Life After Wife (Three Magic Words Trilogy, #3)(29)

So many questions and not one dang answer.

Elijah wasn’t far behind her, and they lowered their plows at the same time. She kept the front tires as close to the barbed wire fence as possible. He came along on her left, doubling the size of the firebreak. Even if it burned the posts and the fence fell, maybe the freshly plowed dirt would bring it to a halt. If the wind would just stop blowing, the firebreak would work for sure.

“Too many ifs,” she mumbled and stole a glance over her shoulder. Elijah was doing a fine job, and with any luck the two of them would keep the fire from destroying their ranch.

“Our ranch,” she said aloud. “Not mine, but ours. Sounds strange, Aunt Maud.”

Dry, hot weather and brown pasture grass made perfect conditions for a Texas wildfire, and Aunt Maud had told her stories that would uncurl her red hair, but this was her first experience with one. The smoke snuck into the tractor cab through the air vents and made her cough, but she kept plowing, checking her rearview mirror frequently to make sure Elijah was still back there. They were almost to the end of the section line when she saw black smoke billowing across the rolling hills, red and yellow blazes as tall as a two-story house right behind the smoke. She stopped the tractor and watched as it surrounded the neighbor’s oil-storage tank and gained even more momentum when the tank exploded in a loud roar.

Elijah caught up to her and hopped out of his tractor, slung open her door, and shouted above the constant noise of fire eating whatever lay in its pathway. “It’s going to break and spread around us. I’m going back to the east to plow one width against the ranch line on that side. You take the west. Did you bring your phone in case you get into trouble?”

She shook her head. “Just go. If I get into trouble, I’ll run.”

Heat like she’d never felt before blasted through the open door along with smoke so dense that she could hardly breathe. Elijah nodded and slammed the door shut. She turned the corner and the setting sunrays lit up the hills giving the blazes life. They looked like graceful dancers vying for center stage as they danced across the hills, coming closer and closer to their ranch. She could see Gus and the guys herding scared cattle toward the house and barns, and could imagine cows bawling at calves and testy old bulls refusing to budge.

She squared up with the fence line, dropped the plow again, and started plowing. Smoke completely obliterated what was left of the sunset in her rear view. Hopefully, she and Elijah could keep it from jumping the fence and burning down their ranch.

She gunned the motor of the old tractor, promised it a week’s rest if it didn’t stop on her right there in the middle of the fire, and turned off the air conditioner. She could sweat, but she couldn’t inhale smoke and keep driving. A fly buzzed around her head and she swatted at it.

“Suck in smoke and die. I don’t have time to mess with you,” she said.

It spiraled down to the seat beside her, wiggled a few times, and expired right there in the cab.

“I’ll be danged! I didn’t realize how powerful my words were. OK, Elijah, plow like the wind and meet me in front of the house.” She giggled.

You are giddy. Slow down and hold the steering wheel tighter. You let that blasted fire ruin the ranch, and I’ll haunt you forever. Aunt Maud’s voice was back in her head.

“You already do,” Sophie said aloud.

Before Aunt Maud could argue further, Sophie came out of the smoke, and the flames were so close to the tractor that they looked like they were coming right inside. They were so tall that she didn’t think there was any way the firebreak would stop them, but miraculously the wind died down. The blaze stood still, not knowing where to go or what to do with no direction. It reminded Sophie of dancers with no music, milling about on the hardwood floor, wondering what to do next.

Then she heard the whirring noise of helicopter blades, and an enormous amount of water fell from the sky, some splashing on her tractor windows as it killed the flames right there, leaving charred posts and red-hot barbed wire where the huge bucket of water was dumped. The flames that didn’t get squashed whipped up like a second-string football team during the last quarter of a shutout, tried to get enough momentum to jump the section line road when they hit it, but it was too much for them. The mission was over, and the ranch was still standing. No cattle were lost; not a single one with even a burn mark on it. The land lay like a green oasis in the middle of blackened fields with a few hot spots that continued to shoot up a single blaze every few minutes. The fire had stomped its way across thousands of acres, but when the wind ceased, it didn’t have the energy to jump the firebreak and continue its journey.

Elijah and Sophie parked their tractors at the same time and bailed out, each searching for the other one through the smoky distance. He waved when he saw her, and she held up a hand.

He covered the pasture in a few long, easy strides, thinking that the gray fog in front of him and her eyes were the same color. When he was only a few feet from her, their gazes locked and time stood still.

Nothing moved.

Not the smoke.

The last of the setting sun, barely an orange sliver at the end of blackened fields, didn’t even sink lower.

“We did it,” she said softly.

“Yes, we did,” he said.

Gus yelled as he came toward them, breaking the moment. “We got them all inside pens. They ain’t too happy, but I’d leave them right there until tomorrow. News said we might get rain. That’d settle the smell and the hot spots.”