Hope Against Hope: The Hope Brothers Series (21 page)

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Authors: Honey Palomino

BOOK: Hope Against Hope: The Hope Brothers Series

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“Cherokee!” I screamed, as loudly as I could, over and over. He didn’t answer and I couldn’t see him anywhere.

“Cherokee!” I called again, as I entered the barn through his open stall door. He must have gotten the door open somehow and was trapped somewhere inside the barn.

I didn’t stop to think. I didn’t stop to think about anything, about my family, about Beau, about Ruby, or even about my future. All I could think about was saving my beloved friend. If the tables were turned, I knew he would have done everything in his power to get me out.

I owed it to him.

The flames grew higher and higher, and I put my hand over my nose and mouth as I slowly entered the barn. I spotted a folded horse blanket and grabbed it, throwing it over my head and body like a cape.

I jumped as a falling flaming board fell onto the ground next to me, missing me by inches.

“Cherokee!” I yelled again, and this time I was answered with a weak whimper. I turned in the direction of the sound, and screamed. He was trapped behind a wall of flames that was quickly growing and surrounding the corner he was in. And in between the two of us was nothing but even more flames.

I looked around quickly, the fire spreading rapidly, devouring everything in its path. I ran back to Cherokee’s stall, grabbing the water hose that I used to fill the horse’s water troughs, and hoping to hell it wasn’t melted from the heat and still worked. I turned on the faucet, and in seconds, water was pouring from the end of it.

I turned back around and began spraying the floor in front of Cherokee, trying to fight the flames back enough to give him space to run out without burning his legs. It worked, and he ran past me, his eyes wild with fear as he broke out into the safety of the pasture.

I sighed in relief, throwing down the water hose and turning around to follow him. I took two steps and the roof of the barn began to cave in, falling in huge chunks of fiery debris all around me, until I was trapped inside a circle of flames.

Tears began streaming down my face and fear gripped my heart.

Of course it would end this way, I thought. My life had been over the minute my parents died. The never ending drama afterwards had only proven it. Why should the danger stop with me now?

Smoke filled my lungs, and I began coughing uncontrollably as the flames whipped closer and closer to my feet. I looked for a way out, my eyes desperately searching beyond the flames for some kind of escape.

“Georgia!” I heard a voice in the dark call out to me and I screamed back.

“Here! Help!”

“Georgia!” The voice called again, closer this time, and I realized it was Beau.

My heart soared when I saw him break through the flames around me, a fire extinguisher in his hands as he sprayed back the flames closest to me until he was right there, picking me up in his arms, and carrying me out of the crumbling barn as fast as he could run.

He laid me down on the ground, and I lay gasping and crying in his arms as the lights and sirens of the fire fighters finally arrived.

“You’re okay, baby, everyone’s okay. It’s over now,” he said, his voice like a beacon of hope in the darkness.

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

SIX MONTHS LATER

“You know you still have time to back out,” Ruby said, as she handed me my bouquet of red roses and daisies.

“I’d never dream of it,” I replied.

I had never been more sure of anything in my life.

We stood in front of the mirror together, and I smiled gratefully at Ruby, our eyes meeting in the reflection.

“I’m so thankful for you,” I said.

“You should be,” she said, teasingly. “I’m a great friend.”

“Yes, you are,” I assured her.

“We’ve been through a lot together,” she replied, “but that’s what friends are for. I always knew everything would turn out okay.”

“How do we look?” I asked.

“I think we look fucking marvelous, but that’s just my opinion,” she said. She was right, though. We did. I never expected I’d be standing here in my dream wedding dress six months after the second worst night of my life, but here I was.

And there was Ruby, all dressed up in the perfect turquoise bridesmaid dress. She wanted to wear her signature red, but I refused, on principal that it was my wedding and not hers.

“It’s almost time,” she said. “Shall we?”

I took a deep breath, my heart filled with peace and certainty.

“Let’s do this.”

***

The music sounded and I watched as Ruby hooked her arm in Seth’s and walked down the aisle slowly.

Crit put his arm around me, pulling me in close for a hug.

“Beau is a lucky man,” he said.

“Thank you, Crit. I’m lucky, too. He’s a good man,” I said, smiling up at my big brother. I was so happy he was here to walk me down the aisle. After the competition, he had spent a week in the hospital, but he had recovered completely, and now he had a reputation as being one of the toughest cowboys around, as well as a few new scars to impress the ladies with.

“I know he is. I’ll forever be in debt to him for carrying you out of that fire. And to Lee, too.”

Lee had come out of the whole thing as the true hero. Turned out, if he hadn’t been staying out at LaCroix’s place, he wouldn’t have seen the flames through the trees. If he hadn’t seen them, he wouldn’t have gone in before anyone else got there, and seen Jesse lying unconscious in the barn.

He had saved Jesse’s life.

We’d all forever be indebted to him.

Especially Jesse, who after waking up in the hospital the next day, had tearfully confessed to setting all the fires. He didn’t really know why. But the deaths of our parents had sent him on a self-destructive spiral that had quickly spun out of control. He felt ignored and neglected, disconnected and lost, and trapped in the past. We had all been forced to give up any dreams of the future to help run the farm after the accident. It was a hard thing to accept. I understood completely.

I had felt the same way, but somehow the four of us just never found a way back to each other after the accident.

But all of that had changed now. Our family had bonded together again, and even if it had to be over more tragedy, I was thankful for it. Seth and Crit had forgiven Lee and Beau completely, both of my brothers graciously apologizing and thanking them both for their bravery. Jesse had thanked Lee profusely for saving his life. Lee had even apologized to me, even though he had no recollection of that awful night, and after everything else that had happened, I had decided the right thing to do was to forgive him completely.

I could even say that we were all becoming great friends now.

And as I drank in every one of their faces as I walked down the aisle, with Beau’s handsome face waiting for me at the alter, with Jesse, Finn and Lee standing next to him as his best men, I said a silent prayer of gratitude for my family and friends.

Sometimes, when all else fails, and there’s nothing left to do - you have to hope against hope that everything works out.

And sometimes, with the help of a little bit of magic, it does.

THE END