He nodded, pointing vaguely in the direction Jake had parked the truck last night. “Her cabin is off that way, a couple of minutes into the woods. Mine’s back the way I came, about a ten-minute walk.”
“So, you get real privacy then.”
“Her cabin is bigger and more comfortable than mine.”
“Ah, a trade-off.”
“She…she’s earned the right to some comfort,” he told me, and if I wasn’t mistaken, he looked uncomfortable. Somehow I thought it had nothing to do with Cait, but he was actually being nice about something.
“Was it painful?” I asked.
“Was what painful?”
“Saying something nice about someone?”
He narrowed his eyes. “You’re really going to start our day off by being a smart ass?”
“Normally I’d point out that a bit of smart-assery is good for people who take things too seriously, but, uh…that wasn’t reallysmart-ass on my part. That was a genuine question; you didn’t seem all that comfortable saying something nice about her.”
“I’m fine with being nice when people aren’t stupid,” he said with that trademark scowl of his. “Now, are you going to keep being stupid?”
I wrinkled my nose. “If I did, would you actually be nice to me? Or just less mean?”
“Mean,” he repeated dryly, giving me a disbelieving look. “What are you, six?”
“A meanie-faced doo-doo head,” I said without hesitation.
He stared at me as if I’d just mooned him. “Seriously?”
I laughed. “Look, I can’t guarantee I won’t do or say shit you’d consider stupid. So I won’t make that promise. Just like you can’t promise that you would actually be nice to me. So how about I try to keep it to a low roar as much as possible, and you try to treat me like your first introduction wasn’t me touching the good ol’ ham candle in the shower.”
“Ugh,” he grunted, waving a hand in front of his face. “Never call your dick anything like that again, and you have a deal.”
“Sweet,” I said with a grin. “So…what’s on the tour list today?”
“There’s not much to show off,” he said with a shrug. He pointed to the side of the building opposite where I’d first come in yesterday. “See that?”
A path, one that wasn’t made through repeated walking like the one he had used, but cleared through actual effort. “Where’s that lead?”
“It used to be the Operations Center, where Cait would have worked, but she wanted to be in the main living area for some reason. It used to be the main bay for our shit, and we still use it for that. ATVs for the warmer months, and snowmobiles for the colder ones. There’s also a shit ton of equipment, and we have a rotation of who inspects everything at least twice a week, so keepyour eye on the board in the rec room. That’s where all but the kitchen duty rotations are posted.”
“Got it.”
“You’ll be on those rotations less often because of your primary job, but you’ll still wanna look.”
“I have a random question before I forget, and it’s just me being curious as all hell.”
He eyed me warily. “What?”
“Well, uh,” I pulled out my phone and held it up. “The entire way out here, I watched my bars fight for their lives. Then suddenly it got stronger, and I haven’t had any issues with service.”
“Oh,” he said, and I realized his relief was because he was worried about what I was going to ask. Geez, he really had a low opinion of me if he was worried about a minor question. “Cait. She made a point about how important it is to have service out here. Personally, I thought there was no point since we have the internet and ways to communicate, but you try arguing with her when she’s got her heart set on something. I can barely get them to adjust the budget for more food and toilet paper every goddamn quarter, but she convinced those government tightwads to install towers out this way for whatever fucking reason. “
“I would have pointed out that the men and woman working here could do their jobs better if outside parties could get to them directly. And be able to communicate with each other faster. Andthenadd that it also means civilians around here would have service and be able to call for help if necessary. Better response time than waiting for someone else to report someone missing.”
He stared at me and snorted. “Probably. There’s also a helipad on that building. We sometimes have a bird parkedthere. It’s shared, but you’ll end up riding in it before the season’s over, so I hope you don’t get airsick.”
“A little,” I admitted with a shrug. “I also get seasick a bit, too.”