Page 40 of Fire Peak

Charlie sucked in a breath, since she’d been waiting for something like this for a long time. They all had, all of Ani’s friends who loved her and had watched her marriage crumble into misery. “How is she?”

“I don’t know. I told her she should come back here so we could spoil her, but I didn’t hear back.” Lila set a glass of her favorite gin-and-lime in front of her. “I’m worried about her. This is such a huge change in her life. You should try to talk her into coming out.”

Charlie traced a pattern on the bar top, pulling her finger through a stray drop of water. “That won’t work. On the plane back to Indiana, the last time we came here, we had a fight. I told her she should kick John out. She told me she had to do it her way and that I had some nerve talking about relationships given my forever-single status. We barely said goodbye.”

Charlie sipped her drink, noting that it was mostly lime and soda, a subtle message from Lila that it was too early to be drinking on a Sunday. Point taken.

“That’s two reasons for her to come here, then,” said Lila cheerfully. “So we can spoil her and so you can make up.”

Charlie laughed at her ever-optimistic friend. “The sunshine bomb strikes again.”

At the word “bomb,” Lila’s smile shifted. “I heard about what happened at the lodge. That must have been scary. And Nick was such a hero, throwing his jacket over the flames like that.”

Charlie sighed and gave up on correcting the record. This story was taking on a life of its own. It wouldn’t be the first wildly exaggerated Firelight Ridge legend. “Who do you think threw that thing?”

“You’re asking me?”

“Maybe you sensed something or someone.”

Lila tucked a flyaway strand of her white hair behind her ear. Charlie noticed strands of silver tinsel woven here and there. Nice touch. Lila had very creative ways of playing with her hair. White was such an easy color to work with. “You know it doesn’t work that way.”

“Sometimes it works that way.”

“It doesn’t work that way on demand. Besides, it’s different here. Something about the mountains makes things more quiet in there.” Lila tapped her temple. “My theory is that it’s due to the mineral makeup of this area.”

“What’s the mineral makeup?”

“Well, there used to be a copper mine, so there must be copper. There’s some gold, enough for panning. I believe there might be high levels of manganese too. I haven’t researched it, it’s just a theory.”

Charlie tried to hide her skepticism. Why would minerals under the surface affect Lila’s intuition?

“You’re skeptical.”

Apparently Lila hadn’t lost all her intuition.

“A little,” Charlie admitted. “It seems far-fetched.”

Lila propped her elbows on the bar. “Think about it. Every mineral has a different magnetic frequency, right? Maybe some frequencies interfere with whatever it is I pick up on. I mean, as far as I know there’s no official scientific explanation for my weirdness.”

“What weirdness?” Bear appeared behind Lila, a case of liquor resting comfortably on one shoulder. The man was built like a brick shithouse. Charlie didn’t even know what that meant, but the phrase popped into her mind every time she saw Bear. He was just a huge guy who towered over everyone else. She would have been attracted to him, but she went for more verbal guys, ones she could banter with. More like…everyone’s favorite heroic smoke-bomb smotherer.

Besides, she’d caught that glint in his eye when he looked at Lila.

“Oh, my uh, you know, the hair,” Lila stammered as she turned to help him unload the case. “It turned white overnight.” She shot a pleading glance at Charlie. Message received. Lila didn’t want Bear knowing about her intuitive abilities.

“It was really strange,” Charlie chimed in. “We had a slumber party for her birthday, right before we were all headed off in different directions after high school. We stayed up all night dancing like lunatics, watching movies, laughing, crying, and when we woke up the next morning, boom.” She snapped her fingers. “Lila’s hair was pure white. It really suits her, though, doesn’t it?”

Bear grunted and pulled a bottle from the case.

Maybe that was his version of a compliment. Or just his version of a grunt, who knew?

“Bear, have you ever heard of someone named Bulldog?”

Bear’s face shuttered. Interesting. Generally speaking, Bear didn’t talk much anyway. But his reaction was still noteworthy.

She tried something else. “Have you noticed any unusual people in the bar lately? Like, a couple with high-tech outdoor gear?”

He cocked his huge head to one side. “People come, they drink, they leave. That’s all I know.”

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