All Fired Up (Green Valley Heroes #7)

Chapter 6

Chapter Six

MADELINE

“ W e’ve got ladder drills this morning,” Chief McClure announces once we’re all assembled outside.

The social worker already came and picked up the baby with little fanfare, her face weary as she’d taken it from Hunter. I hope they can find out who the mother was. Maybe a family member can take the baby in.

“No one’s afraid of heights, right?” the chief asks, and I tune back in. “We’ll start with the fourteen-foot ones solo, then you’ll be partnered up for the twenty-four-foot ones.” He motions to the two ladders leaning against the side of the brick building.

We have to climb all the way to the top of a twenty-four-foot ladder? Reading about it in the textbook and actually seeing it are two different things. It’s really high up.

“Fourteens are thirty pounds, and the twenty-fours are about seventy, so be prepared.” He doesn’t look my way, but that comment had to be directed at me, right? “This exercise will test your endurance, speed, and ability to work with a partner. Grizz and I will show you what to do, but don’t worry about being as fast as us. It takes hundreds of drills to get it down. Today is the first of many.”

Chief McClure continues his instruction as Grizz models what to do, from showing us how the center of the ladder is marked with red to indicate where you should shoulder it, to where to place the ladder on a window ledge or sill. I reconcile everything he’s saying with what I remember from the textbook, noting to myself any slight differences. Practical application from a seasoned veteran should trump what the text says.

We practice lifting the fourteen-foot ladders by ourselves, balancing them on our right shoulders, and bringing them over to the wall to place correctly. It’s awkward at first, but I get the hang of it after a few tries. I don’t look at anyone else, not wanting to compare myself. That’s already too much of a slippery slope.

“All right, good,” Chief McClure calls out. “Two-shoulder carry is next. Woodward, you’re with O’Connor.”

He assigns the rest of the men, but I’m not paying attention. He’s partnering me with Hunter? The guy who has it out for me?

Hunter gives me a cool look. “You going to ask for a different partner again?”

Again? What is he talking about?

But before I can ask, Chief McClure and Grizz are demonstrating how we should perform our next task. I turn my back to Hunter, not wanting to look at him.

“Both of you should be positioned on the same side of the ladder,” Chief McClure instructs. “One of you in front, one in back. Knees bent in a squatting position, back straight. This puts the load on the muscles in your thighs and not your back. Place an arm between two rungs, and on the leader’s count, lift the ladder on your shoulders. If you don’t lift at the same time, it could result in injury.”

I glance at Hunter. He wouldn’t purposely try to hurt me, would he?

“Now, we’ve marked here on the ground where the butt of the ladder should go to give it about a seventy-degree angle. Once it’s in place, pull down on the halyard to extend the fly.”

I watch closely and listen to the commands Chief McClure and Grizz call out as they work together to properly position the ladder and raise it to its full height. Grizz climbs to the top while Chief McClure keeps it secure at the base, and when Grizz is back down they dismantle it and return it to the starting position across the way.

They run through the scenario one more time, this time in opposite roles with the chief going to the top, then it’s our turn. I wipe my sweaty palms on my pants, eyeing the ladder.

“You ready or what?” Hunter asks, arms crossed over his chest.

I nod, not at all ready, then shake my head. “How do I know you’re not going to let me fall to my death?”

He scowls. “Don’t be stupid. I wouldn’t actually hurt you. Besides, if anyone gets hurt, it’ll probably be me. How can I trust you’re strong enough to brace the ladder?”

My teeth grind together. “I know what to do.”

“Memorizing the textbook isn’t the same as actually doing it.”

Okay, he’s got a point, but I’m not admitting that to him. “I guess we’ll have to take a leap of faith and trust each other.”

He rolls his eyes, but moves toward the ladder, implicitly agreeing. “So, you like it from the front or the back?”

I ignore his innuendo and move to the front of the ladder, not wanting to look at him anymore.

Wait, that means I climb first.

Chief McClure calls for us to get into position, so I do, banishing all the nervousness coursing through me. Nothing we’ve done so far has been as high stakes as this. As if we could seriously mess up if we don’t get it right.

The chief calls out the commands for us, and there’s no time to think about it anymore as we squat and lift the ladder onto our shoulders. Shit, that’s heavy.

Everything goes according to plan as we get the ladder in place and follow the directions on how to raise it. I don’t hesitate when it’s time to climb, knowing I’ll never do it otherwise, and I’m the first one to the top. I guess that’s one advantage to being smaller than everyone else. I’m quicker and lighter on my feet.

Unfortunately, I make the mistake of looking down, my stomach leaping into my throat. “Oh, shit,” I murmur, the distance to the ground much greater than I was anticipating. I clutch at the ladder rungs and take a deep breath.

“Okay, Woodward. You can come down now,” Chief McClure calls out.

Right. I have to get down. No problem.

My feet won’t obey my order to move, though. It’s not until I imagine Hunter having to come up here and rescue me that I finally climb down. I’d never hear the end of it if he had to do that.

About six or seven feet from the bottom, my foot slips, panic zipping through me until a hand on my lower back steadies me.

“I’ve got you,” Hunter says in a low voice, looking up at me.

I blink, confusion and disbelief and a weird kind of thrill mixing in my belly.

He removes his hand and I make it down, feeling better once my feet are on the ground.

“Thanks,” I mumble, avoiding his eye.

What was that? Sure, he said he wouldn’t hurt me, but that’s different than...saving me. Not that I needed saving. I would have recovered. Probably.

Warmth burns on my lower back where he touched me, like the impression of his palm is still there. Like I can still feel him and the deep timbre of his voice.

Oh my God, I’m mental. What is wrong with me?

We gather the ladder together in silence and bring it back to its original spot, then switch places so he’s at the front of the ladder and I’m behind. He faces forward, giving me an unobstructed view of his broad back. The shirt he’s wearing clings to him, emphasizing the width of his shoulders and the way his torso tapers down to a narrower waist. My gaze travels next to the backs of his upper arms and the defined muscles of his biceps and triceps. He must work a physical job at the mill.

Would he have steadied any of the other guys on the ladder in the same way? Or was it only because I’m a girl? There’d been a gentleness about it, a confident surety that he wouldn’t let anything happen to me. The same kind of gentleness he’d shown to that baby earlier.

I squeeze my eyes shut, pushing the thoughts aside. Just because he was nice a couple of times doesn’t cancel out the other stuff he’s done.

Even so, after we’re finished with the morning session and I pull my lunchbox out of the fridge, I’m still not sure what to do. I carefully unpack the “brownie” I made last night, the chocolate frosting on top making it appear delicious. It’s what’s inside that’ll get him.

I shouldn’t give it to him, though. Maybe today was a turning point. Maybe our truce can be extended. I should be the bigger person and not retaliate anymore.

With that decided on, I search in my purse for my Kindle to read during the lunch break, but can’t find it. Maybe it slipped out of my bag and into the passenger seat of my car. As I get up, I tell Harry in the seat opposite me to not let anyone touch my food.

Hunter’s car is out in the parking lot, but he’s not inside it. Huh. Where is he?

I shake my head, not letting him take up any more of my mental real estate, and search through my car, finding my Kindle hidden under my sweater in the passenger seat, right where I suspected it’d be. When I return to the break room, I pause in the doorway, my mouth dropping open.

Hunter is spitting into the sink, disgust all over his face. In his hand is my fake brownie.

Crap.

He looks up, accusation in his gaze. “What the fuck is this?”

Really? He’s going to get mad at me? “Why are you eating my food?” I counter, ignoring his question.

“This isn’t food.” He clears some of the frosting away, but it’s hard to tell it’s a sponge in the middle since the frosting has filled in the holes. “What’s this yellow stuff?”

“It’s none of your business is what it is. It’s my food. Just throw it away.”

“You tell me first what it is.”

Harry gets up from his seat and goes over to investigate. “Looks like a sponge,” he says, leaning in close.

Hunter’s brows punch down. “You made me eat a sponge?”

I throw my hands up. “I didn’t make you do anything. I wasn’t even in the room.”

“You baited me and you know it.”

“I actually didn’t. I thought you’d left for lunch. But I’m also not stupid enough to eat food that isn’t mine, especially two days in a row.”

Heavy footfalls sound out in the hallway, and I glance behind me to find Chief McClure barreling toward the break room. I get out of the way, heading toward the lockers.

“What the hell is going on in here?” he says when he enters, gaze shifting between the three of us. “Why can I hear you arguing from my office?”

Hunter and I are silent. Me because I don’t want to admit to the prank I unwittingly pulled. Hunter maybe because he doesn’t want to admit he fell for it.

Chief McClure points to Harry. “You. What happened?”

Harry glances first at Hunter, then me, biting at his lip. He’s caught right in the crossfire. “Oh, I don’t want?—”

“Tell me.” His tone brooks no arguments.

Harry makes a helpless noise. “Hunter ate something from Madeline’s lunch. But it wasn’t food.”

“What was it?”

“A sponge, I think.”

Chief McClure gives a heavy sigh, then mutters something under his breath about fucking millennials, gen z, whatever they are , and stalks off. Out in the hallway, there’s a heavy boom of laughter. Grizz must have been listening, too.

Harry moves back to his side of the table and picks up his stuff. “I’m finishing this in my car.”

He leaves the two of us alone, but Hunter continues his silence and turns on the faucet to wash the frosting off of his fingers.

I guess our truce wasn’t extended, then. If the pissed-off aura surrounding him is any indication, he’s going to retaliate. I wish I hadn’t made the sponge at all, or at least hadn’t left it on the table before going to my car. He’s right that it did seem like bait.

But before I can tell him about my change of heart, he leaves without a word. I just pray we’re not paired up again in the afternoon.

Our next lesson is thankfully a solo activity as we learn and practice tying different knots we’ll need to know. Hunter doesn’t pay the least bit of attention to me, but that still doesn’t help my anxiety. What is he planning? He has to be planning something.

I’m the first one done with our mini test at the end, but I don’t meet anyone’s eye as Chief McClure checks my work and declares me the winner. I don’t want Hunter to accuse me of gloating or something else stupid.

When it’s time to leave, we head to our lockers to retrieve our things, Hunter close behind me. His presence is like a live wire up my spine. Why do I let him get in my head like this?

He gets his wallet, keys, and phone, then whispers to me, “See you next week, Maddy.”

I bite my tongue at the urge to tell him I hate being called Maddy. My dad called me that. After he died, I didn’t want anyone else to call me that ever again.

But knowing Hunter, he’d probably call me Maddy all the time.

He leaves and I stare after him, thinking about his words. Coming from anyone else, they’d be perfectly pleasant. But from him, they’re more like a threat.

What does he have in store for me next week?