Jump Point - Ophelia Sexton Page 0,52

into his locker as soon as she finished repairing the long gash that Mama Grizzly had left.

"Uh, yeah. I figured I'd try to fix it, since it was kind of my fault that it got messed up," she explained lamely. "You weren't supposed to find out until I had plausible deniability." She took another sip of coffee and wanted to moan with pleasure. "Damn you and your sneaky coffee-buying ways."

Mike laughed out loud. "Okay." His voice dropped as he added, still smiling, his dark eyes alight with humor and affection. "I heard nothing. I saw nothing. This conversation never happened. Enjoy the coffee."

He turned to leave, then paused.

He said over his shoulder, "Hey, I wanted to ask you something."

Kara came alert at the forced casualness in his tone.

"Do you want to go hiking on our days off next weekend? I know some great trails and an awesome lake in the White River National Forest."

She froze.

Everyone sitting at the sewing machines or standing at the long tables, inspecting and packing parachutes, stopped pretending that they weren't watching and listening to this whole little drama.

"Um, sure," she said, uncomfortable at suddenly being the center of attention. "That sounds great."

Mike's smile was incandescent. "Okay, great! Talk to you later."

He strode out of the parachute loft with a jaunty spring to his step. One of the smokejumpers started a slow clap of applause, and everyone else joined in.

Kara's face grew flaming hot. She figured that she looked like she had a major case of sunburn.

But she couldn't deny how flattering it was to be wanted like this.

Mike had spent their pack-out treating her like she was some gorgeous super-model instead of a grubby, no-make-up, no-moisturizer smokejumper covered in mosquito bites after rough camping in the wilderness.

"W-e-e-e-l-l, that was interesting," Felicia commented with a big grin when the clapping died away. "I'm glad you're finally going to give him a chance."

"What?" Kara asked, startled.

"Everyone knows he's had it bad for you ever since you guys were rookies," Steve commented from his place at a sewing machine on Kara's other side.

Before Kara could react to this, Felicia spoke up again.

"C'mon, spill. What exactly happened on your pack-out?"

Shit, thought Kara. She had spent the nearly three-hour bus ride from the campground back to Fort Wainwright wondering if every shifter the bus could smell that she and Mike had had sex. Despite a quick post-breakfast bath in the river, she was probably still covered in his scent and he in hers.

"You mean other than getting attacked by a grizzly bear, fighting a fire set by Crazy Firebug Dude, and having Crazy Firebug Dude pull a gun on us?" she deflected quickly. "We already told you guys all the interesting stuff."

"Uh-huh, sure you did," Felicia said skeptically. "Well, I guess it's none of my business, except," her voice suddenly turned hard with warning, "Please be careful, Kara. He's a hell of a nice guy. Don't hurt him. Or I’ll have to kick your ass."

Kara bristled. Did Felicia really think of her as a cruel person?

Sure, she played a lot of jokes, but she liked to think that she always went for funny and harmless rather than hurtful and mean.

"I know he's a nice guy…no, scratch that, he's a great guy," Kara replied. "And I'm not jerking him around or anything. Promise."

"Good," Felicia said firmly. Then she added in an apologetic tone, "I mean, I didn't really think you were, but I just wanted to make sure you knew he's been into you since we were all rookies."

Her face burning, Kara turned back to her sewing machine and bent to her self-appointed task of patching and repairing Mike's pack-out bag.

As she worked, she found the warm glow from Mike's thoughtful gift diluted by the growing unease stirred up by Felicia's jumping to Mike's defense.

Kara had gotten carried away with the excitement about going on a real date with him, where they wouldn't be lugging around 150-pound pack-out bags and eating MREs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Or so she hoped.

Now, she'd gotten a sobering reminder about the risks of getting involved with a friend and co-worker. If things eventually went south with Mike like they had with Ed, they would still have to spend time in close quarters with each other during fire season. And deal with the fallout from the rest of their team.

If that happened, she might feel forced to transfer to another smokejumper team, where she would be the only shifter and would have to live closeted,