Page 29 of Smokin' Situation

“As long as you’re not making me get into that icy lake in the dark.” It may have been July, but it was still a lake in the middle of the mountains of Colorado.

“I told you I’d keep you safe,” he called out, and I could hear dresser drawers being opened while I looked in the cabinet under the bathroom sink. There was a plastic tub full of individual barsof soap and a few tiny bottles of shampoo. It wasn’t fancy, but it’d work.

“And I’m holding you to your word,” I hollered back. As I straightened up with my toiletry stash, he appeared in the doorway to the bathroom, holding a small stack of miscellaneous clothing and some white towels.

“I’m kinda hoping you hold me to something else,” he teased with a suggestivewiggle of his eyebrows. I smiled at his playful tone until I realized that this man would most likely be seeing a lot more of me soon. And to think I’d been feeling shy with him knowing I’d been going commando this whole time.

Tristan

Rheywasquietasshe followed me down the trail that bordered the far side of the lake. There was still enough light for us to find our way to the hot springs, but I knew it’d be dark by the time we finished, so I’d been pleased to find another flashlight on my clothing hunt. The haze floating over the lake looked eerie, and it hadn’t gotten much worse than when we arrived, but the air outside definitely smelled like a campfire.

“Should I be worried that you’re leading me into the woods at night?” she asked from behind me, and I turned, watching her nervously scan our surroundings.

“It’s not very far, and we’ll be fine.” I wasn’t about to tell her that sometimes wild animals fled fires and sought refuge near bodies of water. I hadn’t noticed anything unusual as we rode in, so I was hoping anything dangerous had fled north of the mountains on the other side of the fire, not south. “There weren’t any black bears when Marty brought me up here, so we’ll be fine.”

As the trees became denser, the trail we’d started on became more of a vague suggestion, since it hadn’t been maintained in a few years. Rhey moved in closer, gripping the back of my shirt as I picked my way toward the little pools of water we were looking for, not letting go once we emerged into a small clearing near the hot springs.

“Are there normally bears on the ranch property?” Rhey’s voice had taken on a tinny quality, and I shook my head, reaching out to grasp her hand after I deposited my stack of clothing and towels on a rock nearby.

“No, I’ve only seen a few moose, but they’re probably long gone by now. Animals are usually smarter than humans and move away from the dangerous fire, not toward it.”

“I’m never going to live this down, am I?” she asked, sitting down on the edge of a rock and pulling off her boots. I stared as she flexed her toes, noticing the light pink polish once she got her socks off. She let out a little noise of relief while she massaged the sole of her foot, and it stirred something in me. Then I questioned how much smoke I’d inhaled earlier in the day, because I’d never considered someone’s feet adorable before.

“Do you think you deserve to move past it? You realize how dangerous that was, right?” I’d told her earlier that I was angry at her for putting herself in that situation, but I knew what I’d felt was mostly fear. There was still a healthy dose of anger mixed in, mostly because she not only put her sister’s rescue efforts at risk, but she also put herself in a situation that would’ve ended a whole lot differently than it did tonight. One where I wouldn’t have been giving her shit—because she wouldn’t be around for anyone to give her shit.

“Reese would’ve done the same thing for me,” she said in a small voice, and while I didn’t doubt what she was saying was true—as I would probably do the same for my siblings—it was still really fucking reckless. And put more than just herself in potential danger.

“And if I’d rescued Reese from that truck, I’d be giving her shit about making stupid, impulsive decisions too. Then I’d probably remind her that getting herself killed only guaranteed that she’d never see her sister again.”

She nodded, staring down at her lap. “Thank you for finding out she was safe.”

I sat down beside her, wrapping my arm around her shoulder and pulling her into my side. “I’m glad Baker could get her to safety.”

“Honestly,” she chuckled, reaching over to pick up my hand. She played with my fingers, laying her head back against my shoulder. “Baker is the one whose safety you should probably worry about. He’s like my sister’s arch nemesis. She avoids him like the plague, and when she sees him, the arctic is probably warmer than the cold shoulders she gives him.”

“Sounds like there’s a story there,” I said, using the words on her she’d used on me yesterday.

“Trust me, I’ve tried to get what happened out of her. All I know is that something happened after their graduation that turned them from lifelong childhood best friends to strangers. Even when he treated our grandmother with kindness when she was dying, Reese wouldn’t even look at him.”

We both sat quietly for a few moments, staring at the water of the hot springs while she played with my fingers. I thought about how someone I’d only known for twenty-four hours had turned my life upside down. A few days ago, I was struggling to find self-worth because I’d lost my way after my accident, and now I’d found someone who was easy to talk to in a way that I hadn’t experienced before.

My dedication to my line of work hadn’t lent well to deep relationships, or really any relationship at all. Sure, there were other guys who’d met people, settled down and gotten married, but most of the women I’d dated weren’t looking for something serious or they couldn’t handle that my job took up so much of my time.

The ones who’d been okay with me being a firefighter hadn’t been thrilled when they found out I jumped out of planes into fires regularly and sometimes had to leave at a moment’s notice, only to return days or weeks later after having been out of contact for the entire trip.

“It’s getting dark, maybe we should do what we came here to do,” Rhey whispered, releasing my hand.

“And what is it we came here to do?” I asked, tucking stray hair behind the shell of her ear.

“Get clean,” she whispered, turning to face me. She ran her fingertips along a scar tucked along my hairline, teasingly scrapingher short fingernails down the stubble that had covered my jaw in the last few days.

“What if I enjoy being dirty?” I asked, capturing her hand and kissing the center of her palm.

“Why do I have the feeling you aren’t talking about our personal hygiene?”

“Must everything be suggestive with you, Rheyanne? I thought you were supposed to be the wise small-town bartender.”

She chuckled, scraping her nails down the side of my neck once I’d released her hand, eliciting a hiss from me when they caught on a raised patch of skin.

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