“Yeah. The man is lucky to be alive.”
“I’m so glad Gabe, Chaska, and the others are okay.”
“Me, too.”
“Cedar is grilling Portobello mushrooms, but I told him you’d need something more substantial after a day of firefighting. He got you a T-bone.”
Jesse wasnota vegetarian. “You’re the best. See you soon.”
Images from the day kept running through his mind as he drove. That ominous wall of dark smoke. A tsunami of fire meeting the spray of the fan guns. Hawke’s chopper spinning, going down. The destruction at Camp Mato Sapa. Belcourt, Rossiter, and the others laughing down at them from that cave.
Yeah, it had been one hell of a day.
Not that it was over yet. The fire was contained, yes, but there were still spot fires and lots of smoldering timber. Mopping up this blaze was going to take a while.
He threaded his way through Boulder traffic to Martin Acres—called Martian Acres by locals—to Claire and Cedar’s bungalow on 32ndStreet and parked at the curb.
The door flew open, and Ellie ran out.
He stopped her from hugging him. “I’m hot and sooty and sweaty. I’ll get your clothes dirty. Let me take a shower, and we’ll pick up right here.”
Daisy squealed as Jesse stepped through the door. “Daddy!”
Daniel was right behind her. “Daddy’s home!”
Ellie caught them. “Your daddy needs a shower. He’ll give you big hugs as soon as he gets out of his dirty firefighter clothes.”
“Hey, man.” Cedar stepped out of the kitchen, a microbrew in his hand. “I’ve got beer chilling in the fridge when you’re ready.”
“God, that sounds good.”
“Hey, Jesse.” Claire, his sister-in-law, appeared, carrying a fussy Dylan. “Good grief! You look like a chimney sweep.”
She handed the baby to his mother and led Jesse to the guest bathroom, where Ellie had already put their toiletries. “There are towels and washcloths under the sink. I think Ellie brought clothes for all of you.”
“Thanks.”
The shower felt like redemption, soap, shampoo, and warm water washing away salt, soot, and stress. He willed himself to relax, to focus on the relief of water massaging his tired muscles and sluicing over his skin. When he stepped out of the shower, he felt less tense, more awake, and clean.
He opened the bathroom door wearing only a towel and found a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, and some boxers sitting just outside the door, with a note from Ellie that said, “I love you.”
She was always doing things like that, always finding ways to show him that she cared about him.
He dressed and joined the others, who were outside on the deck now, his T-bone on the grill next to three Portobello mushrooms.
Vegetable steaks.
As far as Jesse was concerned, that was an oxymoron.
Ellie sat at the glass patio table nursing the baby. “Better?”
“God, yes.” He bent down, kissed her cheek, lifted Dylan’s little fist from her breast with his pinkie, felt a hitch in his chest when the baby grasped his fingertip. “Hey, little guy. Daddy missed you. Where are the twins?”
“I think they’re downstairs drawing pictures for you.”
Another hitch in the heart.
Damn, he loved being a father.