High Heat (Hotshots 2)

“We made it!” Someone must have opened the door to let in Rain’s parents, who arrived with yet more food for the table and hugs all around.

“Is there anyone you didn’t invite?” Garrick’s dad shook his head as he took in the gathering. Rain’s brothers and Harper stood near their parents, while other friends like Bosler and Zeb mingled with some of Garrick’s old crowd. “Surprised Rain didn’t add some of his residents.”

“Maybe next year.” Rain’s smile was wide and pleasure clear in his words whenever he talked about his new job. Every day he came home with fresh stories about helping this resident with groceries or that resident with hanging pictures, going above and beyond what the community paid him for. It wasn’t a hotshot crew, but in a lot of ways, Garrick had never seen Rain happier, and he was so glad that he’d backed off and given him the space he needed to apply widely to different jobs as the fire season had ended. And if Rain’s growing collection of muscles was any indication, he wasn’t going to have any worries about making it onto a crew in the summer.

“Heck, it feels like half the town came as it is.” Garrick gestured around the packed house. This was nice. More than nice. Felt like his chest could scarcely hold this much joy and happiness. And Rain wasn’t the only one happy with work. Garrick had stayed on with the forest service after fire season had ended, helping Ryland and Adams plan for the spring controlled burns and working dispatch for winter crews. He was always going to miss smoke jumping, but there was surprising satisfaction in his new role.

And more than a little of that was having Rain and his bottomless enthusiasm to come home to. Even on boring paperwork days, he could look forward to some new recipe, some silly story or some new Cookie antics. Having this place truly become a home for both of them was a pleasure he hadn’t seen coming and one he wouldn’t trade for anything.

Leaving Rain to his family, he slipped on a jacket and wheeled out to check on the small group by the firepit. Linc had a steaming cup of coffee while Jacob was playing tug-of-war with Cookie and her new favorite toy, a fake leopard-print slipper Rain had produced recently. It was something of a private joke between them as it also matched a sexy leopard-print robe Garrick had given Rain some weeks back, and the toy never failed to make Garrick smile.

“There you are. Been waiting to catch you alone.” Linc gave him a smile. Garrick still wasn’t used to how much more his friend smiled these days, thanks largely to Jacob. “We’ve got Jacob’s family gathering on Christmas, so we’re giving you your present early.”

“I don’t need a present,” he protested.

“Yes, you do. Yours for us arrived yesterday. Nice taste.” Jacob laughed.

“That was Rain’s doing!” He laughed because of course Rain had remembered the threat about matching pajamas from their Pride double date and followed through on it, finding ridiculous ones with paw prints on them. And how damn amazing was it to be here now, hint of snow in the air, Rain still around, to the point of doing joint presents.

“Card said it was from both of you, and regardless, this is for you.” Linc pulled a white envelope out of his coat pocket and handed it to him. Jacob stopped playing with the dog long enough to watch Garrick open it, and Rain slipped out onto the patio right as Garrick was reading the slip of paper inside.

“What? I don’t understand.” He looked at the three of them, all of whom were studying him intently. “It’s a gift certificate for skydiving. But I can’t...”

“You can.” Linc clapped him on the shoulder. “I found an instructor out of Reno who’s a master at adaptive skydiving, even taking people with quadriplegia up. He’ll be in the area over New Year’s. What do you say?”

“I...uh...” Garrick swiveled his head, gaze landing on Rain, who had an expectant smile on his face. He’d bundled up in a thick hand-knit cardigan and mittens and looked even more eager than Linc and Jacob. “You were in on this?”

“Well, yeah. And I know a tandem jump isn’t quite the same as a solo flight, but I know how much you’ve missed it.”

“Oh...wow.” All summer and fall, Garrick had worked on coming to terms with not returning to smoke jumping, letting go of the idea that he might never get to experience the high of free fall again. And now his friends were saying that some piece of that might be possible after all.

It was not without risks. But even knowing all those risks, he wanted to, could already feel the wind rising up to meet his face, the tug of the chute when it deployed, and the thump of landing. And yeah, tandem jumping was different, less control for him, but the idea that he could have even a little slice of all that back was intoxicating. As was the fact that Rain seemed to want that for him. He understood him so damn well, on a level that few others could.