by Gemma Snow
When did it get like this?
When had it gotten like this? They had never been friends, not really, but the stark animosity between them was a hell of a lot stronger now than it had been back in the beginning. Sure, two fucked-up kids from the wrong side of town were either gonna scuffle or have each other’s backs, and it was clear that best friends they would never be, but it shouldn’t have been this fucking hard to have a goddamn conversation without it nearly coming to blows.
You know exactly when it got to be like this.
Yeah, and Sawyer was about as likely to admit it as he was to get down on one knee and propose to Cade Easton.
“Did someone forget to take his happy pills today?” Sawyer prodded, taking perverse pleasure in watching the fury behind Easton’s eyes. Running the Wolf County Fire Department took some of the edge off the rebellious streak that had plagued him since childhood, but pissing people off—especially Easton—was a goddamn fun way to pass the time.
“I’m not the one who needs happy pills. But if you want someone to buy your Viagra, you can just ask,” Easton replied. “I’m sure we can get you back to rights no problem.”
“Maybe if you spent half as much time running chasing down criminals as you do thinking about my dick, you’d feel better about yourself.”
“I’d say you’re stooping low, but word about town is that you’re packing short,” Easton replied with a smug grin.
Sawyer grunted to cover the laugh. It helped when his regular sparring partner was actually capable of delivering serious blows, and though he’d never admit aloud, Cade Easton could be one funny fuck. But before Sawyer had the chance to think up some retort that would put an end to their inane bickering, he caught sight of a woman walking under the caution tape. His vision narrowed and Easton, Jensen and everything around them disappeared to background chatter. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else had ever mattered.
Hollie was back.
Chapter Two
Hollie had driven through the night to get from Denver to Wolf Creek, Montana, and she still hadn’t been able to sleep when they’d arrived at the B&B located on the Triple Diamond Ranch. She’d spent the night tossing and turning, and three cups of coffee for breakfast and another one on the way out here meant she was extra jittery, extra jumpy and extra fidgety.
Sure, blame it on the coffee.
And not on a reunion she’d spent the better part of a decade doing her best to avoid. Her return to Wolf Creek had been hard enough—driving past the same old landmarks and new buildings and eateries that hadn’t been there when she had left—but that was nothing in comparison to how challenging it was going to be to face the two men she had left behind without a word.
Could have done one-on-one…
She had considered it, meeting first with the sheriff then with the fire chief and saving their big old reunion together for absolutely never. But she was here to do a job, a job where people’s lives, homes and livelihoods depended on her ability to make the right choice. And getting their very uncomfortable reunion over with was the right choice.
If you can jump out of a plane, you can do this. That thought wasn’t very comforting. In fact, she was inclined to take the skydiving over walking across the lawn to where the two men stood at the back of Engine 64, obviously sniping at each other.
She must have tensed at the sight of them, because her field operations assistant, Savannah Walsh, glanced her way with a concerned expression. Savannah was smart as a whip and eleven times out of ten Hollie was glad to have her on her team, but she really didn’t need the additional scrutiny right now, not for this conversation.
“Why don’t you go introduce yourself to the Deputy Sheriff?” Hollie asked Savannah, rather than allowing her the opportunity to ask what kind of stick had just shoved itself up Hollie’s ass. “She’s the one over by the far patrol car.” Hollie recognized Camilla Flores, but just barely. A few years younger than Hollie, Camilla had shown promise even back in middle school. Naturally, Hollie had been long gone before she’d ever really gotten to know the girl, but the woman, even at a distance, appeared capable and held herself with power and grace. She’d be a good ally to have in the fight against natural forces, Hollie had little doubt of that.
Savannah nodded and turned toward Camilla. Then Hollie didn’t have any excuse, anything to keep her from walking the short distance across the lawn to where she would look down the barrel of her past from two different directions.
Shark cage diving in South Africa. Bungee jumping in Nepal.
Speaking with Cade and Sawyer for the first time in ten years.
One foot in front of the other, Hollie crossed the lawn, conscious that they had both turned to watch her approach, so utterly aware of them she felt as if her skin were burning behind the windbreaker, but what could she do about it? This was a bed she had made years ago and the time had come for her to nest.
“Chief, Sheriff.” She stopped before them both, standing equal parts away from where Sawyer lazed on the bumper of his engine and Cade stood with his stance wide and his arms crossed. The poses, the looks, the discerning gazes, were all so indicative of who these men had been back then that Hollie almost felt as if no time had passed at all. Though, of course, so very much had.
“Hollie Callihan, as I live and breathe.” Sawyer spoke first. She would have recognized his voice anywhere, but now it was darker, richer, just like the long swirls of red hair curling at his shoulders and the thick beard that framed his face. His freckles were still there, dark and reaching all the way to his hairline, and Hollie found herself thinking the unimaginable stupid gratitude of thank God. She’d always loved his freckles. They gave softness to a man built of hard edges and dark lines—a hardness she’d only ever added to.
Fuck, I’d like to add to that hardness right now.
Fuck, indeed.
“What are you doing here, Hollie?”
She turned to face Cade, and the heat rising in her chest, the need that had terrified her just as much as all the rest of it, did just about the opposite of abate. Cade’s words were less harsh, less mean-spirited, but they weren’t kind or gentle either—not that she had expected them to be, not after all this time, not after the way she had left things.
But, damn it, it hurt to look at him, to look at both of them, different as the sea and the sky and yet both such fundamental parts of who she was, both her biggest regret, both the dusty memories she unpacked late at night, alone in an empty apartment, wondering if she was going to pay for her sins with a stark home and starker bed for the rest of her life.
“I’m here on business,” she said, squaring her shoulders and pitching her voice low. She had learned at Debra Lewitt’s side, after all, and Hollie had seen that woman eat senators for breakfast. “The Denver office of FEMA, to be exact.”
Sawyer let out a low whistle. “Of course.”
Cade was more forthcoming. “What kind of business is FEMA doing in Wolf Creek, Agent?” he asked. She’d done that. She had put that harshness into his voice. She had made Cade Easton sound so mean.
“Keeping it above water, Sheriff,” she said, her voice blessedly without a waver or hitch. “We have projections that the next two weeks of snowmelt runoff from the Black Reefs are going to do some serious damage, and we’re looking to take preventative measures.”
Both of them stiffened at that, though Hollie honestly hadn’t believed any more tension could have been added to the moment. This was a different kind, though, one that had everything to do with the need these men both had to protect the people in their town and nothing to do with the last night they had seen one another.
“We have history.” She made a point of reaching first Sawyer’s green gaze, then Cade’s dark brown one, before continuing. “I’m not opposed to clearing the air, if that’s what it takes to make this operation go as smoothly as possible. But I am here to do a job and it requires both of you. As of this moment, I am acting superior for the region and I will make eve
ry effort to act as professionally as possible. I only ask that both of you do the same.”
The silence after her speech was weighty and Hollie actually felt the heat rising from her chest to her cheeks. She hadn’t been this terrified in years. Not since she had been back in this godforsaken town, wondering what in the hell to do next.
“We’re not little boys anymore, Hollie,” Cade said, and though his voice was quiet, it was anything but soft. “At least, some of us aren’t.” He shot a pointed glance at Sawyer, and Hollie couldn’t help but wonder if something was going on between them that she didn’t know about. “I can tell you I’ll do whatever it takes to keep Wolf Creek safe.” His voice was resolute, a stronger, more confident, more capable version of the man she had left behind.
More everything, if the way he filled out that uniform was anything to go by.
And if she couldn’t keep those intrusive and unwelcome thoughts to herself it was going to be a long two weeks.
“Much as I hate to agree with Easton on anything,” Sawyer put in, his tone more prodding, more pushing for a reaction, “I took on the responsibility of keeping this town safe. And I’ll do it.” He stood up at that and Hollie was suddenly all too aware of how tall he was, of how broad he had become in the last few years. Even though his gear was bulky, she could still make out the strength of his body and the power behind his stature. “But if you’re expecting me to be the same man you left behind, you can forget it. Apologize all you want, Hollie. Talk until you’re blue in the face. It’s too late to change anything between us.”
He picked up his helmet and started walking away. “Call me when you’re ready to discuss emergency preparations. And not before.”
And just like that, he was gone.
Hypocrite.
She turned back to Cade, but his expression was just as inscrutable as the back of Sawyer’s head had been.
“It’s been a long time, Hollie,” he said quietly. “Your life may have changed, but time moves slower in Wolf Creek, you know that. It won’t just be a matter of coming back and returning to the way things were.” He took a step away from her and paused. Then a slow, barely there smile turned up the corners of his lips.
“It may be hell for me to see you right now, Hollie Callihan, but damn if it ain’t a little bit of heaven too.”
Then he was gone, leaving Hollie standing alone behind Engine 64.
You’re wrong, Cade. My life never changed so much I forgot you two. And it never could.
But before she got the chance to live the rest of her life trying to ignore the deep pang she felt in her heart, she was going to have to get through the next two weeks—and neither Cade nor Sawyer seemed willing to make it easy for her.
Nothing less than I deserve.
Chapter Three
“Sheriff, you ready to leave in a few minutes?” Deputy Sheriff Camilla Flores knocked on the open door to his office at the same time she walked inside and Cade finally put down the climate reports he wasn’t reading. Cam was as good a distraction as any, considering his mind had been doing somersaults for the last three hours and no amount of coffee breaks or paperwork had been able to bring him back to task—no matter that they were predicting severe flooding in the next two weeks.
Hollie was back in Wolf Creek.
Hollie Callihan, the woman who had left Cade all those years ago and had taken a healthy chunk of his heart with her. Cade wasn’t exactly used to people sticking around, but he’d known Hollie in a way he’d known so few other people—and she had known him.
Or so he had thought.
But it had been nearly ten years and she was back here, more confident, more capable and more ready for battle than she had ever been.
The memory of watching her stride across the lot made his mouth go dry. Her regulation windbreaker hadn’t afforded him a view of the curves he only knew she had grown into, but her hair was shorter and lighter, curling at the end as it had hung from a tight ponytail. Her minimal makeup had only highlighted those discerning blue eyes and soft, full mouth—a mouth Cade knew all too well.
A mouth that had him hardening in an instant, and he thanked God that he was still behind his desk.
“Sheriff.” Cam’s voice was not amused. “Cade, you still here with me?”
Decidedly not, but Cam had the nasty habit of actually caring about the people in her life, and she always seemed to know when Cade hadn’t gone home to sleep or hadn’t eaten a real meal in three days. Without a word, she would have three pans of tamales or enchiladas or empanadas sitting in his fridge the next day. And since Martina Flores, Camilla’s mother, was much better cook than Cade, he gratefully accepted them.
But right now even the prospect of homemade bunuelos wasn’t enough to keep Cade from thinking about the way Hollie had felt in his arms all those years ago. In fairness, there had never really been a time when he hadn’t been thinking about how Hollie felt in his arms, but seeing her here again in the flesh brought it all back into multicolor and had Cade questioning just about everything he knew.
“It’s Hollie, isn’t it?” Camilla’s keen eye and protective nature made her a damn good deputy, but it also meant she stuck her nose where it most definitely didn’t belong.
“That obvious?” Cade asked, raking his hand through his hair—or trying, at least. His latest—and shortest—haircut had essentially put an end to that habit.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Camilla agreed. “But, like, a ghost you’re really mad at.”
Was he angry with Hollie? Sawyer certainly was, but Cade knew Sawyer Matthews well enough to know that the man was all about putting on a show. Still, the vehemence in the other man’s eyes…
Cade understood. In fact, he might have been the only person in the world who did. But angry? Not really. Not anymore. The hurt was still real. The sadness. The regret. But he had seen first-hand what anger did to men—even those that had once been decent and good-hearted, and he had done his damnedest to keep his own emotions deeply in check. Except for where Sawyer was concerned, but they had their own set of history that took a different kind of a dealing with.
And how will you deal with Hollie?
He had a couple of ideas and none of them had to do with anger.
“It’s been a long time,” Cade admitted. “You think I’d be past it by now, but…” He trailed off. Cam knew him well enough to make her own assumptions—he certainly didn’t need to give her all the details.
“It doesn’t work like that, Hoss,” she said, pushing off the door frame and coming fully into the room. “Jillian and I broke up six years ago and I still love her. If you have something unresolved with Hollie, of course you’re feeling confused.” Confused was an understatement if Cade had ever heard one, but Cam so rarely mentioned her ex-girlfriend that he knew she was doing her best to tread lightly around his feelings. Which he really didn’t want her to do. He might have been many things, but he sure as hell wasn’t fragile.
“I’ll be fine,” he said, standing from his desk and shrugging into his jacket. It was spring, but this was Montana and the weather didn’t listen to the calendar. Camilla’s look said she was having none of his nonsense, but also that she knew better than to speak the words out loud.
Cade should have known better. He should have known that the first woman—the only woman he had ever fallen in love with—would leave him eventually. He should have known by senior year of high school that the only person in the world he could count on was himself. He should have known all those things, but Hollie had taken him far away from Wolf Creek. She had made him feel like someone worth the effort. She had given him a chance to succeed, whether she knew it or not. Then she had left, only after he’d been given just enough hope to have his heart broken.
“How about you let me drive, Sheriff?” Camilla asked. Cade pushed the thoughts of Hollie, of their past, of everything that had happened between them, far away. He was not going to let her arrival distract him from his most important j
ob—keeping the people of Wolf Creek safe. So he shook his head, climbed into the driver’s seat and set off to do his job—beautiful blondes with knowing eyes and adventure in their hearts be damned.
* * * *
“Hollie Callihan, come here and give us a hug.”
Hollie couldn’t overstate the relief she felt at spying the friendly faces of Dec McCormick and Micah Ellison. Half the town seemed gathered on the open stretches of field beyond the Triple Diamond Ranch B&B, which the owner, Maddy Hollis, had graciously allowed them to use as a point location for emergency response. Hollie weaved through the crowd and came to stand before the tall men, tilting her head up to meet their eyes.
“It’s great to see you guys,” she managed, before Dec engulfed in her a hug, then Micah gave her a much more subdued welcome, though his smile was no less pleased or welcoming. “It’s been a hell of a time back here, I’ll tell you that.” Because all she had done since arriving had been to look her past dead in the eyes and, fuck, if her past didn’t look a hell of a lot more delicious than it had when she’d left.
“Does that mean our esteemed fire captain and sheriff will be all the more delightful to work with?” Dec asked with an all-too-knowing grin. Hollie elbowed him in the gut.
“That’s none of your business. And you know I’m not about rehashing the events of that night.” That night being the time Hollie’s Search and Rescue team, back before she had entered the ranks of the bureaucracy, had teamed up with Black Reef S&R to rescue a field trip of overnight campers who had been stranded during a flash flood. Dec was a few years older than her, but they’d made the Wolf Creek connection in an instant, and she’d become just as friendly with his search partner, Micah.
After rescuing the students and their two shaken but impressively capable chaperones, the three of them, along with several others, had gotten rip-roaring drunk at the hotel bar and Hollie had let a few important pieces of information slip.