Page 20 of Should I Fall
I’m outside splitting wood when I hear the faint sound of a chopper. At first, I’m convinced I’m imagining it. I’ve been wishing all damn day that Miss Sunshine would reappear in the sky. That she would realize staying with me is all she really wants, even if that makes me a completely selfish asshole for wanting it.
I haven’t allowed myself to feel anything for a woman in six years. Not since the last one betrayed me.
I swore off love.
Hell, I swore off letting anyone get close to me, including my own family. I never again wanted the opportunity to let anyone down. It’s why I chose this isolating job, even if it’s only seasonal. I have enough money saved up to last me three lifetimes, so it’s easy enough to be a hermit in the winter in my remote cabin. But during the fire season, being stationed in this lookout tower is the only thing that has fulfilled me at all.
But ever since Stormi dropped into my life all of twenty-four fucking hours ago, I’m reconsidering my choices.
Maybe it’s time to stop hiding from the world.
Maybe it’s time to start living again.
Really living.
Then I see it.
The chopper.
My portable radio buzzes a moment later announcing their arrival. Blaze starts running in a crazy circle, whimpering with barely contained excitement. But I don’t dare breathe until I see that yellow jacket for myself.
This time, I don’t wait at the foot of the path to the landing pad. I run up the trail to her.
I sweep her off her feet and capture her pretty mouth before she can utter a single cheerful word. I don’t care why she’s here. I don’t care if she came back for the yellow gemstone she left behind. Or if she came back to chew me a new asshole for being such a cold-hearted jerk when she left this morning.
She’s here, and she’smine.
And as soon as Fred takes off, I’m going to spend the rest of the day showing her how fucking glad I am that she came back.
“Hello to you, too,” she says, laughing. It’s hard to hear her words over the helicopter, but the beautiful cadence of her laughter is burned into my memory.
“You came back.”
“Because I have a bone to pick with you,” she says, shimmying down my body and poking a finger into my chest.
“Pick away, baby girl.”
Heat flashes in those bright blue eyes, and she turns back to the helicopter giving them a thumbs up.
We hurry down the path, to where Blaze has been very impatiently waiting for Stormi. She kneels down to greet him, giggling as he licks her cheeks and crawls right into her lap.
“I think he’s almost more excited to see you than I am,” I admit. “Almost.”
She lifts her gaze to mine, and some of the enthusiasm extinguishes. I don’t even brace, because I know whatever she’s about to throw at me, I fucking deserve. I was an asshole for the way I let her go this morning, without so much as the goodbye hug she wanted.
“What happened six years ago?” she asks, her question gentle as she lifts to standing. “What happened with the fire?”
I let out a heavy exhale, folding my arms over my chest. It’s the last thing I want to talk about, but I’ll force the words out even if they feel like nails in my throat because she deserves to know the truth, and she came a long way to get it.
“I was seeing someone,” I explain. “Back then, I was still an active smokejumper. I’d been working a lot that summer, and she wasn’t thrilled about my schedule.” I swallow hard, trying to keep the anger I still feel at bay. Stormi places a gentle hand on my arm, and I feel calm come over me.
Maybe she is a witch.The thought gives me the quickest moment of comfort. She’s certainly cast a spell over my heart, whether she meant to or not.
“She was staying with me, out at my cabin,” I continue. “It’s a few miles from town. Very remote. I was on call—always was as a jumper during fire season. I was taking a rare day off at her request. But when the fire shifted and headed straight for the north side of town, I had no idea. My radios, my phone, my internet—” I shake my head. “She took out batteries, unplugged things, turned off my phone.”
“That’s terrible.”
“The only reason I found out what happened was because my brother showed up at my door, cursing me out. The fire took my childhood home. It robbed my mom of all the memories she’d collected. And I wasn’t there to stop it.”
