Controlled Burn (8 page)

“Oh baby, come here.” He pulled her tight against his chest.

She tried hard not to cry, but his kindness was killing her. Her breaths came out in ragged gulps she couldn’t control.

Still, being in his arms was heaven, lying against his chest as he shushed her. Being comforted was so foreign, the gesture was another form of seduction. She couldn’t resist snuggling closer to fit her face into the corner of his neck. She breathed deep, taking in his lovely scent—clean and masculine. His skin was warm. “You’re spoiling me,” she murmured.

“Let me.”

“All right,” she whispered. Then because she didn’t know his full intentions and was half-afraid she was assuming too much, she kept silent, living in the moment as he held her. For the first time ever, she understood the feeling of belonging.

Monday morning, Jeremiah
waited as the bulldozer finished its final pass, having bladed the hard earth beneath the escarpment. Above him, at the top of the steep cliff, lay his ranch. He’d been given the job of maintaining the fireguard at the north end of the canyon, because Blake knew he had the most to lose.

Already, fires had been set south of their location. His team’s job was to clear a wide break at the foot of the cliffs so that no embers drifted out of the canyon to set fire to the fields along the rim.

With the soil turned, everyone worked with rakes to remove any grass or sticks that could continue to fuel a fire across the break. When they were through clearing the firebreak, they turned their attention to the area in front of them.

Blake needed them to set a back fire and burn the brush—again stealing fuel from the larger fire marching their way.

Jeremiah checked his handheld wind meter. Wind speed was an optimal eight miles an hour. And the direction hadn’t changed. The wind came from the south, which aided the volunteers moving the fire his way, then turned back at the cliff.

Everything was a go. Already, white smoke was visible in the distance although pines and brush hindered his view of the others’ progress. He already had the okay from Blake to set the blaze when he was comfortable with existing conditions.

He glanced around at his crew, at Carly who was still raking at clods of earth and brush. He wondered how she was holding up, whether she was nervous. She’d been insistent she was ready, that her head was in the right place to allow her participation. And because he knew this was important to her, he held back his objections. He’d keep close. Make sure she was safe.

He went to the ATV behind the fireguard and pulled out his drip can. “Ready, everyone?”

He received waves and smiles.

Carly gave him a nod and took a deep breath.

Jeremiah began to walk the line, squirting fuel for a few feet, then lit a match and dropped it. Immediately, the fuel ignited. He continued to drop fuel, leading the flames down the fireguard boundary. Behind him, his crew used their rakes to add fuel. The wind pushed the smoke and flames south.

Satisfied the backfire was going well, he dripped fuel down one side of their boundary setting a flank fire, while Tater dragged flame down the opposite side.

Soon the blaze was set, and he returned the can to his vehicle. He unclipped his radio. “Blake, the backfire’s lit.”

Then the time arrived for the real work. With an eye constantly tracking the smoke in the distance, he shouted orders to keep the backfire moving south. Once the brush in front of them burned, volunteers used both shovels and sprayers before they crossed the charred dirt.

The morning stretched into the afternoon as the crew made their way forward. The closer they drew to the larger fire heading their way, the thicker grew the smoke. He pulled his bandana over his nose and walked the line, checking on the volunteers to make sure they wore their goggles, that they kept hydrated, and took breaks when they needed to.

He came to Carly, and she struck her shovel into the dirt and leaned on the handle.

Jeremiah pulled up the bandana hanging around her neck and set it over her nose. “Are you doing okay?”

She nodded then jerked a thumb behind her, indicating Tater who’d insisted on working close by. “My watchdog’s making sure I do my job.”

Jeremiah grunted. “You could shadow me.”

“I’ll be fine. It’s kind of fun,” she said, her eyes smiling. “Told him I was feeling itchy, that the fire wasn’t big enough.”

“Don’t borrow trouble.” He shook his head then leaned close. “I’ll want that ass in one piece tonight.”

She laughed. “I’ll be fine. If the smoke gets too thick, I’ll retreat. If the fire moves too fast, I’ll hit the river.”

He nodded, glad she’d paid attention to the safety briefing. “I’d kiss you, but that’d only give Tater more ammo.”

“Later,” she said, her voice pitched low.

A quick, casual “love you,” was on the tip of his tongue, but he held back the words. Just barely. The ease with which his mind thought the declaration shocked him. He’d dated his ex-wife for months before he’d said the words, and even then, they still hadn’t felt quite right.

He left her, his mind whirling, and walked back down the line. A gust of wind sent smoke curling around him, and he grabbed his meter from his back pocket. Twenty miles per hour.

The radio squawked. “Wind’s picking up,” Blake’s voice boomed, and he sounded disgusted.

“Do we bail?”

“Not sure if it will last, but you might want to go ahead and have your crew lay down water. We’ll start on this end, too.”

Jeremiah ran to the west end of the firebreak. “Wind’s rising. Lay down water. Put out that fire.”

He continued down the line, issuing orders as the smoke thickened and flames became visible in the distance, climbing the pines. Although recent rains had kept the pines moist inside, the wind was whipping up embers to catch any dry needles above them.

When he reached the east end of the line, he found Tater already using his backpack sprayer to move into the flames and douse them. Carly worked furiously with a wet sack.

He grabbed the damper tool she’d dropped to the ground and pounded the flat, hardened-rubber surface against edge of the fire.

Another gust of wind blew darker smoke around them. The upper branches of a pine directly in front of them burst into flame with a whoosh. “We need to pull back.”

Tater and Carly glanced beyond his shoulder. Both their gazes widened.

Carly grabbed his arm and turned him. The fire was climbing the vegetation hugging the canyon wall.

His body tensed.

“We need to get to the river!” she shouted.

With a nod, he pointed. “Through there. Tater, lay down water as you move through. It’s not far. I have to check on the others.”

“Come with us,” Carly said, her expression worried. “They had to have seen the signs.”

He shook his head, and then gave Tater a steady glare. “Get her to the water. Carry her if you have to.”

Tater nodded then held her arm as Jeremiah plunged back into the smoke.

‡

T
rying not to
panic, Carly trudged behind Tater as he moved out, spraying water in hopes of keeping a clear path to the river. Around them, the fire was no longer crackling—it roared.

“What the hell happened?” she asked, and then coughed as smoke filled her mouth and nose. She pulled up her bandana and walked faster.

“You happpened,” Tater bit out, then coughed hard. “First, you try to kill me with a string of Black Cats—”

“Wasn’t trying to kill you. Just pay you back.”

“For what?” he snapped, halting and turning.

She shoved him forward. “River.” The smoke was thicker, they could barely see five feet in front of their location. Heat surrounded them, flashes of orange flame from above and below penetrating the dark cloud. “For bullying me, dickhead.”

“Bullying?” he shouted over his shoulder. “Seriously?”

“You picked on me constantly.”

“I was only teasing.”

“When you pointed out the fact I was poor? That my clothes came from thrift shops?”

“Didn’t mean anything by it. Swear. I liked you.”

She threw up her hands, even though he wasn’t looking and no one was around to see. “No wonder you never had a girlfriend!”

“We’re there.” He reached back, took her hand, and started wading into the river.

Just a few feet in, the water rose to her chest. Once they stopped, they went silent, their joined hands floating on the water, listening to the creak and groan of trees, to the whoosh of the hot wind as it blew by. At least, the smoke didn’t hug the top of the water. The cooler temperature lifted the hotter air higher above them. They could breathe. She tugged down her bandana.

“I’m sorry you felt like I was comin’ down on you,” Tater said with a shake of his head.

“We’re not dying here,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You don’t have to make good before you meet your maker.”

“I know that,” he said, his lips twisting in sneer. “Just wanted you to know. The Black Cats were a bit of overkill, though, don’t you think?”

“Yeah.” She grimaced. “One would have done the job. It’s all I planned to light. But then the match was lit, and I knew one of the adults would look for more once they came to investigate. I didn’t want to get caught with them. And you really had pissed me off.”

Tater grinned. “I almost peed myself.”

She smiled back. “Would have been hard to hide in your tighty-whities.”

They laughed, and then she heard splashing nearby. Hoping the arrival was one of the team and not a cougar escaping the smoke, she turned.

Jeremiah waded toward them. His narrowed gaze went to their hands.

Tater withdrew his hand first. “You said to make sure she came.”

“I did.” Jeremiah’s gaze flicked to her.

Carly shrugged. “He likes me.”

“
Liked
,” Tater said. “Before you nearly killed me.”

Carly’s grin dimmed at Jeremiah’s deepening frown. “The fire run the rim?”

He shook his head. “No, never rose that high. Besides, I wasn’t that worried. I had people standing by. And the fire’s nearly out.”

She glanced around, and yes, the smoke did seem a little thinner. “Where’s the rest of the team?”

“Farther upstream.”

“Good.” Carly wished he’d lose the scowl, which made her nervous. “How long—”

“Tater, would you mind moving downstream a bit?”

Carly clamped her mouth shut. He wasn’t even trying to be polite. When they were alone, she faced Jeremiah with her arms crossed over her chest. “What is with you?”

“It’s not what. It’s who.” He grabbed her arms and pulled her against his chest.

His mouth slammed against hers, and she tasted a little blood from the impact against her teeth, but she didn’t mind so much. At last, Jeremiah was communicating. And she talked back, climbing his body to wrap her legs around his waist as he continued to ravage her mouth.

When he finally pulled back, he was breathing hard. “I didn’t like leaving you.”

“What? Were you afraid Tater would leave me in the middle of the blaze out of revenge?”

“I heard that!” came Tater’s voice from somewhere in the smoky distance.

“Butt out!” she bellowed.

Jeremiah’s frown deepened, but a laugh shook his chest. “Do you argue over everything?”

She stopped herself from giving him a stinging retort. “I guess.”

“I don’t mind so much,” he said, sounding surprised. One of his hands cradled the back of her head as he stared down into her face. “You’re pretty loud doing everything.”

“Not nice.” She couldn’t keep from narrowing her gaze.

“Heard that, too!” Chuckles echoed over the water.

“Butt out!” Jeremiah called toward the disembodied voice. When he glanced back down, he was smiling.

Something inside her seemed to click into place. Right man. Right moment. Carly put her arms around his neck and hugged him before she said something she’d regret.

His arms closed tighter, and he kissed her temple. “I think I drowned my radio.”

“Then we won’t be interrupted.” Carly kissed him, sharing her happiness in the moment, giving him everything in that kiss. They’d be all right. She knew it. Certain as the sun piercing the smoky haze.

When she broke the kiss, she returned his steady stare. “We still have a fire to work. Sooner it’s out, the sooner we can go home.” And then she winced a little over her word choice. She’d sounded presumptuous—and she didn’t have the right to take anything for granted.

“You’re right,” he drawled. “We need to get home. To
our
bed.”

“I’m not pushing,” she whispered, running a finger along his jaw. “I spoke before I thought.”

“I want you to push,” he said quietly, his expression sober. “Because then I’ll know you’re just as far gone as I am.”

Splashes sounded right behind Jeremiah. Tater clapped a hand on his shoulder. “You’re a brave man,” he said as he passed, giving Carly a wink.

Carly leaned back and laughed, feeling lighter and more carefree than she ever had before. With a groan, she let her legs drop from his waist and pushed away.

Jeremiah caught her hand and together, they waded out of the river.

“When I first
saw it, I thought this tub was huge,” Carly grumbled.