Page 35 of Combust
“See you tomorrow.” Her voice was filled with promises sweeter and richer than chocolate.
She went inside the house, leaving Cade feeling more intoxicated than if he’d drunk a whole barrel of beer.
* * *
Monday, November 17
The next day, Maggie managed to get through her shift at Cinnamon + Sugar without any major screw-ups. It felt like a major miracle. She hadn’t gotten much sleep after Cade’s good-night kiss, which had left her body burning and restless with unsatisfied need.
She realized she was really looking forward to their date tonight. The prospect helped distract her from thinking about how Sophie hadn’t yet replied to the text that Maggie had sent her after dinner last night.
But first, she had a job to do at the clan’s annual Autumn Firewood Gather. The ranch’s houses were all heated by wood-burning stoves, so it was all hands on deck to harvest enough fuel to last through the winter.
Instead of lingering to eat lunch with Mom as she usually did when she worked morning shift, Maggie sped home. There, she quickly changed out of her work clothes, pulled on her outdoor gear and work boots, and headed for the barn to saddle up.
It was nearly one o’clock, so she’d likely missed the family picnic lunch. But she had a backpack stuffed with sandwiches, cookies, and fruit to sustain her until dinnertime.
When she’d be going on her first real date with Cade. She found herself grinning in anticipation.
Something had changed between them last night. She wasn’t sure yet exactly what had happened, but his unexpected reaction to his birthday celebration had given her a whole new perspective.
Sure, he was growly and rough, but beneath his tough, tattooed shell beat the heart of someone who’d treated the cake she had baked like a precious gift.
And then there was the fact that he was the best kisser she’d ever met. It had taken every ounce of willpower she had not to climb inside his clothes and have sex with him right there on Mom and Dad’s front porch.
Her bear hadn’t helped matters any. The horny beast had wanted her to follow Cade to his cabin and find out if hisotherskills were as spectacular as his kisses.
And just like that, she was turned on again.Great.
Shereallyneeded to get herself under control before she met up with the rest of her family on the mountain.
She entered the barn and discovered that all three of the big horse-drawn, flatbed hay wagons were gone, as well as the ranch’s fleet of ATVs. The stables had also been emptied. The two ponies, Oreo and Coconut, whickered at her from their stalls, apparently lonely without the other horses around.
Then Meringue poked her head through the opening in the bars of her stall gate, and Maggie grinned happily.Someone remembered I was coming and left me a mount!
When the big dapple-gray mare had been saddled and bridled, Maggie led her out of the barn.
Maggie enjoyed working at the bakery, but it was wonderful to be outdoors on a beautiful late-autumn afternoon like this. The air was as sweet and tangy as huckleberries, and sunlight gilded the snow-capped mountains against a deep blue sky.
She and Meringue walked up the road for a bit to warm up before Maggie swung up into the saddle and guided the mare onto a track. It ran through a pasture, then climbed the hills to the patch of forest that had burned a few years ago.
Back then, Maggie hadn’t been old enough to volunteer as a firefighter. But she remembered her dad, uncles and older cousins spending a couple of long days and nights digging firebreaks and cutting brush to keep the fire from spreading. They’d been lucky—the mature trees had been scorched but not completely consumed by the fast-moving flames, and about half had even survived the fire that had cleared out the underbrush.
For past two years, Maggie and her cousins had foraged for wild morels in that part of the woods, since the tasty mushrooms flourished in burned patches.
Now it was time to clear out the dead trees, so that seedlings would have enough room and light to grow tall and strong and replenish the forest.
Faint in the distance, she heard the buzz and growl of chainsaws. She touched her heels to Meringue’s sides, urging her to hurry.
She didn’t want to miss all the fun.
* * *
The first thing Maggie saw when she arrived at the firewood harvest site was a line of the ranch’s pickups. They were parked along the rutted dirt road that cut through the forest and also served as a firebreak. Each of the trucks was hitched to a long flatbed trailer.
“Hey, Maggie-may, glad to see you made it!” her cousin Eddie called as she rode up.
He, Uncle Ash, and Ash’s son Young Mitya were unloading sections of cut pine from the smaller horse-drawn wagon used to collect the wood, and transferring them to one of the flatbed trailers. Their work gloves and denim jackets were smeared with gobs of pine sap and streaked with soot from burned bark.
