Page 11 of Burnin' For You
Gilly lifted her hand to Kate and walked over to her redheaded friend. Kate wore jeans, a flannel shirt tied around her waist, a Jude County Smokejumpers gray T-shirt. She had probably spent the day in the ready room repairing chutes, packing supplies, refolding packs. After a fire entrapment at the beginning of the summer, she went part-time as a jumper and spent most of her time as a fire behavior analyst, jumping only when the roster was slim.
Jed was always calling the team in for more training, assessing fire scenarios. Gilly guessed he had probably spent the day going over their plan of attack on the Fountain Lake fire, trying to figure out how to keep them out of situations that nearly cost them lives. Now, he sat on the bike, his dark hair cordoned back with a baseball cap, his eyes hidden by a pair of aviator sunglasses.
“Hey, Gilly,” he said.
“What’s up?” Gilly asked.
“We’re headed over to the saloon to catch the Ember End-of-Season Roundup semifinals.” Kate answered. “Reuben’s riding a bull, and I think CJ’s doing some roping.”
“Just because we live in Montana doesn’t mean we’re all cowboys. What is it with those two? They spend a week busting their backs fighting fire and the weekend getting them broken on wild animals?”
Jed hiked his glasses down his nose. “We all decompress different ways. Rube’s pretty good. You should check him out.”
Kate waggled an eyebrow at her fiancé’s words.
“Stop it.”
“No, really, Gilly,” Kate said. “Neither Jed nor I are blind. We see the way you look at Reuben.”
“What—no, listen, I’m not interested in—”
“All that muscle wrestling, as you say, a wild animal?”
“All thatmisplaced testosterone. I pull him out of a fire just to see him break his skull? I don’t think so.”
“Oh, so that’s it. You don’t want him getting hurt.” Jed grinned.
“No—-I mean, yeah, but—listen.” She swallowed, found her footing. “Reuben barely knows I’m alive. He’s practically a caveman around me. And, we’re teammates—sort of.”
“Gilly. Reuben is just shy.” Kate said. “Trust me, get him going, and he’s got plenty to say.”
“To you, maybe.” Although she could admit that maybe he spoke more with action than words, given that look from him after the Fountain Lake fire.
The mystery behind it could still light an odd fire deep in her bones.
She felt the burn of a blush spread across her face.
Jed’s face turned solemn. “Reuben is a great guy—a little tight-lipped, but he definitely knows you’re alive, Gilly.”
And what did he mean by that? But Jed, pushing his aviators back up, added, “Youdidsave his sorry hide.”
Oh. Right. That made sense.
“Maybe it’s time to celebrate that with your team, huh?” Kate asked.
And Kate, her best friend since childhood, knew just how to hook her.
She gave Kate a wry smile. “We’ll see.”
“That’s a yes. I expect to see you there.” Kate winked as she fitted on her helmet. Jed gunned them away.
Gilly cast another look at the AN2 then wandered back to her Mustang and headed home to her tiny bedroom in her parent’s rambler next to the Ember Community Church.
The sun lay just over the horizon, a shimmering line of amber across the jagged western mountains.
Hopefully, she wouldn’t stay grounded forever. Maybe Miles’s memory would dim over the winter months.
She parked the Mustang on the basketball court and headed inside, the garlicky smell of a roast in the Crock-Pot filling the house. An old-fashioned woman, her mother produced dinner on the table every night at six p.m. and raised her daughters—well, two out of three of them—with the cooking and baking skills to feed an army of starving firefighters.