Wildfire Smokejumper Trilogy

Chapter 4-3

“Can you afford to be so far from base?” was Laura’s no nonsense greeting. Her welcoming smile was the only greeting Akbar cared about. Well, that and the way she looked coming down the broad stone steps of the Lodge.

The stone foundation and three stories of wood towered above her. The two main wings stretched off to either side. A central peak climbed several more steep-roofed stories above the entrance, complete with a cupola at the very top. Driving up he’d been able to admire the glacier-capped mass of Mount Hood rising directly behind the Lodge, though now he was close enough that the Lodge masked the peak.

The mass of the building could easily have overshadowed a lesser woman, but Laura looked like a queen descending from the heights. And as she came closer he could really appreciate the rest of the view. At the Doghouse her jeans had suggested great legs, but her running shorts delivered on that promise. And the fluorescent yellow runner’s top affirmed the slender waist and athletic chest. When he finally reached her eyes, she was glaring at him—he could tell despite the wrap-around shades—but there didn’t appear to be any real heat behind it.

“Damn, Space Ace. You could make this boy want to go AWOL. Mandatory rest day, everyone else is still sacked out.” He patted his fanny pack. “Doesn’t mean I don’t have my radio. Sorry about no response before. Got your message right before I entered a no-cell zone.”

“Right before you jumped into it, Fire Boy.”

“Yeah.” He liked that Laura had figured out the sss, but didn’t want to play the smokie card on her. It was an odd reaction that he didn’t understand. It was a surefire line, “Couldn’t call you because I was jumping out of a plane into a fire at the moment.” But he didn’t want to game Laura.

She waited a long moment, and when he said nothing more, she nodded to herself—whatever that meant. It was a comfortable silence while they stretched out. Akbar had done a full warm-up before the short drive to get here, even done a quarter mile up the airfield and back to work out the soreness from yesterday’s fire. He didn’t want to look like a total lost cause, but he wasn’t going to complain about a chance to watch Laura stretch out. Damn the girl was limber, she was awesome to watch. Which definitely planted some other thoughts in his imagination. Very nice thoughts.

“I have to visit someone before we go,” she pulled an apple out of her fanny pack and tossed it lightly in the air.

He shrugged his acceptance.

“A big, very handsome male.”

He tried to show he didn’t care, but he did. Jealousy wasn’t a feeling he was particularly used to and he didn’t like the creeping sensation clamping his jaw down. He’d thought her invitation… Then he noticed the teasing edge to her smile and he changed his tack at the last moment. Too late he knew, but he had to try. “Can’t wait to meet him.”

Her laughed flowed out of her so easily, as if joy were her natural state in the world. That he could get used to; the jealousy s**t not so much. Though its tendrils still clawed at him.

She led him around the Lodge and into the woods at an easy trot, still clutching her apple. Laura in motion was even better than Laura standing still. He’d labeled her “hot” when he first saw her. Now he could see that he’d seriously underestimated the situation.

She led him up to a horse corral. Even before she reached the fence, a big tan gelding trotted eagerly over to greet her. The first time he’d ever tested out jealousy, and he’d wasted it on envying a horse. That would teach him.

“And how’s my big man today?” she cooed at the horse. She pulled out a knife and began cutting and palming apple slices for the beast. When he was done, she gave him a nose rub and then hugged the horse’s big head.

Akbar did find himself being jealous of a horse of all stupid things. They were so close. As she held the horse, the world seemed to go quiet around them. The two of them were absolutely still. The only motion was the gently swishing tails of the other horses in the corral. The only sound, the sharp chatter of a pair of bald eagles riding the thermals high above as they hunted for breakfast.

The smile on Laura’s face was so soft and gentle. He could easily imagine how she would look waking up in the morning. Akbar knew he was losing his grip on reality, but he didn’t particularly want to stop.

“Mister Ed, this is Akbar. Akbar, Mister Ed.” She’d saved back the core which she handed to him.

He held it out on his flat palm. The horse snuffled at him suspiciously then took the core with a soft flap of lip. He scrubbed his fingers into the horse’s cheek and the animal leaned into it as he chewed.

“He likes you.”

“Mister Ed, huh?” he addressed the horse, not her. “So you got caught up in this whole TV thing too, you poor unsuspecting beast. Does he talk?” he turned to Laura. They were suddenly inches apart.

This was the closest he’d been to her, closer even than in side-by-side chairs at the Doghouse Inn. Now he could feel her warmth radiating on the cool morning air. He smelled horse, as he continued to pay some attention to the gelding, but he also smelled a woman like none he ever had before. Like snow and sunshine on the trees. He’d never smelled another woman like her…never expected to again.

“He’s pretty vocal,” Laura spoke as if wholly unaffected by how close they were; that knocked down his ego a few pegs. All part of the game. “He kept chattering at me in horse the whole time I was trying to decide whether or not I could afford him. He was so chatty, that I bought him even though I couldn’t afford to. Called him Mister Ed and the name stuck.”

“You my competition, mate?” Akbar addressed the horse and did his best to make it sound funny. To his ear, it sounded right. Inside, it felt a little too serious. When had he ever worried about the competition?

He wished she weren’t wearing the shades so that he had some chance to see what she was thinking.