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“Living next door to his new house.”
“Poor J.T.”
They arrived at the pond and sat on a bench to watch the sun make its final descent behind the mountains surrounding the valley. They stayed and watched the sky grow dark and the stars come out.
“It seems I got my wish.”
She laid her head on his shoulder. “What wish is that?”
“When we saw the falling star not long after we got to Schaeffer Mills. You told me to make a wish.”
“And you said it was against wish protocol to tell me what you wished for.”
“I think there’s a statute of limitations on wish protocol.”
“So you’re going to tell me now?”
He nodded. “I wished there would never come a day when I couldn’t go outside and look at the stars with you by my side.”
She turned toward him and he could see tears in her eyes reflected in the moonlight. “We barely knew each other at that point.”
“I know. But I was already falling in love with you. I didn’t acknowledge it at the time. The age thing, and the not knowing if I had someone else waiting for me to come home, was weighing heavily on my mind. But I couldn’t help myself.” He touched her cheek and kissed her. “You’re very lovable, Ember.”
When J.T. drove by the Bradford place on his way home, it was dark and there was no car in front of it. At least Joey was smart enough not to try to stay there. She’d need to have the power turned on, and the well checked out. And probably a million other things before she could actually move in. She and Mandy were probably staying with their father in the family home. He wasn’t sure how Joey left things with her father when she took off. But by the way Freddy still scowled at J.T. whenever theycrossed paths in town, it seemed he was under the impression J.T. was responsible for his daughter leaving town.
J.T. wasn’t really one to hang out in the bar. But on the rare occasion he did, it wasn’t the White Buffalo. There was another bar in town called The Corner Bar. He and Sawyer would go there once in a while. Or he’d meet a friend there for a beer now and then. But he knew better than to set foot in the White Buffalo.
J.T. continued a quarter mile, then turned onto the gravel road leading to his trailer. He parked his truck, then went inside the forty foot single-wide mobile home. It was a little rough on the outside, but it was pretty nice on the inside. Its walls were all paneled with tongue-and-groove knotty pine. And it had fairly new carpeting on the floor. He’d bought a loveseat and a recliner, and arranged them for easy viewing of the television. But like his father, he wasn’t a big watcher of T.V. He did have a collection of DVDs he liked to watch. They were mostly television series from the nineties and early two thousands. He enjoyed binging whole series, preferring that over watching movies.
The kitchen was small and separated from the living room by a breakfast bar with three stools. His bedroom took up the rest of the trailer with a queen sized bed and a dresser. It felt empty, which it was. But he had what he needed. It was smaller than the loft. But it was temporary. His house would be done before winter set in. If things went well over the summer, it might even be finished by early fall. He just needed a dry spring, a summer that wasn’t too hot, and time enough off from his ranch duties to be able to work on it.
The frame was up and the floor was covered with plywood, except where the plumber and electrician would need access. Those things he hired out and would be done in the next few weeks. There was a temporary power pole bringing electricity tothe trailer. And he was hooked up to the well that was drilled between snow storms in March. Things were moving along and he was excited to see the finished product.
He thought about Joey living in the Bradford house. Things were going along too well. Something had to go wrong. Enter Josephina Pierson.
He sighed and shook his head as he vowed to himself to not let her ruin this for him.
The mobile home had a tiny porch, just big enough for one chair, and now that the weather was warming up, J.T. liked to drink his first cup of coffee there in the morning. He stepped out the door, steaming cup in his hand, and breathed in the fresh morning air. Only it wasn’t fresh. There was smoke in it. He set his cup down and moved away from the trailer to get a clearer view. The first direction he looked was toward his new house. No smoke there. As he scanned the horizon, he came to the Bradford house. There wasn’t a lot of smoke, but there was definitely a cloud of it hovering around the front of the house.
J.T. ran to his truck and peeled out of the driveway, leaving a spray of gravel behind him. He sped down the road and pulled into the drive to the house. As he approached, he saw Joey standing outside, watching the smoke coming out the open front door.
She turned to him when she heard him drive up and get out.
“What the hell, Joey? I was only half-kidding when I said to burn the place down.”
“The woodstove.”
“You started a fire in the woodstove?”
“Yes. But the smoke isn’t going up the flue.”
“Did you open the damper?”
She put her hands on her hips. “Of course. I know how to use a woodstove.”
“Did you have someone check the chimney first?”
She looked at him. “No.”
