He tore off the top and drank the entire thing.
Rossiter swept Megs up in a hug. “Sorry to worry you. I love you, Megs.”
“If the next words out of your mouth are, ‘like a mother,’ you’re dead.”
They made their way back to the vehicles in the twilight, Dean sticking close to Old Man. The two of them had bonded in that cave.
Tall Bull waited for Chaska. “Good to see you alive.”
He and Chaska had gone to high school together. That seemed a lifetime ago.
“Thanks. Good to see you, too, man.”
“I hear you got a pretty Lakota wife and a baby on the way.”
God, Chaska couldn’t wait to hold Naomi in his arms. “How about you?”
“On my second wife. Three kids. There aren’t a lot of women who can handle being married to a man who’s away from home for almost half the year.”
Chaska could see how that might be hard. “See that boy with Old Man? He hid when we evacuated the camp because he thought he was going home. From what he’s told us, life there is pretty rough. We’re going to get in touch with tribal authorities, but do you think you can look in on him once in a while when you’re around?”
“I can do better than that.” Tall Bull left Chaska and joined Old Man. “Hey, Grandfather, who is this boy who survived the fire with you in the cave?”
“This is Dean.”
“Is he a brave boy?”
Old Man rested a hand on Dean’s shoulder. “What he did today—waiting out the fire in that cave—was very brave.”
Tall Bull tousled Dean’s hair. “Dean, since you’re such a brave boy, would you like to ride back to town with me, Old Man, and the other hotshots?”
Chaska couldn’t help but smile.
Dean looked up at Tall Bull, clearly star-struck, and nodded.
Tall Bull looked over his shoulder at Chaska, their gazes meeting.
“We’re going to get you all cleared by medical, and then you can go home,” Megs said.
“Scarlet is still there?” Rossiter asked.
“It’s still standing, though a lot of homes in the mountain to the west burned. They’re still mopping up spot fires.” Megs opened the door to Rescue 1. “We’ll catch you up on the way into town. But first, I need to hear how you got up there.”
Rossiter rode down with his buddies, while Chaska rode with Megs. He told her how they’d spotted the cave and how Rossiter had free soloed his way up and set up a make-shift pulley system.
“Rossiter is a bad ass.” Creed grinned.
Chaska had to agree with Creed. “I free soloed part of the route while they were pulling Old Man up. Those holds were thin. I’m not sure I could have done it. Rossiter tossed me the rope and pulled me up just as the fire reached us. Without him, I probably wouldn’t have made it. None of us would have made it.”
“We need to give him a raise,” Megs joked.
Team members were volunteers. No one, not even Megs, earned a wage.
“What happened in Scarlet?”
“Hawke did one hell of a job,” Megs said. “I wish he’d seen that Supertanker fly over town. Oh, you two don’t know about Hawke, do you? Or Taylor?”
Chaska listened as Megs told them what had happened—the fire overtaking Taylor, his mad dash to a nearby lake, Bear finding him hypothermic afterward. “Talk about a close call.”