Into the Fire

by Mari Carr

  “What made you come home?”

  “My father got cancer. He was dying. I’d spent years trying to live my own life away from him, thinking that was what I needed to be free.”

  “It wasn’t?”

  Dad pulled off his cowboy hat, then grabbed a hankie from his back pocket and used it to wipe away the sweat on his brow. “No. It was. I had to leave this place for a time in order to be able to appreciate it and the people who lived here when I came back.”

  James glanced over the training pens to the fields beyond. He’d stood in this very spot a million times before, but he wasn’t sure he’d ever really seen how beautiful it was.

  “Compass Ranch is my home.”

  Dad nodded. “It is. Always will be. But you don’t have to live here for that to be true.”

  “I’m done jumping fires.”

  “You sure? From what I hear, you’re damn good at it.”

  James didn’t respond for a moment or two. “Yeah. I guess I am.”

  “You’re good with the horses too, son. Never seen anyone better in that pen when it comes to training them.”

  “Really?”

  “It’s not the first time I’ve said so.”

  James realized it wasn’t. His dad had called him a horse whisperer since the time he was sixteen, telling him he was a natural, that if he didn’t know better, he’d think he had the spirit of a wild horse rather than a man.

  But this was the first time James had ever really listened, really let those words sink in. “I love working with them. It makes me happy too. Maybe even happier than fighting the fires.”

  “Then that’s what you should do.”

  “How can I convince Ivy that I’ve made this decision for me? That this is where I want to be? With her. By my side. How can I make her see that I don’t need the smokejumping to be happy?”

  “Way I see it, there are a lot of different fires, son. And believe me, they’re all gonna burn you. Your mom set me on fire the first time I ever met her. Not sure if you put it together yet, but I fell for the boss’s daughter too.”

  James laughed. “Forgot about that.”

  “I’ve been ablaze ever since. Took one look at that haughty little thing and knew she was trouble. Resisted her until I couldn’t anymore.”

  “She was engaged to someone else,” James reminded him.

  Dad rolled his eyes. “So she says. That was just Jody’s way of getting my attention, waking me up.”

  James knew the story well, though he’d only ever heard it from Jake, and once from his mom. Dad had never admitted to kidnapping Mom to keep her from marrying another man. “And that was when you stole her away from her bachelorette party?”

  His father looked across the ranch with a slight smile that confirmed James’s suspicions. “Your mom tried to get my attention for years and I pushed her away. I think you and I both know that while she’ll forgive and forget, she’ll make you pay first.”

  And now they were getting to the good part of the story. Even if his dad’s wooing of Mom was different from where he stood with Ivy.

  “She put up a fight, insisted on marrying a man she didn’t love, so I did what any industrious cowboy with some extra rope would do.”

  James laughed. “Still can’t believe you did that. Or that Mom let you get away with it. But that doesn’t really help me with Ivy.”

  Dad tilted his head, considering that. “You sure?”

  James thought for a moment he’d misunderstood his father. “You saying I should kidnap her?”

  “Seems to me all you need is some time to get the woman to listen. You don’t have to tie her up, but in my experience, if you do it well, your woman won’t complain.”

  James shook his head. “This feels like the kind of conversation I’d be having with Doug or Austin, not my dad!”

  Dad laughed. “Me and Silas and Sawyer and Sam were all young once too, son. Not much you boys have done over the years that’s surprised any of us. I’m just glad Jake was there to give you the advice you needed, that you would listen to.”

  “You knew everything?”

  “Every bit of it. Jake stepped up. Gave you the guidance you didn’t want to hear from me. From what I can see, he did one hell of a job. You’re a good man.” His father’s voice broke a bit.

  “I miss him,” James said, his chest suddenly tight. So much had happened since Jake’s death, he was still struggling to process it. Life would go nuts and he’d manage to forget for a few seconds. Then it would creep back in and punch him in the gut.

  “I do too, James. More than I can say. Felt like losing JD all over again.”

  James had been so wrapped up in his feelings about Jake’s death, he hadn’t considered how his dad might feel. He reached out and put his hand on Dad’s shoulder, noticing the wrinkles around his dad’s eyes, the gray at his temples. “I’m glad I’m home, Dad.”

  Dad reached out and pulled him in for a rough man hug that James felt deep in his soul. “I’m glad you’re here too, James. I hear Ivy took a job in Casper.”

  James nodded, surprised his dad knew what he’d only just learned from her dad before he’d left base. “How did you—”

  “Doc Reynolds told me. He’s friends with the vet she’s working with. Austin drives the rig up there a few times a year, and I’m pretty sure he’s got some connections. Think maybe we should pull a few strings, call in a few favors.”

  “Are we still talking about kidnapping?” James asked, more than ready to put whatever plan his dad had into action. He missed Ivy, wanted her, needed her.

  His father didn’t answer. Instead, he walked to the barn door. “Let’s get you some rope. Because, son, something tells me life with your Ivy is a fire worth jumping into.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ivy checked the GPS on her phone once more and sighed, reminding herself that she had wanted this job desperately as she took another turn onto another unpaved road, her third in a row. She was seriously in no-man’s country, and if Dr. Phillips hadn’t assured her that Thomas Jameson and his goat were regulars when it came to needing veterinary care, she would have turned her truck around ten winding miles ago.

  “Where the fuck am I?” she muttered yet again as the trees closed in even closer to a road that looked more like a walking path than something she should actually be driving a vehicle on. “And who the hell calls a vet for a damn goat?”

  The goat was her last patient of the day after a fairly grueling morning schedule. Ivy was amazed that Dr. Phillips had been able to keep up with his workload before she’d come on to work with him. Of course, when she made that comment, he’d assured her this sudden rash of so-called sick farm animals had more to do with the pretty new vet, and that things would settle back down once everyone in Casper had gotten a look at her.

  She’d been amused by his joke. Ivy kept waiting for Casper to feel like home, but so far, she hadn’t managed to warm up to the place much. And that was all her fault. She kept comparing the town and the people to Compton Pass. It wasn’t measuring up.

  Finally, after three more hairpin turns, she broke through to a clearing and found what appeared to be a rundown hunting cabin. She had grown up in the West, so she’d met more than her fair share of backwoods people who preferred a life of solitude, living in houses well off the beaten path, but Jesus. This was pushing that concept to the limit.

  She parked her truck, then reached for her bag. According to Dr. Phillips, this call had just come in this afternoon. Mr. Jameson’s goat had eaten something he shouldn’t have and now he was sick.

  Climbing out of her truck, she shouted out, “Hello?”

  The place was deathly quiet, and as she walked around the cabin, she started to worry about hearing banjos playing. The place was like something out of Deliverance. It belatedly occurred to her that there weren’t any vehicles here. Jesus. Mr. Jameson lived too far up in the mountains to walk. Was he away from home? If he was, she was going to get pissed. It had been a
hell of a drive and she’d—

  That was her last thought as someone grabbed her from behind, a large hand covering her mouth.

  Ivy reacted on instinct, kicking back in an attempt to shake herself loose.

  “Shhh, Ivy. It’s me.”

  She stilled instantly as the hand disappeared and she was suddenly free. Ivy whirled around in a state of fury. “What the fuck are you doing? You scared the shit out of me!”

  James looked at her with an unrepentant scowl on his face. “Do you seriously walk up to places that look like this alone?”

  “I’m here on a call. Dr. Phillips assured me that Mr. Jameso—” She stopped short on the name. “Thomas Jameson. James Thomas Compton! A call you obviously made.”

  James nodded, clearly considering that, but he still didn’t calm down. “Yeah. I know, dammit. But I didn’t realize until just now that this is what you do for a living—drive up to random houses. Do you have that pepper spray with you?”

  She did. But it was in her car. “This is my job, Jamie.” And even as she said it, she had to admit he had a point. She hadn’t felt safe, and yet, she’d still gotten out of the truck. It was a stupid thing to do.

  “Promise me the next time you get a call that’s in the middle of nowhere, you’ll grab me first.”

  She frowned as she shook her head. “That is so,” she sighed, “not happening.”

  “Ivy, I’m serious—”

  She cut him off. “Do you really need me to explain why? Number one, because we’re not dating, and number two, because you live two hundred miles from here. This is my job. I’m going to do it. And number three, how freaking hypocritical are you, Mr. Smokejumper?”

  “Don’t know what the hell was wrong with the clinic,” he muttered.

  Fine. He didn’t like her answer. It didn’t matter because she wasn’t going to keep debating it, mainly because this was the first time she’d ever felt scared at work. “I’ve been here a month or so, and all my calls have been in well-populated areas, big ranches with lots of people around. And if there had been any concerns about this appointment, Dr. Phillips would have made the run out here. But he knew it was you, right?”

  James nodded, his face finally clearing a bit. “Yeah, he knew it was me. Doc Reynolds helped me set this meeting up.”

  “You could have just stopped by the clinic.”

  He didn’t reply to that, and some of the unease that had vanished when she’d realized it was him started to reappear.

  “Why are you here? Fire season doesn’t end for a couple more weeks.”

  “I’ve actually been home a couple weeks. Left early.”

  She tilted her head, concerned. “Is everything okay at home?”

  She’d taken this job even though Doc Anderson’s offer at the memorial service had been more tempting—financially and in the long term. In Casper, she was merely one of four associates at the practice, and Dr. Phillips’s son was lined up to take over the business when his father retired. Doc Anderson had offered to make her a full-fledged partner and, upon his retirement, the practice would have been hers.

  However, saying yes to a job in Compton Pass would have been the height of stupidity, so she’d turned it down and pointed her truck toward Casper.

  “Everything is fine at home. You know, I meant to ask you before, when we were at Compass Ranch together, why did you turn down Doc Anderson’s job offer?”

  Ivy tilted her head, shooting him an incredulous look. “Shouldn’t that be obvious? I kind of thought Casper would be far enough away, but now…”

  “Two hundred miles is too far away.”

  She lifted her hand and gestured to him standing in front of her, making it abundantly clear that didn’t appear to be true.

  “Look. We’re both adults, Jamie, and before we added sex to the mix, we were really good friends. I’m not going to lie. I keep hoping that maybe after some time, after our feelings settle down, you and I could be—”

  “Wait,” James cut her off. “Are you giving me the ‘we can just be friends’ speech?”

  Ivy blew out a long, hard breath. “Yeah. Too soon, right?”

  James chuckled. “Ivy, darlin’, it’s always going to be too soon for that line of bullshit.”

  She was tired, and her heart was still beating just a little too fast—from her fright and his sudden appearance. All she wanted to do was go home and nurse her broken heart.

  “You can’t just show up here, Jamie. I purposely took a job for less pay and with fewer prospects for the future so that you and I wouldn’t run into each other. All of that is for shit if you keep popping up to Casper. Can you just please promise me that you’ll stay away from now on?”

  “No.” James shook his head. “I won’t.”

  She dug deep, trying to find a way that would convince him to give up on them. “It’s over between us. My feelings for you…aren’t there anymore.” Her attempt was lame at best.

  “Wow. You’re zero for two, sweetheart. We’re not going to be friends and you’re not over me. Want to take another stab at it?”

  Ivy knew she had hurt him with her continued refusal, but she’d thought he had understood her reasons. It appeared she was wrong. “I don’t get it. You want me to quit this job? Go somewhere farther away? Is this still too close?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Three strikes, you’re out. Come on.” He took her hand, leading her back around to the front of the cabin and up the three steps to the front door. James gently pushed her inside before he stepped in behind her and closed the door.

  She hadn’t managed to see much of anything before she heard the lock snick into place. Ivy twirled to look at him. “What is this place?”

  “Hunting cabin owned by one of the families in the area. Austin makes the occasional run to their place with cattle. He called in a favor. Borrowed it for me.”

  “Why?”

  He didn’t answer.

  She took a different approach. “You still haven’t told me why you left Yellowstone early.”

  He grinned, but damn if it wasn’t a wolfish look that made her feel very much like prey. She wished that scared her. Instead, she was tempted to offer the sexy hound her throat.

  “I figured that was obvious, Doc.”

  Ivy frowned. Nothing was obvious to her at the moment, but she wasn’t surprised by that. Standing with James always managed to short-circuit her brain waves.

  “Explain it to me.”

  James closed the distance between them. Or at least he attempted to. For every step he took toward her, she took one back. His eyes narrowed as he continued the chase. It ended about halfway across the room when the back of her legs hit a table. With half the room in front of her now, she snuck a quick glance around. To the left was a tiny kitchen. To the right, a small seating area with a short couch and two other chairs that had seen better days, all surrounding a battered coffee table.

  She didn’t dare turn her head too far around as she tried to keep James in her peripheral vision.

  “Why are you here?” she repeated.

  “For you.”

  Ivy shook her head. She’d expected the answer, but it didn’t make it any easier to hear. He’d done the one damn thing she’d told him not to do.

  “Go back to the squad.” She’d meant the words to be forceful, but they’d come out more whisper than sound.

  “No.”

  “I told you—” she began.

  “I know what you told me. You don’t need to repeat it.”

  “Jamie—”

  “I quit, Ivy. I’m not going back. Not this season or next. Or any of them. I’m moving home to stay, taking my place on Compass Ranch. And you’re going to be there with me.”

  She should be used to his heavy-handedness by now, should have put him in his place for it right from the start. “No. I won’t.”

  “Take the job in Compton Pass. Work with Doc Reynolds. I know the people who live there. I know you’ll be safe. I can’t believe you really drove
up to this godforsaken cabin alone and then got out of the truck.”

  “If I hadn’t, what would you have done?”

  “Gone to your apartment and driven you here.”

  She closed her eyes, rubbing them wearily. “I’m leaving.”

  “No. You’re not.”

  Ivy’s temper spiked. “There’s nothing more to say, Jamie! Nothing that we haven’t said a million times before.”

  “Then we won’t talk.”

  Her eyes opened slowly, her body responding to his tone. That tone.

  James reached out, gripping her waist and lifting her until she was sitting on the table. She started to get right back down, but strong hands on her knees pushed them apart, and then he was there, between her legs. He lowered his head to kiss her.

  Ivy pressed against his shoulders, a weak, token effort at shoving him back. She tried to twist her head away from him, but James was a firefighting cowboy, made of pure muscle. He wasn’t letting her go. Not anytime soon, anyway.

  “Jamie,” she said, the sound muffled by his lips on hers.

  Her mouth opened and he ran his tongue over her lower lip, seeking a taste. James growled when her tongue stretched out to meet his, deepening the kiss. He stroked her tongue with his, nipping it and her lips with his teeth.

  Ivy was lost.

  James pulled away and looked at her.

  “I can’t be smart with you,” she admitted.

  He lifted her from the table. “I know you don’t believe me right now, but this, today, right now, is the smartest thing we’ll ever do.”

  James started carrying her toward a doorway she assumed led to the bedroom.

  “I should leave,” she said, though there was precious little conviction to the words.

  “Darlin’, I’m going to absolve you of all guilt there. You couldn’t leave if you wanted to.” He dropped her down on a large bed covered by a beautiful handmade quilt.

  “Why do you say that?” Ivy glanced around as she asked the question, her gaze landing on the long pieces of rope secured to the center of the headboard and trailing over the pillows.

  “Because I’ve kidnapped you.”