Brandon had just unwrapped his sandwich, when a gust of wind tore the napkin from his hand. All laughter and conversation stopped, heads turning as the wind carried the napkin through the air, depositing it twenty feet up the dirt road.
Then Miller’s voice came over the radio. “There’s a spot fire on the other side of the road, maybe fifteen feet to the south of B-shift’s lunch spot.”
Diaz came out of nowhere, charged across the dirt road, and beat the shit out of the flames with his fire flapper. “It’s out.”
But as soon as it was out, an ember ignited another one and another.
Hawke walked up to them. “Wind’s picking up. Let’s get rolling with the brush truck. Otherwise, we’re going to be playing a losing game of whack-a-mole with these spot fires.”
Brandon stood, finished his sandwich in a few bites, and washed it down with a gulp of water. “Back to work, everyone. Break’s over.”
They were running out of time.
Conrad laywith Kenzie on their bed, her head resting on his chest, the heat of climax cooling into contentment. “God, I love you.”
“Mmm.” She stirred, stretched, as languid as a kitten. “I love you, too.”
Nooners were their thing, a tradition from the days when they’d first gotten together. Who needed a sandwich when you could get laid for lunch?
Conrad told her about this morning’s rescue, still stuck between amusement and embarrassment. “Then she said, ‘I’ve wanted to fuck your brains out for years. I have a shirtless photo of you in my locker at work. Oh, those pecs!’ Her boyfriend was walking alongside us and heard her.”
“Are you serious?” Kenzie sat up and stared down at him in surprise, laughing, her dark hair spilling over her shoulder. “She really said that?”
“Yeah, she did. If I could have made myself vanish into thin air, I would have.” God, it had been awkward. “Everyone tried not to laugh, but I could see they were smiling. Bastards.”
Kenzie straddled him, her palms moving over his chest. “Your pecsarepretty amazing, but it’s weird to think of another woman staring at your body and getting all worked up.”
Conrad didn’t know which photo of him the woman had in her locker. His climbing career spanned more than a decade and hundreds of magazine articles. It’s not like he had posed shirtless to titillate women. He’d probably been climbing, had shed his shirt because he was sweaty, and some reporter had taken a photo.
Kenzie stretched out on top of him, her breasts pressing against his ribs, her head resting on his sternum. “The Team is going to tease you about this forever, you know.”
“Yeah. Like I said—bastards.” Conrad trailed his fingers along the graceful curve of Kenzie’s spine. “How was your morning?”
She told him how she’d gone to Winona’s clinic to talk with her about the Team fundraiser. “She was treating a golden eagle. She had to euthanize it. She said it must have eaten a poisoned rodent. It was such a beautiful bird. I got all choked up.”
“Sorry to hear that.” He could hear in Kenzie’s voice that she was still upset.
She had a big heart. It was one of the things that Conrad had always loved about her. That big heart had saved him.
He’d come back from Nepal almost two years ago a broken man. A serac had collapsed on Everest’s Khumbu Icefall, killing everyone on his climbing team, including his best friend, Bruce. Conrad had been knocked into a crevasse and had survived. Grief and guilt had all but consumed him until Kenzie showed up at his door with a little golden retriever puppy. She’d made up a story about how Gizmo wasn’t being good to little Gabby and had begged him to foster the puppy.
Kenzie had known what Conrad hadn’t—that caring for helpless little Gabby would bring him back into the world of the living.
He was a lucky man.
They talked about other things after that—the Team fundraiser, the relentless summer heat, the chance that Kenzie might be pregnant even now. They’d been trying for a baby for a little more than a month, the fulfillment of a promise Conrad had made before leaving for Nepal to attempt the Khumbu Triple Crown. Conrad hadn’t been sure how he’d feel about being a father, but now he couldn’t wait.
They snuggled, savoring the minutes, but all too soon, it was time to get up, get dressed, grab something from the fridge for lunch, and go back to the real world.
“Back to picking up dog poop,” Kenzie said at the back door. “I live such a glamorous life. What are you doing this afternoon?”
“I’m heading over to the Cave.” That was the name Team members gave the old firehouse that served as their headquarters. “Megs wants help washing and inspecting ropes. I think she wants to check drugs in the med kits, too, and make sure nothing has expired. I figure it’s my turn. I want to stay on Megs’ good side.”
Kenzie slipped into his arms, a smile on her face. “Megs adores you.”
It was strange but true. After the Everest catastrophe, Megs had flown all the way to Nepal, trekked to the Buddhist monastery at Tengboche where he’d taken emotional refuge, and dragged his ass back to the United States. She, too, had lost friends to mountains. More than anyone, she had understood.
“I should be home around six.” Kenzie opened the door. “Gizmo, Gabby—come.”