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“It’s my grandmother’s recipe and one of my personal favorites.” He picked up his wine. “And I’m glad you like it.”
“I do and…really, you didn’t have to do this. I know I was kind of pissy and…”
“Rightfully so,” he interrupted. “I was being a lousy neighbor and it’s only fair that I make it up to you.”
“So, you’re cooking for everyone in the building this week?” she teased.
That made him laugh. “Nah, none of them complained. A few questioned when I was going to be done, but you were the only one vocal enough to threaten me with bodily harm.”
“Oh.”
“And I picked up some tiramisu for dessert if that helps my cause,” he added. “And if you don’t like that, I also picked up some brownies. Billie mentioned they were your favorite.”
The fork was halfway to her mouth when she paused. “You talked to Billie about this?”
“Well, not about this specifically, just what could I possibly get for dessert that would be a hit. If you hadn’t come up here, I would have just knocked on your door and handed you the box of brownies with an apology.” He took a sip of his wine. “But I’m really glad you came up here.”
Her heart did a tiny little flutter. “Me too.”
The rest of the meal was relatively quiet because Ashlynn had no idea what to say. No one had ever done anything like this for her and she was afraid of doing or saying something to ruin it. Fortunately, Reid took the reins and had no trouble starting up a conversation once they were done eating.
“I got to tour the old ski resort today,” he told her. “The construction crew will be starting on Monday so we walked through the entire site with the general contractor, superintendent, and foremen and discussed everything they were going to need on site for safety purposes and to inspect what was left behind all these years. Most of it wasn’t working or had expired, so we had to come in and replace fire extinguishers and smoke detectors and all that.”
“They aren’t going to just knock it down and start over?”
“Nope. The investors apparently wanted to keep with the original architecture, so a lot of what’s going to happen is replacing what’s rotting or damaged and go from there. Plus, they’ll be adding to the original lodge to allow for more guest rooms and event space.”
“I remember going there as a kid before it closed. Then, in middle school, it became a big thing to sneak up there and see if we could get in.” She laughed at the memory.
He looked completely amused. “And did you?”
Shaking her head, she picked up her wine. “Not even once. I always thought it would be so cool to go into something abandoned like that and just look around. Sometimes I go on websites that are dedicated to that sort of thing and I’m always intrigued by how it sometimes looks like the staff and owners just locked up for the night and never went back. Things aren’t put away; supplies are left out like someone was supposed to come back.”
“One of the first stations I worked with was outside of Richmond and we used an old college for fire training,” he began. “And it was just like what you were saying—there were desks and office supplies and all kinds of things just left there.”
“What happened to the college? Why did it close?”
“The official story was that they lost their funding. It was a private college. But the rumor was that the president was basically embezzling money from student’s families to support his drug habit.” He shrugged. “Either way, we now use the buildings for fire training.”
“And what’s involved in that?”
“It’s not often that we get to train in a building that isn’t on fire. By utilizing abandoned buildings, we can learn and experiment with different techniques while working in a safer and more controlled environment.”
“Plus, there’s no danger because there’s no fire, right?”
He nodded. “Absolutely.”
“So, what kind of stuff do you do?”
“Well, one of the most important things is to master ways of getting into a building. Sometimes a fire is so intense that you can’t just walk in through the front door. So we practice entering the building from the back and the front, and by cutting holes through the roof…just really perfecting our entry techniques that can be implemented in an emergency situation.”
“Wow…so even when there’s not a fire, you’re still working as if there is. That’s impressive.”
“It’s not like we do it all the time, but probably once a month we used to do it. I have no idea if this squad does anything like that, but I’m guessing with all the new businesses coming in that we’ll be doing other kinds of training.”
“You think?” she asked. “Like what?”
“Sort of like what we were doing the day we saw you and Billie over on Ridge. We’ll go in and inspect the buildings and learn from what’s there. Since most of the buildings here in Sweetbriar are older, we’re going to have our hands full with updating everything.”
