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He didn’t ask why she’d have to get home, and she didn’t elaborate.

“So are you home for the summer?”

“Right. I’m a senior! At last,” she said, giggling. “I never thought I’d get through it.”

“What’s your major?” He felt like an old lady, asking the young girl if she had a good day at school.

“Agriculture, what else? My family has that huge ranch, and it’s just going to ruin. I have to try to save it.”

At a crossroad, he could flee like he really wanted to do, making up an excuse that he had to do something, or he could be a grown-up and find out why she had to save her family’s ranch. Taking a deep breath, he squatted down on the other side of the flower bed, thinking of how his father would address a similar declaration. Charlie always had the right words.

“That sounds serious.”

“It is,” she said, rocking back on her heels. “You’ll hear all the gossip eventually. But leave it at my mother died in my senior year of high school, and my father hasn’t handled it very well. If it wasn’t for the social security he got for us kids, he’d have lost the ranch a long time ago. I got a full scholarship to Southern Utah, so that wasn’t an issue, but my siblings haven’t had it as easy as I did. She died and I basically left home as soon as I could. They’ve been stuck here trying to get through school and take care of our dad.”

Sorry he’d opened up the topic, now he struggled to find something meaningful to say to her. Instead, all that came out was, “Ugh.”

She laughed, his word defusing her pain for the moment. “I know, right? WTF, Dad. Anyway, I work full time up at school, so I’m able to help out with getting bills paid, but he didn’t pay the property taxes last year, so now we’re really in trouble. I’m working with the county to get them paid, so any work you need done around here, just let me know. So far the neighborhood keeps me pretty busy.”

Paul didn’t know what the property taxes cost in that area, but his parents’ taxes were exorbitant. “How many acres is your dad’s place?”

“About sixty. The problem is he’s not doing anything with it now. He’s let the trees go to hell, stopped irrigating when we had the drought, so there are only a dozen nut trees and a couple of hundred citrus, but they’re all struggling. The avocados are mostly dead.

“I try to do pruning and irrigation maintenance in the evening. Robin and Sam have helped me a lot. Now I just need to make sure the electric bill is paid so the pumps will run. We had enough rain last winter, so I think it will be okay this summer. I just need to make some money from the crop if I can.”

He knew his mother would probably say, “Go help the girl, Paul!” But he wasn’t going to offer. That kind of involvement with any girl was unappealing. He didn’t want to be needed.

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you,” he said lamely, thinking it was his imagination when she frowned.

Standing up, he had business to take care of before he could be gone for twenty-four hours, so he excused himself.

“Oh, Barney and Ruth pay me, by the way.”

“Okay, great,” he replied, not knowing what the point was. Maybe she expected a tip. He dug in his pocket and pulled out a ten-dollar bill, handing it over to her. “Thanks for working on the garden.”

She didn’t hesitate to take it, smiling at him. “Thanks, Paul.”

After stuffing it in her jeans pocket, she went back to weeding, dismissing him, and he didn’t waste any time getting back inside, but not before she said, “I’ll be back tomorrow.”

Once inside, he wondered if she had a key to his place since she had been working on it while it was vacant. Maybe he’d make one of his errands that day to call a locksmith.

Chapter 2

The cabin at Firehouse Ranch was within walking distance to the station, so leaving his truck in the driveway Tuesday morning, Paul left at sunrise with his bag and a huge mug of coffee.

The dirt road leading up to the station was rutted and rocky from the winter rains. Hopefully the county would come through soon and do a little grading, but he doubted it. The area was the last on the work list for maintenance and upgrades, and the inhabitants knew it.

“It’s one of the reasons we like it up here,” Sam had said. “We’re left alone.”

When he got to the station, the usual camaraderie ensued with catching up to do. They got in a huddle for morning/shift change report.

“This morning, Saint, Barbour, Ferguson and Acker, split up into two groups and go door-to-door, making sure homeowners comply with fire safety regulations this summer. That means all brush cleared away from structures to one hundred feet, and working interior sprinklers. Leave warning notices unless they’re in compliance, and we’ll go out in ten days to reinspect. Fingers crossed there are no calls while you’re out, but make sure your radios are on.”

That was that, he dropped his stuff off in the locker room and, after breakfast, got into a truck with his best friend since high school and fire academy, Danny Ferguson.

“It’s better than polishing trucks,” Danny said.

“Were they busy this weekend? Because I didn’t hear one alarm.”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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