The Country Gentleman

by Amberlee Day

  Kenzie hadn’t been in Paige’s tiny garage before. It was neat and tidy as far as garages went. There was a motorcycle that she assumed belonged to Paige’s husband Josh, storage boxes, tools, and some boxes marked according to holidays. Behind some boxes marked Halloween, something bulky lay in a clear plastic bag. When Kenzie got closer, she saw a face looking up at her, and gasped.

  Peter walked in behind her just then. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” Kenzie said, realizing it wasn’t a real face in the bag. “It’s just … what do you think that is?”

  Peter pulled the bag out. It was bigger than Kenzie had realized, and when he opened it, there were half a dozen child-sized scarecrows inside. He laughed. “I forgot about these,” he said. “Paige and Josh go a little nuts at Halloween. Last year, she put them in different places to freak him out.”

  Kenzie’s brain started to niggle. “I wonder if Paige would mind if I borrowed these,” she said.

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. You could ask her. Why?”

  Kenzie’s eyes went wide, and she gave him an innocent smile. “No reason. Just an idea I had.”

  Peter’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Does this have anything to do with the loggers?”

  Planting a kiss squarely on his lips in lieu of an answer, Kenzie happily went off to find Paige.

  Paige, as it turned out, didn’t really want the scarecrows anymore, and was happy to have them out of her garage. Kenzie thanked her but wouldn’t fess up to her plan. She worried that it would sound small and petty if she told them about it, but it didn’t stop her from wanting to get a little of her own back. The loggers had taken her peace of mind; maybe she could get even by taking a bit of theirs.

  Kenzie especially appreciated the longer summer days that evening as she scampered through the forest. The scarecrows were light and mostly flat, so while they were a little bulky, they weren’t hard to carry. She left them standing in scattered spots, most in the woods and one along the road so the loggers would pass it on their way to work early the next morning. In order to place some close to where they were working, she had to hike right up to the clearing. She knew their circle of destruction would be wider than the last time she ventured there, but she still wasn’t prepared for it.

  She stood at the edge for several minutes, trying to remember what all had been in this area. There was a group of a dozen or so cedars, she remembered, which always meant a pristine place to walk beneath. They were gone. Part of the trail she normally walked had been created by a row of vine maples growing out of a fallen log, spreading over the trail like a canopy. It too was gone, and only the old log and some ugly stumps remained, partially hidden under discarded branches. So many treasured little places she’d enjoyed as a child, all torn apart and hauled away on the logging trucks. It was hard to take in.

  The loggers were long gone for the day, but a noise across the clearing caught her attention. A man and woman were heading her direction. She waved at them, and they met in the middle. She’d remained at the tree line until that point, and felt exposed under the open sky.

  “Hello!” they called. When she introduced herself, they smiled.

  “You’re the reason we’re here,” the woman said. The couple was middle-aged, and both in good shape. “We saw your post on the community page, and wanted to come see for ourselves. This is just terrible out here.”

  “We had no idea how much they were planning on cutting until you posted,” the man said. “Do you know if any progress has been made to get it stopped?”

  Kenzie shook her head. “Legally, there doesn’t seem to be much we can do. I’m hoping with enough protest, though, the county will step in and tell them they have to make it a more responsible cut. Leave at least a percentage of the trees, or since so much has already been clear-cut, maybe just stop and leave the rest alone.”

  “That would be something,” the woman said. She pointed at Kenzie’s scarecrows. “What’s this? Part of the cause?”

  Kenzie blushed. She hoped they wouldn’t think she was petty and childish as she explained her plan.

  “I think that’s great,” the man said, a twinkle in his eyes. “Can we help? Maybe put a little fear into those loggers.”

  “Without violence,” Kenzie emphasized. “We wouldn’t want anyone getting hurt, ever. But if we could give these loggers the creeps … well, that would be something. And we just have to do something, don’t you think?”

  The next morning at work, Peter received a bizarre text from Kenzie.

  Kenzie: Dispute ours outside funds my mélange

  Peter was still trying to decipher it when a second text came in:

  Kenzie: Stupid autocorrect. Did you or Paige find my necklace at her house? I lost it, can’t find it anywhere.

  Peter would have laughed at the autocorrect, but he knew how much that necklace meant to Kenzie. If she was missing it, she’d be frantic.

  Peter: No

  Kenzie: I think I might have dropped it in the woods

  Peter looked around at the clearing and surrounding forest. He and his men had seen several of the scarecrows Kenzie left. He’d gotten a good chuckle knowing what she must have been trying to do, and thought about how much Kenzie would have enjoyed knowing that one of his crew members had been very freaked out by the sudden appearance of all those scarecrows.

  Would she have dropped it around here? Would she come to look here?

  Peter: I’ll help you when I get off work. Wait till then.

  Kenzie didn’t answer, and Peter was pretty sure he knew what that meant. He told his foreman he would be back soon and took off toward the woods to cut her off. Kenzie needed to stay away from the logging area, partly because he wasn’t ready to explain his role in things yet, and mostly because it was dangerous to be where trees were coming down.

  Heartsick, Kenzie meandered through the forest, her eyes scanning the ground as she went. Surely she’d see it if she’d dropped it somewhere on her path. The problem was that she’d been on so many paths the previous evening while spreading scarecrows throughout the woods. Which one had she dropped it on?

  As she walked, the logging machinery noises grew much louder. She was getting closer.

  What if I dropped Mom’s ring in the clearing? It’ll be lost forever.

  The thought sent adrenaline through her, and Kenzie began running straight for the logging zone.

  If she hadn’t known the paths so well, she might have moved off path and found a safer place. She could see movement ahead, but a tall, wide swath of blackberries and alders kept her from seeing the clearing itself. Her heart pounded as she ran toward it, rounding the corner and running right into the clearing—and into the path of the giant claw, moving to sever its next tree.

  Chapter Eighteen

  When Peter saw the claw coming at Kenzie, adrenaline thrust him into action. He sped in and knocked her out of its path, landing on top of her.

  “Oof!” she grunted, her body smashed against a pile of cedar fronds. Peter was afraid he’d hurt her. When she saw who had her pinned to the ground, her brow furrowed in confusion. “Peter?”

  With Kenzie’s face just inches from his, the words face-to-face with the truth came to his mind. It may have been a good time to tell her that he was one of the detested loggers—in fact, the owner of the company—but he chickened out. He wasn’t ready to lose her. Instead, Peter scrambled to salvage the situation the best he could.

  The machinery had stopped, so his driver must have seen them. Peter jumped up, and when two of his workers approached with frightened eyes, Peter waved them off. “We’re fine!” he called to them. “Just leaving. Sorry to bother you.”

  They stopped where they were. He knew they wouldn’t question the boss.

  Peter helped Kenzie up. She moved gingerly. “Did I hurt you?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said, anger tingeing her voice. Then, more softly, “No. Thank you.”

  Wanting to get Kenzie away from the logging site,
Peter took her hand to lead her away. She turned around, however, making his adrenaline rush again when she called to his employees. “Have any of you found a necklace? It has a ring on it.”

  They stared at her for a moment. When Peter shrugged at them, the men slowly shook their heads no.

  “Please keep an eye out for it,” Kenzie said, before letting Peter lead her away again. When they’d reached the other side of a blackberry clump that was as tall and wide as a small house, Kenzie asked him, “Where did you come from?”

  Peter scratched his head and found a twig there. He tossed it to the ground. “You texted me, remember? I drove to your house.”

  “But I didn’t tell you where I was.”

  “I guess I just got lucky.”

  “And that was awfully fast.”

  He shrugged. “I ran.”

  He and Kenzie walked quietly back through the forest, hand in hand. Behind them, the machinery started back up again. While she remained quiet in her thoughts, Peter suddenly remembered his truck wasn’t actually at her house.

  “Hold on,” he said. While he texted his foreman to have a couple of guys quickly deliver his truck to Kenzie’s address, she brushed dirt and tree debris from her own clothing. When he finished with his phone, he said, “Here, let me help you.”

  Since he’d landed on Kenzie, she’d taken most of the impact, and the dirt. Gently, he picked tiny bits from her clothes, her hair, and even some embedded in her elbows where she landed on the ground. Brushing soil from her shoulder, his hand moved up to gently caress where her cheek had landed.

  “I should have been more careful,” he murmured. “You’re going to have bruises.”

  Her blue-green eyes, so large and searching as she looked up into his, drew him closer. His hand slid down to the back of her neck. He wanted to kiss her, but guilt held him back.

  “Peter, how did you really get here so fast?” Kenzie asked.

  Peter’s heart jumped. He hesitated, treading her thoughts lightly. “What do you mean?” he asked softly. “You don’t think I’m much of a runner?”

  “I think you must have run exactly where you needed to be,” she said, and it flashed through his mind that this was the moment when she would realize where he really worked. But while he worried, her arms wrapped around him, and her lips came within a breath of his. “And I’m so glad you did.”

  Peter’s pulse raised, and when their lips met he pressed her against him and kissed her back. Yes, Peter was attracted to Kenzie. He was attracted to her all the time, whether she was in a fancy dress or faded T-shirt and shorts. But much more than passion for Kenzie compelled him to hold her there in his arms, pressing her tightly to him. His heart was in this, there was no doubt about it. Peter Olson was falling in love with Kenzie Vega.

  Kenzie was the one who ended the kiss, but she smiled lovingly up at him. “Come on back to the house. We’ll both get cleaned up.” They started walking again, their hands linked between them. “When do you have to be back to work? Maybe we could have some lunch.”

  Peter smiled. “That sounds nice. I think I could do that.”

  They walked in silence a few moments more, before Kenzie said, “I suppose you’re wondering why I thought my necklace would be where the loggers are working.”

  Nodding slowly, Peter said, “Yes, I did wonder that.”

  She told him about taking the scarecrows out and hiding them in different places. “I know it’s silly,” she said. “I guess I just wanted them to know that someone’s being hurt by what they’re doing. Even if they have permission from the owners, and what they are doing isn’t illegal. It’s causing trauma—to me, the neighbors, and definitely to the animals who live there.”

  “I see,” Peter said. “Kenzie, I’m pretty confident those loggers aren’t without heart. Wherever they clear land, they must have people who hate what they do.”

  “Then why do it?” Kenzie’s emotions were suddenly hot and near the surface again. “Why make it a clear-cut? It seems like they could just as easily do a select cut, and still leave trees in the forest and homes for the animals.”

  “There are reasons that a clear-cut makes more sense,” he said. Then, backpedaling to cover his tracks, stammered, “Or so I would guess.”

  Kenzie walked faster, and Peter had to really move to not be dragged along. “Maybe it does, and maybe that’s just code for ‘clear-cutting makes the loggers more money, so it makes more sense to them.’ If that’s the case, I think someone should stop them.”

  A frightening thought popped into Peter’s head, and he pulled her to a stop on the trail. Her ponytail whirled around when she turned to him, and her eyes were just as wild.

  “Who, Kenzie?” he asked. “Who should stop the logging? You?”

  “Maybe. Or, at least I can get the ball rolling.”

  “What did you do? Besides the scarecrows?”

  Her eyes softened, and she put a hand on his arm. “Don’t worry. I didn’t bury a bomb or rig something up to be dangerous. I wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt; I just want them to stop taking down the trees.”

  “Okay, so you did … what?”

  She shrugged. “I just made sure people knew what was going on.”

  “What people?”

  She told him about contacting neighbors via a website and presenting information to the county commissioners.

  “So, trying to cause them trouble?” Peter said. “I thought you understood that what they are doing is legal.”

  “Legal doesn’t mean right,” she said.

  “No, it doesn’t. Neither does putting men out of work, which you’ll be doing if that logging gets delayed.”

  She really did look penitent about that, and even though he was right, he felt bad making her see it.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I guess I’m getting caught up. It’s just if I’m going to do something to save at least part of the forest, I’m running out of time.”

  They continued on toward the house, both lost in thought. When they reached Kenzie’s backyard, Peter was happy at least to see his truck waiting for him next to her house. He told Kenzie he’d stay on the porch swing while she cleaned up, and when she went inside, he checked his phone for messages.

  There was one from Paige. She couldn’t have known anything about what had happened that morning, but when he opened the text, it made the situation with Kenzie even worse. Paige told of checking Evergreen Logging’s social media, only to find it had been bombarded with negative reviews and threats to blackball them. Some neighbors had been calling the police complaining about the noise and hours they kept, and others said the state should revoke the logging permit pending the county reassessing the harvest and impact on wildlife.

  Peter put down his phone and rubbed his eyes. What was he supposed to do about this? Even if Kenzie continued this campaign against his company, the only thing it would change was hurting his business and his employees. The cut was still going to happen. He’d seen this kind of thing before. But what was he supposed to do about Kenzie? On top of everything else, she could have gotten hurt today. He just didn’t know.

  His work boots were filthy, and not doing Kenzie’s porch any good. He untied them and, in his stocking feet, stepped off the porch to hit the dried mud off them. His hiking shoes would have been more comfortable for that long walk back. Strange that Kenzie didn’t ask how he managed to run so fast in them.

  A plan slowly began to form in Peter’s head. He stared at his boots for a moment, then at the woods. He needed to tell Kenzie the truth; no more waiting for her to decide that the logging wasn’t so bad. She wasn’t going to get there. And for some reason, he felt a strong need to tell her away from her house, away from the peninsula. Somewhere that maybe they could both get some perspective.

  “What do you think for lunch?” Kenzie had finished changing and came out to meet him. “I have things for a cob salad, or maybe sandwiches?”

  Kenzie must have brushed her hair out and pulled it bac
k up into a loose bun. Her legs and arms still glowed from their fresh shower. Whatever hurt or sadness or discouragement she felt, when he looked at her, all he saw was a beautiful, fantastic woman who seemed to want to be with him as much as he did her. His heart grew with his feelings for her.

  “A sandwich sounds good,” he said. “I’ll help. And Kenzie?”

  “Yes?”

  He wanted to do this right, or as right as he could manage at this point. And he didn’t want to lose her. “About that Mt. Rainier relay race? I changed my mind. Count me in.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Leaving her tree worries behind for a few days lifted Kenzie’s spirits, especially since Peter agreed to come. The race wouldn’t begin until Friday morning, but Kenzie convinced him that they should make the most of the trip and head out early Thursday. Peter originally told her that he couldn’t afford the time away from work, but agreed that this was one time it would be worthwhile to ask his dad for help. Indeed, Peter’s father happily agreed leaving retirement behind for two days to keep Peter’s schedule on track. Kenzie couldn’t be more thrilled.

  Some of Kenzie’s favorite memories included long car rides with her parents, going to and from their many hikes and camping trips. She hoped spending three hours in the jeep with Peter would add to those good memories, and she wasn’t disappointed. Peter told her about summers at his grandparents’ ranch in Montana, and she told him about the Christmas her family spent stranded at an airport. They shared favorite music, movies, Jolly Rancher flavors, and dog breeds. And they talked about bucket lists: he wanted to spend a vacation watching spring training practice in Arizona, and someday she wanted to spend the night in a lighthouse.

  The one thing they didn’t talk about was work, and she was happy for that. This trip would be a true vacation from anything work-related, and from worrying about the logging going on, and she was ready for both.