Sean:

Hailey falls asleep in my arms, but I lie awake for a very long time, my thoughts all over the place.

I’m not good at casual relationships. I don’t do one-night stands. I’ve never been in love, and I’ve never found the one woman that I want to spend the rest of my life with.

Until now.

I want so much more from Hailey Martell than she’s willing to give. Tonight, when I told her she was my fantasy come to life, I could sense her panic. If she finds out how much I care about her, I will lose her.

Not for the first time, I curse her ex-fiancé. He had everything, and he threw it away.

How long can you be content with this arrangement?

I don’t know. I don’t want to think about that question too much because my heart sinks when I confront the truth. If Hailey keeps pushing us away, I’m going to get my heart broken.

You’ll cross that bridge when you get to it.

My thoughts drift to Eric Hardy. The confrontation with the man had put me in a surly mood all day, not because of his pointless feud with Constance Baker, but because of what it would mean to Goat if Hardy won the election.

I can’t lie; I’m worried. What kind of mayor is Hardy going to be if he’s indebted to McDuff’s? A giant dollar store in the middle of town would ruin Goat’s carefully managed image of quirkiness, and that image keeps the tourists coming, and keeps our local stores in business.

Everyone except Eric Hardy can see that, but I’m not surprised at the other man’s lack of foresight. Hardy’s a terrible businessman. He used to run a pizza franchise, but it got shut down by the health department. Before that, he ran an Italian restaurant, but that went out of business too. He’d be a disaster as mayor.

Then there’s his half-baked plan of shutting down the fire station. Admittedly, we can’t handle anything huge—we have aging equipment and one firetruck—but if there’s a blaze in town, we can contain it until the trucks from Bend get to us.

The election is just four weeks away. I’ll be happy when it’s over. Then, I can go back to focusing on the important things. Like convincing Hailey that Nick and I are nothing like her loser ex-fiancé.

The call comes in at two in the morning. It’s Elijah Shepard, who lives on a farm twenty minutes outside of town with his daughter Tammy. “Sean,” he gasps. “The stable’s on fire.”

Shit.

Nick’s already putting his boots and pants on. I shake Hailey awake, aware that every moment we linger, Tammy’s livelihood is at risk. “Sweetie, we have to respond to a call. The guys are on their way to the firehouse. Can you drive Nick’s truck home?”

She sits right up. “Of course.” Her eyes are wide and worried. “Call me as soon as you’re done?”

“I will.” We get dressed and slide down the pole. When a call comes in, every firefighter who can respond will do so, so I’m not surprised to see Jay Cantu and Tony Chan by the truck already, pulling their suspenders over their shoulders. Without exchanging greetings, we jump in and speed toward Shepard’s farm, sirens blaring.

The horse farm has been struggling to be profitable for the past two years, but Tammy finally turned a corner. She has twenty horses of her own, and she also boards horses for other people. She’s a lovely young woman, kind and cheerful. I cross my fingers as we race to the fire, hoping it isn’t as bad as Elijah made it sound.

But it is.  

Thick black smoke billows into the sky as we approach the stables, shrouding the stars. As we near, I see the bright orange flames licking at the barn roof.

“Windy night.” Nick frowns. “The crew from Bend is going to take too long to get here. We’ve got to keep the fire from spreading to the house.”

“Not to mention rescuing the horses.”

“Fuck, yes.” Nick’s expression is grim. “Tammy must be freaking out.”

We pull up at the farm and jump out.  In minutes, we have high-pressure streams of water aimed at the blazing roof. “I’m going in,” Nick yells over the crackling of the fire.

It’s chaos. The horses are whinnying in fright. Elijah is holding a screaming Tammy back. She shows every sign of wanting to run into the barn. “My horses,” she shrieks, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Nick can’t go alone.

Jay and Tony are on the other side of the barn, preventing the fire from reaching the farmhouse. I gesture to Elijah. The man used to be part of the crew in younger days until he lost a leg in Afghanistan. His prosthetic might prevent him from volunteering, but he can manage the hose. “Keep the water going,” I tell him. “How many horses are in the barn?”

Tammy answers at once. “Twelve,” she says. “Prince is in there. Sean, please…”

Prince is Tammy’s horse. She’s had him since she was a little girl. “I’ll get him out, Tammy,” I promise, raising my voice over the crackling of the fire. “I’ll get them all out.”

Slapping a mask on my face, I dive in after Nick. The barn is engulfed in thick smoke. The horses are panicking, poor things. The blaze is blocking the exit, and the animals won’t step through the flames. “Get Tammy to drive her truck into the back,” Nick yells over the noise, gesturing to the side of the barn that the flames haven’t reached yet. “We need a way out.”

Tammy is on my heels. She doesn’t have a protective mask on, and she’s coughing and choking, her eyes watering in the smoke. She hears Nick’s suggestion though, and darts out at once. In minutes, the truck comes busting through the wall. The moment she backs out, we push the horses in the direction of the newly created exit, and they bolt for safety.

All except one. One horse—a foal, really, barely a year old—doesn’t make it. I’ve broken my promise to Tammy. The image of that small, charred body will haunt me for a very long time.

The fire trucks from Bend arrive and completely extinguish the blaze. We know the guys who respond to the call, and once everything’s clear, Darren Woodward comes up to us. “Bad business, this,” he says. “Hopefully, the smoke hasn’t hurt the animals much.”

“We lost one,” Nick says heavily. “If we’d got here faster…”

Darren shakes his head. “Don’t blame yourself. You couldn’t have done any better.” His eyes crinkle with sympathy as he looks at the ruined stable. “Poor people. This isn’t going to do their business any good.”

“It spread too quickly.” I pitch my voice low, so neither Tammy nor her father can overhear me. They don’t need to listen to my suspicions right now. Tammy’s crying quietly in a corner, and Elijah has his arm around his daughter.

Darren lifts his head up and stares at me. “Are you saying what I think you are?”

“Yes.” I don’t like it, but I’ve been a firefighter for more than ten years. Something about this fire doesn’t feel natural.

Darren exhales, his expression grim. “The insurance company will send an investigator down, and he or she will be able to figure it out. Do they have any enemies, do you know?”

“Tammy?” Nick shakes his head. “Everyone adores her, she’s a sweetheart. And Elijah as well. These are good people.”

And yet, if my instincts are right, someone set this barn on fire deliberately.

We have an arsonist in town.