Burn Zone by Annabeth Albert

Author:Annabeth Albert [Albert, Annabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488057045
Published: 2020-01-29T16:20:11+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

“Burn boss wants to see you, Reid.” McKenna’s voice crackled across the radio.

“On my way.” Linc was ready to get this show on the road. Nodding at Garrick and Jacob, who had been waiting next to him, he headed toward the makeshift command where the person in charge of that day’s prescribed burn waited. It was easier these days to walk on by Jacob, not have to deal with a racing pulse or galloping thoughts. He’d see Jacob alone later, and that made it easier to be professional on the job, get done what needed doing and trust Jacob to handle his duties.

Something had shifted the past few weeks, especially once Jacob had passed training along with the other rookies. Yeah, he didn’t want Jacob in danger, was no more comfortable with that than he’d been years ago, but he respected Jacob’s goals.

In short, he cared. Far more than he’d ever thought possible. Of course, in the background everything else still swirled—all the reasons this was a bad idea like the whole business of sleeping with a guy he worked with, something he tried not to dwell on too much. When he was a rookie himself, bumping around from crew to crew, he’d fucked around some, and it had almost always gone badly, no getting around the awkward no matter how much on the down low the hookup had been. Here, the awkward would be off the charts if their repeated hookups came out, but even so he couldn’t seem to quit Jacob, even when ending badly seemed more and more inevitable.

They were supposed to be working this...whatever it was out of their systems. But it had been weeks now, and Linc’s lust showed no signs of burning itself out, and miracle of miracles Jacob kept coming around, hadn’t gotten tired of Linc and the secrecy. If anything he’d damn embedded himself in Linc’s life, eating his food, playing with his dogs, watching his TV. Hell, he’d even brought groceries last visit when he’d helped Linc transplant several trays of seedlings to the garden. They spent as much time out of bed as in it, talking and hanging out, each encounter another cozy layer Linc would eventually have to peel away. But not yet.

“We ready?” he asked Morrison, the burn boss who had spent weeks planning for that day’s fire. One thing outsiders seldom understood about smoke jumping was how much hurry up and wait there was, and how much time was spent on other forest management projects designed to ensure that their emergency services were needed less. Today they’d been loaned out to help with a prescribed burn project east of Prineville. May had given way to early June, and the risk for fires increased with each sunny week, especially as fireworks season crept up on them. But so far they’d had limited emergency callouts, mainly working on planned projects.

This was a larger controlled burn, so several hotshot and engine crews were assisting along with the crews from the smoke-jumping base.

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