Read Online Raising The Stakes (Heartwarming Romance) by Karen Rock - Free Book Online Page B

Vivie to succeed. Yet it was hard to reconcile that with the threat he presented. He couldn’t be both ally and foe. Yet how to see him any other way?
    A forty-foot enclosed structure now took up the clearing behind her house. Everything about it was built according to code. Its inspection had been expedited and preliminary approval granted through the DEC thanks to Liam.
    He was Button’s savior, and her possible executioner.
    Vivie shivered, imagining the sweet bear harmed. If only she had her test results.
    The bell above the door jingled and a group of firemen entered. Across the room, Lauren madly scribbled on her pad as she took an order from an elderly couple who kept changing their minds.
    “You want them, Maggie?” Vivie nodded at the concentrated testosterone overflowing one of their booths.
    Maggie shook her head, her hand rising to her chin. “Have you seen the size of this pimple? No way.”
    “Seriously?”
    Maggie heaved out a sigh. “Don’t want to meet my potential husband with Mount Vesuvius on my face.”
    Vivie grabbed some menus and studied her friend. “Why are you so convinced you’re marrying a guy in uniform?”
    “Would you believe a psychic told me?”
    “Unfortunately, yes.” Vivie rolled her eyes then headed to the loud table.
    “It was at a fair. In person. Not one of those hotlines,” Maggie called after her.
    “Much more credible,” Vivie answered before reaching the firemen.
    “How are you fellows tonight?”
    Even seated, they were nearly at eye level with her.
    “Tired. Been working a forest fire on Spruce Ridge,” the eldest in the bunch answered. “Could we have some water?”
    “Sure. Have you got it contained?” Spruce Ridge wasn’t near her property but she hated thinking of the animals caught in a smoke-filled, burning forest or neighbors worried for their homes.
    “It’s unusual to see a fire this early in the season, but we had a mild winter and dry spring. This one’s small and we’ll have it out in a day or two,” the man said, his voice hoarse. It sounded as though he’d been shouting for hours. Maybe he had. “If we don’t get some rain later this summer, the whole place could be a tinderbox.”
    “Let’s hope not,” Vivie answered before turning on her heel and hurrying for the water pitcher. Back at the table, she filled up the glasses, took an order large enough to feed their entire station and headed to the kitchen window.
    “Rowdy, hope you’re ready to get slammed.”
    Her cook stopped chopping onions, tears streaming down his face, and nodded. “Whatcha got?”
    She handed him the long slip and leaned on the wide ledge of the pass-through window. “So, no sunglasses today?” It was their trick to keep the onion juice from getting in their eyes when dicing.
    Rowdy shook his head and brushed at his damp cheeks. “They fell off in Loon Lake while I was kayaking this morning.”
    She imagined the isolated spot, the haunting calls of the loons as they swam with their offspring on their backs. What she would give for that peace of mind. She wondered what Liam had been doing this morning. Was he responding to emergency calls? Helping with the fire...? Concern shivered through her, taking Vivie by surprise.
    “That’s too bad. Want these?” She took her pair of black-and-white polka-dot frames from her purse beneath the counter and held them up.
    The sizzle of meat hitting a hot grill sounded as Rowdy placed the last of the burgers and turned. One side of his mouth lifted. “Don’t think I could pull ’em off.”
    Maggie nudged in beside Vivie. “Sure you could, Rowdy. Own your masculinity. Real men wear polka dots.”
    He grabbed handfuls of cut potatoes and tossed them into the deep fryer. “Not this man.”
    “I’ll wear them,” put in Brett as he pushed by his bosses and entered the kitchen. “It’s all about who you are on a spiritual level. Doesn’t matter what society expects you to be...it’s your inner being,