“Did you tell him about your problem with heights?” T.J. asked, opening the bucket.
“Not on your life,” Tommy Lee said. There was a pause before the young cowboy spoke again. “Oh, I get it.”
T.J. couldn’t help but grin as he started smearing the black, tar-like substance over the damaged spots on the roof. Tommy Lee’s naiveté came more from being a twenty-year-old kid and out on his own for the first time than from anything else.
Just as T.J. finished with the last spot showing signs of damage, Tommy Lee let loose with a curse that raised even T.J.’s eyebrows.
“Get down here now, boss,” the young man shouted. “Ms. Wilson’s house is on fire.”
Making his way across the roof to the ladder, T.J. could see thick gray smoke coming from the open window below. He repeated Tommy Lee’s creative combination of cuss words and added a few of his own as he came down the ladder in what had to be record time. He ran around to the back of the house, followed closely by the younger cowboy. T.J. threw open the door and they met Heather carrying Seth as she ran through the kitchen to get out.
“I turned it off, but I think the furnace is on fire,” she said.
“Get them out of here,” he ordered Tommy Lee.
While his hired hand got Heather and Seth to safety, T.J. grabbed the fire extinguisher he had seen in a utility closet the night he’d stayed with Heather and entered the laundry room. He pulled the lever on top, sprayed foam on the furnace’s smoldering motor and didn’t stop until the small cylinder was empty. He wanted to make sure there was no chance of flames flaring up again before he went outside to see that Heather and Seth were all right.
“What happened?” he asked when he exited the house. He walked across the yard to where Heather stood, cradling Seth, and took them both into his arms.
“I-I’m not sure,” she said, shivering against him. “I heard a pop and then smelled smoke. When I went to see what happened, smoke was coming from the furnace. I turned it off and opened the window, but the smoke just kept getting worse.”
“Well, it’s out now,” he said, hugging her and Seth to him. “But I’m afraid your furnace motor is most likely a lost cause.”
“That’s...it. This...is the last...straw,” she said haltingly. He could tell she was a hair’s breadth away from dissolving into tears, and knowing how proud she was, he didn’t think she would appreciate having an audience witnessing it.
“Tommy Lee, why don’t you go ahead and put the bucket of roof patch in the tool shed, then take the ladder and go on back to the Dusty Diamond,” T.J suggested. He’d intended to stay after lunch to talk to Heather about attending the family’s New Year’s Eve party, and now he was glad he had the young cowboy follow him over to Heather’s in one of the ranch trucks.
“Will do, boss,” Tommy Lee said, looking relieved to be escaping the coming waterworks.
“Why don’t we get you and Seth out of this chilly air?” he asked, turning her toward the house. He lifted Seth from her and put his free arm around her shoulders to guide her up the steps and through the open back door.
Once they were inside, Heather turned into him and he held her while she sobbed against his chest. He’d rather climb a barbed-wire fence buck-naked than to see a woman cry, but Heather’s tears made him feel worse than any he’d ever witnessed. He wanted to help, but he wasn’t sure she would let him. He had barely convinced her to allow him to tend to her horses and fix her roof. Getting her to let him replace the furnace, or even just get it repaired, would be next to impossible.
“M-Mom-mom?” Seth said, his little voice wobbling.
Great! T.J. was going to have a sobbing woman and a crying toddler all at the same time.
“Your mom is going to be okay, Seth,” he said, hoping to soothe the little boy. “I’ll take good care of both of you. How does that sound?”
The child stared at him for a moment before he finally nodded. “O-tay.”
When Heather’s crying ran its course, T.J. reached for a soft cotton dish towel to dry her eyes. “Can you take Seth?” he asked. “I’m going to make a call to see if I can get a repairman out here right away.”
“I-I’m so...sorry,” she said, reaching for her son. “I never...cry.”
“It’s all right, sweetheart. This is just a little bump in the road and you’re not going to face it alone.” Cupping her face with his palms, he kissed her forehead. “Since it’s supposed to be cold tonight, why don’t you go ahead and start gathering some things for you and Seth to spend the night at my place? This late in the day, it’s doubtful the furnace people will be able to get out here until tomorrow.”