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I scan the horizon, knowing exactly what I’m looking for. And then I see it.
A speck of orange, and a plume of gray smoke.
That tells me all I need to know.
‘Are you OK?’ asks Addison, shivering in her wet top.
I can barely look at her right now. Makes me feel too guilty.
I told myself I would never let myself be careless again. Not after what happened with Tyson. I need to be bringing my A-game. Every time. All the time.
Can’t allow some pretty girl to distract me from that. Not now. Not ever. What was I thinking?
Aside from a couple books and a blanket, the only other things I keep in here are a compass, a map, a pair of binoculars, and a phone. Fixed up the cable for a land line to this place before I even put in the foundations.
I pick up the receiver and punch in the number of the local fire department.
‘I need to report a fire,’ I say when the old fella who runs the place picks up. ‘In the forest.’
‘Do you have the coordinates?’
I know this forest so well that I could practically reel the exact location off without cross-checking using my compass and map, but Idocheck anyway, just to be sure. ‘Thirty-nine degrees north, one-oh-five degrees west. About ten-fifty south of Devil’s Head. Covering at least ten hectares of land at the moment, I’d say. ’ I know this area. I know there are people living out near Eagle Creek. I know if the fire department doesn’t move fast there’ll be homes needing evacuating.
Civilians in danger.
I take the binoculars and provide as much specific information to the fire department as I can, then I hang up.
‘Fuck. I should have caught it sooner.’
How long did that kiss go on for? I completely lost track of time. I don’t know if it was one minute or ten. Shit. A lot can happen in ten fucking minutes.
‘Was it the lightning?’ asks Addison. ‘Is that what caused it?’
‘How the hell should I know?’ I reply, shocking myself with the animosity in my voice. ‘Lightning. An unattended campfire. Equipment malfunction. Cigarette. Could have been damn arson.’ Who knows, with the goings on around here lately?
A thought occurs to me.
I pick up the phone again, and call Georgie, the woman who owns the land. The fire must only be about twenty miles away from her place.
The phone rings at least a dozen times.
No answer.
I look at Addison, at her worried expression, her big, moist green eyes. She looks so beautiful right now, wet and shivering, wrapped in my check blanket.
But she also looks dangerous to me. Like wildfire.
'What just happened between us… shouldn’t have happened,' I snarl. 'Come on. We'd better get out of here now, get back to the cabin. Ain’t a good idea to hang around here much longer, not in a lightning storm.'
‘But… don’t you need to keep watching that fire?’
‘Too late for that now,’ I snap. I’m not acting like me, but I can’t stop the old feelings coming back. Memories of Tyson, of my failures…
I’m broken. And I don’t know how to fix myself.
I grab our wet clothes, and take Addison out in the forest, wrapped in my blanket. It’s still raining, but more lightly now. Eric follows, grumbling at being dragged out in such miserable weather. I know how you feel, buddy.
Addison is limping worse than before. Guess this walk up here was too much for her today. I hold onto her tight, a little too tight, perhaps, and guide her back home. My hard-on has well and truly subsided by now, but that doesn’t mean I’m not a red-blooded man. The feeling of my arms around her still sends the blood pumping through my veins.
