Wildfire Smokejumper Trilogy

Chapter 4-6

The feeling was not mutual. Grayson Masterson was six-two, square-jawed, and had offered Akbar an overly-powerful handshake when they met. Akbar restrained himself from returning the favor by perhaps crushing a few bones with his firefighter-strong grip, and simply returned the same as he received.

He had to remind himself that this was one of Laura’s paying guests, and at no small fee. He’d seen the price that Bess wrote off at the front desk when Laura had added him to the list as a personal guest. He’d actually felt a little guilty, but Bess had cut off his protest.

“You’ll earn it, young man,” she told him without explaining. “Besides, you’re the first ‘personal guest’ Laura has ever signed up even though it’s one of her job perks. I look forward to hearing more about you.” She offered him a broad wink and turned to other tasks.

Then he’d turned around and looked up into Garyson Masterson’s face glaring down at him from on high. The “you’ll earn it” part of Bess’ statement began to make sense. Grayson had tried sticking close to Laura as she organized everybody, but eight people had signed up for the outing and that kept her moving around.

She slowly got them settled around a large table in one corner of the main hall. People were fetching coffee and tea, he went for hot cocoa himself and settled in to look around.

He’d been up at the Lodge several times. He’d had the pleasure of escorting a few fine women to their rooms, but had never lingered in the grand, central space. The open timber walls soared upward for stories. Heavy beams gave the room a feeling of age-old strength without becoming oppressive. A massive stone fireplace stood like a great pillar. The old WPA guys back in the Depression really knew how to build; this place was gorgeous. He could settle in right here and never move. It was comfortable and airy and cozy all at once.

As the others came to the table, Akbar sized them up. Grayson was gym-fit and arrogant about it, exactly the sort of guy who didn’t make it past the first day of firefighter tryouts. No room for attitude on a crew.

Maximilian and Millie were in their sixties but were aging very gracefully; their Austrian accents and good manners would make them pleasant companions for the day.

Jeff and Kris were on their honeymoon. He was teasing her, “if I rode horses for you, you can climb some ice.” They were pretty damn cute together; early twenties and looking awfully happy about it.

On Akbar’s list marriage had always been in the “someday for sure” category whenever his mom had asked. For these two it had clearly been more of a “can’t wait.” He didn’t wonder too hard what it would take to make him feel that way. Because when he briefly considered it, the whole “marriage someday” concept didn’t sound as foreign as it might have even last week. A woman like Laura made it easy for him to imagine that there actually might be a woman out there that he’d actually want to spend a some time with. And that extended into “a lot of time” or even “a lifetime” and he definitely wasn’t ready for any of those thoughts.

The other three members of the group were a dad and two teens: Bart, Sammy, and Tiffany. Kids. He didn’t have much to do with kids. His own sister, and hence her friends, had been older.

He’d managed to snag a full-time slot with MHA his first year out of high school because they were expanding the crews. He’d only thought to take a year off before going to college. Two years in he’d made the jump team and worked his way up for most of a decade. Now, with TJ out, he was the lead. He dealt with the eighteen year olds who tried out for his crew, but this boy and girl were twelve and thirteen.

Laura breezed right up to them, greeted them by name, and soon had them laughing. Tiffany was the outdoorsy one and was all gung-ho. Sammy, not so much. But by the time Laura was done with him, he appeared to have a bit of a crush on her and that would definitely see him up the mountain.

Akbar had a bit of a crush on Ms. Laura Jenson himself and was rather enjoying the sensation.

Once they were all gathered, Laura did the safety lecture thing. Always roped together on the ice. Move slow. Think before you act. All of the basics. He listened with one ear; she didn’t miss a single point. Not so Mr. Handsome. He appeared bored with it all, forcing Laura to repeat and emphasize points that everyone else already had gotten.

Akbar sighed. He’d thought this would be fun, helping Laura put an overeager tourist in his place. Now he’d have to actually keep an eye on the guy.