“I think I just did.”
“He’s in one of his moods,” Cheryl warned, nodding to Travis’s office, her eyes heavy with longer and thicker false eyelashes.
Ryder sighed. He’d woken up with a weak and throbbing knee—the race had been foolish—but his consolation, non-date pizza with Elizabeth tonight, eased a bit of the pain.
His nine a.m. appointment with his doctor went well. Yes, he’d given him the stink eye for running a three-legged race, but he’d predicted the knee’s full recovery and given him a shot of cortisone. Next week, he could return to regular duty if he took it easy.
Ryder planned to approach Travis about the fire tower refurbishment. He could do that without stressing his wounds.
“What’s triggered him this time?” he said to Cheryl, setting his water bottle on his desk adjacent to hers. Travis’s mood had been even more temperamental lately. He came in late. Worked behind the closed door. Scrutinized everything and everyone.
“I have no idea,” Cheryl said.
Leaning on his cane, Ryder hobbled to Travis’s office door, knocked, then peeked inside. “You wanted to see me?”
The large man jerked with irritation. “The refurbishment budget. What are you buying, Donovan, gold-plated screws and platinum nails?”
“No, sir.” He hadn’t done anything with the project in weeks. Since ordering the original pine and hardware. “You know what I ordered. I showed you the invoice.”
Travis leaned toward Ryder with narrowed, mud-brown eyes. “I’m getting heat from accounting. This is taxpayer money you’re spending, Donovan.”
“I’m not spending it.”
“Well, it’s charged to your refurbishment account.” Travis read from a printed-out report. “Cherrywood?”
“I ordered pine boards, which are still in my work shed.” Ryder hated being on the defensive.
“Not according to accounting’s records.” Travis rose to his feet and placed a hand on his thick hip. “Tell me now. Are you the one behind this illegal logging gang? We didn’t have this problem until you showed up.”
“Illegal logging…?” His skin burned under his collar. “No. And why don’t you tell me what this is really about?”
“Havoc in my department.” Travis pounded the desk. “Out-of-control spending. Losing valuable forest to chainsaws.”
“If you’re accusing me, then form an investigation. I’ll be happy to clear my name.” The job offer from Enzo paraded across his mind with great appeal.
“I’m not accusing you of anything. Yet,” Travis said. “But I’m up for promotion, and I won’t have my career toppled by you.”
“And I won’t have mine toppled by you.”
Back at his desk, Ryder dropped into his seat, his knee aching like a banshee.
Cheryl sashayed over. “I told you he was in a mood.”
After a moment, Ryder grabbed his keys, headed for his truck, and drove out of town. What was going on? Travis had been the reason he returned to Tennessee and the Cheatham WMA. Now the man treated him like the enemy.
Down River Road toward Wade Reed and the dilapidated fire tower, Ryder shook off the conversation with Travis. The tension of the argument eased a little as he gingerly made his way up the tower’s rickety stairs, careful of the weather-worn boards. Someone was messing with the department’s finances. With illegal logging. And trying to pin it on him.
Will had some nerve, didn’t he? Suggesting she’d discover the best for herself in Hearts Bend? With the family. With Ryder. Which was crazy. He’d not so much as romantically held her hand or kissed her. He was nothing more than a good friend.
She reached for her phone a half dozen times to cancel the pizza not-a-date dinner. When she chickened out of that, she called Tina to see if she needed help at the diner.
No! Go to pizza with Ryder. Have fun, girl. You’re young.
Go to pizza with Ryder? Did the whole town know? Was it in the Monday paper or posted on the Gardenia Park bulletin board? Will’s comment about celebrations sat at her mental table. Some things are meant to be celebrated.
True. And nearly winning a heat in the Fourth of July three-legged race was toast-worthy. But who was she kidding? Tonight was about more than pizza with a friend. She felt it—the beginning of something lovely that, if she gave in, could overtake her.
She started when her phone rang. It was Ryder. “I’ve been thinking,” he said. “Maybe we should cancel tonight.”
