Page 25 of Smokin’ Situation (Masked Men of Sage Springs #3)

Tripp took one lingering look at me, nodding as he fastened his mask into place. He reached back into the truck bed, pulling out a shovel and an axe, propping them over his shoulder as he headed into the field to join the rest of the ground crew.

After he was out of sight, Charley tugged me back into the barn and put me to work, showing me how to get the horse’s gear ready for transport once the trucks returned.

It was strange to watch her in an entirely new setting than I was used to seeing her, but she was completely in control, running the barn much like she ran the bar on a busy night.

It helped to have a distraction from the worry that’d plagued me since we’d been awoken by the fire station alert this morning. But at least I knew the two most important people in my life were safe. Reese was probably kicking ass in the ER at the hospital, and Tripp was doing what he loved.

“That’s the last of them,” Marty shouted while he latched the back of the horse trailer, slapping the side hard and giving a thumbs up to the ranch hand driving the truck.

The gravel crunched underneath the tires while he drove away, leaving a trail of dust in its wake.

“What do we do now?” I asked, pulling off my gloves and handing them to Charley .

“Now we go back to the lodge and get cleaned up. You’re welcome to a room tonight, Annie,” Marty offered, wrapping his arms around our shoulders and steering us toward a pickup truck outside the barn with the logo for the West Peak Ranch emblazoned on the side with the outline of a mountain peak in the background.

“The guests have mostly checked out because of the fire. As long as you don’t mind making your own bed, you can have one of the suites. ”

He led us to the truck, handing each of us a bottle of water before he started the ignition.

I took heavy sips of water as the trees blurred in the windows as we drove past; the smoke followed us the mile or so to the main lodge, lingering like a fog outside.

It was eerily quiet when we walked inside, the typically bustling lobby empty, which was rare during the summer.

Reese and I had taken riding lessons at the ranch once upon a time, our grandmother making it known it was an essential skill for living in this area, but since she’d passed away, we hadn’t kept horses in the small barn behind our cabin.

It was all gone now, along with fond memories of going on trail rides with our grandmother when she could still ride. Those trails had probably been taken out by the fire, too.

“You need anything?” Charley asked, leading me up a staircase to the second floor, but I wasn’t really listening, my eyes drawn to something on the other side of the room.

A large panoramic window faced north at the back of the lodge, and I felt my tears returning as I walked through the second floor living area to look at how much the landscape had changed in such a short period. It was chilling to see it now.

Smoke rose from the trees in the distance, almost obscuring the destruction the fire had left behind, but the lower half of the mountain, once covered in vibrant green forests during the summer, was brown and gray, no signs of the once beautiful landscape that’d existed only days ago .

Scanning the horizon for where I knew my home used to be, there was nothing, just more destruction underneath the heavy cover of smoke.

“We’re here,” Charley whispered, wrapping her arm around my waist and leaning the side of her head against my shoulder. “You’re not gonna go through this alone. Whatever you need, both you and Reese.”

We were both quiet, just awestruck by how much our home had changed so quickly. All because of someone else’s recklessness.

“Have you spoken to Reese?” she asked, and I shook my head.

“My phone was lost. Tripp called dispatch and found out that she was safe, but honestly, the last day has been a bit surreal.”

“If you know her number, you can use my phone,” she offered, holding it out to me.

I took it, letting out a heavy breath as I settled on the couch facing away from the windows. It hurt too much to look at that and talk to my sister at the same time.

My hands shook as I typed in familiar numbers, thankfully it’d been drilled into my head by my hyper protective sister that you should always have important numbers memorized, because the favorites on your phone wouldn’t do any good if your phone was gone.

“Charley? Is everything okay?” Reese answered, and my lip quivered, tears escaping from my eyes as relief coursed through me. While they’d never been best friends, Reese and Charley were in the same grade back in school.

“It’s Ann…” My voice cracked, but Reese’s reaction wasn’t much different, a sob echoing from the speakerphone.

“Oh, thank God,” she breathed, sniffling loudly. “Where are you?”

“The lodge at West Peak Ranch. They’re gonna let me stay the night here. My phone is gone.”

“You’re not hurt, are you?” she asked, going into nurse mode. “I can come to you if you need treatment. I don’t have a car, but I can get someone to take me from the hospital— ”

Her rambling was almost comforting, because it meant she was still here. Still safe.

“I’m okay. Tired, but okay. How are you? I heard Baker came for a visit.”

She growled, and I smiled, swiping the tears off my cheeks. “That bastard massacred the front door with an axe and dragged me out of bed in my pajamas.”

“So, you’re still besties is what you’re telling me,” I laughed, imagining exactly how pissed off she must have been when firefighter Baker came to the rescue.

“Yeah, that’s a hard pass,” she scoffed, but something about the tone of her voice sounded off.

“Marty said you’re welcome to come up here tonight. The lodge has mostly cleared out.”

She sighed, and I had a feeling it was going to be impossible to drag her away from the hospital.

“Actually, I’m gonna stick around town tonight in case they need to call me in.

He offered me the extra bedroom in his apartment.

I’m in the on-call room now, but they won’t let me clock in.

Stupid bullshit hospital policies about me not having enough time between shifts to be allowed on the floor. ”

“He who?” I asked, my intuition clueing in that it might be a certain firefighter offering his place to my sister.

“Baker,” she grumbled, and I held back a laugh. “He lives above his parent’s storefront in town, so it’s only a short walk to the hospital. Since my car is gone, it’s the only logical solution that doesn’t involve me having to arrange a ride.”

“Sure, sounds logical ,” I replied, making eye contact with Charley who was also trying to hold back a laugh as my sister attempted to downplay staying at the apartment of a man who she hadn’t been able to stand being in the same room with for years.

Everyone knew those two had been circling each other for a long time, and with the loaded looks I’d seen Baker aim in her direction, I knew he was still carrying a torch despite her frosty demeanor .

The sound of the chimes my sister’s phone made when she was getting a page from the hospital echoed across the speaker, and she rushed me off the phone, making me promise to stay safe.

“Let’s get you some clean clothes and I’ll find an empty room for you, but from the sound of it, I think the last guests have cleared out.”

Charley left me in an empty suite that overlooked the forest to the north with a fresh set of sheets to cover the oversized king bed and a stack of clean towels.

While Tripp and I had gotten cleaned up in the hot spring last night, we’d been very, very unclean this morning between the acrobatic, sweaty sex we’d had in the middle of the night using the last condom from my emergency kit and from our ride back to the ranch this morning.

After making the bed, I stood at the window, staring off toward the river where he was, hoping the fire break they were building would stop the spread, because I didn’t want to see anyone else I cared for lose everything.