Fire Boy: A Pine Lodge Tale

By Kate Courtright

A year after the cataclysmic breakup of her engagement to long-time boyfriend Alan, twenty-seven-year old Heidi Pfeiffer is tired of doing of doing the walk of shame in her small upstate New York town. It is time for a fresh start, which is why she finds herself driving one dark and stormy night to Pine Lodge, an old-fashioned Adirondack resort, to begin a job as the new cook. Unfortunately, she starts right off on the wrong foot with Doug Barrett, the resort’s brooding “fire boy,” and Janet, the head waitress with a big chip on her shoulder and a nose for ferreting out gossip. It turns out Heidi’s not the only one with a guilty past and desperate need to start over. How much is she willing to risk her still wounded heart on her attractive but mysterious colleague, this fire boy, whose secrets may be even more troubling than her own?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kate Courtright
• Release date: Apr 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463325384

Kate Courtright

Kate Courtright has found joy in stories her entire life. She loves reading stories that make her laugh and cry and believe in the power of love to change people’s lives. She loves literary and genre fiction and has a particular fondness for romance. She wrote her first story, about Cinderella eating spaghetti, when she was seven years old, and has been writing in one form or another ever since. When not reading or writing, Kate works professionally to create caring communities that empower people to be good neighbors and faithful friends. She lives with her family in New York City.

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Fire Boy: A Pine Lodge Tale

Kate Courtright

Published by Kate Courtright

Copyright © 2020 by Kate Courtright

Cover design: MaryDes, marydes.eu

Book design: Brisbane Creative LLC

This novella is an original work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Discover other titles by Kate Courtright:

Pinkie: A Short Story

Former Things: A Short Story

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions contact: [e-mail]

First Printing 2020

To My Parents

Chapter 1—Stormy Night

It was a dark and stormy night, all right. Another hour on these treacherous Adirondack roads would just about do her in. Not to mention her poor 14-year-old Honda, inherited from her beloved grandmother, which Heidi Pfeiffer intended to drive until it fell apart. Alan used to be so embarrassed to have the neighbors see his fiancée in this ancient car. What a relief that she no longer had to give a shit about his obsession with appearances. She loved the car, okay? He liked his fancy new cars, she liked her battered-up old car. And she did not consider that a character flaw.

Heidi gritted her teeth. Why was she still rehearsing this stupid argument in her head? The last time they’d quarreled about this in person was eighteen months ago. He was married, for goodness’ sake, to prissy Angela, who drove a spiffy new car, which must make him so proud. Alan’s control issues were not her problem anymore.

Yet, she still felt that she was learning from scratch how to breathe again. That’s what nine straight years of suffocation would do to you.

What the heck was the deal with the streetlights? As in, why weren’t they on? Bad enough that it was pouring, and the roads full of potholes and puddles, but relying only on her headlights for sight, Heidi really did feel like she was searching for a pine needle in a forest of towering pines.

Her anticipated six-hour drive to Pine Lodge was going on eleven hours at this point. She’d counted on her GPS to get her there. She had not counted on getting no cell phone reception. Or on her phone battery dying. Finally, she found a gas station that sold maps, those ancient relics. Then her spatial relations skills, which had never been all that functional, went completely AWOL.

She would never have found herself in this situation had she been traveling with Alan. He would have planned out the entire trip down to the last mile. He would have memorized the weather forecast for each segment of the journey. He would never have been surprised by a torrential rainstorm or the possibility that they might not have cell phone reception. He would have known exactly what to expect and been prepared for all eventualities. If she had been traveling with Alan, she would have arrived at this new job at a decent daylight hour. What kind of first impression do you think you’re going to make on your new employers, Heidi, showing up for work smack in the middle of the night?

Oh, shut up, Alan! It’s not a character flaw to get lost once in a while either, for goodness’ sake.

In fact, there was something almost exhilarating about having gotten not just lost, but so completely lost that for a couple hours there she really hadn’t had any idea where she was. And yet, she was still okay. Nothing fundamentally terrible had happened to her. And eventually, she’d found herself heading in the right direction. See, Alan? Not the end of the world, after all.

Oh, God, it was so good to be free!

Of course, she would feel even better if he didn’t hate her guts, but she’d brought that on herself. She was going to have to live with her guilt and his hate for the rest of her life. It was a heavy weight, but not as heavy a weight as the relationship had been.

She had to be almost there. In fact, the skyline seemed to be clearing. For the first time in what felt like forever, she saw the outlines of buildings. Her headlights lit up a sign: Pine Lodge: Welcome to Your Home in the Woods.

Well, praise the Lord, as her grandmother would say. Two AM, according to her watch. Mrs. Hodges had told her someone would wait up for her if she arrived late. The darkened building, a large, brown, clapboard house, which she figured must be the main lodge, suggested otherwise. Not even a candle in a window.

Warm welcome, check.

Heidi