Chasing McCree (21 page)

“
Chase!” I dropped my
purse, tearing down the side yard.

Hay bales were stacked next to the
barn. Not very high, some didn’t even reach over my head. But the
fire was eating away at the dry hay, getting closer and closer to
the barn.

“
Help,” I screamed,
searching for something to douse the small blaze. There had to be a
hose, a bucket…nothing. I ran back around the house.
“Chase!”

He came out of the kitchen, jingling
his keys. “What’s wrong?”

“
Fire,” I pointed at the
smoke.

He ran with me around the side of the
house. There was a hose I hadn’t seen and we unrolled it, turning
the water on as high as it would go. Within seconds a disaster had
been averted. The hay sizzled. The smoke thickened momentarily. But
the barn was safe.

I pulled my shirt up, covering my face,
while Chase moved closer, still soaking the hay. “Is it
out?”

He kept the stream of water going,
“Yeah, luckily. It’s still kind of wet from the last rain…doesn’t
make any sense why it would catch fire. It’s not even
hot.”

We could have had an inferno on our
hands. It would have destroyed the barn. One of us could have been
hurt. The fire could have spread to the stables. To the horses or
the cows.

My head swam. I blinked hard to clear
the blurriness out of my eyes. Feeling lightheaded, I sank to the
ground on my knees, trying to remember to breathe.

“
Briar?” Chase dropped the
hose and ran toward me. “Are you okay?”

I couldn’t answer him.

“
You’re scaring me. Say
something.” He crouched beside me, grasping my shoulders, but I
couldn’t look at him. “Briar?”

I was too busy staring at a book of
matches on the ground.

I crawled forward, not touching the
matches. They were real. I wasn’t seeing things. If I hadn’t wound
up on the ground I wouldn’t have seen them hidden by the grass and
bits of hay.

“
Chase, look…” I sat aside
and he came closer.

“
What the hell?”

“
No, don’t touch them!” I
pushed his hand away. “Fingerprints. There might be fingerprints.
Haven’t you seen any of those cop shows?”

He nodded, rubbing his hand up and down
my back. “Yeah, we’ll get it into a plastic bag and save
it.”

“
I’ll get one,” I didn’t
make it to my feet. Chase tugged me back down and shook his head.
“What’s wrong?”

“
You. You nearly passed
out. Just stay put. You scared the shit outta me,
Briar.”

“
It just hit me,” I said.
It’s not until you almost lose something that you realize how much
it means to you. I hadn’t been on the ranch for long, and I hadn’t
really looked that deeply at my surroundings, not past Chase. All
of my focus was on him. I knew how I felt for him. How I felt so
deeply for this place blindsided me. Hit me so hard I didn’t know
which way was up. “I was thinking something could have happened… I
don’t know, I guess I didn’t realize that I love it here so
much.”

“
Just hit you, huh?” his
laugh was relieved and I felt some tension ease out of him. “Here I
was thinking you got burned.”

“
No, I’m fine,” I picked up
a stick and flipped over the book of matches so we could read the
logo. A chill slid down my spine. “That looks awfully
familiar.”

“
Big Bear Bar,” Chase
cursed. “Don’s place.”

“
Oh, God.” My stomach
rolled. “You don’t think he did this because of what I said on the
phone, do you?”

“
No, Briar.” Chase hugged
me. “He would have come to me to have it out, not gone like a
coward behind my back.”

“
You sound so sure,” I
wanted to cry.

“
I promise. He wouldn’t do
it because of what you said. In fact, he wouldn’t burn down
anyone’s barn. He may be a selfish bastard, but he’d never hurt a
soul.” Chase rested his head against mine. “We’ll figure it out.
Soon as Millie and Jerry get back from church.”

I rubbed my eyes, keeping from losing
it totally. “Why not call them now?”

“
They won’t answer, and if
they did, you’d have the whole congregation following them home.
They’ll probably show up anyway, once this gets around.”

“
When will they be
back?”

“
Couple hours,”

“
And you’re sure the fire
is out?” I studied the hay, not even a little smoke drifted out of
it.

“
Positive,” he left me to
shut off the hose.

I made it to my feet, feeling better.
The fire was out. The animals and barn safe. Chase and I went back
into the house.

I nibbled on some toast and sipped a
glass of orange juice at the breakfast table. Chase got a plastic
bag and collected the matches. He set the bag on the kitchen
counter and downed a cup of coffee, staring at it.

The next two hours went by very slowly.
I flipped through a magazine, while he paced like a caged animal in
front of me. He called his aunt, but it went straight to voicemail,
and was back to pacing once he hung up.

“
You’re going to wear a
hole in the rug,” I said, thinking it was probably a good thing his
boots didn’t have spurs on them.

“
It’s killing me,” he
grated, still pacing. “Why would someone try to burn down the barn?
What did I ever do to piss anyone off that much?”

I couldn’t think of anything off the
top of my head. “You’re making me dizzy. Just sit or
something.”

So he started pacing behind
me.

I got dizzy from it and went into the
living room to sit with Whiskers on the couch. He liked me again,
and let me pull him into my lap.

“
They’re here,” Chase
headed out the door.

“
Finally,” I hefted the cat
with me and followed, thinking we were in for a hell of a ride.
Hopefully no one got hurt.

Chapter 20

Chase

I kept vigilantly checking the hay. The
fire was started by a match from one of Don’s books. But Don didn’t
do it. He’d been at church with everyone else.

It was anyone’s guess who started the
fire, and I vowed I’d find them before the summer was out. The
sheriff did everything he could, but there weren’t any fingerprints
on the matchbook. The side of the barn and the hay were just out of
our security cameras angle. We didn’t see anyone coming or
going.

After a few days the commotion died
down, people, including Jerry and Millie, didn’t seem so worried.
They figured it was an accident.

Briar and I were of a different
opinion, we both thought it was just too funny to be an accident.
Why that haystack next to the barn? The sheer amount of money to
replace and rebuild after a fire would have been ridiculous. Not
that I couldn’t afford it. But I didn’t want to experience that
kind of loss and throw a wrench in the operation of the ranch.
Didn’t want to imagine how devastating it would be.

So Briar and I kept our eyes peeled. We
didn’t know what we were looking for, but we promised each other
not to let anything go unspoken, even if it seemed
silly.

The fire aside, everyday Briar and I
grew closer. A couple weeks passed. We spent every free moment
together. She even started getting up with me to feed the animals.
Some afternoons she spent it in the office with Jerry, helping him
go over the books.

Before we knew it, a month had gone by
since Briar came to the ranch. Haying went smooth, though we were a
little pressed for time. On the morning of my eighteenth birthday,
Briar’s father still hadn’t called. She was worried, but checked in
with Grandma every few days to give her an update. Her father
wasn’t asking questions. We didn’t know what was going on. Mostly
we took each day, hoping that the next time either of us picked up
the phone there wasn’t an angry doctor on the other end wondering
where his daughter was.

My mother had called a few times since
I’d been back on the ranch. She didn’t have much to say, but I
could tell by the tone of her voice she wasn’t keen on my
relationship with Briar. She kept thinking that because they both
came from the city, Briar would end up hating it here too. I tried
to tell her that wasn’t the case, but she didn’t listen.

I beat my boots on the porch as I took
the steps to the kitchen. I’d seen to feeding the horses and made
sure the rest of the animals had been taken care of. Briar had
opted out to help Millie with something.

She’d taken to naming every animal that
crossed her path. The little colt we saw born was now called
Sprite. It suited him. She’d even named the owl that sat on the
barn roof, Frances. I haven’t a clue why Frances was a good name
for an owl, but I loved her for it.

I glanced back out at the barn before
shutting the door. Damn fire still riled me to no end, but there
was no use worrying about it when we had nothing to go on. Just had
to hope and pray it didn’t happen again.

I went into the storeroom to kick off
my boots before going into the kitchen. Millie’s favorite oldies
station playing and Jerry’s rumbling laugh brought a smile to my
face.

I came out and frowned.

“
So there we were, out in
the yard, and Chase runs out wearing nothing but boots and a hat.
He had his little pop gun and started to shoot the neighbors.”
Jerry pointed at a picture in an album on the counter and I knew
they were showing Briar every embarrassing photo from when I was a
kid. “Good instincts for such a little guy. He was trying to shoot
the Smith’s!”

“
You don’t get along with
the Smith’s?” Briar asked.

“
Jerry is pulling your leg.
The Smiths are as nice as anyone.” Millie was at the stove stuffing
a chicken and she looked back at the album. “Never could keep
clothes on the boy once he figured out how to take them
off.”

I felt my face go red and wanted to
torch the album. “Morning.”

“
Chase, happy birthday!”
Briar hopped off the stool next to Jerry and skipped across the
kitchen to hug me. “We were just talking about you.”

I shook my head and eyed my aunt and
uncle. “I heard.”

“
Millie old girl, I’m
thinking we’ve embarrassed him.” Jerry shut the album and grinned.
“Won’t happen again, promise.”

Ha, yeah right. Jerry had a glint in
his eyes.

Soon as he left the album alone I’d
hide it in the attic. He couldn’t get up there anymore because of
his bad hip.

Briar tugged at my arm and pulled me
out of the kitchen into the living room. “I have something I want
to give you and it can’t wait.”

We sat across from each other on the
couch. The smell of a fresh pine wreath above the fireplace and the
sounds of Millie and Jerry in the kitchen made me feel content, but
having Briar made it all complete.

“
What are you smiling at?”
she asked.

I leaned forward and stole a quick
kiss. “Everything.”

She kissed me back and handed me a
small leather box. “I found it while I was out shopping with Millie
the day of the Callahan dance. It’s been in the upstairs dresser
for a month.”

“
Briar, you didn’t have to
get me a present.” I opened it and felt something go tight in my
chest when I looked up at her. “This is awesome.”

She pulled the watch out of the case
and put it on my wrist. “It’s not just a watch. It’s also a
compass.”

I held my arm level and watched the
little circle move till it hit north. Damn, it really was perfect.
I was getting choked up, which wasn’t like me at all “Thank you. I
love it.”

“
I wanted to make sure
you’d always find your way back to me.” She threw her arms around
my neck, almost knocked me off the couch. Millie was watching from
the far doorway, and wiped her eyes with the ruffle of her apron. I
winked at her and she burst into tears.

“
Mind if I take Briar out
for a ride, or do you need help?”

Millie waved and headed back into the
kitchen. “Be back for dinner and have fun.”

I told Briar to grab her boots and meet
me at the door. I dressed how I usually did, and when she saw me
she started laughing.

“
What?”

“
You’re wearing chaps. Real
leather chaps.”

“
And that’s funny?” she’d
seen me in them before.

She shook her head. “But these have
fringe.”

I kissed the grin off her lips and
showed her outside to the stables.

The air was thick and smelled of hay
and earth and a little like wet dog and… I spied Stinker in the far
corner chewing on a bone. Damn, he was going to need a
bath.

Briar held her nose when Stinker came
over to say hello. “Wow, that’s an interesting smell.”

“
Now you know how he got
his name.” I grabbed the bone and threw it, sending him to the
other side of the stables.

“
What did he get
into?”