My mother noticed first, and of course I lied for as long as I could. Told everyone I was fine. Until I wasn’t fine. My addiction and depression nearly cost me my life—not that I told anyone how bad it was. After my parents stepped in and intervened, I admitted myself to a rehab clinic and got my shit together.
The demons were still there, though, lurking deep inside me, and I knew if I didn’t keep my guard up, they’d reappear. It was a fear I lived with daily. An internal battle that sometimes kept me awake at night.
“Smoke’s getting blacker,” my father said.
With a mumbled curse, I pulled off my work gloves. “Let me call Brock, see if he can come help you with this fence.”
“It’s almost done. You go on and see what that girl is burning to turn the sky so black.”
“Lord only knows,” I said.
I cleaned up the tools I’d used and then headed over to my truck. My father had met me here in the ranch truck, so I was able to just hop in to go see what the little pain in the ass was doing now.
As I climbed into the driver’s seat, I called out, “Text me or call if you need any help, Dad.”
“Will do!” he said, lifting his hand and giving me a smile.
Turning on the truck, I said a quick prayer for God to give me patience when I got to Kaylee’s. It was something I found I lacked when it came to her. Never mind that she drove my body crazy just being near her, but that snarky little mouth of hers only made me want to kiss her to shut her up. And that wasn’t going to happen. Kaylee Holden was dangerous, and the last thing I could allow myself to do was give in to that temptation.
One addiction was bad enough to battle. I sure as shit didn’t need two.
Chapter Two
KAYLEE
I stood and watched the smoke from the burn pile turn to pitch black. It raced up into the air and covered the picture-perfect blue sky. I couldn’t even see the snow-covered mountains on the other side of the burn pile anymore. That wasn’t a good sign.
“Oh shit,” I whispered as I looked at the old tractor tire I had thrown into the fire. “That might not have been the best idea.”
The sound of a truck pulling up had me waving my hand in the air to clear out the smoke. Hopefully it wasn’t the fire department again. The last time they were here, I had set fire to a pan filled with grease in my sink. Who would have known how easily grease fires started?
Walking toward the gravel drive, I felt my heartbeat pick up. God help me. It was worse than the fire department . . . it was Ty.
“Perfect, as if this day couldn’t possibly get any worse.”
I was covered in dirt, smoke, and Lord only knows what else, and Ty Shaw was walking toward me, looking as handsome as ever, which made my heart race a little bit more. The man was too good looking for his own good, and what made him even more attractive was he didn’t act like he knew it.
“What is it with you and fires, Kaylee?” Ty asked, a sexy-as-sin smirk on his face as he walked over to me.
Lord, that smile. Dark-brown hair and eyes the color of the Montana sky. Not to mention the smoking-hot body.
I chuckled to myself at the irony of the “smoking-hot” reference, with my huge fire going behind me.
With a half shrug and a wink, I replied, “What can I say, I have weird fetishes.”
Ty’s eyes darkened with a sexual look that left my lower stomach pulling with desire. We constantly danced around the fact that we were sexually attracted to each other. Or maybe I just secretly wanted him to want me, because truth be told, I wanted this man like no other. My poor overworked vibrator could back up that claim.
“Is that so? Fire?”
“Don’t worry,” I egged him on. “I keep it out of the bedroom.”
Ty stared at me for the longest time before he turned to the fire. “What in the hell did you put in there? It looks like you’re burning rubber. Smells like it too.”
I cleared my throat. “Um, well. There were these old tractor tires, and I rolled one into the fire and—”
Ty spun around and gaped at me. “You burned tires? Kaylee, it’s against the law to burn tires.”
My eyes widened, and my heart raced like a hummingbird’s wings. “What? No one told me that!”
“Why in the hell would anyone have to tell you that? We need to get away from this fire.”
Ty grabbed my hand, making my breath catch in my throat simply from his touch; then he dragged me away from the fire.