Stars Over Alaska (Wild River #4) - Jennifer Snow Page 0,87
career choice?”
“I guess so,” Leslie said. It hadn’t helped the relationship she’d had with the family.
“But surely, things would have changed after you two got married, right? The families would just have been forced to accept it and grow up. I mean, it was Dawson’s choice to make—both his career and who he wanted to be with—you.”
“Guess we will never know.” She paused. “He died on our wedding day,” she said. Might as well paint the whole picture so that Selena could understand why being with Levi wasn’t an option.
Selena’s eyes glistened with tears. “Oh my God...you don’t like watching rom-coms because you starred in your own...but one without a happy ending. More like a tragedy, like a Nicholas Sp—”
Leslie held up a hand. “Please don’t.”
“Sorry.” She was quiet for a minute. “If it was your wedding day, how was he on the job?”
“Officers are always on duty. Especially Dawson. He lived for the job. Anyway, he heard a call come in—a breaking and entering suspect had shot a gas station attendant over forty dollars in gas. He fled. Dawson chased. The guy was on a suicide mission.” She shrugged. There was no more to the story than that. The message on her phone that she’d missed because she was putting on her makeup was the last she’d heard from him. Don’t start forever without me.
But now he was gone. Was it okay to start forever now?
* * *
FOR THE NEXT few days, he’d be living in his boots.
After a quick initial assessment of the area and the streamer wind test, Chad determined the landing location and Levi and his team prepared to jump. This being the first official jump of the season for his crew, Levi’s name was at the top of the jump list, so this fire belonged to him.
As always, the knowledge of that responsibility weighed heavy on him as he jumped out of the plane. Dropping into any wildfire held its own unique challenges, but the Florida heat and humidity had Levi soaked through his gear already.
As his feet hit the ground, the aircraft circled above, dropping their seventy-two hours’ worth of provisions. Seeing their cargo drop by parachute, landing in a nearby tree, Levi shimmied up quickly to retrieve it, then reached for his chainsaw. He started at the heel of the fire and began cutting away.
Heavy dark smoke impaired his visibility and his shallow breaths were hindered as he worked alongside his crew, digging and hacking to cut the fire off from the fuel and preventing the spread. Next to him, Miller overturned sections of the hot ground, mixing it with the cool soil below.
Levi blinked exhaustion from his eyes and commanded his attention to focus on the hazardous and arduous task at hand. He’d slept a few hours on the plane, but Leslie hadn’t been far from his thoughts and he needed to get his head on straight and worry about the potential dangers he and the team were facing out there, but his mind kept wandering back to the station.
He also couldn’t help the nagging feeling in his gut that he shouldn’t have left them.
Hours later, they loaded up their gear and hiked the eight miles out to base camp, where they’d spend the night before heading to another region. Levi’s eyes were heavy and his limbs were aching. He wiped the soot-filled sweat from his forehead as he trudged along after the others to where a meal of Spam and coffee awaited.
At the campsite, the team debriefed and then as Chad joined the others to eat their freeze-dried dinners, Levi set up his sleeping area on the ground. It was far from the luxury king-sized bed in the Wild River Resort, but right now, after the long, exhausting day, it would feel almost as good.
Sweat pooled on his lower back on top of the sleeping bag as he stared up at the hazy sky, the thick smoke from the fires blocking any view of the stars. Even in his T-shirt, the Florida heat was killer. Living in a hot climate year round didn’t appeal to him at all. But would he consider it if Leslie asked?
His gut twisted. He hadn’t had time to check in with them since arriving in Florida and now it was after midnight in Alaska—she was probably sleeping.
He took several deep breaths of the thick air as Chad set up camp next to him. “You okay, man?” he asked, gearing down.