Fire and Love

by Erin Wright

  Yeah, “easier” was definitely stretching it. Some of the memories were good, some were awful, but all packed a punch. When she’d first conceived of doing this, it hadn’t occurred to her how emotional it would be. She was saying goodbye to a part of her life, and even if that was a good thing, it was still overwhelming.

  She glanced down at the phone in her hand and reopened the text thread with Levi, tracing her finger over the sparkling heart.

  Maybe it was hard, but being the kind of person that Levi would want to have in his life? It made it all worth it. Maybe he didn’t know every little detail of her past, but he did love her for her, and in her world, that was a first. She wasn’t about to screw up this second chance on life.

  She pulled another top out. Time to get to work.

  Chapter 34

  Levi

  The shop door opened with a loud jangle and Levi looked up from the weld he was working on, to see Rocky Garrett walking in.

  No, not just walking in. Walking towards him.

  Which meant he wasn’t there to just order some metal or hire WMI to do some work for him.

  Dammit.

  He moved over as he pushed the welding helmet back on his head, flicking the welder off. Whatever his dad – oh dear God, what a weird idea that is! – wanted to talk to him about, Levi didn’t want the distraction of worrying about burning the shop to the ground while they discussed it.

  His dad came to a stop in front of him, his jaw set, looking like he was ready to do battle. Shit. Whatever Rocky had come in to discuss with him, Levi knew he didn’t want to talk about it with every one of his coworkers able to overhear them.

  Without saying a word to Rocky, Levi walked past him and towards the shop door. “Ben, I’m going to step outside with Mr. Garrett here for a moment,” he told his boss. “Be right back.”

  He walked out without looking back and leaned up against the side of the building in the shade, waiting for his dad to follow. Seconds later, the shop door opened and Rocky came striding out, looking a little pissed to have been left behind like that.

  Good.

  Levi wasn’t in the mood to be gracious, turned out.

  He just cocked an eyebrow at Rocky and waited for him to say something.

  After waiting for a moment for Levi to greet him, Rocky realized that he wasn’t going to, and cleared his throat, looking even more unhappy than he had just seconds before.

  Levi tried to suppress the smirk crossing his face, but failed. Mr. Rocky Garrett, one of the richest men in Long Valley County, was not used to being treated like this.

  “I came over to see if you’ve given any thought to my offer,” Rocky rumbled, his deep voice an exact replica of Levi’s.

  “You mean the one where you want me to screw over my best friend and half brother by stealing a dealership from him?” Levi said sarcastically. “That offer?”

  “I told you before, you’re not stealing from him! You can’t steal what ain’t his. Deere made his choice and now he has to live with it. I’m giving you a second chance. Just change your last name and take over the dealership. Simple as that.”

  Levi was already shaking his head before Rocky had even finished speaking.

  “Nope,” he said, popping the P. “Anything else?” He started to push himself away from the wall where he’d been slumped insolently, a posture he’d adopted only because he knew it’d piss Rocky off. He hated it when people slouched.

  Levi decided then and there to slouch anytime he knew Rocky was within eyesight.

  “I don’t get why you want to keep the name Scranton,” Rocky said hurriedly, trying to get it out before Levi could walk away. “After all, Steve isn’t your father, and he was a bastard of a man to you. Why keep that name?”

  Levi paused, and then sank back against the building again.

  Dammit. He hated that Rocky had a point, he really did.

  Sensing progress, Rocky pushed forward. “I know that you and Tennessee are dating. Her parents had wanted her to marry Deere because he was supposed to take over the dealership from me. If you’re really serious about her, think about what a boon it would be if you owned the dealership when you asked her father – and my best friend – for her hand in marriage. You can go to her dad as the former welder for the John Deere dealership, or you can go to her dad as the current owner of the John Deere dealership. Which one do you think will get you further down the road? Especially with the Garrett last name. He doesn’t want a Scranton as a son-in-law, I can guarantee you that. But a Garrett…?”

  He paused for a moment and let it sink in.

  “Think about it,” he said, and walked away, leaving Levi behind to stare after him.

  Chapter 35

  Tennessee

  Working together, they pulled a long rusty piece of rebar out of the heap in front of them so she could inspect it closely. Once she decided that it was in good enough shape to purchase, she tossed it over to the “buy” pile.

  Levi shook his head with a bemused smile. “Whatever happened to the Tennessee Rowland who took her curling iron and blow dryer camping with her, and didn’t want to stick a worm with a hook?”

  She wrinkled her nose at him. “I still don’t want to stick a worm with a hook,” she told him pertly. “I prefer my food to arrive already butchered and cleaned on my plate, thankyouverymuch.”

  “I’ll get you to love fishin’ soon enough,” he promised her. “Once you realize how fun it is…”

  She was busy digging through a pile of random steel pieces, trying to imagine how she’d use them in yard art, and decided to ignore that statement. Who was she to destroy his delusions?

  “Oh, this one could be fun,” she said, pulling out a triangular piece of steel. “Cat’s ears – can’t you see it now?”

  Levi cocked an eyebrow at her. “No,” he said bluntly, “but we’ve already gone over this. Creative ain’t my middle name.”

  “And neither is proper English,” she muttered under her breath, tossing the triangular piece into the “buy” pile.

  “Are you making fun of me?” he gasped in horror, reaching out and tickling her. “Why’s you makin’ fun of me? I’s just a poor Idaho boy.”

  She collapsed against him, tears of laughter streaming down her face. His hick accent was atrocious, to say the least, and freakin’ hilarious because it didn’t sound a damn thing like him.

  “I was a product of the Idaho educational system, too, you know,” she reminded him when she finally got her breath back, “and you don’t catch me using ain’t.”

  “There ain’t a damn thing wrong with the word ain’t,” he said, moving the buy pile onto a flat-bed cart so they could push it up to the front. The scrap metal yard was the only one in a 50-mile radius and even though Levi kept muttering about their high prices, Tennessee figured she could make it back and then some after she’d turned this pile of steel into beautiful art. “Now, you’s a ready to mosey on back to my shop so you’s can start a workin’ on welding all this here shit together?”

  She laughed even harder. If anything, the hick accent was only getting more atrocious by the moment. “Smile big for me,” she ordered him, once she could catch her breath.

  “Why?” His accent was gone and he only looked baffled now.

  “I’m just wanting to double check that you have all of your teeth.”

  He threw back his head and laughed, revealing his gorgeous white teeth in all of their magnificent glory. “All right, fine, I deserved that one,” he admitted once he got his breath back.

  They pushed the cart over to the purchase station and after she carefully counted out the cash she’d made from her latest sales, they pushed the cart over to his truck and began loading it up. Old Tennessee would have stood back and let Levi do all of the work, but new Tennessee was right there alongside him, pushing pieces into the bed of the truck. Granted, she chose the smaller pieces, but still…

  One small step at a time, she was becoming more independent.

&n
bsp; Once they were loaded up, they climbed into the truck and headed out of Franklin and back towards his shop. She settled in for the 30-minute drive, slipping her hand into his and snuggling down in her seat. She let out a big yawn, feeling her eyes tear up from the strength of the yawn. Maybe she’d close her eyes, just for a minute…

  “Hey, I had something I wanted to talk to you about,” Levi said seriously, and she sat straight up, her stomach instantly dropping to her toes. Whatever he was about to say, it wasn’t good. Maybe it was the way he was drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. Maybe it was the way he’d tightened up his shoulders.

  Whatever it was, she could tell he expected her to freak out.

  “Yeah?” she said, trying to swallow her sudden nerves. “What’s up?”

  “Rocky came by WMI yesterday. He, uh…he wanted me to rethink my decision on taking over the dealership from him.”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head before he even finished speaking. “No, no, no. Nothing that man does comes at face value. There is always a catch with him.” The words were coming out faster now as she tried to say them before he could cut her off. He had to listen to her. She had to make him realize what a downright shitastic idea this was.

  “This is the guy who was willing to force his own son to marry me, even though he knew Moose didn’t love me, and I didn’t love Moose. He’s manipulative, Levi. I don’t know why he and my dad care so much that the two families get united by marriage, except maybe a power thing? They want to be able to rule Long Valley? I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this and I just don’t get it. But whatever he said – whatever he promised you – it won’t be worth the price tag, I promise.”

  “You,” Levi said softly. “I’m serious about you, Tenny, and I don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning your father’s approval if I go to him as the son of the town drunk. But if I change my name to Garrett and take over the dealership – your parents would give their blessing, I just know it.”

  “I don’t want you stabbing your best friend in the back to get my parent’s approval!” she shouted, feeling the heat rising up in her cheeks. This was absolutely ridiculous. He had to see that.

  “But that’s the best part!” Levi said imploringly. “I could hire Moose back at the dealership! He wouldn’t have to work for Massey Ferguson any longer.”

  She bust out laughing, but it was a bitter laugh. There was no humor in it, or in her.

  “Levi, I love you, but there are days when you’re dumber than a fencepost,” she said bluntly. “Do you really think that Moose would be okay to come back to the John Deere dealership and work for you, when it’s actually supposed to be his? He’s worked his whole life for that damn dealership and that damn man you two share as a father. It’s okay to be just a salesman at Massey, because he was never supposed to be anything more than that. But at John Deere? He was supposed to own it. He can’t come back and be just a salesman, even if he would be working for his best friend.”

  Silence.

  He was staring through the front windshield as they passed the open fields between Franklin and Sawyer, thinking it over as they drove. She pulled her hand away from his and crossed her arms across her chest, instinctively trying to protect herself from him. From this fight they were quickly descending into.

  Finally, he let out a long sigh. “You’re right,” he admitted softly. “I just…I wanted an excuse to be able to say yes. But Moose…he’d take it as a betrayal, and he’d be right to. I just want some sort of leverage when it comes to dealing with your parents.”

  She shook her head with a small laugh. “It’s sweet of you to care so much about making my parents happy, but I promise you, I don’t care. They’re not worth a moment’s worry.”

  “That’s easy for you to say,” he retorted bitterly. “It’s easy when you have a family, to dismiss the value of that family. I’m pretty much an orphan, Tenny. My father isn’t my father after all, and my biological father is an asshole who won’t claim me publicly unless I screw over my best friend and brother. So yeah, it’s easy for you to be dismissive of your family, but I don’t take it that lightly.”

  “Levi,” she said slowly and with great emphasis, “you are a certified jackass.” He jerked as if she’d slapped him, but she barreled on. “That day that we went over to the Garrett house and you confronted Rocky, all you could focus on afterwards was you. You, you, you. In that moment, your best friend was hurting. His father had basically just spit in his face. But what did you do? Focus on poor, poor pitiful Levi. You know what? I’m sick of the sob story. I’m sick of the pity party. Yeah, I have a family, and they suck donkey dick! In fact, Mr. Orphan, you do have a family. You’ve got a dickhead cheater who fathered you out of wedlock, and three half-siblings and a stepmom. There! Congratulations!” The sarcasm was rolling off her tongue now, fast and thick. “You have a family. Are all of your problems solved? No? Shocking!”

  She fumbled for the door handle of the truck. “Slow down!” she yelled over her shoulder. “Let me out. Until you can figure out how to extract your head from your ass, you’re on your own, bucko.”

  He slowed down, even as he said, “Let me drive you back to Georgia’s house. It’s still a ways from Sawyer. You don’t want—” The truck rolled to a stop and she threw herself out of it, slamming the door behind her with all of her might.

  “You used to think that money solved every problem,” she shouted through the open window of the truck, staring up at Levi. He had this pleading look on his face, but she wasn’t going to budge an inch. Not when he was being so stubbornly stupid. “And now, you think that family solves every problem. Well, I’ve had money and I’ve had family, and I’m here to tell you that my problems are far from solved. You, Levi, need to man up. Call me when you do, and we can talk then.”

  She turned on her heel and began marching down the side of the highway, her arms swinging with self-righteous indignation. If her mother could see her right then, she’d be having a conniption fit. My daughter is not a hobo to wander down the side of the road in public. What will people think?

  Tennessee marched faster. There was something very satisfying about telling off Levi and her mother in one move. A twofer!

  “Tenny, please,” Levi called out from the truck as he crept up beside her on the road. “It’s a long ways to Sawyer, and it’s hot out today. Just let me drive you back to Georgia’s house. I…I promise not to talk the whole way if you don’t want me to.”

  She slowed down just a bit.

  Ugh.

  She hated to admit it, but the back of her right heel was already aching and she could tell that she was probably going to have a blister there if she kept up this pace. There was also the fact that even though she’d become more active since she’d started blacksmithing, she wasn’t exactly an athlete. No matter how pissed she was, hiking 10 miles just didn’t appeal to her.

  “All right, fine,” she snarled, waiting for him to pull to a stop so she could climb back in.

  She snapped her seat belt into place and then folded her arms over her torso. She really was going to give him the cold shoulder all the way back to town, though. He needed to learn that he couldn’t just be a dick to everyone and they’d just continue to put up with it.

  The silence in the truck was deafening, but Tenny continued to stare out the window, watching the fence posts as they rolled by. She wasn’t gonna budge an inch.

  Chapter 36

  Levi

  He looked over at Tenny with a knot in his stomach. She was right, of course. What was up with the Rowland girls always being right? It got downright obnoxious after a while.

  Not content to just be right, she was clearly also going to make any apology as torturous as possible. At the moment, she was making a porcupine look awfully friendly.

  He pushed down on the gas. The sooner he could take her to Georgia’s house and show her that he meant it when he said he wouldn’t talk to her on the way there, the sooner he could try
to dig himself out of the hole he’d found himself in.

  Finally, finally, the outskirts of Sawyer came into view. Almost there, Levi. Just be a little patient.

  Painful, deafening silence throbbed in the cabin of the truck.

  They rolled to a stop in front of Georgia’s house. Tennessee was already halfway out the door before he could say anything, but he plunged on anyway. “I drove you home without saying a word, right?” he called out. “Just like I promised. Please, just listen to me for a minute. If I don’t change your mind, I’ll let you go.”

  His heart shriveled and pulsed at those words, sending panic and pain through him. He couldn’t lose her.

  Please don’t make me give you up.

  Please.

  She paused for the longest time, staring off into the distance, and then finally nodded her head. She heaved herself back up into the passenger seat and pulled the door closed behind her.

  She didn’t, however, buckle her seat belt. She’d always been a real stickler for doing that every time without fail, so for her to skip it this time…

  Yeah, she was here, but he had better work hard to make her want to stay.

  He pulled away from the curb and began to drive aimlessly through Sawyer, paying only enough attention to the road to keep from taking out a stop sign or a street corner.

  “Do you know how Moose and I became such good friends?” he asked quietly. It was one of the most important days of his life, but that didn’t mean she had a clue what had happened, or that anything had happened at all.

  She shook her head.

  “Third grade. Recess time. That was when all of the bullies came out to play. I was tall for my age – I had that going for me – but my clothes were always dirty and too small. This was before I figured out how to wash my clothes in the bathtub and lay them out to dry over the shower curtain. I was hungry – God, I was always hungry – and they knew it. They held out this bag of Dorito chips tauntingly. They were trying to see what I’d agree to do for a bag of Doritos. My stomach was gnawing my backbone and all I could think was that I’d do anything. Anything at all. I just wanted to eat something.”