Page 3 of More Than a Spark

“Can’t wait to meet all your buddies. You’re going to let me meet them, right?” He released a warm chuckle.

“Yeah, you can meet them.” I flicked my gaze to Cash, wiping his hands on a dishtowel and focused on me. This would be weird, like my old world banging into my new one.

Cash raised a brow at me.

“Good. I’m looking forward to it. See you Friday, bro.”

“Yeah, see you Friday. I’m looking forward to it, too.” I snuck my lower lip between my teeth. Ryder was going to be here.Here.With me.

“And, Milo. Uh, I’ve really missed you.” His swallow carried through the phone.

My heart caught. “I missed you, too.” I held my palm over my chest. “Bye.”

“Goodbye.” He hung up the phone.

I lowered the phone to my side and stared out the glass patio doors. Holy fuck. Was this real right now? I’d known there was a chance he’d get this job and be back down here. But I wasn’t expecting it to be this soon. I mean, who the hell wanted to work fires in the desert in the blazing heat ofsummer?

Cash strode to me and placed his hand on my shoulder. “So, I take it he’s moving close by, and we’ll finally get to meet this mystery man of yours?”

I crept my gaze to meet with Cash’s. “Yeah, looks like.” Numbness rolled over me. “How am I going to deal with this? It was easy when I didn’t see him all the time. I could?—”

“You’ll do just fine, Milo.” Cash rested his head on my shoulder and we both gazed toward the green of our back yard, our oasis in the desert. “There’s a man for you out there, and someday, you’re going to find him. I’m sure of it.”

“I hope so.” An ache rose in my chest. “Guess I should go get dressed for work, huh.” After I ate the rest of my breakfast. With a sigh, I ambled to the table and dropped into my chair, then forced the rest of my toast down.

“We’re all here for you, Milo. You know that.” Cash flashed me a smile.

TWO

RYDER

Ihung up the phone and stared out the window of my one-bedroom apartment, the tall pine trees reaching high above the two-story building in the sunny courtyard, my reflection staring back at me. I’d grown my brown, wavy hair out and now it was falling past my cheekbones in the front and past my collar in the back. I liked it. As long as it didn’t cause a problem with my bunker gear, it was all good.

In any case, it was going to be great going home and hanging out with Milo again. My best friend, the guy who knew me better than anyone. Yeah, the summer fire season was going to suck, but I’d get to be close to Dad and Hazel again, too. Mom? I didn’t care too much to be around her. Speaking of Dad…I should call him and finalize our plans. I smirked. I should probably get out of my sweats, too, and put a shirt on.

I walked into the sparse main room of my place with only an old couch and coffee table sitting in front of my television. Dad had given me what he could when I’d moved up here after high school and I wasn’t exactly home enough to care to buy more stuff after I’d moved.

A knock sounded on my door.

“Who the hell is that?” I pivoted, strode to the door, and swung it open.Oh shit.

Tate stood in the doorway, one muscled arm above his head on the door jamb, his straight black hair framing his chiseled face, his brown eyes focused on me. He was still in his blue station t-shirt and pants. His thick lips spread into a wide smile. “So, you’re leaving us, I hear?”

“Yeah.” I stepped back to let him inside, my chest tightening. I guessed I owed it to him to have a chat about it. Wedidhave a thing a few weeks ago, however brief it was and confused I’d been. “Did you just get off shift?”

“I did. Cap told me about it, said you’d taken a position with Chandler?” He strolled inside, perused my place, then fell into the corner of my couch. “Got some coffee?”

“I do.” I strode into my kitchen and set a pod and a mug in my Keurig coffee machine, then started it up. It groaned through the room, and I stared at it. I wasn’t sure how to start this conversation. Hell, I wasn’t sure why I’d even done those things with him. We’d been becoming good friends and then hooking up sort of ruined it.

After fixing his coffee with creamer, I brought it to him and dropped into the other end of the couch. “So…” Awkward. A knot formed in my gut.

“You’re not leaving because of me, I hope.” He sipped his coffee, flicking his gaze to mine.

“No, of course not.” A stuttered chuckle erupted out of me. It was the truth, wasn’t it? “M-my dad, he uh, he’s getting up there in age and I wanted to be close to him and, you know, my twin sister, Hazel.” Okay, and Milo?

He nodded, one side of his lips tugging up. “Yeah, okay.” He sucked in a breath. “And what about this friend of yours, the gay best friend. What’s going on there?”

I huffed a laugh. “What do you mean what’s going on there? Nothing, he’s my best friend.” That’s how it’d started. With me telling Tate I didn’t have a problem with gay men, because my best friend back home was gay. Little did I know at the time, he’d taken that as an invitation.But I didn’t stop him, either.

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