Page 117 of The Fire Line

20

My Whole Life Fits on One Little Map

By Wednesday morning, the forecast had changed twice.

The stronger winds were still expected sometime between that night and Thursday, but the timing kept moving, and nobody seemed entirely sure which direction they would come from. Harris checked the incident map before breakfast, again while loading the truck, and once more before they left the ranch.

He told himself that was what had him uneasy as they headed east.

It was mostly true.

Jay sat beside him with a travel mug braced between his knees and the regional meeting packet open against one thigh, already underlining something. Fire coordination. Emergency access. Water allocation. Land-use permitting. Two sessions that day, dinner somewhere in between, then an early briefing Thursday morning.

Harris glanced over. “You takin’ notes before we get there?”

Jay looked up. “Preparation is the cornerstone of excellence.”

“Damn, Navarro. You had that one locked and loaded.”

“Preparation is my forte.”

“It’s just a regional meeting.”

“Exactly. Multiple counties. Which means I’m entering a hostile environment.”

Harris looked back at the road, smiling despite himself.

The county had booked him a room because the Thursday briefing started early enough that driving home and back made no sense. That had meant nothing until Jay decided to come.

Now they were going to stay in the same hotel. Separate rooms, but no family nearby to notice where Jay went after dark. No production crew down the hall. No cabin within sight of the lodge, and no need to calculate whether Evan might come looking for a radio or Della might cross the yard with leftovers.

The privacy should have made everything easier. Instead, Harris had spent most of the previous night thinking about what Jay might expect once they had it.

They had been working toward sex for weeks, whether either of them named it or not. The mountain. Jay in Harris’s cabin. The tack room. Every private hour since. Harris wanted more badly enough that the thought had kept him awake long after the cabin went dark.

He remembered Jay’s hand inside the back of his jeans and the shock of wanting something before he understood whether he was ready for it.

Beside him, Jay closed the agenda. “You okay?”

“Yup.”

“You’ve checked the rearview mirror approximately nine hundred times.”

Harris glanced at him. Jay looked completely relaxed. Of course he did—he had spent the morning reading about easements and emergency-access policy for enjoyment. For Jay, that was practically a meditation.

“Fire weather,” Harris said.

That was true enough.

The humor left Jay’s face. “You know we can turn around if you’re that worried about leaving.”

“We’re fine.”

“You sure?”

“Evan calls if anything changes.”

“And if the forecast gets worse?”