night guessing,” Dani said with a laugh.
“Oh, no,” Lindsey said, once again feeling heat creep into her cheeks.
“I’m willing to bet she’s kidding,” Alex said, knocking Dani on the shoulder. “Aren’t you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Dani said as she headed toward the door. “Truly, I am. But I am curious.”
“Me, too,” Alex said, and even though they were good-naturedly teasing her, Lindsey knew there was a very big kernel of truth to it. But she held her ground.
“It’ll all be over soon. And I’d be happy to drive over with Alex. I can help pick out the most cost-effective versions of what we need.”
Dani cocked an eyebrow and nodded in appreciation. “Thank you. Tomorrow sound okay?”
“Sure,” Alex said as he had Dani sign off on the supplies list and asked about how they wanted to pay. While they sorted it out, Lindsey walked over to the window and looked at the soaring mountains. She been there long enough to hope that tomorrow when she woke up, there wouldn’t be smoke wafting down toward the lake.
“Thanks again, Lindsey,” Dani said on her way out the door. “See you tomorrow.”
“Well, I guess we have our marching orders,” Alex said as he put all of the paperwork in his backpack. “We can leave early if you want, make a day of it. It’s about a three-hour drive. We can have lunch on the way at a cafe I know in a really pretty place.”
Lindsey stood and packed up the snickerdoodles. “I’ll take these, too and pack some snacks. I went to the store today.”
“Oh, already?”
“Yeah. I got beef panang to make for dinner tonight.”
The look on Alex’s face made her laugh. “What?”
“Um, well, it’s just that my mom’s a really good cook and everything, but that’s not something she makes anymore. It’s one of my favorites, but I’ve never mastered it myself. And there’s no Thai restaurant in town, so...”
Lindsey let the words hang in the air for a little bit before she put him out of his misery.
“Would you like to come over and join me?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” he said. “That was pretty shameless, wasn’t it?”
Lindsey laughed and shrugged on her coat. “I don’t think so. I just lucked out and found the ingredients. I’d be pining the same way you are, otherwise.”
“Great. It’s a date,” Alex said as he pulled his backpack on.
Lindsey covered a smile with her hand as his expression froze and his eyes flew open.
“I mean, not a date. I mean, not like that. It doesn’t have to be a date.”
“Relax,” she said as she opened the door. “Having beef panang doesn’t have to have a label on it. It’s just food. I’d be happy for the help.”
He let out his breath so loud Lindsey could hear it, and she tried not to laugh out loud. She didn’t care what it was—she didn’t know anybody here, and it would be nice for some company.
“I love to cook. I don’t know how good I am at it, but I am a heckuva sous chef. I can chop, mince, slice and dice with the best of them.
They walked down the wooden steps of the bungalow and she noticed Alex glancing toward the smoke. She wondered if it was always there in the back of his head, and guessed that it probably was.
“You’re hired,” she said and glanced at her watch. “Say, six o’clock?”
“Perfect,” he said as they got to the Copper Cabin. “See you then.”
She closed the door behind her and glanced up at all the copper pots hanging over the stove. She really hadn’t thought she’d have much occasion to use them for anybody but herself, and it was a nice change. If she was stuck waiting for Travis, Alex was certainly a nice distraction. And he could cook, too. What could be better?
She glanced at the crossword puzzle they’d started earlier. She’d never done one with someone else, and it had been fun.
As she set about getting out the ingredients for their dinner, she wondered if maybe they could try to do some of it during dinner. She surprised herself, thinking it might be nice to have the company, and do it together.
Chapter 8
All the ingredients were laid out on the counter for the curry—basil, beef, lemongrass—so Lindsey took a little extra time getting ready. She took a quick shower and rummaged through her bag for something nice to wear. When she’d packed, she’d thought she be there for just a day or two, so she really didn’t have much.
She settled on a light green sweater and jeans, with her cowboy boots. She dried her long hair and put on a little make-up—she was surprised she’d even brought any—and pinched her cheeks at the last minute when she heard a knock at the door.
Alex held out a bouquet of flowers when she opened the door and peeked out from behind him.
“Here’s a thank you for all your help today,” he said. “I hope you like flowers.”
“Wow, that’s so nice of you,” she said as she took them and started to hunt for a vase. “Nobody’s ever given me flowers before.”
“What?” he said with such a tone of shock that she stopped in her tracks and looked up at him. “Never?”
She flushed a little. “No, never. I moved around so much I haven’t really had—a relationship to speak of.”
“Not even your dad? With all my sisters, I was taught that it was a mortal sin not to give flowers.”
She frowned and filled the vase she’d found with water, arranging the flowers and placing them on the kitchen island.
“No, certainly not my dad.”
That was a conversation she really didn’t want to have, so she pointed to all the ingredients on the counter and pulled out a cutting board and
knife.
“You ready?”
“Not quite,” he said, and he slipped off his coat and hung it on the rack by the door. Reaching into the pocket, he pulled out an apron, swung it over his head and tied it in the back, holding his arms out. “Now I am.”
She couldn’t help herself, and laughed until she cried.
“Oh, my gosh, I have to take a picture,” she said, reaching for her phone.
“What, you don’t like it?”
“I actually love it,” she said. “The ruffles are a great look on you.”
She snapped the picture and they both laughed. They spent the next hour chopping, chatting and stirring. Lindsey found herself talking easily to him and laughing a lot. By the time they’d eaten and happily pushed themselves away from the table, she found herself wanting to tell him more. So much more that she bit her tongue to stop herself.
“So, where did you learn to cook like that?” Alex asked as he finished up the dishes. “Everything was delicious. Best Thai food I’ve ever had.
“Oh, I’ve been to many, many places, either to teach disaster preparedness, or to help with catastrophes. I guess I just picked it up.”
“Wow, that’s saying a lot. That sounds fun.”
Lindsey dried the last bowl and put it back in the cupboard.
“That’s not entirely true, now that I think about it,” she said. “I try to make a point to take a cooking class of some kind in whatever country I’m in for any length of time. It passes some of the down time, and it’s always more fun to cook with local ingredients.”
“I’m actually surprised that you found what you need here in Riston,” he said. “Things are changing, I guess, with more international guests. Back in the day you couldn’t even find a tortilla.”
Lindsey laughed. “Oh, wow, that’d be horrible.”
“And no tacos, either. It actually was worse than horrible.”
“You’re a big Mexican food fan? How’d that happen if you couldn’t find tacos?”
“Good question. Easy answer. I went to college in Texas. Besides being a hop, skip and a jump from Mexico, there are tons of Mexican restaurants, from taco trucks to fancy stuff. I love tacos,” he said, and she could actually hear the affection in his voice.
“And Texas used to actually be Mexico, if you recall,” she added, sharing her equal affection for tacos.
Alex laughed. “Yes, remember the Alamo, as they say. I think most people forget that borders change, and the people who used to be there are...well, still there.”
Lindsey thought about that for a moment. “I guess you’re right. That would be really strange. Like when the Berlin Wall was up and there were families on both sides of it. For years.”
Alex sighed and she glanced at him, noticing the frown. “That must have been awful. I can’t imagine being separated from my family.”
Lindsey frowned herself, thinking of Travis and what had happened when they were babies. Someone must have thought it was a good idea to separate them, but she found herself wishing there would have been someone to adopt both of them. Then she’d have had a family. A real one, not the people who adopted her that she was expected to call mom and dad.
She glanced at Alex again, wishing that she could tell him what was going on with Travis, but she bit the inside of her cheek, realizing it was more respectful to Travis to just keep any information she gave strictly just about her.
“I grew up an only child. And I’m not sure my parents even wanted me. I was sent to boarding school when I was just twelve years old.
“Twelve? What?”
She twisted the hem of her sweater as she looked out the window.
“Yeah. Twelve. The first summer, I came home. But after that, they sent me to different summer camps. Some in the US, some abroad.”
Alex whistled slowly. “Wow, that must have been...weird. And maybe lonely?”
She glanced over at him again. She wasn’t one to share her life story with anybody, and was a little perplexed that she was now. There was something about him, though, that made her want to get to know him, and for him to get to know her. The guard she usually kept up had seemed to weaken. Maybe it had something to do with wanting to see Travis. But if it was that, she really should keep her guard up rather than let it down. There was no telling how that was going to go.
“Maybe. I really didn’t know any different. Still don’t.”
Alex seemed to take the cue that she didn’t want to talk about it anymore, and he took off his apron and put it back in his coat pocket.
“We’ve got kind of an early call tomorrow, but you want to finish that crossword puzzle first?”
Her stomach fluttered—he couldn’t have known that she wanted to do that with someone. Him, in particular. She laughed at the thought that it sounded like the most exciting thing she could be doing in that moment.
“Sure,” she said. “Want some coffee?”
“Absolutely,” he said with a smile.
She grabbed the puzzle and a pencil, handed him a cup of coffee, and followed him over to the couch.
They spent the next hour, at least, working through the puzzles, trying their best to get every last word. She’d pulled out the dictionary early on, and their success rate was pretty good.
Eventually, she’d yawned, and he jumped up and got ready to leave.
She walked him to the door, and he turned and lingered for a split second. She looked into his eyes and saw only kindness and fun—not something she was very used to.
“Good night, Lindsey. Thanks for dinner,” he said as he backed out the door with a tip of his cap. “See you bright and early tomorrow.”
She closed the door and wondered what this strange feeling was. Warm? Cozy? Happy? She couldn’t quite pin it—and she settled on just not lonely.
Chapter 9
Her heart fluttered a bit as Alex pulled up in front of the Copper Cabin the next morning. She waved back at him and grabbed the basket of snacks she’d packed. She really hadn’t had much else to do since she’d been up since the crack of dawn, memories of the night before fluttering in her head.
They’d had a great time—at least she thought so—and finished not one but three crossword puzzles before they realized how late it was. Alex had left in a hurry as they’d decided to meet early for their trip to get the medical supplies.
“Did you pick up the inventory list?” she asked as she hopped into the truck and he pulled out of the parking space and headed off the ranch.
Lindsey poured some coffee from a thermos she’d brought and handed a cup to Alex. He gratefully accepted.
“So where are we going? I mean geographically?” she asked, pulling out the maps she’d brought with her and spreading them on her lap.
He glanced over at her. “Don’t you have Google Maps on your phone?”
She cocked her head and looked at him.
“Yes, I do, but I’m old school. I’ve been too many places in the world where they haven’t exactly sent a mapping truck to take photographs, and after I got lost a few times, I decided paper was safer.”
“Makes sense to me,” he said. “We use paper for rescues. Always. Google Maps doesn’t help at all with that.”
She was pleasantly surprised that he wasn’t arguing with her, like most people did, and she asked again where they were headed.
He stopped before he pulled onto the main highway and leaned over, checking out the map. He ran his finger on a route north and west, over some mountains.
“We’re going over here. Through Quinn Valley and out the other side. I decided we could take the scenic route.”
“Perfect,” she said, drawing a line on the route.
“You don’t have to worry. I could get there with my eyes closed. Lived here all my life and driven it a thousand times. Flown over it more times than I can count.”
“Well, that’s comforting, but I’ll keep my map handy, just in case.
He nodded, and spent the next chunk of the trip explain
ing the beautiful terrain. He pointed out mountain peaks and where they’d rescued people over the years. Told her about some of the sights as they drove through a cute town called Quinn Valley.
They eventually got to the medical supply place on the outskirts of a much bigger town.
“You want to eat lunch first before we gather these supplies?” he asked as he pulled up the truck and stopped. “I almost starved you to death yesterday.”
She reached into her backpack and pulled out the remaining snickerdoodles, holding the bag open toward him. “How about a couple of these to tide us over. Get something to eat on the way back?”
Alex grinned and reached into the bag.
“Perfect.”
They spent the next hour or so filling up several carts with the medical supplies they needed back at the site. Alex paid, and she helped him load it all into the back of the truck. She watched as he covered it with tarps and made expert knots with ropes he’d brought to hold it all in place. He tugged at the ropes when he was done, saying, “Okay, that’s not going anywhere. You ready?”
And she was definitely ready. Their stomachs growled in unison as they got in the truck.
“I’ll take that for a yes,” he said with a laugh.
“A very definite yes. Where are we going to eat?”
“Well, if you can wait a little longer, there’s a cute little cafe up in the hills I’d like to stop at on the way back. A friend of my dad’s owns it. We spent a lot of time there when we were little. Haven’t seen them in a while.”
Lindsey reached into her backpack.
“Snickerdoodles count as emergency supplies in my book,” she said as she held out the bag to him.
“Mine, too. We must have gone to the same disaster preparedness school,” he said as he backed up and pulled out onto the main road.
He headed into the hills, up and up, and Lindsey was in awe at the scenery.
“The trees are gorgeous,” she said, but she was surprised to see that he was frowning.
“Yes, they are. But this is an awful lot of underbrush.”
“It is? You mean relatively?”
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