Wildfire - Honey Palomino Page 0,14

area around it.

“Not sure we can do much else,” I said, as we finished.

“I agree,” Jesse said. “Let’s go find the others and let Max know what we did.”

“Sure,” I said, walking alongside him. He grew quiet for a moment, then he paused and turned to me, grabbing my arm.

“Look, Fiona, I’m really sorry. Obviously, you can handle yourself. I shouldn’t have intervened with Max.”

I looked at him, wanting to stay stoic, but his eyes were doing me in. He was obviously sincere in his apology.

“Thanks for the apology,” I said. His hand was on my arm, and even with my fire suit on, and all the heat blanketing us, I could still feel the heat of his palm. I pulled away, shaking my head. “But please don’t do that again.”

“Understood,” he said. “It was a real bonehead move.”

“Agreed,” I said, smiling slightly.

He laughed and shook his head.

“Are you always so….?”

“So, what?”

“Nevermind,” he said, taking a step away.

“I could ask the same of you,” I replied, laughing.

“Yeah, you probably could,” he replied.

“Listen, Jesse, I appreciate the sentiment, but seriously, I can take care of myself. I didn’t make it this far without learning how —.”

A burning tree a few yards below us exploded, the force sending us flying backwards as sparks and splintered bark shot through the air around us. Jesse scrambled over to me, throwing his body on top of mine as debris rained down on us.

Once it stopped, he pushed himself up, looking down at me lying below him.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his eyes full of concern.

“Yes, of course,” I said, trying not to be irritated. “Thanks,” I mumbled.

He looked over his shoulder, and then looked back at me. His weight held me down, the warmth of his body leaving me sweaty and hot.

“I think you can get up now,” I said.

“Right,” he replied, scrambling to his feet, before reaching down to give me a hand up. I took it, the pressure of his fingers wrapped around my palm leaving me shuddering. Once I was back on my feet, we looked down, surveying the scene together.

It wasn’t just one tree that had exploded but several, leaving a huge, flaming mess of an obstacle course in our path.

“Shit,” he muttered. He tried to walk around it, but the terrain was too steep on both sides of our now blocked trail.

“This isn’t good,” I said.

“We’re going to have to go up and around,” he said. “Could take a while.”

“We may need to cut our own path,” I said.

“That’s a lot of work,” he replied.

“And the sun will be setting soon,” I said, sighing.

“Fuck.”

“Yep,” I agreed.

We both turned around, eyeing the cabin.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” He asked.

“Unfortunately, I believe so.”

Chapter 17

Jesse

Pissed at myself for not moving faster, I spent the next ten minutes mentally kicking my own ass. If only we’d not stopped to talk, we could have made it past those trees and gotten back down to the basecamp.

Instead, we were most likely stuck in this cabin alone for the night, at least.

Fiona radioed back to Max, telling him what happened and assuring him we had shelter for the night. Luckily, we’d done most of the hard work to ensure the flames wouldn’t take over the cabin, but it was a dicey situation and with the way the winds had been behaving, things could change on a dime.

Anxiety ripped through me as I tried to predict anything that could happen while we hunkered down there for the night. I wanted to be ready for anything.

Fiona and I found a pantry full of food and the cabin had all the luxuries of home, like electricity and running water, so we were all set surprisingly.

I noticed the only problem was that there was only one bed, but I wasn’t about to bring that up. I’d be perfectly happy on the couch and I didn’t want Fiona to think I was thinking about sharing a bed with her, whether I was or wasn’t.

Sharing the cabin was intimate enough.

“Well, if we’re stuck here, I’m taking a shower,” she said, disappearing into the bathroom while I located some beers and put them in the freezer. I needed something to take the edge off just a little.

Working alongside Fiona while being attracted to her was already hard enough. Spending the night alone in the cabin with her was going to test me like no other night.

If I kept my hands to myself, I’d consider it a success.

When she came out of the shower