Page 6 of Smokin’ Situation (Masked Men of Sage Springs #3)

Annie

“Is she okay?” a familiar high-pitched, feminine voice was way too close to my head, but I couldn’t muster the energy to open my eyes to look at Hazel. My head throbbed as colors danced across my closed eyelids.

“She will be,” a deep voice responded, fingers tracing across my temple, a cool palm covering my forehead in a way that felt oddly comforting. “We just need to get her to drink a little more.”

“Wha…?” my voice cracked as I tried to speak, my tongue feeling dry and heavy in my mouth.

“Open up, pretty girl, we need to get you rehydrated,” he whispered, and I would have swooned if I hadn’t already.

“Did you just call her pretty girl?” Baker asked, letting out a borderline obnoxious laugh that made my headache worse.

“Shut the fuck up, man. I’m trying to comfort her,” Tripp hissed.

“Yeah, sure, whatever you say, cowboy.”

The fingers from my forehead disappeared, and I fought to open my eyes, the canopy of a tent above my head blurring as my eyelids lifted slowly.

“There we go,” Tripp whispered, and I blinked, trying to focus. “Just open your lips so I can get more fluids in you.”

A choking sound from my right drew my attention, and I struggled to focus on Baker standing a few feet away, trying to hold back laughter. Hazel was standing beside him, wringing her hands, and I tried to catalog where I even was .

“If you’re not going to help, go do your job,” Tripp growled. He dragged a wet cloth across my forehead and a cooling sensation followed in its wake.

“I’ll let the Chief know you’re off duty,” he replied, nodding at me before he turned and left what appeared to be a white tent.

“Where am I?” I whispered, wincing as I swallowed.

“We’re in one of the medical tents next to the visitor’s center. You passed out, and we needed to get you out of the sun.”

“How did I even get here?”

A smile pulled across Hazel’s face as she nodded toward the man whose lap my head was currently resting on. “ Someone caught you before you passed out and carried you through the festival. It was quite the sight.”

An uncomfortable flush filled my already hot cheeks, and I wasn’t sure if I could be any brighter red.

I knew I should have been better at making time to drink water, but I hadn’t realized exactly how long it’d been since I took a drink when the line from hell finally let up.

I’d never admit it to him, but the moment I noticed Tripp moving through the crowd with a determined look on his face headed in my direction, my pulse had raced.

I should have texted Hazel to send Mikey over to help long before then, but I had been determined to do it myself.

Jay would be pissed if he knew I’d literally worked until I passed out.

He’d blame himself for not being here, but as I tilted my head and glanced up at the man still looking down on me with concern etched across his features, I pushed Jay out of my head.

I didn’t want to think about him right now.

“You ready to drink some more?” he asked, holding the tip of the bottle to my lips. I nodded and craned my neck up slightly, sighing as the cool liquid filled my mouth. “Good girl, just small sips.”

After a few swallows, he pulled the bottle away, brushing my sweaty hair off my forehead. I didn’t know where my hat had gone, but as his rough fingertips traced across my skin, I honestly didn’t care .

“Do I need to take her to the hospital?” Hazel asked, and I slowly turned my head in her direction.

“Nah, I think she’ll be okay. If I can get her to drink the rest of this, and maybe another one, I think she’ll be okay.”

Hazel nodded, taking a relieved breath. I hated that I’d worried her.

In all the years I’d known her, she’d probably never seen me like this.

“Reid and I can pack up the booth with Colette, she heard what happened and came to help. Hudson and Charley took over breaking down the beer tent, so I can stay here if you want me to—”

“Breathe,” I chuckled, wincing when I swallowed against my dry throat. “If you can pack up, that’d be good. Colette knows how to get into the distillery to drop it all off. Jay won’t be back until next week.”

“Did you want me to call—”

“No, you don’t need to call him,” I cut out, avoiding Tripp’s curious gaze.

With my head in his lap—as innocent as it was—I didn’t want to talk about another man around him.

Much less one who was making every interaction I was having with Tripp awkward.

Jay was the elephant in the room that Tripp didn’t even know existed.

“I was going to ask if you wanted me to call Reese. Do you want to have her come get you?”

“What time is it?” I asked, looking around, but the darkened tent made it hard to tell if it was still daytime outside.

“It’s almost seven, and since the fireworks show was canceled, people are clearing out.”

Frowning, I wondered why the annual fireworks display was canceled. It was a tradition that had been around longer than I’d lived here.

“Red flag warning,” Tripp filled in, holding the bottle back to my lips. “The Chief called it off around the same time you collapsed.”

“Well, I guess at least people were distracted by that and didn’t have to see me getting—”

Hazel giggled, shaking her head. “Oh, no. Don’t worry, plenty of people still saw you getting carried through the crowd by a firefighter. Don’t think that gossip is gonna go away anytime soon.”

“Shit,” I hissed, closing my eyes and pinching the bridge of my nose. Being the center of attention in a small town that couldn’t mind its own business was not my idea of having a good time. I was the one people told the juicy gossip to, not the one who the gossip was about.

“I guess if you’re going to load up the booth, I’ll just wait until you’re done and then I can head home.”

“You’re not driving anywhere.” Tripp’s voice had lost the gentleness he’d been using since I woke up with my head in his lap, replaced with something a little sterner.

It shouldn’t have had me reacting to it, but goosebumps cropped up along my arms, regardless.

“You need to be taking it easy until you’re rehydrated. ”

Hazel shot me a look, her eyes bouncing between the two of us. “I know you have to be back in town tomorrow for work—want to just stay in the apartment at the bar tonight? Then I can keep an eye on you if you need it. Reese is probably at the hospital overnight, right?”

My sister was likely already at the hospital by now.

Hopefully, this incident had managed to stay off her radar, or she’d be giving me endless amounts of shit for not taking care of myself.

You’d think as my younger sister, I’d be the one lecturing her on taking care of herself, but that was definitely not the case.

“Do you have a car here?”

Hazel shook her head. “No, Reid and I took his bike over, but I can drive your truck back to the bar.”

“Do you even know how to drive a stick?” I asked, figuring she probably didn’t. Hazel was more of a passenger princess, or I guess a biker backpack, with Reid’s chosen method of transportation. “And I’m not talking about the one in Reid’s pants or in the drawings you think no one knows about.”

Her cheeks turned pink, clearly embarrassed that I’d outed her penchant for drawing male genitalia to a stranger. It was the worst kept secret around Sage Springs now that people had found her hidden Instagram page.

“I’ll take you home when the time comes,” Tripp commented.

Without even thinking about it, I blurted out. “Do you know how to handle a stick?”

Tripp chuckled along with Hazel, and I felt my cheeks flame again.

“I can handle a stick just fine. Your larger than usual equipment doesn’t scare me.”

“On that note, I’m gonna go and let everyone know you’re awake. If you’re making dick jokes, then I think I can tell them you’re gonna be fine,” Hazel said, backing up slowly.

She left the tent, and an awkward silence suddenly loomed, the sounds of the dwindling festival muted through the heavy tarp sides.

“You don’t have to drive me. I’m sure I can…”

Tripp scoffed, returning the cool cloth to my forehead, droplets of water trailing down the side of my face.

I watched as one landed on his leg, absorbing into the navy-blue material of his tactical pants.

“You don’t let people take care of you very often, do you? ” He didn’t sound mad, just curious.

“No. I don’t like people telling me what to do. I like to be the one in control.”

“You don’t say,” he chuckled, holding the opening of the water bottle to my lips and encouraging me to take another drink. “I never would have been able to tell the woman—who literally made herself sick because she didn’t want to ask for help—liked to be in charge.”

“I can do that.” My hand closed over his on the bottle, and I tried to ignore the sensation I felt suddenly rushing up my arm. I wanted to blame it on the heat exhaustion, but I had a feeling it was just my body’s reaction to him.

“I know you can. But you don’t need to. Just drink. Me holding a water bottle for you isn’t going to compromise your independence. ”

After taking a few more sips, I settled back down, my headache still making it hard to keep my eyes open, but I felt better than I had when the dehydration had caught up with me earlier.

Typically, I was pretty good at drinking water during events, especially since we were at a higher elevation, but I’d been a little more distracted than usual this morning.

And while I’d warned him about the day being hotter than usual, clearly, I hadn’t heeded my own warnings.

“You don’t have to stay here with me. I’m sure you have better things to do right now.”

He leaned forward, waiting until my eyes made contact with his.

“My job today was to help and keep people safe, so I think I’m right where I need to be.

Now let’s finish this bottle and work on getting you to sit up.

Once I get another one of these in you, you can direct me to where I’m taking you. ”