Maybe that was it. A little what if game pinging around in Tucker’s head about how different his own life might have been if he’d had Luis’s kind of bravery sooner.
“I’m gonna tell my parents. Feels weird them not knowing.” Luis’s legs swung back and forth as he sat on the edge of the old fort in his expansive backyard.
“Don’t do that!” Tucker leaped up, risking crashing through the brittle wood floor. His heart hammered, lips going numb at the same time, breath coming in gasps.
“Why?” Luis turned to look at him, holding out a hand to get Tucker to sit back down. He didn’t take it. Couldn’t.
“Mine would kill me.” He knew it in his bones. Maybe not literal murder, but nothing would ever be the same if they knew about the kissing and hand holding with Luis.
“Well...okay. But I’m not hiding forever.” Luis nodded with the sort of certainty Tucker wasn’t sure he’d ever have. Not here, at least. He liked playing the what-if game with Luis, imagining a future together, but it was always away from here, one of the funky little Californian neighborhoods Luis was always going on about where two men could be together and where Tucker’s family’s judgment couldn’t reach him.
And now here he was, decades later, older and wiser, and Luis was too, and he’d apparently stuck to that resolve. Good for him.
“You said you also wanted to show me a recent suspect spot fire?” Luis asked as they rounded back in sight of the Jeep.
“Yup. Did you get all the data you needed here?”
“Yes, it should be a fairly straightforward burn unless we get wind. I’ll discuss contingency plans at the next meeting and work with Garrick to make sure Dispatch is ready for any changes that might come up.”
Huh. That was usually Tucker’s role, readying the team, working on alternative plans in case of weather, and coordinating the various crews that would be needed on site. However, he couldn’t deny Luis’s expertise. In keeping with his goal of treating him like any other coworker, he nodded curtly. “Sounds good. Keep me in the loop.”
“Will do. Now lead on.”
Tucker didn’t call him on his bossiness there either. And if he was honest, it wasn’t merely in the interest of keeping the peace either. He maybe liked Luis take-charge, and that was something he needed to sit with a bit. Attraction like this didn’t come along very often for him, and he needed to remind himself how foolish it would be to let it get out of hand.
The drive took them farther into the federal lands, winding roads that gave way to an unpaved logging trail that required tight concentration to navigate and not as much opportunity for conversation.
“When was the last rain?” Luis asked as they got out, his head apparently already deep into the job. Unlike Tucker.
“Two weeks ago or so. I can get you exact precipitation data tomorrow back at the office.”
“Good. I’ll need that.” Luis continued to pepper him with questions as he examined the scorched trees and blackened earth, looking at the burn pattern, tracking even minute details.
The aftermath of a spot fire was always almost spooky—burnt trees dancing next to ones that had been spared, a weird stillness settling in the area like the terrain itself was wounded, retreating to attempt to heal.
“I’m pretty sure this is intentional versus natural causes, but I want to do more examining.” Luis straightened from examining a particular stump.
“You always did love a puzzle,” Tucker observed, still trying to reconcile who Luis had been with who he was now.
“Oh yeah.” Luis gave him an unexpected grin. “My niece and nephews all love me. I’m the tio with all the Legos and contraptions. And now that the nephews are getting older, they call for me to come help out at science fair time too.”
“Raul and Carlos had kids? How many?” Tucker remembered Luis’s older brothers as gangly college-bound sports-obsessed teens, not dads. Wait. You’re a dad too, Ryland.
“Three boys in four years for Carlos, God love him and my poor sister-in-law. Then Raul’s two came along a little later, a boy and a girl. Five grandkids for Mami to dote on. Makes for loud holidays, but it keeps her from bugging me about adding to the numbers.”
“She...ah...” Tucker wasn’t entirely sure how to ask what he wanted to know, but he bumbled ahead anyway. “She liked your guy? Mike?”
“Yeah.” Luis’s smile took on a softer edge, fond and distant. “She really did. Papi took longer to warm up to him, but then they’d sit and watch Dodger games together. Mike let him talk historic stats all he wanted. That probably got him in his good graces faster than a grandkid even.”
Tucker laughed at that. “Sounds about like your dad. Win him over with math.”