She laughed and waved me off as she walked towards the exit, leaving me alone in my shop. With my thoughts. Once again.
Nate
“Fuckin’ teenagers gonna be the death of me.” It was cold, and thanks to hours of hiking deep into the thick brush, I was sweaty and my teeth were chattering. All because of a group of dumbass teenagers.
“Maybe, but that’s only if we get to them before the cold does. Dispatch says they’re possibly high. The caller said something about ‘doin’ shrooms’ and Barb wasn’t sure what that meant.” Preston snickered, the way we often did when it came to S&R dispatcher Barb Torken. She was the sweetest lady around, but she was just as clueless.
“No doubt they were drinking, too—probably how they wound up in trouble in the first place. What in the hell were they thinking?”
“You were that age once; you know exactly what they were thinking. That they’d save some money on a parking permit and spend the night together by making their own campsite.”
He had a point, but I was growing colder and more exhausted with every damn step. We trained for all types of search and rescue terrains, scenarios, and climates but this shit never got any easier. “Yeah, I know all that. But, ugh, did they have to go so deep into the forest when there’s perfectly good camping ground every fucking where?”
“Calm down. We’ve got another hour to go before we get to their last known location.”
“Don’t remind me,” I grunted. “I hope like hell we don’t have to carry anyone back to the ambulance.” We’d left the rescue vehicles about ten miles back, because the trees were too thick and dense to access the site. Because it was remote as hell.
Preston stopped and looked at me, eyes wide with surprise. “You looking forward to being disappointed then?”
“Dick.”
He laughed. “It’s not so bad. We have plenty of time for you to tell me what’s been going on with you and Mikki.” Preston didn’t even bother trying to hide his laugh when my foot caught on a rock. “And don’t say nothing.”
“Sounds like you’ve been talking to Bo.” Her insight into what was going on had been helpful—Mikki and I were supposed to have dinner tonight. Didn’t look like that was happening, so I made a mental note to call her when I could.
“Nope, but it’s your favorite thing to bark at people when they want to know something.”
Was I that transparent? “Nothing’s going on. I was supposed to bring dinner over tonight, kind of a do-over.”
“Did you call her before we headed out?” At my shrug, Preston groaned. “Nate, man, you’ll be single forever if you don’t learn this stuff. Luckily for me, Nina has no problem telling me when I’m doing something wrong.” There was nothing but affection in his voice—the opposite of what I would’ve expected, given his words.
“I’m already single and that’s how I plan to keep it.”
“Yeah? Then why are you all bent out of shape every time her name comes up? And why do you need a do-over?”
“You’re damned annoying, Preston. Anyone ever tell you that?”
“All the time, but usually just my friend Nate when I’m not telling him what he wants to hear.” Being in love must have also given him super hearing, because he managed to duck away from the punch I aimed at his shoulder.
“Shh.” Preston held up a hand and closed his eyes, a trick that was admittedly impressive but that I still took every opportunity to mock. It’s a guy thing, sue me. “You hear that?”
I opened my mouth, a smart-ass comment on the tip of my tongue, but then I did hear it: a low hum of rock music. “Come on!” We were done chatting and shooting the shit, lengthening our strides to make the rescue happen quicker, before it really started to get cold outside.
Preston radioed our location and I ran towards the music, spotting the faint hints of a fire about five hundred feet in the distance. “Jase said he’ll come as close as he can get to help us carry any injured,” he relayed back when he caught up to me.
It wasn’t exactly a rousing orgy, but it was exactly what I expected of dumbass teenagers. A half-lit fire that meant they were all damn-near frozen because three of them were laid out on the ground, staring up at the sky with goofy grins on their faces. “Anybody hurt?”