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The benching of our asses is a temporary state of affairs, I remind myself. Tomorrow’s another day. Blah fucking blah. Insert your platitude here, but I guarantee one thing. I will be out there, and I will be fighting fire.
Hunter stares balefully at the plume blocking out the daylight. He’s also thinking what I’m thinking. “Plenty of fire out there to go around. She’ll still be there when we finish our R and R.”
A couple of the guys bypass us, double-timing it toward their trucks. Must have a hot date in town. I can’t remember the last time I pulled that kind of shit myself, but I’m not a flower and roses guy. You want sex, I’m happy to put out. I’ll bring you to heaven and back and make you come so hard that you see stars, but I’m not gonna open doors or make restaurant reservations. I won’t remember to call, I don’t do anniversaries, and I don’t care if you went to the trouble to pick out a matching panty and bra set. I just want you naked, wet, and willing.
Hunter, however, is well on his way to being officially pussy-whipped thanks to Lola. I don’t know if she’s just got a magic pussy or he’s let her hijack his heart, but I don’t want that. Why would I? Relationships require work, and I’ve already got a full-time job. Hunter fishes his phone out of his pocket, spends a long moment searching for cell service, and then proceeds to thumb through about forty million texts from his female overlord. From the dazed look on his face, I’m pretty sure Lola sent him a naked selfie. I’m just not gonna ask of what—Lola’s good people but she’s not shy. I don’t need to accidentally spot her beaver shot.
Does it sound like I’m not happy for Hunter? Because I totally am. It’s just part of the man code that I have to give him shit because he’s getting regular sex in exchange for letting Lola housebreak him. The rest of the team already has a betting pool going on whether or not he pops The Question before fire season ends. The odds are split pretty evenly at the moment between Hunter investing in some high-quality diamonds and Hunter running for the hills. He’s already got one bad marriage under his belt, so I placed my ten bucks on his splitting. In the meantime, however, he’s spending time with her like the sex shop is about to close up and he needs to make his purchases now, now, now.
I don’t have the same draw to leave camp. In all honesty, I don’t have much of a home to go back to. That makes a difference. If you’ve got the Four Seasons and limitless kinky sex waiting for you, you’re gonna haul ass, right? My life is more like the Motel 6 with the vibrating bed that you feed quarters into—and that craps out on you mid-thrust.
The fire camp is a temporary way station. Like many of the guys, I’ve got my RV and my pillow, but where I hit the hay doesn’t matter much. Sure, sleep sounds good right now, as does a real hot shower, but getting my hands on a Pulaski and digging line sounds better. I like to finish what I start, whether that’s in bed or in the forest. It’s my job to kick fire’s ass, and the higher ups in the forest service had decided I wasn’t going to get the chance today.
“We were close,” I growl when Hunter finally looks up from the picture he’s salivating over. “Another hour and we’d have had her.”
Leaving a problem unfixed goes against the grain. Fixing what’s wrong just makes sense. Eight hours of knocking down flames, shoveling dirt wherever the orange pops up. Everything is dry and heated, ready to go up at a moment’s notice, and then the wind shifts and we’re suddenly staring defeat in the face. The flames had hopped the line we’d scratched out like all our work was nothing and raced upslope. Fire doesn’t offer do-overs. Just overtime.
“Maybe.” Hunter shrugs and pockets his phone. “But rules are rules, and coming in for a few hours isn’t hurting us.”
“You say that because you’ve got a date with Lola tonight.” Hunter’s fascination with the actress is an unending source of amusement for our team, and the guys miss no chance to give Hunter guff. When we’d found out about her national laundry detergent commercial, we’d packed Hunter’s bed full of the big, blue containers. “You taking her somewhere good this time?”
