Smolder (Firefighters of Montana Book 1) (18 page)

Sam looked past the boy, but Johnson and his fiancée seemed to be engrossed in a heated conversation.

“That doesn’t mean he loves you any less.” Sam tried to reassure Tyson. “Now you’ll just have someone else to love you, too.” As platitudes went, it was pretty lame, but Sam didn’t want the child to feel abandoned.

Tyson’s lip quivered again. “But what if I have to go live with them? I don’t want to leave the ranch. Or Miss Ivy. Or Grandpa and Grandma. Or Mama.”

Sam doubted Bryce Johnson would make room for his son now that he had a wife, but he couldn’t be completely sure. Tyson’s fear was understandable. He hesitated, not knowing what to say to calm the boy’s anxiety.

Johnson’s hand landed on the boy’s shoulder. “Hey, Halfpipe, you promised to show Audrianna the animal sanctuary. It’s looking like rain out there, so we’d better get a move on.” He handed the boy an ugly stuffed frog.

Tyson’s chin dropped to his chest and Sam’s chest squeezed tightly.

“Bye, captain.” Tyson shuffled out of the bakery, the frog hanging loosely from his fingertips.

Sam stood up, watching them go. He debated with himself whether or not he should tell Laurel about Tyson’s fears. Except the last time he’d gotten involved, he’d only ended up saying something that hurt her.

The radio beeped in Sam’s pocket. He was needed back at the base. Tyson had nothing to worry about, Sam told himself. Laurel would never give up her son willingly. She’d already sacrificed so much of her life for him. Marginally reassured, he headed back to the forest service station where he could continue to drown himself in work.

*

Ivy popped the
cork off the bottle and the champagne fizzled over the rim.

“Hey, don’t waste that,” Miranda said. She passed three champagne flutes over to Ivy.

“It’s not like you can have any.” Ivy poured a generous serving into two of the glasses. “You’re on call, remember?”

“With this storm rolling in, we’re all pretty much grounded for the next twelve hours,” Miranda argued. “I can have a sip so that we can toast Laurel’s surviving the exam.”

Laurel glanced around the crowded Drop Zone. Despite the impending storm, it seemed that half the population of Glacier Creek had crammed into the bar. While most of the crew from the forest service station was milling about, she was relieved to not see Sam among them. It had been four weeks since she’d left him standing in Dead Man’s Valley. The look of devastation she’d thought she’d glimpsed in his eyes had surely been imagined because he’d kept his distance as promised. Yet that look still haunted her dreams at night. She couldn’t understand why Sam wouldn’t let himself love her.

“Earth to Laurel,” Miranda said. She waved a champagne flute in front of Laurel. “We’re toasting you here.”

Pasting a smile on her face, she picked up her glass. “Sorry. My brain is still a little fried from all the studying.”

“Well, I’m proud of you.” Ivy held her glass up high. “You’ve established yourself in a career that will allow you to live comfortably.”

“Yeah, one nobody saw coming,” Miranda teased. “Here’s to you, my favorite cousin.”

“Isn’t she your only cousin?” Ivy asked as they clinked glasses.

Laurel studied the amber liquid in her flute. “Yeah, well, at least everyone in this town can finally take me seriously. I’ll be an independent woman and I won’t have to live off the largess of my baby daddy any longer.”

Ivy’s eyes grew wide. “You might want to guzzle that, Laurel. Your baby daddy just walked in.”

The murmurs that heralded Bryce and Audrianna’s arrival reached a crescendo behind Laurel’s back. She placed her champagne flute on the table untouched.

“Hello there, ladies,” Bryce said as he stopped at their table. Audrianna hung back, posing for selfies with several of the patrons. “What are we celebrating?”

Miranda looked at him quizzically. “Laurel took the final part of the CPA exam today.”

“I know that. I had to keep Tyson busy all day, remember?”

Laurel winced while Ivy downed her entire glass of champagne in one swallow. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience,” Laurel said.

“Jesus, Laurel, can’t you take a joke. It wasn’t an ‘inconvenience’. Although I think Tyson saw spending the day with Audrianna and me as one.”

“Please tell me you told him about your wedding?”

“Yeah, that was our first mistake. We told him right away. It was all downhill after that.”

Laurel sighed wearily. “He’ll come around to the idea. He’s still young.”

“So you keep saying. Look, I suggested that maybe he come stay with us for a few weeks this summer and he nearly had a meltdown. Audrianna is beginning to take things personally.”

She stood so abruptly her head began to spin. “Can we take things slow before you begin some great custody battle, Bryce?”

Bryce rocked back on his heels. “Is that what you think this is about? Look, Laurel, Tyson’s more yours than he is mine. He always will be. That doesn’t mean I don’t love him or want to be a part of his life.” He glanced over to where his fiancée was striking a pose with Liam as cellphone camera flashes went off. “Our lifestyle isn’t really conducive to kids, you know?”

Laurel nodded, her stomach still in knots. “I’ll do what I can to smooth things over.”

“Maybe you should ask Soldier Sam, to help,” Bryce said. “Tyson seems to worship the guy.”

Laurel’s head snapped up to meet Bryce’s discerning stare. “I’ve got it handled. I don’t need anyone’s help.”

“You never have.” Bryce sighed. “Our plane has been grounded due to the weather. Your mom suggested we stay at the ranch so we could spend some time with Tyson in the morning. But if it’s going to make you uncomfortable, we’ll head up to Kalispell.”

“It’s fine,” she said, despite the fact she felt anything but fine. “It’ll give us a chance to promote a united front to him in the morning.” Laurel grabbed her purse off the chair. “I should get home and get him ready for bed. You and Audrianna should finish the champagne.”

Bryce reached for the bottle. “Don’t mind if we do.”

Ivy rolled her eyes. “I’ll drive you home. This place is getting too crowded anyway.”

L
aurel slept poorly
that night. The violent rain and hail had pounded the roof of the loft until well after midnight. She’d invited Tyson to come cuddle in bed with her, but he insisted that he was a big boy who wasn’t afraid of storms. Too bad he refused to be reasonable about his father’s wedding.

When Laurel had broached the subject during bedtime, Tyson had refused to discuss it. He insisted he had a plan and things would work out. Laurel had reassured him he would always live on the ranch with her. Her words seem to ease some of Tyson’s stress. He’d given her a long hug before slipping under the covers. “You’re the best mama ever,” he’d told her. But his eyes had still been sad and Laurel remained unsettled for much of the evening.

A pounding on her door woke her just after seven-thirty. Bryce was apparently in a hurry to get out of town. “I’m coming,” she said, dragging her tired body to the door.

But it wasn’t Bryce on the other side. It was her father, looking grim. She heard the sound of horses pacing in their stalls below. “What is it? Is Mom okay?”

“Fire. In the west pasture. Lightning must have hit something out there last night. Help is on the way, but I need to get the horses loaded up.”

Laurel had slipped her feet into her boots and pulled a sweatshirt from its hook before her father finished his succinct explanation. She clattered down the stairs toward the barn. The two stable hands were already placing halters on the horses and leading them out to the hauler. They’d wait in the horse trailer just in case Laurel had to quickly drive them to safety.

She dashed into Tabitha’s stall and quickly placed a halter over the mare’s head. Tabitha was skittish, aware of the danger animals seemed to innately sense. “Shh, baby.” Laurel tried to sooth her. “You’re gonna be okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” There wasn’t time to wrap the horse’s legs, so Laurel clipped on the lead rope and led the horse to the truck.

Bryce met her at the entrance of the barn. “What can I do to help?”

Laurel nearly kissed him. Bryce didn’t have much expertise around animals, but here he was offering to pitch in a crisis. Deep down, she could count on him to be there for her and Tyson. “You can take Audrianna, my mom, and Tyson into town. Things are likely to get crazy here and if we have to leave in a hurry—” She swallowed painfully. The thought of losing the ranch made her chest ache. As much as she’d always wanted to get away, Whispering Breeze was her home. The place she wanted to raise her son.

Bryce hugged her. “It won’t get to that.” The sound of sirens racing up the drive refocused their attention. “You go get Tyson and I’ll get your mother.”

Laurel raced back up the stairs surprised her son hadn’t already made his way down. The chaos below was creating a lot of noise, not to mention the arrival of the sirens. At the very least, Oreo should already be yipping. She slid the door open to her son’s room and her breath seized in her lungs. His bed was empty. There was no sign of Tyson or his dog anywhere. Had he slipped downstairs while they were loading the horses?

She turned to grab his boots and his jacket, but both were missing. Laurel tried to call to her father or Bryce, but just like in those horrible dreams, she couldn’t seem to make her voice work. On legs that were soft as noodles, she stumbled down the stairs to the barn.

“Tyson!” she cried, panic nearly choking her words. “Where are you?”

Her father caught her at the bottom of the stairs. “What is it? Where’s Tyson?”

Laurel’s heart was thundering painfully in her chest. “Tell me you put Tator Tot on the trailer?” She stumbled to check the pony’s empty stall.

Her father was questioning the grooms in rapid-fire Spanish. Both shook their heads and Laurel suddenly felt very cold. She flew across the yard and nearly ran into Bryce as she tore through her parents’ house. “Is Tyson here?”

“He’s not in the loft?” Bryce asked.

“No! Oh, God, Bryce,” she cried. “I think he’s out there somewhere.”

She ran back out of the house, her ears roaring and her mind numb. Black smoke was billowing in from the west. The stable yard was awash with firemen from the Glacier Creek fire department.

“Tyson!” she screamed as tears streamed down her face.

Strong arms wrapped around her and she breathed the familiar scent of Sam. He turned her to face him but she tried to pull away. She had to find her son.

“Laurel,” he shouted above the noise.

Sam gripped her upper arms and gave her a shake. When she stopped struggling, he relaxed his hold and tipped her chin up with his finger so her eyes met his. That calm competence she so loved about him was reflected back at her. Despite the pandemonium in the stable yard, she suddenly felt as if they were the only two people in the world.

“I’m here,” he said. His voice soothed her. “Take a deep breath.”

She blew out a breath that sounded more like a sob.

“Good girl. Now take another one.” His fingers were massaging her shoulders. “Now slowly, I want you to tell me what’s wrong.”

“I can’t find Tyson. Or Oreo. Or Tator Tot.” Despite his efforts to sooth her, Laurel’s words were punctuated with gasps.

“When and where was the last place you saw him?”

“Last night. In his bed. I looked in on him about midnight.”

“Where the hell could he be?” Bryce asked from behind her.

Sam’s eyes never broke contact with hers. The compassion she’d seen that night in The Drop Zone was back. “We’re going to find him, Laurel. I need you to tell me if he said anything unusual last night.”

“He said he had a plan,” she choked out.

“A plan?”

“Yes! We were talking about Bryce’s wedding. He said he had a plan.” Laurel nearly crumpled to the ground. “I didn’t ask him what it was though,” she sobbed.

“Laurel,” Sam was using his captain’s voice. “I need you to stay with me here. Is there somewhere he might go to hide? Somewhere on the ranch?”

“He has a fort,” her father said. “Out toward the lake. It’s an old abandoned storage shed.”

“How do I get there?” Sam demanded.

Her father swallowed harshly beside her. “It’ll be on the other side of the fire line.”

“Holy shit,” Bryce murmured.

She grabbed at Sam’s fire suit. “Sam, please. You have to go get him. Bring him back to me.”

He leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. “I told you, Laurel, whatever you need from me.”

And then he was shouting something at Liam about taking a crew and digging a line. The fire chief sought his guidance on where to position the hoses so that they could wet down everything between the fire and the buildings. He barked into his radio at Miranda to bring the helicopter to the ranch. Sam was a model of efficiency; a natural born leader. He continued giving orders and bringing organization to the chaos all the while holding Laurel’s hand. Her father reached for her, but Laurel clung to Sam, refusing to let go. If anyone was going to find Tyson and bring him home, Sam would.