As her little Bug hummed toward Dorsey Furniture, Elizabeth’s thoughts returned to last night, the fire tower, and the heat on her skin when Ryder touched her.
Why didn’t he kiss her? Was she not kissable? He said she was beautiful, but that didn’t mean he wanted to kiss her, right? He was just being nice?
Stop! What did it matter? She could not allow any man to kiss her. She was infectious. Or potentially infectious. Full steam ahead on education and career, where she’d commanded her own destiny, devoid of the whims of any human heart. Or the temptation to taste Ryder’s beautiful, full lips.
He finished his coffee on the back porch with Fred and Ginger at his feet, watching the morning light dissipate among the trees and thinking of Elizabeth.
He’d been confident of his decision not to kiss her, until it’d hit him: Maybe she thought he didn’t want to kiss her. So did he mosey over to the diner later and confess? Or just leave it?
Besides Elizabeth, his knee bothered him. Climbing the tower irritated it. He also rumbled in his gut over Travis. Call it experience. Call it a God whisper, but when he collected his keys and headed to his truck, he sensed this wasn’t going to be a banner day.
“Good morning, Ryder,” Cheryl said, her eyes almost naked without her heavy lashes. She smiled in a way that made him uncomfortable. “Travis wants to see you.”
Of course he did. It was becoming their routine. Ryder dropped his canvas bag onto his desk. Taking a deep breath, he limped into the boss’s office.
“You wanted to see me?”
The large man stood. “We have to figure out how to solve this problem.”
“Agreed.” With a sigh, Ryder dropped into the nearest chair.
“Since our last discussion, you bought more lumber from Dorsey? Teak this time?” He tossed an invoice in front of him.
“Come on, Travis, you know I would not buy teak. For what?” Ryder reached for the printed paper. Sure enough, his name and electronic signature were on the bottom line. “Come to my house. Inspect it. You’ll find no teak.”
“Are you selling it?”
Just resign right now. Call Enzo and take the job. “How long have you known me?”
Travis shrugged. “Since you were a teen.”
“Do you really think I would steal from the TWRA? From Cheatham? Did you hire me to blame this mess on me?”
“Beg pardon?” Travis bowed up, chest out, chin raised. “Are you accusing me? I hired you because I thought you were a stand-up man, but I don’t know. People change.”
“Not that much. Not me. I’m not ordering this stuff. I don’t know anything about illegal loggers. Where’s the order for pine? That’s all I’ve purchased.”
“Accounting believes you’ve fudged your records,” Travis said.
“I have the receipts.”
“Whatever it is you’re doing, end it now, Donovan. I don’t want to see you in trouble.”
“Whatever I’m doing—” Ryder stood. “Too late. Seems I’m already in trouble.” At the door, he said, “I’m going to the dam today to check on the fishing and boating. Also, when I was at the tower, I noticed we needed to clear dead branches and dried brush. One stray spark and we’re on fire.”
Travis grumbled about a fire ban, then mumbled, “Dismissed, Donovan.”
At his desk, Ryder opened the accounting app just to see what was logged against his account. But it came up with an error. He closed it and launched it again. It crashed.
“Cheryl, can you access the accounting app?”
She popped her gum, double-clicked, and nodded. “Sure can.”
Ryder tried again and was able to log in. He copied his records onto a thumb drive and tucked it into his backpack. He’d review his records at home. In the meantime, he had work to do.
By the end of the day, he’d checked the docks and run off a dozen fishermen for not having a license. He hated doing that, but if he bent the law for one, he’d have to bend it for all. And he liked following the law. It helped him make sense of the world.
At home, Fred and Ginger greeted him like he was better than a steak bone. He let them out to run, then filled their food bowls. He fixed himself a sandwich, turned on a bit of jazz, then plugged the thumb drive into his laptop to check his purchase records. They were several months behind but showed he’d only ordered pine for the fire tower. Nothing at all about money to or from loggers. Or cherrywood. Or teak.
