Once she was dressed in a casual floral sundress, Sabrina smoothed the short skirt’s cotton material across her thighs as she walked into the living room. Standing in the center of the large open house, she heard every single sound the house made, from the creaking of a floorboard as she walked across it, to the ticking of the standup pendulum clock on the fireplace mantel. She opened the window, hoping the forest sounds would drain out the sounds of sheer emptiness she heard in the house everywhere she turned.
Hugging herself as she stared into the woods, Sabrina wished she could talk to someone about her fears. Elise always knew how to make her feel better but she had enough on her mind without Sabrina adding to the burden. Then she remembered she was supposed to check in with her cousins, to let them know how she was doing on her part of their bet.
Once she walked back into the bedroom, she picked up Josh’s cell phone. She knew he had long distance on his phone since he’d called Colt. Best to use his cell instead of his landline just in case. She’d purposely left her own cell phone behind in Arizona. Otherwise she’d have never really gone on vacation from work. People always had a way of finding you if you carried your cell phone around.
Thinking about something happening to Josh had her stomach in painful knots. She really needed to talk to someone. “Please be home,” she whispered as she dialed Nicole’s number. What if her cousin wasn’t home? When Nic answered, she breathed a silent prayer of thanks before she spoke.
“Hey, Nic. How’s it going?”
“Heya, Bri! Checking in halfway through your month of sanctioned wild-’n-crazy monkey sex?” her cousin teased.
Sabrina gave a dull laugh. “Ha. I wish my feelings weren’t so hard to separate from the oh-so fun actions.”
“Say it ain’t so, Bri! Men aren’t worth that much emotion. They certainly don’t expend it on us.”
“Oh, Nic,” Sabrina sighed.
“What’s wrong, Sabrina?” Nicole asked, her voice taking on a note of concern.
“I-I guess I need some moral support,” she replied in a shaky tone.
“You know I’m the last person you should be asking any serious relationship questions to. Hey, I’ve got an idea,” Nicole replied in an upbeat tone. “I’ll call Lily and we can all talk. Sound good?”
“Yeah, sounds perfect,” Sabrina replied with half a smile.
“Hold a second and let me try and see if I can get a hold of Lily.”
Sabrina waited, her stomach tensing as the seconds ticked by.
“Hey, Bri. Lily said she could get online with us. Are you able to get online? It’ll be just like the old days when we were in college and we’d do a group chat.”
“No…” Sabrina started to say, when she turned and saw Josh’s laptop in his office. “Oh, wait, I think I might be able to get online. You guys have the same IM sign-on names?”
“Yep. See you in cyberspace in a couple of minutes. We’re here for you,” Nicole said before she hung up.
Sabrina walked behind Josh’s desk and turned on his laptop. She clicked on the Internet icon and signed into the instant messaging system she and her cousins had used throughout college to keep in touch with one another.
BREEZY: Hey guys! Thanks for being here. Gives new meaning to a three-way, doesn’t it? Hahahahha.
NIC_LOVES_EM_ALL: But only if there’s at least ONE man involved, cuz. LOL! See, hanging with us brings out your sense of humor, no matter the problems you’ve got going on.
LILY_WHITE: Yey, glad you’re here, Bri. And Nic…your handle never ceases to crack me up. Must be pure hell right now sticking with just one man. You *are* living up to your end of the bargain, right?
NIC_LOVES_EM_ALL: *I* never kiss and tell.
BREEZY: Sheyah, right. Have you at least met someone, ladies?
LILY_WHITE: I have. ::dreamy sigh::
NIC_LOVES_EM_ALL: Yes and I’m having the world’s most amazing sex…grrrrrowl.
LILY_WHITE: So much for not kissing and telling. Hehehehe.
BREEZY: Knowing Nic, she’s not telling how she *really* feels about this guy.
NIC_LOVES_EM_ALL: No comment.
LILY_WHITE: Hahahhaha. I think you got her, Bri! Hey, Nic, just don’t kick him out while his pants are still down, okay?
NIC_LOVES_EM_ALL: Verra funny. I think you should change your handle, Lily. Somehow, I don’t think you’re so *pure* any longer. ;o)
BREEZY: Hopefully that means she’s living it up as we’d all promised we would.
NIC_LOVES_EM_ALL: Speaking of living it up…tell us what’s going on, Bri.
BREEZY: You guys know about my dad and how I swore I’d never date a fireman. Weeeell…
NIC_LOVES_EM_ALL: No way! Your *stud* is a fireman? Is the problem that you like sliding up and down his pole a little too much?
BREEZY: ::cracking up:: Nic, yes the sex is beyond fabulous, but my feelings for Josh run a lot deeper. In other words, it’s going to be hard to imagine walking away from him when my vacation is over, but at the same time I don’t think I can handle dating a fireman. He’s fighting a fire as we speak and I feel like I’m going to throw up.
LILY_WHITE: Oh, no, Bri! Of all the irony…but if this guy makes you feel better than you’ve ever felt with anyone else, don’t push him away. Give him a chance, give the relationship a chance first.
NIC_LOVES_EM_ALL: Yeah, for all you know, it might not work out after a month of dating anyway.
LILY_WHITE: ::rolling eyes at Nic:: No, what I meant was…sometimes you just have to believe things were meant to be. I know I’m starting to.
BREEZY: I know, I know. It’s just really hard to separate my feelings on this issue. I know I need to come to terms with it and in my heart I hope I eventually will, but I can’t imagine feeling this way every time Josh goes to work.
LILY_WHITE: No one says this will happen overnight, but if you really care about Josh, your feelings for him will eventually overrule your fears of being with a firefighter over time. The fear of losing him in the line of duty may never go away, but if it means being with him or not being with him, then only you can decide what you can handle.
NIC_LOVES_EM_ALL: All sappy stuff aside, I do agree with one thing Lily has said. In my humble opinion, whether this guy is worth it or not, I believe you should live your life as if tomorrow will never come. That way you have no regrets and can look back on your past with a smile on your face.
LILY_WHITE: Hence the reason Nic constantly has a wide grin on hers. :o) Bri, give Josh a chance. He may be the one you’ve been looking for all your life.
BREEZY: The problem is, even after only a couple of days with this man, that’s what I’m afraid of. He’s the ONE. Thanks for talking to me, girls. You’ve given me some food for thought and I appreciate it!
BREEZY: What about you, Lily? How’s your love life going?
LILY_WHITE: I don’t think “love” life is the right word. Maybe “lust” life. :o)
NIC_LOVES_EM_ALL: Oooh, more power to ya, babe! Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
BREEZY: Listen to Nic…she’s definitely in her element now! ::grin::
LILY_WHITE: You both need to give me hints on how to think of something
besides S-E-X! It’s very distracting.
NIC_LOVES_EM_ALL: That’s the whole point, remember? Bwahahahaha.
BREEZY: Well, Nic’s right. Just enjoy your time with your man, cuz. Something may come from it but in the meantime…at least you’re getting your exercise in. ;o)
LILY_WHITE: ::rolling in laughter:: You two are making my sides hurt! Well, I gotta go. Take care, girls, and see you in a couple of weeks.
Sabrina logged off the instant messaging system feeling a bit better. No, she wasn’t one hundred per cent but she could cope. Work was always a good outlet when one had too much time to ponder things too much. She logged into her email and checked it via the web. Yep, there were several messages waiting to be answered.
She spent the next few hours responding to emails, only pausing to rummage th
rough Josh’s fridge and make herself some lunch. When her shoulders started to feel sore from sitting so long working on his laptop, Sabrina decided she’d worked long enough. She shut down the computer and looked at her watch. Frowning as worry crept into her consciousness once more, she realized four hours had passed and she still hadn’t heard from Josh. She moved to stand by the big picture window and stared out at the darkening sky and the trees blowing in the wind.
He could’ve called to reassure her he was okay and he didn’t. Man, she was going to rail at him as soon as he walked in the door, damn it. Well, after she held him close and gave him a welcome home kiss. The thought of something happening to him…her heart sped up and suddenly her rib cage felt too small for the wild beating that hammered against it. She put her hand on her chest, the sense of panic setting in as her breathing turned to short, choppy pants.
God, Josh better come home soon, or at this rate I’m going to pass out, she thought with dread.
Chapter Nine
Sonofabitch, he ached all over. Josh stood under the hot stream of water in the firehouse’s shower, washing away the sweat, soot and general grime from the fire. After they’d put the fire completely out, he didn’t have a choice but to hitch a ride back to the fire station on the fire truck since his truck was gone. To save time, he’d driven his truck directly to the fire’s location and parked away from the burning building. But while he did his civic duty, putting out a five-alarm fire, his damn truck had been towed.
Josh poured the fire station’s antiseptic-smelling shampoo into his hair and winced as the soap ran over the cut on his cheek. He thought about Sabrina while he lathered the suds. Hell, for that matter he’d thought about her all the way to the fire. Only while he fought the raging inferno was he able to disengage his thoughts about the woman he’d fallen in love with. Yeah, he’d admitted it to himself on his way to the fire, but how the hell was he going to convince her living with a fireman wasn’t so bad, especially when he had a gouge on the side of his face and—thanks to Dirk—a nice shiner on his eye, both physical reminders of his career choice?
“Sorry,” his buddy had said as he accidentally elbowed him in the eye while they were pulling down the hoses. “See why it’s important to have all your gear on. Accidents happen.” Dirk had mock-scolded him as Josh rubbed his injured eye.
“Screw you,” he’d grumbled.
“Nah, you already took care of that,” Dirk tossed over his shoulder. Flashing him an unrepentant smile, Dirk continued, “Look at it this way…now we’re even.”
Josh shut off the shower and after he toweled dry, he touched his sore eye, chuckling even as he winced. Since the tow truck place closed at three, he had at least guilted Dirk into giving him a lift back to the Double K after he took a shower.
“Hey, little man,” Dirk smirked, purposefully glancing at Josh’s naked lower body as he poked his head into the locker room. “You’ve got a phone call.”
Josh grabbed his larger than average cock and faced his friend with an eat-shit-and-die grin saying, “Bite me.”
After he’d quickly dressed, he made his way to the front of the station house.
When he passed Dirk on his way to the phone, his buddy warned, nodding to his bruised eye, “I hope the reason she’s calling you is strictly business or I’ll have to give you a matching set.”
“It’s Renee?” Josh asked.
“None other,” his buddy replied in a dry tone before he walked away.
Josh picked up the receiver from the front desk. “Hello.”
“Josh, hey, it’s Renee. Listen, I need to get a hold of Colt. You know where he is, right?”
“What’s this about?” he asked, his stomach tensing.
“I just need to talk to him, that’s all.”
He didn’t like the evasiveness in her tone. “This has to do with your investigation, doesn’t it? You still suspect Colt?”
When she didn’t reply, he ground out, “You going to tell me or not?”
“No.”
“Suddenly, my memory isn’t so good. I’m hanging up now,” he said as he pulled the phone away from his ear, ready to hang up.
“Wait!”
“Yes?” he replied into the phone in a calm tone.
“Time is of the essence here.” She sighed and said, “I got a call yesterday from a concerned woman. She’d heard about the fire at the Lonestar Ranch and that someone had been in the fire. She said she wanted to make sure it wasn’t Elise Tanner. She went on to say that she was out for dinner one night and overheard Colt tease his wife, saying that if he was ever really that hard up for cash, he could always bump her off and collect the life insurance money.
“Out of curiosity, I checked all the life insurance companies in town and a representative from the Oracle life insurance company confirmed Colt and Elise had recently taken out life insurance polices with their company.”
Josh snorted. “So. They recently just got married. Makes sense to me.”
“Maybe you’re right and I’m barking up the wrong tree, but several people have made the comment that Sabrina looks a lot like Elise, and from my notes the night of the accident, I know Elise leaving town was a last-minute decision. The fact that the barn was locked from the outside while an unconscious woman lay in danger of burning to death inside sounds pretty intentional to me. Even if the attack on Sabrina was intentional, at the very least, I’d say she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe whoever did this meant to attack Elise and not Sabrina.”
“Are you implying what I think you’re implying?” he fairly yelled into the phone as his anger rose.
“Josh—”
“Colt is with Elise right now. You know that from our conversation yesterday.”
“Wasn’t he originally planning to be out of town, though? Nice alibi,” Renee countered, leaving the implication dangling between them.
He took a couple of deep breaths. He might know Renee personally but she was still an investigating officer and she took her job very seriously. He decided to go in another direction.
“What about that escaped convict?”
“No dice. When we pressured him with an attempted murder rap on top of his other offenses, he finally confessed he’d broken into an empty house and stole some food around the time Sabrina was attacked. The house he broke into was two miles away from the Tanner ranch. The homeowner confirmed the timing of the break-in because they arrived home to see him running away from the house. There wasn’t enough time for him to have been in both places at the same time.”
Josh sighed, feeling like he’d been beat up twice today. He grudgingly gave her Colt’s cell phone number then said, “You’re way off base, Renee. Colt will set you straight.”
When he hung up the phone, he realized just how tense the ongoing investigation was making him. Sabrina meant everything to him. The need to be by her side rocked through him.
“Dirk, we’ve got to go!” he called out in an urgent tone.
* * * * *
Josh left Ace in his stable while he dashed through the pouring rain to his porch. He’d rub his horse down after he saw Sabrina. He had to see her, to hold her close.
Opening the door, he walked inside and quickly surveyed his place. Relief washed over him when he spied Sabrina curled up in the window seat, leaning against the glass. He shut the door against the gusting wind then turned, tossing his hat on the chair and started to say, “Man it’s raining like crazy out there—” when he was jolted back a step as Sabrina launched herself into his arms.
As she squeezed his neck tight and wrapped her legs around his waist, he held her close and closed his eyes, breathing in her arousing scent.
“Thank God, you’re okay,” she breathed out as she kissed his cheek, then his jaw and moved to his mouth.
Josh wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back before he said with a chuckle, “Now that’s a helluva welcome home. I could get used to this.”
Sabrina tensed in his arms and
lowered her legs to the ground. Still holding onto him, she put her head on his chest and asked in a worried voice, “Why didn’t you call me to let me know you were okay?”
His brow furrowed at her other question. “What do you mean ‘why didn’t I call you?’ Didn’t you get my text message?”
She glanced up at him with a confused look. “What message?”
Spying his cell phone on the coffee table, he let her go and walked over to it, picking it up. As he looked at the settings, he said, “That’s right. I forgot I left it on vibrate mode. You wouldn’t have heard it ring.”
He set down the phone as she approached, saying in a suggestive tone, “I just asked you to meet me in the stables. I figured that was one place we hadn’t christened yet. Plus, I just wanted you to know I was thinking about you,” he finished with a wink as he faced her.
“Ohmigod, look at your eye and that gash on your cheek! What happened?” she asked as she put a shaky hand to her mouth.
“The cut was dumb luck at the fire and the black eye was Dirk deciding I needed a little payback for my transgressions against him,” he joked, but then he saw all the color drain from her face and he tried to reach for her. “What’s wrong, Sabrina?”
She backed away saying to herself, her gaze glazed over, “I thought I could handle…but I just can’t.”
“Sabrina?” Before he could reach her, she’d turned on her bare feet and dashed to the front door. Pulling it open, she ran out into the pouring rain.
“Sabrina,” he called out again as he took off after her.
* * * * *
Sabrina’s heart rammed in her chest as she ran down the steps into the rain. Her dress was immediately soaked through while she tried to decide where to run. Her heart hurt as if someone had tried to rip it from her chest. She couldn’t put herself through another loss. Losing her father was enough. Not another man she cared for. She knew it was crazy to run out into the rain, but she just needed to get the hell out of there…away from Josh. If she reacted this way to something as simple as a black eye and the ragged cut on his face… God, she felt so sick to her stomach.
Hearts Are Wild Page 10