Wild With You (Independence Falls 4)

“Smell that?” Mitch said.

Brody pushed his own questions aside and focused on the scent of burning timber. “Yeah, someone built a fire around here recently.”

The experienced forester headed down the path without a word, stopping abruptly twenty feet ahead. He pointed to boot marks on the ground. “Not much to take pictures of over there. The famous trees are behind us.”

Brody nodded and followed the trail. Behind a pair of giant firs, he spotted a navy blue sleep bag. A makeshift fire pit filled with ash stood a few feet in front of the kid. Anger took hold and Brody ground his teeth. Those flames could have destroyed a piece of protected forest, burning trees that had stood on this ground for hundreds of years. And after it erased the Giants, the flames would move on, threatening homes and possibly lives.

It was hard to imagine this kid had a solid reason for taking the risk and building that campfire.

“Hey there,” Brody said, kneeling beside the sleeping bag. “Are you Jason Matts?”

“Ah fuck.” The teen rolled over and opened his eyes.

“Your parents reported you missing. They’re worried about you, Jason,” Brody said in the same no nonsense voice he’d used to keep his siblings in line when they were younger. “And one of the logging crews spotted the smoke from your fire,” he continued. “You know camping and building fires is not allowed here, right?”

“Yeah, I know.” Jason wiggled out of the sleeping bag. Tall and skinny, the teen was like a beanpole. “I’m sorry about the fire. And setting up camp,” the kid said as he rolled up his sleeping bag. “But I had to do something to get their attention. My parents are planning to move to Florida. My grandma is there. My uncle and cousins too. My dad wants us to live closer.”

“You don’t want to go, so you ran away,” Brody said as Mitch checked the makeshift fire pit to make sure it was extinguished.

“Yeah.” The kid pulled on his pack. “Can you imagine leaving all of this for fucking Florida? It’s flat there. No mountains. No trees. Just a bunch of old ­people.”

“And your family,” Brody said. “Trust me, kid, you want to be where your family is. At the end of the day, they’re what matters. And right now they’re worried sick about you. So let’s get you home.”

But his thoughts drifted back to Kat as he led the kid to the parking area. His own family was here. He couldn’t pack up and walk away from them because he took one look at Kat and thought, She’s mine.

This community, the ­people here, his brother and sisters, and yeah even the falling down home that had been in his family for generations—­they were all his too.

DUSK SETTLED OVER the mountains as Brody pulled up to the farmhouse. After returning Jason to his parents, who’d threatened to ground him for the next year—­in Florida—­for running away, Brody had swung by the Moore Timber office and focused on trucking schedules. His sister, who ran Moore Timber’s biomass initiative, wanted another semi to haul away the by-­products of the timber harvest, the branches and other pieces that generally fell to the forest floor. Brody had found a used truck for sale, but the mechanical inspection raised a few red flags.

Holding the paperwork on his arm, he walked into his kitchen. Kat sat at the head of the table, surrounded by his brothers. Beer bottles and an empty pizza box lined the table.

“Brody,” Chad called, raising his beer. “Just in time.”

“You saved me a slice?” He went to the fridge and withdrew a cold microbrew before claiming the vacant seat opposite Kat.

Smiling, her green eyes dancing with amusement, Kat laughed. “You’re in time for another embarrassing story. Your brothers are telling me all of your dirty secrets.”

“We felt she deserved to know,” Chad said. “Rumor has it she woke up here this morning.”

“They caught me rifling through the cabinets for the coffee,” Kat said.

“And I wanted to prove that there is nothing wrong with my long-­term memory,” Josh added, pushing the pizza box in Brody’s direction.

“Kat, did you ever visit the coast when you were growing up?” Chad asked.

She nodded. “I went on a class trip to the aquarium.”

“We should take you back sometime,” Chad said. “They’ve made a lot of improvements.”

“I’d love to see it again,” she said, lifting her beer to her lips. “But I’m curious about what it has to do with an embarrassing Brody story.”

“Cut right to the good stuff,” Josh said, rubbing his hand. “I like that about you.”

Yeah, me too, Brody thought, reaching for a slice.

Kat let out a bark of laughter and his hand stilled. Did she realize how at home she looked with his family? Seeing her smile, watching her with his brothers, the tension from his day slipped away.

“Not the aquarium, but the coast,” Chad explained. “A bunch of the football players took a trip to the coast to grab some of the Clam Shack’s famous chowder.”