Smolder (Firefighters of Montana Book 1)

by Tracy Solheim

  Which, of course, she was, damn it.

  “You must be the soldier Tyson was talking about.” Bryce extended his hand toward Sam. “The one with the…horse Laurel is riding.”

  Laurel cringed at the double entendre, her anger with Bryce escalating. His hand hung in the air awkwardly for a long moment before Sam grasped it with his own. “Yep,” was all he said. He was a mountain of unflinching muscle as he stared Bryce down.

  Tori, seemingly oblivious of the palpable tension, slipped in between Ivy and Bryce. “On the house,” she said with her mouth while her hips communicated a host of invitations.

  Bryce accepted the bottle of Blue Moon with the trademark smile his parents had paid a fortune to a Marin County dentist for.

  “Thank you, darlin’.”

  “Whatever you want,” Tori called over her shoulder with a wink.

  Ivy crossed her arms in front of her and groaned audibly. Laurel would have, too, but she still wasn’t sure what was happening.

  “Bryce, tell me what’s going on. Now,” she ordered. It wasn’t lost on her that she had to use the same mommy voice she used with Tyson on a grown man. “Why are you home early? Tyson was looking forward to this trip. What happened?”

  “That’s the thing,” Bryce said sheepishly. “I don’t think he was ready for a trip like this.”

  “What do you mean?” she demanded.

  “He’s kind of whiny and a bit of a baby.”

  “What?” Laurel stared at Bryce in disbelief.

  “He’s five!” Ivy shouted.

  “Going on six. And you two”—Bryce pointed to Ivy before turning his finger on Laurel—“have turned him into a mama’s boy.”

  Laurel would have charged across the table, but Sam’s hand on her arm stopped her. He gave her that look again and she sucked in a deep breath.

  “It’s the first time the boy had been away from his mother for any length of time, Johnson. It happens,” Sam said quietly. “If you spent some time with him, you’d see he’s a typical kid who is, in fact, very independent.”

  Bryce’s body stiffened and the people in the bar seemed to collectively hold their breath while Garth Brooks sang about friends in low places on the jukebox.

  “Well, well, Laurel.” Bryce’s eyes grew hard as he directed his stare at Sam. “It seems this guy knows more about my son than I do. Is there something you’re not telling me about your relationship with the captain?”

  She buried her head in her hands with a groan. “There is no relationship!”

  Sam stilled beside her, and even the stupid jukebox was quiet as it shifted to a new song. Laurel peeked out from behind her fingers to see Ivy, her eyes wide in her pale face. Bryce, on the other hand, wore a cocky expression that clearly said he was having fun stirring up trouble. The thing with Bryce was that he thought everyone wanted to push the envelope like he did. He didn’t understand there were repercussions to most of his bold words or actions. Bryce was a lot like his five-year-old son that way.

  She was saved from having to look at Sam when the sound of alarms sounded on multiple cell phones.

  “Cap?” Miranda poked her head around the parachute. “The crash site is seventy miles west of here. Because we’re going that direction we’ve got an hour and a half left of daylight. I can be wheels up in twenty minutes and have you on scene in forty-five.”

  Sam looked up from the screen of his phone just as Tyler Dodson rounded the corner. “I need three people to suit up,” Sam told Tyler in that no-nonsense military tone of his. “We’ll go in with search and rescue and make sure the fire stays contained. It’ll be boots out though, so we’ll be gone overnight at the very least.”

  “Ferguson and Rivers are gearing up in the ready room now. I’ll be your fourth.”

  Laurel shivered at the cavalier way Tyler put his life on the line, as though he were simply committing himself to a game of cards.

  “Let’s go,” Sam said.

  It stupidly dawned on her that Sam was going, too. He wasn’t issuing orders to a crew; he was leading it.

  Jumping from an airplane into a fire.

  “Wait!” Laurel shot out of her chair, barely able to squeeze the word out through her constricting throat.

  She’d hurt him a moment ago. Not that he’d ever admit it. But she knew she had. This thing between them confused him just as much as it did Laurel. She needed to apologize, to fix this, in case…in case… She swallowed roughly, unwilling to fathom what might happen to him.

  Sam’s body was poised for flight and she could see it was costing him to halt. When he turned toward her, his eyes still had that steely, competent look, but the compassion that had been there moments earlier was gone. Laurel’s felt its loss down to her toes.

  The Dixie Chicks were singing something about things not working out and Laurel would have laughed at the irony—except tears burned the back of her eyes.

  “I—you—I,” she stammered.

  “Laurel,” Sam said, not bothering to conceal his impatience. “A small plane has crashed into the side of a mountain. There are three people who need to be rescued and a fire that needs to be contained. Whatever this is, it’s going to have to wait.”

  He was right. She felt foolish and small and just a little bit desperate, emotions she’d sworn never to feel again after she’d first become pregnant with Tyson. But now wasn’t the time for her and Sam to resolve things.

  “Of course, yes.” She nodded, tucking her trembling hands behind her.

  Just when he looked like he might say something more, he turned and headed out of the bar.

  “Be safe,” she whispered at his retreating back.

  Miranda gave her a sympathetic look before hurrying after Sam.

  Chapter Eight

  “What do you mean you didn’t tell Tyson you’re getting married?” Laurel had just gotten her emotions under control when Bryce dropped yet another bombshell.

  Earlier, she’d hurried from the bar, eager to get back to the ranch and see for herself that her son was in fact fine. It wasn’t until Tyson had wrapped his skinny arms around her neck and she’d breathed in that familiar scent of sweaty little boy and baby shampoo that she felt her chest begin to relax a bit.

  “I missed you,” she whispered against the smooth skin of his cheek.

  “I missed everyone,” Tyson said, his blue eyes shining when Laurel brushed his soft hair off his face. “But I missed you the most.”

  Laurel managed a painful swallow; her throat was so constricted with emotion. “Didn’t you have fun meeting Mickey and Donald?”

  “Yeah, but I wanted you to meet them, too.”

  She hugged him more tightly as she squeezed her eyes shut to hold back tears.

  A half hour later, dusk was falling at the ranch. Seated in his grandmother’s lap on the big porch of the main house with Oreo, Truman, and Pirate crowded at his feet, Tyson was busy telling all the animals about his trip. Laurel and Bryce had wandered over to one of the paddocks to speak more privately.

  “I tried to tell him about the wedding, believe me, but he refused to give Audrianna more than two words the entire time. I think he was a little put out that she was even there,” Bryce explained.

  “He doesn’t get a lot of time with just you.”

  Bryce rested his forearms on the wooden fence. “Don’t hit me with a guilt trip, Laurel. You know what my life is like. Full-time fatherhood was never in the Olympic training plan.”

  Her sigh was part exasperation and part guilt. “I know that, Bryce. And for the millionth time, I’m sorry.”

  Bryce swore. “Stop it. I don’t regret having a son. And I certainly don’t regret that you’re his mother. I wish things could have worked out between us, but they didn’t. Tyson needs to fit into the life I’m making, though, Laurel.”

  Laurel wrapped her arms around her middle in hopes of quelling the rising nausea that this conversation always brought on. “He’s in kindergarten. He doesn’t understand everything that�
�s happening. Give him time.”

  “I’m not sure time is going to change the scenario that Tyson has in his head.”

  She cringed, thinking about what Sam said Tyson had told him the previous week. Laurel had ignored it, not wanting to put a damper on her son’s trip. Now she wondered if she’d just been in as much denial as her son.

  “Mommy! Daddy,” Tyson called merrily as he ran from the porch, Oreo barking excitedly at his heels. “Grandpa says there are new baby lambs at the animal sanctuary. Can we go see them tomorrow? Please?” He scrambled up on the railing between Laurel and Bryce and wrapped an arm around them both. “Maybe Daddy could take me to school in the morning tomorrow. Cameron’s daddy drops him off in the mornings so his mommy can sleep in. Mommy has been studying a lot. We should let her sleep in, huh, Daddy?” Tyson chattered on while Bryce looked shell-shocked. “Then we can all have a family outing to the sanctuary. There are picnic tables and a playground. Lots of families have picnics there.”

  Bryce’s blue eyes—so much like Tyson’s—had that ‘I told you so’ look in them when they met hers over the top of their son’s head.

  “Tyson, honey,” Laurel said gently. “Nobody’s sleeping in tomorrow because I have to work and you’ll want to go to school and tell Miss Ivy and your friends about Disneyland.” She went for a diversion, peering into Tyson’s ear. “Oh, my goodness, I think I see some pixie dust that Tinker Bell must have left in your ears,” she teased. “How about we get you into the tub?”

  Her son wasn’t easily distracted, however. He wrapped his arms firmly around Bryce’s neck. “Daddy can give me a bath. I want to show him my wind-up hippo toy.”

  When Bryce didn’t immediately respond, Laurel stepped in, just as she always did. “Honey, Daddy can’t stay. You can show him your toy another time.” She said a silent prayer her son would understand.

  Tyson’s eyes dimmed. “Can’t you stay until the little hand is on the nine?” he asked softly.

  Bryce shifted Tyson in his arms so the two were nose to nose. “Remember how I told you that I have to go to find the snow so I can practice for the Olympics?”

  Tyson’s head bobbed up and down solemnly.

  “Well, the team is leaving for South America soon and I have to get my gear all ready. I have to fly back to Utah tonight.”

  “They have rain forests in South America. Did you know that, Daddy?”

  Bryce’s face softened as he gazed in amazement at their son. “I did know that, Halfpipe.”

  “The horned frogs live there. We learned about them in school.”

  “Should I bring you one back?” Bryce had that devilish gleam in his eyes again and Laurel swiftly shook her head behind Tyson’s. The situation was bad enough without Bryce making all kinds of promises he couldn’t likely keep.

  “Yes!” Tyson wrapped his arms around his father’s neck. Bryce smiled smugly, oblivious that he’d just set his son up for yet another disappointment.

  “You behave for your mama okay, Halfpipe?” Bryce tickled Tyson as he let him slide down.

  Laurel’s mother called to Tyson. “Sweetie, why don’t you come have a bath in Grandma’s Jacuzzi tub. You can finish telling me about riding the monorail.”

  Tyson squeezed his father around the knees while Bryce ruffled his hair. “I can’t wait until the ’lympics is over, Daddy. Then we can all be together every day,” he said before racing off toward the house.

  Bryce swore again before angrily yanking the keys to his rental car out of his pants pocket.

  “I’m sorry.” Laurel hated how she always seemed to be saying that to Bryce. “I honestly didn’t know he ever considered that a reality. I should have nipped it in the bud last week when he said something similar to Sam.”

  He eyed her skeptically. “Soldier Sam seems to know a lot about our son.”

  “They barely know one another,” she said, a tad too defensively.

  “And how well do you know the good soldier?”

  “None of your business.”

  “I have a right to know if the guy is going to be hanging around Tyson,” he said sharply.

  Laurel glared at him over the hood of his rental car. “Funny, I never used that excuse to pry about your legion of snow bunnies.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Audrianna is the only woman I’ve introduced our son to. And that’s because he’ll be seeing her for the rest of his life.”

  She didn’t bother commenting that the bookies weren’t giving very good odds that Bryce and Audrianna’s marriage would have that type of longevity. “There’s nothing between Sam and me,” she lied.

  Only because she couldn’t define what exactly there was between them. Great sex, certainly. But even if she could get over Sam risking his life every day, she wasn’t sure it could ever be a rest of their lifetime relationship, either. Sam had made it clear he wasn’t looking for anything long-term. Not that Bryce needed to know any of those details.

  He studied her with a critical gaze for a long moment. “Too bad,” he finally said.

  Laurel rocked back on her heels. “Excuse me?”

  Bryce heaved a sigh before dragging his fingers through his hair. “Jesus, Laurel, do you think this is easy for me?” He spun around, gesturing wildly at the ranch surrounding them. “Your dream was to get out of here. To become a commercial artist. To see the world. Instead, you’re right back where you started. Crunching numbers in this wild west town. With a kid to boot. My kid. Do you think I’m that cold that I don’t want to see you happy? With someone?”

  Stunned, Laurel shivered slightly in the evening air. Bryce had honored her wish to keep their child, never once holding it against her. He paid his share and then some. And she knew he loved their son. But she also knew him well enough to know his outburst was as much about alleviating his guilt so he could go on with his life unscathed as it was about making her feel better. Although he hadn’t meant his words to wound, they did.

  His expression shifted from aggravated to sheepish. “Look, I’ve got to go or I won’t make my flight. Can you—can you just tell him about Audrianna and me before the news is all over the Internet?”

  “No.” Laurel kept her own face steely. “I’m happy to explain to him that there is no way in hell we are ever going to be a normal family with the three of us living happily ever after. But I think the news about your wedding should come from you. He’ll need reassurance that he’s going to still be a part of your life.”

  “This shouldn’t be so damn hard, Laurel,” he argued.

  “Parenting is hard, Bryce. I don’t make you do it that often. And it’s not like you’ll be around dealing with the aftermath.”

  “Fine.” She could tell by the way he ground the word out it wasn’t fine, but she really didn’t care. “I’ll come back next month with Audrianna and we’ll tell him together. Make sure you live up to your part of the bargain, though. I don’t want those crazy thoughts still in his head when I get back from South America.” He slid into the driver’s side of the car. “Let my assistant know if Tyson needs anything while I’m gone.”

  “I hope your assistant can get an endangered horn toad out of the Amazon rain forest,” she said just to be contrary.

  His shoulders slumped. “Do you think he’ll be satisfied with a stuffed one?”

  The fire seemed to fizzle out of her and she didn’t have it in her to continue taunting him. “Sure.”

  Bryce closed the car door and started up the engine. “Take care of yourself, Laurel,” he said through the open window. “I’m glad that you’re at least riding again. You were too good of an athlete to just let your competitive edge fizzle away. Try and have some fun while you’re at it.” He treated her to that amazing smile of his, the one that had gotten her into so much trouble in the first place, and with a jaunty wave, he was gone.

  For the second time that night a man had left her behind, wondering what she was doing with her life. She wandered into the soothing confines of the barn. Night was falling an
d the flute-like singing of the western meadowlark was fading out as the owls took over the evening chorus. The barn was quiet, except for the whir of the overhead fans and a cricket complaining somewhere among the bales of hay. Tabitha was standing solemnly in the corner of her stall, her head relaxed and her eyes partially hidden behind her long lashes.

  Laurel leaned her elbows on top of the stall door and peered over at the dozing mare. Her stomach instantly knotted up again at the thought of Sam somewhere in the mountains fighting a fire. Despite knowing he was doing what he’d been trained to do, it didn’t stop her from worrying about him. About the entire team. She also envied his dedication and drive. Sam and Bryce were doing things they loved. Sure, they were both adrenaline junkies, but at least Sam’s work had a purpose.

  She hated how she and Sam had parted earlier. They needed to talk, to clear things up. As much as they were attracted to one another, Laurel couldn’t allow their relationship to continue, though. She told herself it was because she couldn’t chance Tyson getting attached to a guy who risked his life every day. But she was beginning to realize that she couldn’t take that chance with her own heart. Especially when all Sam was prepared to offer was sex.

  Tabitha ambled over and nuzzled Laurel’s arm.

  “Your last owner really did a number on him, didn’t she?”

  The mare sighed, its warm breath tickling Laurel’s skin. Leaning in, she nuzzled the horse’s neck. “Well, if I can’t give him my heart the least I can do is give you a decent shot at winning. You’re getting fitter by the day. Tomorrow, we begin the real training.”

  *

  Sam ran his bare hands over the charred wood checking for any residual heat. By the time they’d reached the crash site twelve hours earlier, three acres of dense forest had been engulfed in a fire ignited by the plane’s fuel tanks. The pilot had been unconscious, but his two passengers were able to pull him to safety before the plane exploded. All three had injuries but none were life-threatening. While the two search and rescue crewmembers triaged the wounded and airlifted them out, Sam and his team had circled the fire, stirring it up by digging trenches and chopping out the brush to eliminate any possible fuel that would allow it to spread. Fortunately, the night air was calm and the fire was extinguished just before dawn.