Feel the Fire (Hotshots 3)

The pilot was a woman married to a captain on another crew, and she was first out of the building, greeted by her uniformed spouse who’d evidently been waiting, same as Luis. They gave him a wave on their way to their truck. It was still the getting-acquainted stage of meeting the coworkers, but so far everyone seemed nice, a close-knit family, many of whom had served years together.

As the evening sun starting to shift, Luis finally caught sight of Tucker.

“There’s my favorite rookie,” he called out as Tucker got closer.

“The other rookies are going to be jealous, you playing favorites like that,” Tucker joked.

“They aren’t taking me to dinner,” he pointed out as he unlocked the car. Usually, given the not-tiny distance between their two jobs, they met up back at home, but Tucker had wanted to show Luis a nearby restaurant he’d discovered.

Tucker gave him a wide smile as he climbed in the passenger side. He’d evidently taken a moment inside the building to do a lightning-fast change, out of uniform and into a blue polo and jeans that showed off his impressive array of new muscles. “And thanks for meeting me. Good distraction for tomorrow.”

“It’s going to be fine.” Luis headed away from the air base and toward the barbecue-themed eatery he’d already programmed into his GPS.

“I know. I’m just...” Tucker trailed off as he let his head fall back against the seat rest.

“Overly emotional about your babies graduating?”

“That. I just hope the flight isn’t delayed. Wish I had more leave, but as the newest guy, I guess I’m lucky I got the time off at all.”

“Yep. That’s rookie life for you.” Luis teased because he knew how much Tucker was loving the job. After spending the fall and winter getting his certifications current, he’d decided to try for the helitack firefighting unit with the state along with a few other opportunities both state and federal. He’d wanted to find something close enough to Luis’s work to be feasible, and to his great delight, he’d been picked to start spring training with this crew. It wasn’t smoke jumping because no parachutes were involved, but Tucker’s inner adrenaline junkie seemed to love it all the same.

His role on the team was mainly fire recon, using all his years of forestry experience helping decide on a plan of attack and working with the captains to carry out the plan. His prior wildland firefighting experience had also come into play, and he joked that he was in better shape than he’d been at twenty.

It had been fun during his fall visits, watching him ramp up his already pretty decent fitness and discussing various job options on late-night phone calls. Luis couldn’t lie—knowing the work was dangerous wasn’t easy, but he was also so darn pleased that Tucker had figured out and gone after his dream.

“Are you going to drag the twins here too?” Luis asked as he parked at the restaurant. The long-awaited Disney graduation trip was happening later in the month when Tucker had next been able to arrange some consecutive days off.

“Probably. The portions are huge, so that should do Wade for about an hour.”

“Sounds about right.”

“I can’t wait to see them tomorrow. I’ve missed them so much.” There had been a few visits after Tucker accepted the job, including a longer one at spring break for the boys, but it had been several weeks since the last one, and Luis knew well that video chat simply wasn’t the same thing.

“I know. They’re proud of you though.” Luis had been at Tucker’s the night he told the boys about the job offer, and they had both voted that he go ahead and accept it instead of waiting until after their graduation. Even now, his throat got a little tight remembering how enthusiastic both twins had been, how very much they wanted Tucker to be happy.

“I’ve got a great story for them too.” Tucker proceeded to tell Luis all about his shift, when they’d dealt with both a spot fire as well as assisting in the rescue of some stranded hikers. He was so animated that Luis couldn’t help but smile along. He worried about Tucker every day, but he also hadn’t ever seen him happier either.

And later, belly full of pulled pork, as he parked in the apartment complex lot, he realized he could say the same for himself. The new place was farther out of the city, more of a drive to see his mother, but it let them each have roughly equal commutes, and more importantly it was theirs. They were giving Tucker a year in the job at least before they went house hunting, but they’d been careful in their selection of a rental, finding the best pool for Wade and the biggest kitchen for Luis.