Chapter 28

Cade

I leaned my head against the headboard and glanced over to the bathroom. Amelia stood in the doorway brushing her teeth.

“When’d you say you had to go to Fairbanks?” she asked, her question surprisingly clear amidst the tooth brushing.

Before I answered, she spun around and ran the faucet while she rinsed. I figured there wasn’t much better than Amelia walking around bare-ass naked while she got ready for bed. I was let down when she snagged one of my t-shirts and tossed it over her head before crawling in bed beside me.

“You didn’t answer me,” she said as she adjusted the blankets and grabbed the remote.

“Day after tomorrow,” I said as she settled against my side, hooking her foot over my calf and idly tapping the remote against my chest.

We’d made it home after our ride to Turnagain Arm to stumble inside and tear each other’s clothes off. After a quick meal of leftover pizza, we’d showered. I closed my eyes, savoring the feel of her against me.

“How long?” came her next question.

“Three days,” I replied, opening my eyes and glancing down at her.

“I suppose it’s not helpful for me to complain, huh?” she asked, her mouth curling in a rueful grin.

I chuckled. “You can complain. It won’t change my job. Once I get through these state mandated certifications, I’ll only be taking off when I have to respond to a fire.”

She sighed and rolled her head to look toward the television. In the few weeks I’d been staying with her, we’d fallen into our old habit of watching a few shows at night. As good as things felt, I sensed a thread of uncertainty emanating from her about me traveling. I understood it because I felt it too. Everything was so fresh, still on shaky ground as if a jolt at the wrong time could rattle us far more than it should.

I sifted my fingers through her hair.

“I know,” she said softly.

After a few minutes, her breathing evened out. I slowly pulled the remote out of her hand and set it on the nightstand before reaching to flick the lamp off. I eased down into the pillows. She never woke, her body adjusting to my motion and sinking against me.

***

I looked down at the landscape below. I’d finished my third day of training in Fairbanks, three days of boring, administrative crap. I thrived in my job, loved just about all aspects of it. I didn’t mean that I loved putting myself or my crew in danger, but I knew what it meant, so I did it. The one and only thing I didn’t like about my job was the admin side of things. I missed Amelia like crazy and wanted to get back to Willow Brook yesterday.

We’d been about to hop on a return plane when I got the call my crew was called out for a rotation on a fire in the Alaskan Interior. Alaska had so many vast swaths of forest, a number of fires were simply managed as there was nothing to worry about. This fire was moving fast and headed straight toward a cluster of small communities in the Interior.

The mountains on the outskirts of Fairbanks receded in the distance as the land gradually shifted into vistas of forest interspersed with fields. I glanced to the pilot.

“Any idea how long before we reach the fire?” I asked.

The pilot, a jovial man named Fred Banks, kept his eyes trained ahead. “I’d say we’ve got another half hour. I’ll set us down in a lake nearby. When I was out here the other day, they had their main station set up there. You spent much time in Alaska?”

“Oh yeah. Born here. Grew up in Willow Brook.”

Fred glanced my way, flashing a grin, his blue eyes twinkling in his weathered face. “I figured you for a transplant when Beck mentioned you’d done your training in California. My mistake.”

I shrugged. “Easy mistake to make. I stayed there for seven years, so it’s been a bit. I’ve never flown out where we’re headed though. Taken plenty of trips hiking and fishing all over, but not there.”

“It’s wild country out here. With the beetle kill, as I’m sure you know, these fires have been worse every year. They’ve had the local crews trying to beat it back, but it’s too big now.”

I would typically be flying out here with my crew from Willow Brook and more likely in a helicopter rather than a plane. Yet, every available helicopter service in Fairbanks was booked, so Maisie had tracked down Fred and scheduled for me to fly out to rendezvous with the crew on site.

I glanced out the small plane’s window and watched the rolling hills dotted with lakes here and there pass beneath them. I’d called Amelia before heading out and flat hated that I couldn’t see her before this job. I figured I might eventually get accustomed to jaunting off and leaving her behind, but I damn sure didn’t like it right about now.

Just thinking about her sent my heart to thudding inside my chest. Of all the things I’d never thought I’d have to worry about again, it was the ache of missing someone when I headed out to the field to face fires. I forced my mind back to the moment because I didn’t really like thinking about Amelia, not like this.

Fred’s estimate was dead on. He eased the floatplane into a near-perfect landing on what would’ve been a picturesque lake under normal circumstances. Instead, the trees and ground in the surrounding area where charred. The fire had passed through this area roughly a week prior. The fire had spread rapidly and expanded to over one thousand acres inside of a week. I had this fire on my radar and been expecting my crew to get called out if it continued to grow.

Once the plane landed, Fred taxied over to a floating dock at the edge of the lake. He helped me unload and followed me over to a cluster of tents. Within minutes, I was in the midst of a discussion with the foreman for the local crew from Fairbanks. I radioed my crew who were scheduled to land in the area within the hour.

Time raced as crews rotated in and out, helicopters landed to refill with water from the lake to carry out over the fire, and I geared up to head out to a corner section of the fire with my crew.

Late that night with the sky wispy light and smoke drifting through the air, I rested against a boulder and glanced to Levi Phillips, holding out a protein bar for him. “Another?” I asked.

Levi flashed a tired grin and snagged it from me. “Amazing how good these things are when you’re starving.”

I nodded and rubbed the corner of my sleeve on my face. We’d been working our asses off all afternoon to create a firebreak over in this corner. A wide, shallow river ran through this area. We were using the river’s natural barrier and adding to it by clearing all flammable fuel from the grasses and forest out of the fire’s way. Two other crews were working on containment in other sections of the massive fire. I’d been so busy, my mind had conveniently stopped spinning its wheels over missing Amelia. Now that we were calling it for the night, she was back in my thoughts.

“Hard to believe it’s after midnight,” Levi commented.

I looked up to the sky. In this part of Alaska, there were a few days of barely a sunset. We were past that time of summer, but I’d guess the sun might only set for a few hours tonight. Stars glittered against the dusky sky with the moon visible in the distance through the haze of smoke filling the horizon as far as the eye could see.

“Yeah. Even though I’m used to the long days and short nights, this is more light than we get in Willow Brook.”

Levi snorted. “Definitely more light than what I’m used to from Juneau, seeing as that’s further south.”

I eyed the other guys. We were sprawled about the area by the river, a few already crashed out in their sleeping bags. I’d had enough time in Willow Brook to get to know my crew. They were solid guys and worked well together. Levi was one of the squad leaders, steady, reliable and completely unflappable. The other guys looked up to him and listened to him, so it was a great fit.

I was weary and figured I’d probably best try to catch a few winks of sleep. “You up for watch for a little bit?” I asked Levi.

Levi nodded as he took a long drag of water from a bottle. “Sure thing,” he said when he set the bottle down.

“Thad and I are the night owls. We’ll handle this first shift.”

I nodded and rolled to standing, striding away and sliding into my sleeping bag. I stared up at the sky for a few minutes, recalling the last time I’d slept outside under the stars in Alaska had been with Amelia.