Page 45 of Smokin’ Situation (Masked Men of Sage Springs #3)

Annie

The front edge of the truck dipped, bouncing back up again on its slow ascent up the pockmarked, deserted road.

My eyes widened as I scanned the scenery outside the window at what looked like charred toothpicks protruding out of a sea of ash.

The sides of the road that had once been full of lush conifer trees were now a desolate contrast to what they’d been previously.

This place had once signified safety to me, especially after what happened to my parents, but now it only represented devastation.

Tripp’s fingers tightened on my knee as he followed at a safe distance behind the Sage Springs fire department pickup truck in front of us, being navigated by Baker.

While we’d offered to let Reese ride up with us, she’d opted to stay in the truck with him after meeting us at the ranch.

There was still a weird vibe between them, and I knew my sister was hiding something, but I’d been too busy with work and spending time with Tripp to pry answers out of her.

“You sure you’re ready for this?” he asked, the scrape of the calluses on his thumb against my bare skin oddly comforting. “It’s okay if you’re not. If you feel overwhelmed, we can go right back to the ranch and try again another day.”

“I’ll be okay.” My voice was hoarse, but I’d already cried once this morning, so I wasn’t eager to start again. “I need to do this. We need to do this, and I’m not letting Reese go through it alone.”

Looking over, we made eye contact, but he quickly refocused his attention on the road, navigating around the dips as the truck in front of us slowed.

“Needing to do something doesn’t make it easy.

Let us know if you need a break. Not everything has to be done today. This will take a while to sort out.”

But I already knew that, having dealt with the insurance company for the last few weeks.

A claims specialist would come out now that the fire department was letting residents get to their lots, but it’d be months until we could start rebuilding.

And then, depending on when we started, progress would be determined by the winter weather.

“It could be a year from now before a new cabin is built.”

He shifted the truck into park, turning toward me and pulling my hand into his lap. “You know what my opinion is about that.”

Sighing, I let my head drop forward dramatically. “And I’ve told you repeatedly that moving in together after we’ve only known each other for a month seems a bit reckless.”

Not that I’d made any moves to find somewhere else to stay.

I’d taken over Tripp’s closet and we hadn’t slept apart since the day he rescued me from the fire.

I’d once thought living with someone romantically seemed like a lot of work, but it wasn’t.

Our lives, despite schedules that sometimes clashed, had meshed seamlessly.

“Since when has something being reckless stopped you?” he teased. But, in all honesty, I had been dreading the thought of looking for an apartment in town.

Since we still had a few months to go in the fall tourism season, most of the cabin rentals were booked.

Things would probably slow down a bit in late fall, but they’d pick right back up for ski season.

And since so many residents who'd lived on the ridge had been affected, rentals were already scarce.

“I’m not making any decisions today.”

He nodded, lifting my hand to his mouth and kissing my palm. “And I’m hoping you won’t for a while.”

The idea of staying in his small cabin at the ranch had merit.

I didn’t need a lot of space since I didn’t have much.

We’d been told our cabin was unsalvageable from the fire and we’d also been warned that there might not be much to save from the rubble, so it wasn’t like we couldn’t make it work living in a one bedroom.

Tripp has already put plans in motion to refurbish the dated kitchen and expand the cabin to add another bedroom if needed.

Other than a few trips into town for new clothes and toiletries, I’d been able to make do with very little.

While I was devastated to lose family heirlooms, I’d learned long ago that sometimes physical reminders of a person you lost only made the ache of their absence worse.

I’d cherish the memories of time spent with my parents and my grandmother much longer than the belongings they’d left behind.

The sound of car doors slamming drew my attention to the truck in front of us, and I glanced up, watching my sister fall into Baker’s arms from the passenger side. She burrowed into his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her, cupping the back of her head as he stared in our direction.

Watching him tilt his head backward, I picked up on the hint and took a deep breath before I reached for the door handle. I could feel the tears building behind my eyelids, but I knew I needed to be strong right now for my sister.

“I’ll get the supplies,” Tripp called out as I stepped onto what had once been our driveway.

Seeing pictures of it had been a shock but actually seeing the damage with my own two eyes were two wildly different things. There wasn’t anything that could have prepared me for seeing what had been my home for almost twenty years as a charred pile of rubble and ash.

The stone fireplace in the center was mostly intact, a solemn pillar in the black heap that spread out around it.

While I’d been determined to do this without falling apart, I couldn’t stop the tears that streaked down my cheeks as I slowly walked toward what had once been my home.

I could feel Tripp’s presence behind me. Ready to spring into action if he thought I needed him. His steadiness was a support I was depending on. But he couldn’t fix this .

He couldn’t change what happened that day, and in some ways, it had changed my life and Reese’s in ways that we might have needed.

I’d been rescued by a man who had become my partner, someone to grow a life with. And my sister had rekindled a friendship with someone who had once been lost to her. She wouldn’t be leaning on Baker like she had if she had plans to cut him out again.

The late July heat had finally let up in the last week, but the sun felt oppressive on the exposed skin of my arms. It was weird that a place that had been surrounded by vibrant tall trees was now exposed and bleak.

Footsteps crunched behind me, pausing as I felt a small, warm body settle against my side, a loud sniffle drawing my attention to my sister as she hooked her arm around mine. The tears came in earnest as we just stood there, mourning another loss together.

Flashes of us as girls standing arm in arm in a shadowy cemetery raced through my head.

I still refused to visit that place almost twenty years later, because my parents weren’t really there.

More memories resurfaced of us sitting beside our grandmother’s bed, holding hands as she slipped away.

Reese and I had scattered her ashes in the very forest that lay destroyed in front of us.

“What are we going to do?” she whimpered, letting the tears roll down her cheeks.

She looked exhausted, and I wondered if this was the thing that would finally break her.

Reese had nightmares and panic attacks for years after our parents died, and if anything would break that tough armor of hers, it’d be almost dying in a house fire.

Turning, I cupped her face, rubbing my thumbs along her wet cheeks. “We’re going to be fine. I promise. We’ve made it through worse than this and come out the other side that much stronger. This will be no different.”

Her eyes closed, a shuddery breath escaping as she nodded, her hand settling on her stomach. We’d been in this position countless times over the years, me calming the panic in a room that no longer existed a few feet away .

Baker lingered a few feet away, eyes never leaving my sister, and I knew if anyone could take my place and calm my sister when she felt lost, it’d be him. Despite all his inappropriate jokes and goofball demeanor, he was a good man. If Reese let him in, I knew he’d love her with all he had.

“I’m not sure if I can do this…” she whimpered, a fresh round of tears rolling over my thumbs.

“You can,” I whispered, pulling her toward me and tucking her face against my neck.

Hot tears ran down my arm, but I didn’t care, because my baby sister needed to let this out.

She’d buried so many feelings over the years, and I knew she needed to let the emotions out before she completely shut down.

“ We can. We have to keep going, but you don’t need to do it alone. We’re all here for you, Reesey.”

Her arms tightened, and I closed my eyes, resting my cheek on her forehead as she let it out. All the grief we’d both been holding back for years.

A pair of hands settled on my shoulders, a warm chest at my back, Tripp providing silent support until we were ready to do what we came here to do.

He was the friend and lover I never expected, and while it’d been hard to open up to him at first, he was the first person I wanted to talk to in the morning, and we often fell asleep wrapped up in each other after whispering for hours in bed.

We’d even talked extensively about all the ways our lives could have overlapped growing up in the same community, and how it was kind of crazy that we’d never met, even by accident.

But I was almost glad we hadn’t before now.

Back then, I’d been wrapped up in just going through the motions.

I wasn’t ready for him, and from the sound of it, he wasn’t ready for me either.

While the circumstances almost seemed a little too far-fetched, it’d taken a few literal acts of God for us to be in the same place at the same time. The right time.

“Are you ready?” I whispered into the top of my sister’s head .

After a shaky sigh and a nod of her head, she pulled away, swiping the backs of her hands across her cheeks, her typical mask falling back into place.

Reese turned toward the remnants of our home, her hand finding mine as we walked forward. Baker flanked her other side, his hand reaching for hers. Tripp followed behind me with his hand in the center of my back.

July had come roaring in with a vengeance, burning everything we’d known to the ground, but we were coming out the other side with the support of two men who neither of us had expected to be the ones to pull us out of the ashes.