by Cora Seton
Kendra took the paper. “Let me get a pen.” She turned and walked toward the front desk.
He followed, scanning the area behind it for Lacey, but she wasn’t there. He ignored his disappointment and focused on the owner. She took a pen from behind the counter and filled in the information needed.
The door behind him opened and he turned to see if it was Wade. He wanted to get the man’s contact information. But the couple entering the building was definitely not the resort manager. In fact, they were both naked except for flip-flops and they carried a bag and towels.
Kendra glanced up. “Can I help you?”
The young woman, no older than Lacey, had naturally red hair on her head and at the juncture of her thighs, as well as a smattering of freckles on her cheeks. “Yes, we drove up from Phoenix to try Poker Flat for the day. I know it’s way early, but we wanted to get the most for our grounds fees.” She gave an apologetic smile.
Kendra nodded. “That’s a smart idea. One moment.” The owner disappeared down the narrow hallway that must lead to the back offices.
The young woman turned her attention to him. “Are you here for the day as well?”
He swallowed, making a conscious effort to look only at her face and not at her very large nipples. He was well aware she was with her man. “No, miss. I was just about to leave.”
“Hey, are you a firefighter? Is there a fire?” The young man craned his neck to look past his girl and out the floor-to-ceiling windows of the lobby.
Cole took a tired breath. “No need to worry. The fire is out and no one was hurt. It shouldn’t interfere with your day.”
The young lady gave an exaggerated sigh. “I’m so glad. This is our first time at this particular resort. We’d heard it was beautiful and we’re so excited to spend the day checking it out.”
He nodded, trying not to smirk. Despite his need for a shower and sleep, he found it amusing that people paid to walk around nude in a public setting.
“May I help you?” Lacey’s voice came from behind the front desk, pulling his attention to her.
She focused solely on the young couple and ignored his presence. He wished he could do the same. She looked so much like his old Lacey but different. Did she still wear the scent that reminded him of clean sheets drying on an outdoor line? Did she still wear the fancy panties and bras she’d been so fond of as a teenager? His nickname for her when they were alone had been Racy Lacey.
He couldn’t help staring at her chest as she helped the guests, trying to see through the white blouse to identify any lace or polka dots.
Kendra returned. “I’m sorry about that. I had to find the insurance company’s number.”
He nodded absently as she continued to fill out the form. He tried to stay focused, but Lacey’s welcoming voice had him glancing her way again.
She smiled warmly as she handed the couple a map. “When you are ready to leave, just let any of the staff know and they will call Billy to take you back to your car. Enjoy your day.”
When the young couple turned to leave, Lacey spared him a glance. It was anything but friendly.
Maybe he was punchy from lack of sleep, but he smiled in response. She was still damn beautiful, her light-brown eyes matching the mahogany-stained beams of the lobby.
Those eyes widened before she spun on her heel and disappeared again.
He turned back to the owner of Poker Flat to find her studying him. Shit. She knew all about his past with Lacey.
“Here you go.”
“Thank you, ma’am. Mason and I are heading out now, but expect the investigator this morning.” He turned to leave, but Kendra put her hand on his arm. “Cole.”
He started at the use of his name. She’d only called him Lieutenant until now. “Yes?”
“Lacey didn’t do it. This one or the last one. You might want to chew on that.”
Before he could respond, Kendra Lowe strode back the way she’d come. Shaking his head at her message, he chalked it up to loyalty among women and headed out the door.
Jumping into the engine truck, he sat back as Mason drove them off the nudist resort. No matter what the owner believed, he had an obligation to let Detective Sean Anderson know what he knew. Lacey Winters had been accused of arson once before.
Lacey contemplated the coffee cup in her hands. The dark-brown color reminded her of Cole’s hair when they were younger. Now his hair was cut very short. Did he do that for his role as firefighter?
Kendra poked her head around the corner. “All clear. You can go back out to the front desk. He’s gone.”
“I was just having some coffee.” She held up her cup. “Didn’t want to drink it in front of check-ins.”
“Yeah, right. Since I’m up so damn early, I’m going to the stable to see if I can coax Wade into a short ride.” Kendra paused. “Did you stay up all night working?”
Not exactly. Her nightmare had come back with a vengeance and made her afraid to go back to sleep. She shrugged. “I admit I didn’t get a lot of sleep, but I wasn’t working.”
Kendra gave her a knowing look, probably assuming she’d been thinking about Cole, which in a tangental way she had been.
“Well, stay awake until I get back, okay? You’re in charge.”
She nodded. “Okay. Have fun.”
Kendra left the doorway only to poke her head around it again. “I almost forgot. Price Construction will probably show up soon. Cole said they aren’t allowed on the stable ridge until the fire investigator arrives which will be later today. I’ll have Wade block the stable road with the wagon so they come directly here. Let them know what happened.”
“Got it. And if we have more day guests, they can wait to use that part of the resort until later.”
Kendra nodded in agreement then disappeared again, this time for good.
Lacey topped off her coffee and moved to the reception area. She was a wimp for hiding in the back, but she didn’t know how to react around Cole. He was the same person but so different physically. He must have added at least fifty pounds of pure muscle since high school.
She set her coffee down and powered-on the computer. In the light of the lobby, she’d been made aware of exactly how big Cole had become. He had to be at least a foot taller than her now and the navy-blue fire department t-shirt fit him like a second skin, showing a broad, mounded chest, narrowed waist and biceps that stretched the short sleeves to their limits. The firefighter pants he wore hid his legs, which just had her imagination running wild. Then he’d had to go and smile at her, his warm green eyes twinkling as if he knew it would make her melt inside.
Shaking her head, she tried to dispel her thoughts of Cole. She sat and reviewed emails from the website asking for information. She always liked to do those first in the hopes of turning them into reservations. She completed three before her mind reverted back to Cole like a quail to her nest. Cole Hatcher’s opinion was like a steel trap. Once set, it never changed. Yes, he was charming and courteous and had a good heart, but if she was a persona non grata then there was no reason to hope he’d changed his opinion about her over the years. Stubborn cowboy.
She took a sip of her cooling coffee. Cole would probably never set foot on Poker Flat again, so there was no reason for her to worry about him anymore. If anything, seeing him again had helped. In her heart, she’d kept that little flame of love alive all these years, but there was no hope there. She’d been a silly school girl. Now she was a grown woman. She would find a nice man to marry someday. One who would listen to reason and stand by his woman no matter what.
That’s what she wanted. Loyalty and unending faith. Two qualities she’d not had with Cole.
Feeling a bit more balanced since seeing her ex, she answered a few more emails and then stepped to the back to warm her coffee. When she returned, the front door opened and two men walked in.
Keith, the owner of Price Construction, stalked forward with a scowl, his bald head reflecting the lobby’s recessed ceiling lights. B
ehind him was John Lockhart, one of the men who worked for Mr. Price. Reflexively, she brushed down her skirt. John was attractive in a rugged way. They’d been flirting a bit when she’d taken Selma’s treats out to the site, a job she’d volunteered for after meeting him. Maybe she should ask him out to help her forget about Cole.
“What the hell is going on?” Keith punctuated his question with a meaty fist to the counter. “There’s a wagon blocking the road up to the site.”
“Good morning, Mr. Price. I’m afraid we’ve had to halt construction for a while.”
“Halt construction? I’m on a deadline thanks to that tight contract Kendra negotiated and it looked from the ledge top that there’s been some kind of damage done. I’ll need time to fix that. I can’t afford to ‘wait a while’.”
Lacey kept her smile. Her mom always said a person could attract more bees with honey than vinegar, even if it wasn’t honey the bees were after. “Oh, I’m sure Kendra will renegotiate.” She winked. “I’m even guessing it will be more to your benefit.” She glanced at John, who was smiling at her. At least her heart didn’t race when he looked at her.
Mr. Price slapped his hand on the counter to gain her attention. “Out with it, girl. What are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying there was a fire at the construction site last night.”
“What?” Mr. Price looked stunned.
John put his hand on the counter as if he wanted to touch her. “Are you okay? Was anyone hurt?”
“I’m fine, thank you for asking.” She smiled at him before turning her attention back to Mr. Price. “No one was hurt but there were four explosions and all the new construction is burnt. Even the old barn boards Kendra had shipped in. So my guess is you will have to start all over again, which will mean more money, right?”
Mr. Price finally relaxed. “Yes, it will. And this time, I’ll negotiate a better timeline.”
“So why can’t we get to the construction site?” John frowned. “Is there anything dangerous there?”
He really did have a great jaw and his wavy blond hair was attractive in a relaxed way. “I don’t think there’s anything dangerous, but I haven’t been there since last night. The firefighters said no one could go to the site until the investigator came to look it all over.”
Mr. Price groaned. “This could take forever. I’m going to pull my men to another job. Tell Kendra to call me when she wants to renegotiate and have us start again. If she needs someone to clean up after the investigation is over, I’ve got a crew for that too.”
“Really?” She raised her brows then winked at John.
The older man shifted his weight. “Well, yeah. We have to clean up our sites when we’re done, so I use that crew to do odd clean up jobs. Can’t hurt to bring in some more money. Not a ton of building going on out this way.”
She nodded. Phoenix and more populated areas had recovered from the housing slump, but the smaller towns were still struggling. “I’ll be sure to give Kendra the message.”
Mr. Price nodded then headed for the exit. John reached out. “I look forward to coming back to work on the project.”
She smiled and shook his hand. “I hope it won’t be long.”
He gave her hand an extra squeeze then followed his boss out. Lacey watched his stride, which was so different from a cowboy’s. Maybe she should keep her sights on men who weren’t cowboys. Her luck with them hadn’t been so great.
*
Cole called himself a fool from here ’til Tuesday. What the hell was he doing? “Thanks for letting me tag along, Sean.”
The detective with bright-orange hair cut short looked like a young recruit, even after ten years on the force, but Cole knew better. Sean was good at investigation and he’d specifically gone to arson school to be better equipped to help out the fire stations in the area. Cole trusted him to discover the truth.
“I don’t mind the company. I also appreciate the information you gave me. It’s good to know, but I’ll let the evidence lead me to the cause.”
“Of course.” Cole shrugged as if the outcome of the investigation didn’t matter to him. But it did…a lot. “I’m wired after the battle last night. I won’t be able to sleep until tonight now. Besides, I’d like to check out what this nudist resort is all about.” He didn’t want to divulge his interest in setting something up with the resort manager.
Sean took his eyes off the road for a moment to give him a sideways look. “Really?”
Shit, now the man was going to think him a pervert. “Oh, I have no plans to get nude, but I’m curious as to how they operate. I hear they have naked horseback riding. I just don’t get that. You could hurt some pretty sensitive parts doing that, if you know what I mean.”
Sean grimaced even as he turned down the dirt road with the new wooden sign declaring the entrance to Poker Flat Nudist Resort. “I don’t see anything but desert out here.”
Cole grinned. “Wait until after we park. It’s well hidden, which is probably a good thing.”
They continued down the flat dirt road passing nothing but saguaro, mesquite trees and an occasional ocotillo. Finally, they came to the roadblock, the tire tracks from his fire trucks still visible going around the wooden barrier.
“Pull in here. They’ll bring us down in a golf cart.” He pointed to the three-sided garage the size of two fire stations.
Sean raised a brow, but didn’t comment as he parked the unmarked vehicle in the shade of the giant steel structure. As they exited the car, an older man approached dressed in jeans, a checkered shirt, and suspenders with a rumpled cowboy hat in his hand.
“Welcome to Poker Flat Nudist Resort. I’m Billy.” He clutched his hat with one hand and held out the other.
Sean shook. “Detective Sean Anderson. You probably remember Lt. Cole Hatcher from last night.”
Billy scrunched up his face as he peered at Cole, and thrust his hand forward. “I were asleep last night. Nice to meet ya.”
Cole looked down at the short elderly man and shook his hand. He’d slept through fire engine sirens and gas explosions?
“This way.” As Billy led them to a golf cart, Cole studied him a bit closer. Maybe the man was hard of hearing. One way to find out.
Sean sat in the front, so Cole took the back seat. Once they started off toward the edge of the ravine, he quietly commented on the resort, lifting his voice to just above a whisper. “It amazes me how hidden this place is.”
Billy turned his head slightly. “I loves that guests is so surprised. I never gets tired of that.”
So much for hard of hearing. Maybe the old man had been off the resort when he wasn’t supposed to be.
Sean turned toward Cole. “There is a resort here, right? This isn’t a joke.”
Billy chuckled as he slowed the cart at the ridge of the ravine. “There she be.”
“Holy sh—cow.” Sean stared.
Cole could sympathize with the man. When the fire engine had crested the ravine at sunset yesterday, he’d had a similar reaction, though not so polite. His men had echoed his expletives. From the desert road, the ravine wasn’t even noticeable, but once cresting it, the resort came into view, perched high on two large shelves of land on the opposite ravine wall, yet below the top ridge.
One side held the stables, a steel building and the burned construction, while the other shelf held the main building and pool with adobe casitas lined up behind it. More casitas were scattered farther down the sloping wall of the ravine with golf carts parked outside. Between them and the resort was a dirt road with a sturdy bridge at the bottom that crossed the stream, which barely trickled at this time of year.
He pointed at the shelf with the stable. “That’s where the fire was.”
Billy picked up speed again. While Sean viewed the entire resort, Cole focused on the building in ashes. Its proximity to the barn from this angle made his gut clench. Last night was too close for the horses here.
After crossing the bridge, they rose up the o
ther side of the ravine and at the split, headed left toward the stables.
“Ms. Kendra say you be coming and to keep everyone away. Lacey send the construction guys a packin’.” Billy smiled a toothy grin, showing a significant gap between his tarnished teeth.
Sean nodded. “Good. What’s that?”
Billy slowed the cart. “Sheet, I forget. Wade block the road with the buckboard to keeps everyone away.” He brought the cart to a stop.
Cole stepped out. “Can we move it?”
“I doesn’t know. Wade use the big horses to pulls this.” Billy scratched his head. “I guesses I can walks to the barn and gets Wade.”
Sean exited the golf cart and walked around the wagon. “This is a pretty sturdy reproduction piece.”
Cole joined him. “I think we can move this. You two guide it at the front and I’ll push from behind. We only need to move it far enough for the golf cart to get by.”
“It can’t hurt to try.” Sean patted Billy on the shoulder. “Come on, Billy. Time for your morning workout.”
Billy grumbled something unintelligible and Cole smiled. He doubted very much that Billy was excited, but if this worked, it would save them at least a half hour.
He strode behind the replica of an old western wagon, glad he wore his Stetson because the morning heat was well on its way to the low nineties. He leaned against the wagon to test its willingness to move. Though it had four sturdy wooden wheels, it didn’t even rock. Not a good sign.
“Ready when you are, Cole.” Sean looked back at him from the horse hitch.
Pressing his hands against the back of the wagon’s bed, he pushed. The wagon rocked but remained in place. Shit.
Sean yelled back, “Need some help?”
He shook his head. “And get your pretty clothes dirty?”
“Trust me. They’ll be dirty soon enough.”
Cole grinned. Investigating fires wasn’t exactly clean work. “Let me give it another try. I just need to get it rolling.”
He didn’t wait for a response. Instead, he leaned his back against the wagon and used his leg muscles. The vehicle rocked, creaked, and finally rolled. Not wanting to lose the momentum, he quickly shuffled his feet back and pushed harder. When the wagon had rolled a good fifteen feet, he stopped. He turned to see where they had directed it. Billy and Sean had angled the wagon so the horses could easily be hitched. He was glad someone was thinking.