I exhaled a long, heavy breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. “It’s fine. Izzie tends to meltdown when she doesn’t get her afternoon nap, and half the time, she fights with me about laying down. If she doesn’t rest, she’s crabby for dinner and sometimes falls asleep before she eats. It’s just a vicious cycle. Thank you for offering her your bed. She likes you.”
“I like her too. She’s a good kid.”
It was obvious Izzie had already grown attached to Ariella. It had only been a day together, and I had seen the sparkle in Izzie’s eye, the smile that adorned her face when she looked at Ariella. There hadn’t been a female figure in Isabella’s life. That had been my fault. The guys were great, helping look after her and support me, but it wasn’t a woman figure. One day, she’d need someone to come to and talk with about things that she didn’t want to discuss with her dad. I had thought I had another ten years, but that glint in Izzie’s eyes told me more than her words at this point could ever do.
I slid my gloves on as we stood outside on the porch. “You have a shed around back,” I said, changing the subject. “There’s an ax inside to chop wood, and around back is a stump where you can do the chopping.”
“Great.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm. Her tongue darted out past her cherry red lips before chewing on her bottom lip. “Any chance I can find wood in the forest and skip the chopping part?”
“Wouldn’t that be nice? There are probably some logs, and I’m not suggesting you go all lumberjack style and chop down a tree, but you might come across logs that are too big to fit into your wood-burning stove. You’ll need how to size those logs properly, which involves using an ax,” I said. She followed me as I headed around to the shed and opened the doors. I retrieved an ax from inside, sheltered from the snow, and then shut the doors when I was done to keep the contents inside dry. “There’s an ATV in the shed. It’s old and dated, but it works. It should help you get around the woods and into town if you follow the trail with the orange triangles.” I pointed toward the entrance to the trail on her property. It followed along the riverbed and was a shortcut to town.
“That’s great. Thanks,” she said.
Ariella watched as I grabbed a log and placed it on the large stump, prepared to split it. I pulled back the ax and swung, it split cleanly into two pieces. I wasn’t sure how to explain the action. It was easier to show her. “Piece of cake. Your turn,” I said, handing her the handle of the ax, the blade toward the ground.
“Right.” She took the ax, and I grabbed a log and situated it on the stump before I took a step back to give her space. She gripped the handle with two hands and swung back before following through, going forward in one swift motion. She got the ax’s blade a few inches into the piece of wood before it got stuck. “It won’t budge. I think I broke it.”
“It’s not broken. You just have to dislodge it,” I said, taking the ax and lifting the blade, hitting it sideways against the stump. It took a half swing, nothing too forceful to break it free.
“Are you sure I can’t just gather firewood in the forest?” she asked with a half-hearted laugh. The smile on her face was gone, and the glint in her eyes had faded. “I think I may have oversold the idea of living in a small town in the mountains.”
“You’ll get the hang of it,” I said, hoping to boost her confidence. I didn’t imagine it was easy for her, moving out into the middle of nowhere. While I was curious about her reasons, I wasn’t one to push. I certainly could have done a little research with the tools and resources from Eagle Tactical, but it didn’t feel right. She wasn’t Izzie’s babysitter. Had that been the case, I would have run her name through the database and dug through her past to make sure Izzie was safe.
“Hopefully before summer,” she said with a hearty laugh.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled out my cell phone and removed my gloves so I could answer. “Eagle Tactical, this is Jaxson,” I said, taking a step back from the stump to allow for a little privacy. I could tell from the caller I.D. that someone was calling about the business, and it wasn’t a personal call.
“Hi, Jaxson. This is Bridget Sanders from the Blue Sky Resort. We wanted to get a background check run for a new hire. Is that something you guys can do for us this week?”
“Yes. If you want to email me the form with the employees' name and information, I can have one of our guys run the background check and get it back to you shortly.”
I gave her my email address before I hung up the phone and headed back toward Ariella as she split another piece of wood in half. I hoped she was the new hire, who the background check was for her. Knowing that I’d be the one running the information on her past and digging up all her dirty little secrets, I was covered in filth.