Page 123 of The Fire Line

Harris smiled, and the conversation moved somewhere easier. Jay told him about getting stranded overnight in Madrid after refusing to check a bag of camera equipment. Harris told him about Evan burying a truck axle-deep in spring mud at seventeen and trying to solve the problem by adding more throttle until Walt asked whether he intended to lose the entire vehicle.

Jay laughed hard enough that the couple in the next booth looked over. Harris liked the sound of Jay’s laugh more than he intended to examine.

Dinner began feeling like something they were not supposed to have. Not because two men could not eat together in public; nobody around them knew there was anything to see. That was the point.

At the ranch, everything between them happened around work, family, horses, cameras, doors that needed closing, and footsteps that might come down a hall. Even alone in the cabin, Harris remained conscious of the world immediately outside.

Here, Jay could smile at him without turning away when someone crossed the room. Harris could let his attention rest on Jay’s face.

They were simply two men eating dinner.

The ordinariness struck harder than secrecy usually did.

This was almost a date. Perhaps it was a date. Neither of them calling it one did not change the evidence.

Jay stole one of Harris’s fries despite having ordered his own.

When the check arrived, Jay reached for it. Harris caught it first.

“The production can pay for mine.”

“Nope.”

“This was a work trip.”

“Dinner wasn’t.”

Jay’s hand stayed on the other edge of the check. “No?”

Harris could have corrected himself.

He didn’t. “Nope.”

Warmth moved through Jay’s expression. “Then we split it.”

“I invited you.”

“You absolutely did not.”

The server approached, saw them both holding the check, and veered toward another table.

Jay glanced after her. “We’re alarming the staff.”

“Let go.”

Jay sighed and released it. “Fine. I’m buying breakfast.”

“County’s got breakfast.”

“Then I’m buying the county breakfast.”

“Good luck.”

Outside, the wind tugged Jay’s hair across his face and pushed dust along the pavement. Harris checked the latest update. The predicted shift had moved later into the night. The northwestern fire had grown but continued moving away from the route toward Shaw Ranch.

Nothing immediate.

The hotel stood less than five minutes away. Harris became conscious of that almost immediately.