One of the hands already had the Ponderosa Pines fire tender out on the field and was spraying away, but it wouldn’t be enough to contain the blaze. He continued doing what he could as a couple of neighbors arrived and then the trucks soon surrounded the field. Men were jumping out to pull out the hoses and begin pumping thousands of gallons of water onto the blaze in hopes of keeping it to one field.
As those trucks began hosing the wheat, even more smoke appeared, and Colt lost sight of Brielle for a few seconds. Shouting her name did him no good, so he ran forward at full speed, making himself just about the only person running into the fire instead of away from it.
“Get out of there!” Martin Whitman shouted as he sprayed water at the leaping flames less than fifty yards in front of Colt.
“Can’t. Brielle’s out here,” Colt shouted back. A huge plume of smoke covered his vision again, and Martin disappeared from view. Shouting for Brielle again, he heard another scream and he changed direction.
Someone upstairs must have had both their backs, because the smoke cleared in front of him just in time for him to see Brielle running forward, her eyes shut, water running down her soot-covered face. She tripped again, but Colt reached her just in time to catch her.
There was no time for words. The blaze was less than twenty yards away from them now, and the smoke was so thick, they’d be lucky to make it to safety. Holding his breath, Colt lifted her into his arms and rushed from the field just as the last couple of rancher fire trucks arrived and finished the circle on the field, all of their hoses pushing out water full force.
By the time Colt got Brielle back to the barn, the soot on her face had streaks in it from her eyes watering, and her coughing had died down just a little as fresh air filled her lungs. Colt could hear the town’s fire engines rushing toward the field, but the ranchers already had the blaze under control. Still, it would be good if the paramedics looked at Brielle. She’d taken in a lot of smoke.
“What happened?” she asked, looking up at Colt with wide, fearful eyes.
“I don’t know. Somehow your combine caught fire,” he said. “The men have made sure that the fire won’t leap to other fields, and soon they’ll be able to go in and look at the machine to try to figure out how this began.”
When Hawk Winchester arrived in an ambulance, hopped out with his bag, and came rushing forward, Colt tensed just a bit, but that was ridiculous. Hawk was his friend.
“We got the call from Andy. It looks like you guys did an excellent job containing the blaze,’ he said as he approached. “Are you okay, Brielle?”
Brielle nodded, but when she tried to speak, she started coughing again, so she sat silently as Hawk had her open her mouth and looked at her throat. After he put an oxygen mask on her for a few moments, Hawk removed it and asked a few more questions. This time she was able to answer.
“My lungs still feel as if they’re on fire, and my throat is killing me, but I think I’m fine,” she told him as he looked into her ears and eyes and took her pulse.
“I think you took in a lot of smoke, but you weren’t burned. You’ll have a cough for a few days, and it wouldn’t hurt to go into the doc’s office, but I don’t see any major damage,” Hawk assured her.
“I don’t need to go to the doctor.”
“Well, then, it’s a good thing he makes house calls, ’cause I think he should do a better exam,” Hawk said.
The two of them glared at each other for several moments before one of the ranch hands ran up. “Hiya, Hawk,” he said with a smile before turning toward Colt just as Tony approached. “We figured out the problem.”
“Well, what happened?” Tony demanded.
“Um...” He looked at Brielle with apology in his eyes before looking back at Tony, who wasn’t amused at the delay. “The…um…parking break was left on the combine and, well, it overheated, and, well…you know the rest.”
Dead silence greeted his words. Brielle’s eyes widened and she sat up straight. “I caused this?” she gasped.
“It’s a rookie mistake,” the kid said in what he might have thought was a soothing voice.
“No! It’s just another thing I’ve done wrong,” Brielle snapped.
Colt didn’t know what to say. He could see she was beating herself up. There was no need to lecture her on the importance of making sure the equipment was ready to go. It had been a mistake, and it was a pretty expensive one — the combine and field of wheat was unsalvageable.
“It’s okay, Brielle. It happens,” the kid said.
“No. I thought I could help, but obviously, you would have all been much better off without me,” she said, getting up. “The ranch can’t afford this kind of loss!”
“Really, it does happen.” All of them turned in surprise as Tony reached out and placed a hand on Brielle’s shoulder. “I did it once too when I was a new buck out there on a combine. I thought the boss was going to have my hide for sure. But he gave me a second chance.”
Colt watched as Brielle fought against tears at Tony’s first kind words to her. “Thank you,” she said before she threw her arms around him and clung tightly.
At first, Tony seemed to be in shock from such physical contact. Then, to the shock of everyone there, Tony lifted his arms and hugged her in return, patting her back awkwardly. Colt had never seen the man show affection to any other human being.
“It’s okay, Brielle. At least you were trying,” Tony said, and she moved just a little closer.
When she finally let go, the tears were gone, and a watery smile was in their place. “I promise I’ll do better,” she told him.
And from the determined glint in her eyes Colt could see that she was serious.
She wasn’t just looking at this job as a punishment anymore. She had been proving herself over and over lately. Colt looked around at the land he’d wanted for so long, and he said a silent goodbye to it, because now he didn’t want to take it from her. Now, he wanted to help her succeed. That was more important to him than adding an extra 10,000 acres to his deed.
“Equipment can be replaced; fields can be replanted. As long as no one is killed, it’s not an unsalvageable day,” Colt told her before pulling her close for a hug.
Hawk decided to ruin the moment. “Well, hell. We had a fire and no one even thought about bringing out the hot dogs.”