“What in hell you doing that for?” he gasps.
“Makes my baby laugh. Now quit dodging me and let me do it again.”
“The hell? How about I do it to you and we see if she thinks it’s just as funny?”
“Boys.” Pop calls a dry warning that makes us feel like we’re young’uns again, but his slight grin at our horseplay dampens any real hint of seriousness.
My brother leans back, and a soft look settles his brow as he watches Emmaline lay on my chest before popping her head back up. “Boy or girl…don’t matter none to me. I’ll be happy with either one because nothing that woman does is anything less than perfect. Know what I mean?”
“I do. I—” Patches barks, but it’s different from his playful ones. A heartbeat later, hoofbeats and yelling ringout from behind the house. “The hell is going on? Is that smoke?”
When the rider comes around, I can see it’s Dalton, arm waving wildly as he points behind him. “Fire! Fire in the back field!”
The back field…where the haystacks for the cattle are.
Dry, very flammable haystacks.
“Holy hell.” Pop, Jedidiah, and I exchange grim looks as I suck in a harsh breath, and in the next, I rush back inside the house, Emmaline held securely to my chest. “There’s a fire out by the haystacks,” I tell the shocked women with more calm than I feel as I pass our daughter to Mara. “Stay here until we get this under control. If it gets closer, y’all take that shotgun, get in the wagon, and head towards town.”
Mara catches my arm. “Be careful.”
“Always,” I swear. “But I’ve got to keep my girls safe first.” I press a quick kiss to her worried lips and another to Emmaline’s forehead. Mara holds back her thoughts, but I can see the storm in her eyes. “I’ll be back before you know it. Promise.”
I squeeze her fingers and give her one last kiss before catching up to Jed and Pop at the barn. It’s a melee, with more ranch hands dashing for the buckets and blankets as we saddle up the horses.
“I don’t even know how it started.” Dalton’s words trip out of his mouth as he shakes his head. “None of us were even over there, so I don’t know what could have done it.” His voice dies off, but we all hear the confusion. Fires don’t just start out of nowhere.
When we get to the field, we quickly join the men in the fight to suppress the flames. And what a fight it is. Everytime one blaze gets extinguished, another forms right behind it.
“It just won’t fucking stop,” I growl in frustration. If the land and crops are damaged, so be it. But I can’t let it reach the house. Land and crops can grow back. Not the same for my family.
Pop wipes sweat from his face and points to the sky. “Rain’s a’coming.”
“What?” I drag my shirt over my own face. When I see the dark clouds, a wild grin spreads. “It’s about to rain, boys!” I whoop.
“C’mon,” someone yells. “Keep going!” We’re all exhausted, shoulders and backs aching, but now we push forward with renewed determination.
First there’s a rumble of thunder. Rain falls in fat droplets, then pours in sheets as if the heavens had opened up. “Yeah!” I throw my hat into the air and do a victory dance.
“Guess the good Lord knew we’d be needing this rain.” Pop’s heavy hand claps my back.
“I reckon he—” A gunshot cracks through the air, and my heart stops for a minute.
Jed jerks his head up. “Did that come from…?”
“The house,” Pop says roughly before we all take off running for the horses, Dalton close on our heels.
Thunder.
So much thunder.
Thunder from the sky.
From the horses’ galloping hooves.
From my own pounding heart as a sickening suspicion about the fire’s origin forms. Very convenient that it got all the men out of the house and left the women there alone. If anything’s happened to Mara or Emmaline…
I spur my horse to go faster when I see Momma on the porch holding my shotgun in one hand and waving urgently at us with the other. She and Dove are shouting something at us, but I can’t make it out. Even Patches paces restlessly.
