A low muffled sound was coming from one of the rooms. The door was slightly open, so I tapped lightly.
“Harper?” I asked and looked in. She was bent over the bed while someone in a Viking costume fucked her from behind. I gasped and shut the door.
There was a string of quiet curses, followed by Harper adjusting her costume as she came out and glared at me.
“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to barge in, I just wanted you to know I was thinking of leaving.”
“Oh,” she said, breathing heavily. “With who?”
“Cal is going to give me a ride home.”
She nodded. Now wasn’t the time to ask what was going on or who she was with. I hadn’t been able to see his face, and couldn’t recall who came in a Viking costume. It technically wasn’t my business anyway. But I still cared about Harper. She was my best friend, and we had come here together.
“Are you going to be okay getting home?”
She smiled and glanced over her shoulder. “Yeah, I’m all good.”
I nodded and hustled away. Yep, not the time or the place. She was doing her thing and, apparently, that thing was a Viking, so…if that wasn’t my cue to exit, nothing was.
As I walked downstairs, I saw Cal standing by the door, just like I’d asked, rather told. A small flare of warmth lit me up. I was in control. At least attempting to be.
Chapter 2
Cal put his truck in park and killed the engine. Coming around the front, he opened my door and helped me out, then grabbed the six pack of beer he’d “borrowed” from his friend’s party and walked toward the tailgate.
“God, it’s beautiful out here,” I said, taking a deep breath of fresh air. It was chilly, but clear and bright. Cal had taken a back road that led to a small pond with a great view of the Colorado wilderness as a backdrop.
“Yeah, whenever I’m not in the mood, I usually come out here,” he winked.
Though he was using my words from earlier, I was still curious to ask, “Why?”
“Perspective. See over there where the woods are?”
I looked in the direction he pointed and frowned. “You mean those few sticks that look like they once were trees?”
“Yep, those. There was a forest fire several years back. It was the first call I went on.” He popped a beer open, took one quick drink, then handed it to me.
“That must have been intense,” I said, squinting to see more of what was left of the forest. While the grand scene was something that could be plastered on the cover of National Geographic, there was this one blemish of what once was. A forest that once thrived was off in the distance. It was hard to see, especially in the dark, but it was there.
“It was.” Moonlight reflected off the pond and lit his face so well that I could see every small expression and angle of his lips as he spoke. “I was scared as hell and so fucking excited at the same time.”
I took a sip of beer. The cold glass bottle chilled my upper lip as I drank a long swallow down.
“Well, you were running into something you knew would burn you. That would be scary.”
“And exciting,” he repeated that last word. “It was also sad seeing all the devastation it left behind.” His shoulder brushed mine as he reached out, gently took the beer, and took another drink before handing it back. “Could have been a lot worse, though. It was the only time I thought I wasn’t going to make it out.”
“What?” I said in shock.
He just chuckled. Chuckled! Like him almost dying in a fire was “just another day.”
“I was younger, trained, but still a rookie. A tree fell and the fire spread really fast and surrounded me.”
“So, you just come out here, look at this place, and remember?”
“Yeah, because I have to.”
“No, you don’t,” I said softly. Remembering the bad stuff sounded like a terrible idea to me, yet Cal