At one of the few stoplights in town, River took a deep breath, turning her head to glance at the small crowd crossing the street. Her eyes bugged out of her head as she could have sworn the rock band Exoneration was crossing her path. She knew she had to be seeing things. When one of them waved, she casually waved back, acting as naturally as she could.
“Maybe you should go home and take a nap,” she whispered as the light turned green. Instead, she found herself pulling into the local market’s parking lot to grab some food. Even though she could easily find herself eating at Angie’s Diner every day, she didn’t think that her waistline would approve of that decision.
The interior was exactly as she had pictured in her mind: small, quaint, and a bit eccentric. River felt as if she had both jumped back in time and launched forward. There was a mix of some of her favorite snacks from her childhood and some of the most cutting-edge diet and specialty foods. She st
ood slack-jawed for so long she wasn’t sure exactly what kind of town she had found herself in.
Feeling a bit overwhelmed, River only grabbed enough food to last for the next few days. She figured she could come back with a plan next time.
Back at her house, she shuffled the paper bags in her arms, skillfully closing the small trunk with her knee. The six bags shifted against her chest and she worried that one of them was going to drop, using her thigh to push it up a little higher as she walked across the driveway.
River noticed her neighbor, a good-looking man around her age, stepped out onto his porch from the corner of her eye.
“Hey,” he called out with a small wave as she shifted her arms again to hold the bags closer.
“Hi,” she replied as she walked up the steps. The man made no move to assist her, or to even ask, but River was used to that at this point. It was rare nowadays for anyone to offer to help someone, it seemed.
Standing at her door, River sighed heavily as she realized that the bulge in her front pocket was her keys, and there was no way she could retrieve them.
“My name is Paul,” the voice said from next door as River did all she could to maneuver the bags into one arm, but it was futile.
She told him her name with a grunt as she set down the bags onto the porch to dig the keys out of her pocket.
“Like the water?” he asked as if she hadn’t heard the question before.
Tired and ready to get inside and to at least unpack her bed, River shouted, “Yep,” and dragged the bags inside the house.
Though the guy lacked a chivalrous bone in his body that she could tell, maybe she could convince him to help carry the larger furniture inside her small house. Otherwise, River wasn’t quite sure how she was going to maneuver the queen-sized bed and sectional couch out of the trailer and into her home.
Not a minute after she finished putting the groceries into the pantry and fridge, the doorbell rang. River instantly felt guilty for the angered thoughts she had about her neighbor. Still, as she opened the door, assuming to find the attractive man, River gasped to see the beautiful redhead she had only met in a video interview and two very large and gorgeous men.
“Poppy?”
“Hi, River. This is my husband Jameson and his brother Austin, one of the guys who helped build these bungalows. I guessed that you probably didn’t have anyone to help move your stuff inside, so I nominated them.”
“More like forced,” one of the men grumbled as he grabbed the distinctive trailer keys off the hook beside the door and turned toward the moving truck.
“We’ll get started,” the tall man that gazed affectionately at Poppy said before joining his brother.
“This was really nice of you. I appreciate all of the help.”
As Poppy sat her bag on the floor, she said, “Well, get used to it. Everyone is going to find a way to come to help you, but really, they just want to know any gossip.”
“Gossip? What kind?”
“Any, you’re the new girl after all. I’m so glad it’s no longer me.”
River watched in a drunken-like haze as Poppy spun daintily on her toes and exited the house just as quickly as she came, completely left wondering what had just happened.
Chapter Three
The brick colonial looked exactly as Ridge had remembered. Though large and stately, there was a warmth that emanated from each solid block. This was a house filled with love.
The summers he spent here with his cousins were some of his best memories. Taking the dares to climb the ominous oak tree in the front yard leaving him with his first of many broken bones, his first kiss with local girl Misty Calhoun, and his uncle Joseph taking him to fight a small brush fire when he was sixteen only for his uncle to jump on scene fifteen minutes later to a car accident where he fought to save the farmhand’s life. That was the moment that Ridge knew without a shadow of a doubt he wanted to be a firefighter like his uncle. It was more than just battling the flames; it was saving lives.
There were certain expectations when you were a fireman in a small town that didn’t have its own emergency rescue department; you became the savior for all. It was a task Ridge prayed he was up for. But it had been almost five years since he had been back in Carson and things certainly could have changed. He knew only the Main Street of the town looked the same; everything else surrounding the small community had blossomed and flourished. State of the art structures made of glass were erected next to buildings centuries-old.
From the back seat of his truck Delilah began to fuss and Ridge knew that he had spent too much time dawdling on the street in front of his aunt and uncle’s house. Slowly he pulled his vehicle into the driveway that looked to have been freshly paved. He didn't recognize two other vehicles in addition to the beat-up pickup truck and large SUV he knew belonged to his aunt and uncle.