The Banker by Lois Breedlove

Author:Lois Breedlove
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: second chance romance, single father, unexpected baby, ranch cowboy, strong woman, mature woman
Publisher: L.J. Breedlove
Published: 2023-01-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Sunday morning, however, Marilee demanded to go back out there with Ben. He’d come in tired and smoky late the night before. She couldn’t stand it. She had to get back out there. Check on the ranch. Take a turn as dispatch down at the station.

“Look,” she said, waving her finger around with the oximeter on it. “I’m good. See? And I’ll even come back here to sleep at the end of the day. A short day, if you insist, but I’ve got to see.”

Ben looked at her sourly over the scrambled eggs and bacon breakfast Ron had fixed. Then he laughed and shook his head.

“I wonder who had Sunday morning in the betting pool?” he said. “I had Sunday afternoon. Couldn’t you wait a few more hours and let me be the winner?”

She laughed. “There is not.”

Ben just grinned at her, then he sobered. “No more than eight hours, Marilee. You go out there with me this morning. Check the ranch, do four hours at the station. Come back here. I’m serious. You’re sensitive to smoke because of the baby, and you’re now compromised by exposure.”

She nodded. “I’m not going to risk my baby,” she said quietly.

Ben nodded. “Then let’s go.”

She found her boots, grabbed up her smoky clothes from her day in the pumper truck, and met him in his pickup. “How bad is it, really?” she asked.

“It’s a hot, fast fire with plenty of dry grass and wood to burn,” he said. “I didn’t want to talk about it in front of Ron. He worries. But there are a lot of injuries among those on the line. Most of them minor, but they med-evac’d two to Spokane last night.”

Ben was grim, and Marilee swallowed. She didn’t ask him who. She figured they were probably men she knew. But then, she felt like she knew them all.

“That’s why I’m agreeing to this,” Ben said. “They need you at the station, to be honest. James is pushing himself too hard. Deborah Blessing is trying to pick up the slack, and she’s doing the job, but she can’t for as many hours as are needed. But Marilee, it’s smoky even there. 120 on the AQI index — a warning for people with special sensitivity, and that’s you. So no going out on horseback to look at the firebreak. No running around. You sit inside at the station — your truck is still there by the way — and then you go to the ranch, and you talk to people for a bit, eat lunch. Do another four hours at the station, and then you come home. You hear me?”

“I hear you,” she said. “And I will, I promise. Truth is, I’ll probably be tired from even that.”

He nodded, and he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “You need to tell Trent,” he said at last. “It’s pretty common knowledge that you’re pregnant. Someone is bound to have mentioned it to him. He deserves to hear it from you. I think he’s a jerk for breaking up with you, but he’s pulled his weight out there at the ranch.

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