Chapter Three
Within a blink of an eye, everything changed. One minute, Ronald was at eye-level, and the next, he went through the porch with only his head and chest appearing from below. The screams had not come from Autumn.
She spun around to see Joel and Oscar sprinting up the walkway leading to the front door with Joel slowing only slightly once he realized it wasn’t Autumn who needed help.
Oscar’s tail wagged as he steamed up the steps and beelined toward Ronald’s grimacing face while Joel kept emotionless as he reconciled the sharp screams coming from the man in front of him.
The moment Ronald saw Joel, his screams turned to whimpers. It probably didn’t help that Oscar was busy licking his face, excited that someone was finally on his level for a change.
Ronald attempted to hoist himself out of the hole, but he managed to do more harm than good as more of the rotten porch fell in around him.
“I’ll call 911,” Autumn said, gingerly stepping around Ronald.
“Unfortunately for Ronald, 911 is here.” Joel kept a straight face.
Regardless of the situation and who all was involved, Joel took his medic duties extremely seriously. Never mind the fact that Ronald sounded like a female in distress and he’d been certain it had been Autumn in trouble. Joel could slide that all out of his mind and focus on the task at hand, which was to help the damsel in distress. Good old Ronald.
“I’m fine. I don’t need your help.” Ronald waved his hands at Joel, attempting to dismiss him.
“Be that as it may, it’s my duty to check you out and get you to a hospital if need be.”
Granted, the ambulance was back at the fire station, but this wasn’t like a cardiac arrest event. Getting him to hobble to a vehicle would do, or Joel could always carry him.
“I don’t need a hospital. I just need to be left alone.” Ronald glared at Autumn, and Joel did his best to call Oscar back from his tongue lashing.
Another scream sliced into the air, and Ronald began hopping up and down, looking somewhat like a creature from the Whack-A-Mole game. Joel immediately cleared his mind and knelt, checking the strength of the boards around him.
“What’s wrong?” Autumn asked, bending over and trying to calm Ronald down.
“There’s something down here.” Ronald’s face was stricken pale, his California glow long gone as he continued hopping up and down.
“What kind of something?” Autumn scrunched her nose.
“I don’t know.” He shook his head frantically. “But something. Something living, furry. I don’t know. It’s trying to attack me.” Ronald attempted to get himself out of the den of wild creatures with no luck.
Joel reached over to grab and pull, but Ronald retreated.
Until he screamed again with his eyes closing shut.
“It’s still down here,” he hissed.
“I’d imagine it’s thinking the same thing about you,” Joel ventured just as Oscar began scratching frantically at the porch, nose to the wood, with ears and tail up.
Ronald’s eyes were still closed, so now was the perfect time to act.
Without wasting any more seconds, Joel moved in and hauled Ronald out of harm’s way before he even figured out what hit him.
Or saved him, as the case may be.
“Oh, my God. You’re bleeding,” Autumn said, kneeling down next to Ronald.
Joel looked at Ronald’s leg, and a small amount of blood had soaked through his khakis. Joel reached over, and without too much dispute from Ronald, pulled the leg of his pants up to reveal a very swollen ankle and scraped-up skin but no obvious bite wounds.
“Could I have rabies?” Ronald asked. His shoulders sank with the realization that he could be frothing at the mouth at any moment.
“Do you think something bit you?” Joel questioned, assessing the wound and still not seeing puncture marks.
“No. I don’t think so. There were definitely things down there trying to do something to me.” He shuddered and attempted to stand.
“Does it hurt?” Autumn asked, touching his arm to soothe him.
“Of course it hurts,” Ronald snapped, and Joel ground his teeth together. “Do you think I’m just wincing in pain for fun? What kind of idiotic question is that?”
If it weren’t for the fact that Joel took an oath to serve the public, not hurt the public, he just might help put an end to Ronald’s hostility. Sometimes, all it took was a gentle reminder from a fist.
He and his brothers knew that all too well growing up in a small town. At one time or another, they each got licks thrown at them or doled out the same treatment, but now that he was an adult, he hadn’t had the pleasure for years. Ronald was tempting.
“You need to be seen for that. There’s a twenty-four hour urgent care we can go to. I’ll take you there.” Joel knew Ronald needed to save some face after screaming like a kindergartener, but he quickly looped his arm around Ronald to steady him.
“Can you put any weight on your leg?” Joel asked.
Ronald attempted to disperse weight equally on both legs with hisses and gasps, and Joel shook his head.
“Let me get you to the porch steps, and I’ll go get my truck.”
“Will he be able to get into the truck I saw earlier? That looked pretty jacked up,” Autumn questioned.
“You saw my truck?” Joel asked, wondering how that could be since it was in the garage, momentarily forgetting the patient.
It was as if the moment she spoke, the heavens opened up and the world stopped spinning.
“Well, earlier, I saw you climbing out of one.” Her cheeks reddened and she added, “Before you came over.”
“Oh.” Joel shook his head. “No, that wasn’t mine. That was Jack’s. He works at the resort and was dropping me off. I have an old Honcho.”
Autumn’s brows knitted together.
“An old Jeep truck I restored,” Joel explained as he got Ronald situated on the step with his injured leg sticking out. “A J10 Honcho. It might be easier for him to get in and out of it instead of your Fiat, but I definitely need to get him to the urgent care with the swelling.”
Oscar came up to Ronald and gave him a sloppy lick on his cheek, and Autumn had to hold in a fit of giggles. It was one of the many things she’d been cursed with from her mother’s side. Giggling at the most inappropriate times was one of the few things she could be counted on to do.
“So why should I trust a guy like you?” Ronald asked bitterly, startling at both Joel and Autumn.
Joel had already made his way down the sidewalk with Oscar by his side when he turned around.
“Pardon me?”
“You’re just a ski bum who works at some resort. Why should I trust what you have to say about where I should go for medical care? You probably don’t even get paid to be a medic.”
Joel grinned and nodded. “You’re right about that. We don’t get paid to be medics here. The firemen are all volunteers as well. Welcome to Silver Ridge.” Joel winked before jogging across the street to get his Honcho while Oscar stayed, guarding the roost.
It was hard to believe a guy like that could ever wind up with Autumn. There were several times it looked like she wanted to kick him while he was down but managed to overcome the temptation.
Joel grabbed his keys from the entry of his house, pulled his truck out of the garage, and pulled up in front of Autumn’s house, all in just a few minutes. He caught Autumn glaring at Ronald and wondered what he’d said this time to make her love him even more.
“Everything okay?” Joel jogged over to Autumn and Ronald, and she immediately nodded.
“Is the urgent care far away?” she asked, reaching down to pet Oscar. “I can follow in my car.”
“No. Everything is pretty much ten minutes or less away in this town.” He snapped his fingers toward his house, and Oscar let out a yelp before taking off toward Joel’s house. He’d installed a doggy door around the side of the house, and Oscar always enjoyed his independence. He even managed to stay away from the flowerbeds his mother and grandmother had insisted on planting for him.
Joel bent over and securely wrapped his arm around Ronald and gave a sideways glance at Autumn, who was staring in awe toward Joel’s house.
“Wow. That’s a highly trained pooch,” Autumn said, smiling.
“Excuse me, but can we keep the attention focused on me and my well-being?” Ronald bellowed with a steely gaze straight ahead as Joel hoisted him up.
Joel caught an eye roll from Autumn and couldn’t help but smile as he helped Ronald hop down the remaining steps.
“You okay there, buddy?” Joel asked.
“What do you think?”
“At least you haven’t lost your zippiness.” Autumn grinned and followed the men down the path, one hop at a time.
“You know, it might be simpler if you just let me carry you,” Joel explained. “Working the slopes so often as a ski bum has really improved my rescue skills.”
“Absolutely not.” Ronald leaned more and more on Joel as they got closer to his truck, and Autumn couldn’t seem to wipe the smile off her face until it was her time to help slide Ronald into the truck.
“I’m so sorry about this,” Autumn said, buckling Ronald in place. “I never imagined the porch was that rotten. I feel so bad.”
Ronald shook his head. “It happens. It’s an old place.”
Joel was surprised to hear this level of decency coming out of Ronald’s mouth, but he was relieved.
Except he figured it probably came with a price.
“Okay, so just follow me through town. There’s plenty of parking all around the building,” Joel told Autumn.
“Sounds good.” She tucked some auburn strands behind her ear as her gaze stayed on Joel’s a touch too long.
Joel hid a smile as he climbed into his truck and let his thoughts drift back to her.
Ronald studied Joel as if he knew whom he was thinking about, so Joel reached toward the radio and flipped on the rock station to distract him.
“The doctors are really good. Quite compassionate at the urgent care.”
“Great. Can’t wait.” He shook his head, staring at the town as he propped his elbow on the door. “If this place got any smaller—”
“It’s not that bad. There are actually several thousand residents in the city limits alone. Not to mention the thousands and thousands of tourists the town gets all year long.”
“I’d go absolutely nuts if I had to stay here.”
Perplexed, Joel glanced at him. “Don’t you plan on moving here with Autumn?”
“I’ll be here now and again.” He shrugged and let out a groan as Joel happened to hit a well-known pothole on Main Street. The Jeep Honcho wasn’t known for its smooth suspension.
As Joel drove into the heart of Silver Ridge, old-fashioned storefronts lined the main road with brightly colored doors and vibrant flower baskets hung from ornate street lights. Several large planters overflowing with verbena and purple petunias bordered the urgent care driveway that he turned into.
He found a place near the front door, and Autumn quickly pulled in next to them.
“I’ll go grab a wheelchair.”
Ronald made no comment but nodded as Autumn jumped out of her convertible, looking supremely pleased with herself for finding the place.
Joel’s heart tugged at the sight of her, but he quickly ignored it and went inside, warning the staff of the unpleasant visitor. He managed to get Ronald out of the truck and into the office without much effort.
When the nurse called his name, Autumn offered to go back with Ronald, but he declined, leaving her in the waiting room with Joel.
“This town is really cute.” She glanced in Joel’s direction, who’d been pretending to look at some home and garden magazine. He’d figured it was that or the gossip magazine, so he chose flowers.
“It’s a special place.” He nodded, looking over his magazine at her.
She didn’t look like someone who was overly distraught over Ronald’s injury. In fact, she almost looked relieved that he wasn’t around.
“You holding up okay with everything?” he asked, and she let out a wistful sigh.
“This wasn’t exactly how I imagined my first night in town, but nothing is really going as planned anyway.” She laughed and shook her head. A few locks dropped from her ponytail, and Joel couldn’t help but notice the strands falling to her bare shoulders. Her skin was ivory and complemented her green eyes and auburn hair perfectly.
Quit looking at her, he warned himself as he lifted the magazine back up to read about a deck he’d never build.
“Yeah. This has been an eventful night.” He nodded, closing his eyes to get her out of his mind.
“Better him than me.” She giggled, and Joel dropped his magazine to stare at her.
“You didn’t just say that.” Joel’s blue eyes were wide with wonderment at the woman sitting across from him.
“I did.” She nodded, her smile growing coy. “So what kind of critter do you think got him? What’s even in Washington that would hide under my deck?”
“We have all kinds of things. It could be a raccoon, opossum, squirrel, chipmunk . . .” His eyes twinkled with amusement. “Lots of options.”
“He’s such a pansy,” she whispered. “It was probably nothing more than a field mouse. I don’t know how I ever convinced myself this was okay. That he was okay.” She shook her head.
“Love does funny things.”
“Oh, God. We’re not in love. Or at least I’m not in love. This is purely platonic. A purely platonic mishap.” She slid her hand through her hair nervously. “I mean, I suppose he’s hoping it turns into more. I’m not crazy enough to believe he drove my moving truck up here in hopes of a friendship. Although, I am a damn good friend, but clearly, he had something else in mind.” She wiggled in the uncomfortable vinyl seat and let out a whistle. “I just don’t ever want to hurt someone’s feelings or have them thinking that it’s them when truly, it’s me. I’m messed up. I’m a truly confused individual.”
Joel thought back to what she said about her rambling, and he hid a smile, loving every second of it.
Her eyes connected with his and she blushed. “Well, I’m not that messed up.”
“I didn’t say a word.” Joel grinned as a nurse came out to get her.
Autumn stood and glanced at Joel one last time before she followed the nurse down the hall.
The receptionist chuckled, and he turned his attention in her direction. He’d actually gone to school with her. Beth Wilson didn’t need to work, but she loved being in the know, and there was no better place than an urgent care to find out what’s happening to whom, how, and why.
“Looks like someone’s got it bad,” she chided, grinning. Her blonde hair was cut in a bob and she wore a red headband.
Joel stood and wandered over to the counter, letting out a sigh.
“That obvious, huh?” He smiled, and she nodded.
“You’ve never been very good at keeping it secret.”
“Keeping what, in particular, secret?” he asked, his brows shooting up.
“Whom you’ve got the hots for.”
“You make it sound like we’re back in high school.” Joel leaned against the counter. “But for your information, she’s taken, and I don’t have the hots for her.” Besides, he thought, she’s a Tucker. He didn’t want to deal with the complications that came with that, and he doubted she did either.
“Whatever you say, Joel.”
“I’m telling you the truth. I’m just being neighborly. She moved into the old B&B, so she’s new to town and obviously needed help. We can all see she’s beautiful with a personality to match, but—”
A female someone cleared her throat behind Joel, and he glared at Beth, whose smile only got wider, before he turned around to face Autumn. He noticed Ronald was nowhere in sight, but that didn’t make this moment any less awkward.
“So who’s beautiful, cowboy?” she asked, her green eyes sparkling.
Joel shook his head and let out a low growl. He’d finally met his match.