Page 16 of Smoke Season

But she loved Annie.

They had to get downriver to Temple Bar by Friday. There was just no way around it. When Mel had first come to her with this plan, she had looked the most desperate True had ever seen her, and she’d seen her trying to navigate Quartz Canyon with half of one broken paddle. OfcourseTrue would do anything for her and the Bishops. It was all just such a fucking foregone conclusion.

Anyway, therewasno protocol, not when it came to wildfire smoke. “It’s common for the AQ index to become poor when fires burn in the mountains around the Outlaw National Forest during the summers here,” she told Vivian. It was why, when they’d first begun talking about this trip, she’d urged Vivian to book in July, not August.

“But this is early,” Vivian countered, having apparently paid close attention to True’s advice. “And this fire isn’t just ‘in the mountains.’ It’s onthemountain, the one right there.” She hooked a thumb back behind her.

This, too, was true.

“I won’t put Emmett at risk,” Vivian said. A second look True recognized shone in her usually warm, dark eyes. The look was of a mother who was not to be messed with. True had seen that look in Mel’s eyes more than once.

Which was what enabled her to meet her gaze head-on. “Of course not. Which is why I have a plan.”Stage at Wonderland. Rest a day, out of the smoke.Would it work? It would have to.

She explained Mel’s idea to Vivian, who absorbed this new itinerary in thoughtful silence before breaking it with one last questionthat managed to knock what little air True had in her lungs right out. “Would you try this with Astor and Annie?”

Would she?

Iamdoing this for Astor and Annie,True decided fiercely. It allowed her to look Vivian in the eyes as she answered. “I would have to.”

Vivian nodded slowly. “Then our well-being is in your hands,” she said softly, touching True’s forearm lightly as she stepped back toward camp.

Fuckwas all True could think, her limbs suddenly limp. Whose wasn’t?

An hour later, she navigated the raft unceremoniously toward Cougar and Buckshot Falls, not stopping to play up the novelty of the Class III rapids for her clients. Usually she eddied out just above each landmark, hopping ashore to describe the whitewater they were about to tackle, showing clients which line they’d take by drawing a crude diagram of the rocks and falls in the sand at their feet. Today, she just wanted to get some miles under their belt.

“We’ll start out left,” she called out as they approached the roar of Cougar, drawing Vivian’s attention immediately upon her. “And then we’ll move to the middle after that first boulder, right where the water boils over that channel. See?” True released her grip on one oar to point, and Emmett swiveled on his tube seat to track the location. “Then rowright-right-right, hard and fast, to avoid hitting the left bank by those blackberry bushes. Got it?”

Both faces registered bare panic. “Wait, left first?” Vivian shot at her. “Or right?”

“And then what, again?” Emmett added at a shout.

“Just follow my lead,” True assured them, amused despite herself by the duo’s unique “two against the world” dynamic.

“Toeholds, please,” she called out as they took their first hard pull left, and Emmett and Vivian both scrambled to stick their sandaled feet deep in the crack of the inner tube at the interior base of the raft for stability. “Paddles in the water. Androw.”

No matter how many times she ran these rapids, each plunge gave True a thrill, and she allowed herself to embrace the delicious drop of her stomach as Cougar spit them out at the bottom to drift toward the riffles at the next bend. She caught her breath, grinning despite the smoke, taking a break on the oars as the Wus recovered from the shock of the whitewater and took stock, wiping the spray from their faces. She rested her forearms for a moment, the burn slowly fading from her deltoids while the raft turned in a lazy half circle as it floated.

“That was cool,” Emmett said, his smile a welcome break from the serious frown he’d worn since they’d hastily broken camp in the smoke of Fern Creek. True smiled back, always happy to make an ally in her love of adrenaline-inducing outdoor sports.

Vivian, too, was grinning, a sight that sent a little stab of unexpected joy through True’s gut. Usually, it was easier to just paddle through rapids without client “assistance,” but Vivian’s toned biceps had been a welcome aid. True told her as much, enjoying the blush that touched upon her cheeks. Well, from that and the cold. Vivian shivered visibly following the waves of icy river water they’d taken onboard. True pulled them into an eddy long enough to ship her oars and tug a dry towel out of her dry bag and press it into Emmett’s hands. “Give this to your mom, will you, kiddo?”

“Thanks, True.”

Vivian looked suddenly vulnerable, clutching the towel to her chest, eyes stinging from the water and smoke, and True was startled to realize she nearly wanted to call off her revised itinerary right then and there, offering an evac instead. What if she was taking too big a risk, after all?Looks can be deceiving,she reminded herself. A woman didn’t climb through the ranks at UCSF Medical Center as a single mother without being tougher than she appeared.

Still, worry clouded Vivian’s face as Emmett cast an anxious glance back toward the silty air, one hand waving like a fan in front of his face. Despite True’s reassurances, the sight of the smoke and ash continued to cast a pallor. True knew they all felt the weight of it, exhilarating rides through rapids notwithstanding, but so far, to True’s relief, there had been no further talk of evacuating.

That relief came with a healthy dose of guilt. She looked again at Emmett. She was essentially putting this beautiful child at risk to save another, but what choice did she have?

“I’ve seen wildfires out here before,” True assured them now as they all followed the path of Emmett’s hand batting at the smoke. “Nothing we can’t handle, right, E?”

Emmett looked dubious, and so she took up the oars again, rowing with long, deep strokes toward their next challenge, Buckshot Falls.

“That’s right,” Vivian contributed, squeezing Emmett’s hand for reassurance. “Fifteen years’ experience, kiddo,” she declared, perhaps a tad too enthusiastically. “We’re in good hands.”

True managed a smile over the wooden handle of her oar, grateful for the endorsement even if it might have been forced. Even knowing she might not deserve it, not this trip. Apparently, Vivian hadn’t become a respected lead RN without in turn recognizing and valuing fellow professional women as well, True decided as she rowed into the current. What was the saying? A high tide lifts all boats? It was refreshing to skip the part of the rafting trip where she had to prove herself double just because she lacked a Y chromosome.

She continued on steadily, letting the Wus go back to covering their mouths with the hems of their T-shirts to filter out the smoke that, while less thick here, downriver, still clung to the canyon walls they glided through. She focused on her stroke, knowing she’d need to row longer and stronger today than the day before. She let her thoughts turn inward, even as Vivian’s vote of confidence echoed in her head.

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