“I think you took in a lot of smoke, but you weren’t burned. You’ll have a cough for a few days, and it wouldn’t hurt to go into the doc’s office, but I don’t see any major damage,” Hawk assured her.
“I don’t need to go to the doctor.”
“Well, then, it’s a good thing he makes house calls, ’cause I think he should do a better exam,” Hawk said.
The two of them glared at each other for several moments before one of the ranch hands ran up. “Hiya, Hawk,” he said with a smile before turning toward Colt just as Tony approached. “We figured out the problem.”
“Well, what happened?” Tony demanded.
“Um...” He looked at Brielle with apology in his eyes before looking back at Tony, who wasn’t amused at the delay. “The…um…parking break was left on the combine and, well, it overheated, and, well…you know the rest.”
Dead silence greeted his words. Brielle’s eyes widened and she sat up straight. “I caused this?” she gasped.
“It’s a rookie mistake,” the kid said in what he might have thought was a soothing voice.
“No! It’s just another thing I’ve done wrong,” Brielle snapped.
Colt didn’t know what to say. He could see she was beating herself up. There was no need to lecture her on the importance of making sure the equipment was ready to go. It had been a mistake, and it was a pretty expensive one — the combine and field of wheat was unsalvageable.
“It’s okay, Brielle. It happens,” the kid said.
“No. I thought I could help, but obviously, you would have all been much better off without me,” she said, getting up. “The ranch can’t afford this kind of loss!”
“Really, it does happen.” All of them turned in surprise as Tony reached out and placed a hand on Brielle’s shoulder. “I did it once too when I was a new buck out there on a combine. I thought the boss was going to have my hide for sure. But he gave me a second chance.”
Colt watched as Brielle fought against tears at Tony’s first kind words to her. “Thank you,” she said before she threw her arms around him and clung tightly.
At first, Tony seemed to be in shock from such physical contact. Then, to the shock of everyone there, Tony lifted his arms and hugged her in return, patting her back awkwardly. Colt had never seen the man show affection to any other human being.
“It’s okay, Brielle. At least you were trying,” Tony said, and she moved just a little closer.
When she finally let go, the tears were gone, and a watery smile was in their place. “I promise I’ll do better,” she told him.
And from the determined glint in her eyes Colt could see that she was serious.
She wasn’t just looking at this job as a punishment anymore. She had been proving herself over and over lately. Colt looked around at the land he’d wanted for so long, and he said a silent goodbye to it, because now he didn’t want to take it from her. Now, he wanted to help her succeed. That was more important to him than adding an extra 10,000 acres to his deed.
“Equipment can be replaced; fields can be replanted. As long as no one is killed, it’s not an unsalvageable day,” Colt told her before pulling her close for a hug.
Hawk decided to ruin the moment. “Well, hell. We had a fire and no one even thought about bringing out the hot dogs.”
“The barbecue begins after the harvest,” Tony said. “We now have one less field to burn when it’s all over.”
“You burn the fields on purpose?” Brielle gasped.
“After the harvest, to get ready for a new planting season,” Tony told her.
Joe piped up. “It’s my favorite job!”
“How is that safe?” Brielle asked.
“You saw how quickly we subdued this fire. In the right conditions, field burning is the safest way to purify a field. Don’t worry, Firestarter, we’ll teach you,” Tony said, and guffawed in his strange way before turning toward the men. “That’s enough gawking, you guys. Get back to work.”
The men scattered, and Colt found himself stepping back as Brielle moved away.
“I’m going to shower,” she told them all before leaving.
“You going to join her?”
Colt turned to look at Hawk, who was laughing at him outright. “Maybe,” he said with a wicked smile. Hell, why try to hide the fact that he wanted her? It wouldn’t do him any good. It wasn’t as if the entire town didn’t know about the two of them now.
“Attaboy,” Hawk said, clapping Colt on the back.
Colt didn’t hesitate to follow Brielle back to her house. He’d had to face the reality of possibly losing her today.