Page 4 of Inevitable Love
No fucking thanks.
He’s smiling like an idiot, lost in his thoughts, and doesn’t notice my reaction at all. Not surprising. He’s all in love, both with Jules—his barista girlfriend—and the tiny terror of a niece they’ve obtained guardianship over. I’m pretty sure he’s been ring shopping.
Good for him, I guess. I’m not setting down roots anywhere. In fact, it’s time to move on to my next adventure, which is why I’ve finally got that application to be a wildland firefighter up on my iPad back at the station. I’ve been here too long, and it’s time to move forward with my plans.
“You’re gonna go, right?” Cal picks up the conversation like things haven’t been silent for the last however long.
“What, solo? Hell no.”
He pauses to look over at me. “Take Maggie with you.”
I’m shaking my head before he finishes saying her name. “Nah. Maggie and I are just friends. She’s been my little sister’s best friend since high school. Weddings and dates are way more than what we are to each other. Sends the wrong kind of message.”
His gaze narrows on me, and I narrow mine back.
“Don’t fuck with me about Maggie, dude.” I tolerate alot of joking and bullshit from this crew. But I draw the line with her. She’s awesome, and I’ll beat the shit out of anyone who says otherwise. “She’s Alice’s best friend, and that makes her off-limits. We’re just friends.”
His hands fly up in defense. “Okay, Kermie. It just sometimes seems like maybe there’s more to it. My bad.”
Jesus. That fucking nickname. Irritation flares, but I know better than to let him see how much it bugs the crap out of me. “Nope. And why does everyone assume that just because we have fun together and hang out, we are a thing?”
“Uh, because platonic male-female relationships are unusual.”
“Then I guess we’re the exception. I don’t think of her like that, and she definitely doesn’t see me that way. The woman is good as gold and has a heart big enough to love the whole world. I’m not taking any shit talk about her.”
“Okay. When’s your next adventure?”
“Sunday. I took a vacation day.” A sliver of excitement runs through me. It’s gonna feel good to get out of town, even for a day.
He glances at me for a long minute, like he’s trying to read me, and then goes back to cleanup. “What are y’all doing?”
“Well, if I can’t get a zip-lining pass, I’m thinking of heading to the mountains for a day trip.” I don’t mention that I need to train on the mountain. Cal has no idea I’m thinking of leaving.
Am I wrong for keeping my silence? Possibly.
But it’s easier if I just do my thing. They already give me shit enough about Maggie, questioning if things are truly platonic. We like to hike and do adventures together, whichmeans plenty of time on road trips. You get to know a person when you do that.
Why add fuel to the fire? The stupid inner joke makes me smile. Maggie would laugh at it, I’m pretty sure. Or she’d roll her eyes at me.
Still, I’m not sharing my future plans, mainly because I don’t want to answer a bunch of fucking questions from my partner.
I let the drone of the work dull me into a mindless state. Before long, we’ve made it back to the station and gotten our truck back in service. Medics Kate and Leo must have stopped by in between calls—I can tell because Leo’s left his damn used Styrofoam cup in the kitchen again. Cal and I catch some z’s until tones drop for a midnight wreck that gets the juices flowing and requires the use of the jaws to extricate the driver.
By the time I’m back at the station again, it’s the wee hours of the morning, and I’m way too pumped to sleep. It’s times like this I know if I don’t keep my mind busy, it’ll take a walk down memory lane, replaying all the parts of my past I avoid thinking about. Like midnight jumps that end in tragedy.
Dammit.
I grab my iPad to partake in my favorite pastime: researching possible adventures. The application tab is still open when the screen unlocks.
Moving to wildland firefighting, trying to make it onto a hotshot or smokejumper crew, is what I’ve been working toward for more than a year. The whole reason I’ve saved every dime, pushed my body to peak performance level, applied to every wildland firefighting organization I can find, and taken endless certification courses.
Runninginto a burning structure is one thing. Running up a mountain is another.
My finger hovers over the electronic submission button. Experience dictates that I have a fifty-fifty success rate with my wild ideas. Half the time, they suck; half the time, I have a blast.
Won’t know until you try.
Do I want to run up and down mountains and fight raging infernos, the kinds that create their own weather patterns and require you to have a personal fireproof tent? Hell yeah. Sounds like it could be fun. And things have gotten… pinchy here in the last few months.
