Burn It Down

by Jess Anastasi

Lewis had an arm wrapped around Aaron’s shoulders, while Hal—presumably the brother of the man on his ass in the dirt—spat on the ground and stalked off toward a ramshackle grouping of three tents surrounded by empty beer bottles.

  Troy turned to Jared, eyes assessing. “Are you all right?”

  He reached up and touched his tender jaw, working it back and forth despite the ache. Yeah, that was going to bruise.

  “I’m okay. Better me than Aaron.”

  At mention of the kid, Troy looked over his shoulder, a frown marring his features.

  “Let’s take a walk.” Troy hustled the two kids away from where Aaron’s dad was still cursing up a storm from the ground and seemed to be having trouble getting to his feet. Possibly a combination of heatstroke and being drunk. Jared went over to the bottle of water Aaron had dropped. He picked it up and then turned to toss it in the man’s lap.

  “I’d suggest you drink that if you don’t want to end up in the hospital later.”

  Unsurprisingly the man cursed at him and kicked the bottle of water away.

  Jared shrugged and went to catch up with Troy and the two boys. He might have been a trained EMT, but one, he wasn’t on duty, and two, it wasn’t his responsibility to nurse a grown-ass man who should know better and apparently liked to beat on his kid.

  Troy led the two teens over to his SUV and offered them a canteen of water. Aaron kept dashing at his eyes and blinking a lot, though the stubborn kid refused to let any tears fall.

  “You shouldn’t have interfered,” Aaron was saying as he got closer. “Now he’s gonna be even more pissed at me when I go back later.”

  “And more likely to hit you?” Troy asked, the tone gentle but firm. “How often does that happen?”

  Aaron pointedly didn’t answer, glancing away as his jaw clenched.

  “It’ll be fine, Aaron,” Lewis said, wrapping a hand around his arm. “We just won’t go back until they’re passed out like usual. They won’t even remember tomorrow.”

  “Except he’ll want to know where the boat is and we’ll have to tell them all over again,” Aaron muttered, features drawn tight.

  “Just say the word and I go arrest him.” Troy pointedly settled a hand on the cuffs attached to his belt.

  Aaron vehemently shook his head. “No, it’s fine. He didn’t mean it. He just gets upset when he’s drunk sometimes.”

  From the expression on Aaron’s face, Jared got the feeling sometimes was actually all the time.

  Troy clenched his jaw, looking torn, as if maybe he was going to march back over there and arrest the guy anyway. Instead, he dug into a pocket and pulled out a business card. He held it out to Aaron, but Lewis was the one who cautiously reached up to take it.

  “My name is Troy. You get into any more trouble while you’re out here, you call me. Got it?”

  Lewis and Aaron shared a look, and Jared got the feeling the only place that card was going would be the nearest trash can.

  “Thank you, sir,” Lewis said, tucking the card into his pocket.

  As they went to step away, however, Troy lightly grabbed Aaron’s shoulder. “I mean it, day or night, no matter what the problem is. It’s my job to keep people safe in the park. Sometimes that means someone might need a little more help than usual. But if you call me, you can count on me to be there.”

  Aaron stared at him for a long moment, as if really seeing Troy for the first time, and then nodded quickly before tugging Lewis away.

  “Think we should call child protective services?” Jared asked, feeling uneasy as he watched the pair disappear through the far tree line.

  “So they can do what? Put them in foster care—which would undoubtedly split them up and could see them in an even worse situation—only to do some half-assed investigation and then put them right back there a few weeks later so his dad can beat on him even worse the next time he gets drunk?” There was a bitter note to Troy’s voice, as if he had personal experience with such a thing.

  “Okay, that’d be a no for CPS,” Jared mumbled.

  He told himself he didn’t want or need to know whatever story was behind Troy’s fervent words…. Goddamn, he was getting good at this lying-to-himself thing.

  “You still could have arrested his surly drunk ass.”

  Troy finally turned to look at him. “Why, you want to press charges?”

  He opened his mouth to reply with hell yes but then thought about the look on Aaron’s face and all the beer bottles surrounding their tents and knew putting the kid’s dad in lockup for a day or night wouldn’t solve anything. And someone was going to have to do something about all that glass. With the sun shining through it, any one of those bottles could easily start a fire. Obviously neither of the adults in the scenario was fit to do anything, and he imagined if he told them so, he’d end up with a matching bruise on the other side of his face. And it certainly didn’t seem fair to ask Lewis or Aaron to clean up after their deadbeat fathers, which they probably already did on a daily basis anyway.

  “Shit,” he muttered, feeling terrible for the two boys and wishing there was something he could do to help them.

  “About sums it up,” Troy muttered. He suddenly stepped closer, reaching out to touch Jared’s chin and gently tilt his face.

  His breath caught in his chest as his mind became completely consumed with the idea that Troy was going to lean in and kiss him—could practically taste it. Instead, Troy made some rumbly contemplative noise that vibrated all the way to his dick.

  “We should get some ice on this. It’s already starting to bruise. Come on. We’ve got some back at the rangers’ station.”

  Before he could do anything that required any form of brain function, Troy had stepped back from him and headed for the driver’s side of the SUV.

  “That is, unless you’ve got other firefighter-type stuff to do,” Troy tossed over his shoulder as he opened the door.

  Jared shook his head, feeling like he was on fire, though whether from the hot Texas sun beating down or Troy’s brief, innocent touch, he couldn’t tell. Either way, ice sounded like an excellent idea.

  “Lead the way, Ranger Rick.” The words came out a little forced, and he quickly covered them with a smile.

  “No.” Troy pointed a finger at him.

  “What?” he replied, all innocence as he climbed into the SUV.

  “Do I look like a raccoon to you?” Troy tossed his hat on the dash and forked his fingers through the sweaty strands of his hair a few times. “Anyway, you really think you’re the first person to pull that joke on me? Not very original.”

  “Fine. Ranger Smith, then.”

  Troy cut him a sideways glare, though the expression had more amusement than heat in it. “I hated Yogi Bear.”

  “No!” he exclaimed, as if Troy had committed some huge sin. “Isn’t it a requirement to love Yogi Bear as a kid if you’re going to become a park ranger? I bet half the exam questions are about that damned cartoon bear and all those picnic baskets.”

  “Yeah, well at least I don’t spend all day fondling my hose.”

  How Troy managed to deliver that with a straight face, Jared would never know.

  “It’s a huge hose, you know.” He couldn’t help the grin that split his face, but when Troy glanced over at him, only for his gaze to drop decidedly south, Jared knew, no matter his intentions to the contrary, he was doomed when it came to the walking sexathon that was Troy Hurst.

  CHAPTER THREE

  THERE WAS absolutely no question Jared was flirting with him, and Troy wasn’t one bit unhappy about it. In fact, he was feeling the kind of warmth in places he’d previously only felt around women, except somehow much, much hotter.

  He tried really hard not to drop his gaze to Jared’s lap when the guy made the joke about his huge hose, but someone might as well have told him not to look at the flames and then placed a fireball right in front of his face.

  He was getting feelings in places he hadn’t felt for a long time, leaving him
wondering why he’d spent so long getting over Jeanie. Maybe he just hadn’t come across the right person. And he was suddenly feeling like maybe Jared was that person. He was also wondering about a whole bunch of stuff he’d only vaguely considered in the past. Like how certain things went in certain places when it was two men getting it on. While before he’d been mildly curious, now he was getting hot under the collar at the idea of finding out… as long as Jared was the one educating him.

  But this was ridiculous, right? Maybe his libido had finally decided to wake up in a big way. Maybe he could go sit at Monroe’s—the only bar in Everness—on Friday night and see half a dozen women who’d make him just as horny.

  As he stole another glance at Jared, however, he didn’t want that to be the case. They’d spent a little over an hour together, but it’d been one hell of an hour—first with Jared pulling the hero stunt in helping rescue Lewis and Aaron, then obviously being very competent and proficient at his job, and then not even thinking twice about throwing himself in the middle of the situation with the kids’ dads, and barely blinking after getting punched in the face. He was definitely the kind of guy Troy could see himself spending time with. Just what they might do with that time was a whole other question.

  He pulled up outside the rangers’ station to see Hallie, the most junior ranger, had arrived, while Buck’s SUV was no longer parked next to the building. Most days he and Buck were so busy, they only saw each other in passing after opening up, unless there was some major incident within the park that required them all on scene.

  He led Jared into the office and introduced him to Hallie, who blushed and stammered at meeting him. Not that he could blame her. Jared was the kind of good-looking that probably stopped women in the street and caused car accidents. After enquiring how she was doing so far that morning and taking a few messages and tasks he needed to follow up on, he got Jared to follow him into the small kitchen out back where they took breaks on the very odd occasion they found spare time. He pulled the tray of ice from the freezer and dumped it into a clean dish towel, then turned to Jared, who’d hopped up to sit on the kitchen counter.

  “Busy, huh?” Jared asked, indicating the stack of notes he’d left next to the fridge when he’d gotten out the ice.

  “We’re understaffed and underfunded, especially under this latest administration. Keeps going like this, the risk of people dying is going to become much greater. Groups of tourists getting lost and dying in the wilderness, or drowning statistics rise, or animal attacks increase. And we’ll get the blame for it because the buck stops with us.”

  Troy clenched his jaw and shook his head. He hadn’t meant to unload the constant simmering frustration onto Jared from what had undoubtedly been a polite question.

  However, Jared settled a hand on his forearm. His palm was warm and firm against his skin, the sensation sending tingling waves through him.

  “I get it.” Jared’s voice was quiet but reassuring. “Can’t say the fire department is much better off. Mostly manned by volunteers these days. Which is great—it’s awesome that people in the community are so willing to help. But without more fully trained guys, the risk of someone dying or a fire getting out of control like in California is much higher.”

  They stared at each other for a long, weighted moment until Jared dissolved into a half grin, one side of his lips kicking up, that made him look gorgeous.

  Huh. He didn’t think he’d ever thought of another man as gorgeous before, but when it came to Jared, it was the only description that truly fit.

  “Fucking politicians.” Jared had injected a note of amusement into his voice. “I’d like to see them come out here to haul ass all day for a medium wage.”

  “That’d be something,” he replied for lack of anything better to say, distracted when a cold rivulet of water rolled along his forearm. He glanced down to see the ice rapidly melting in the towel and dripping everywhere.

  He took it back to the sink and squeezed out some of the excess water before returning to offer it to Jared, where he was still sitting on the counter, kicking one leg idly against the lower cupboards.

  “Here, this’ll help that bruise,” he said when Jared made no move to take it.

  “Go on, then.” Jared tilted his head but held his gaze.

  “You…. You want me to ice it?” He wanted to slap himself after the awkward words came out. Could he sound any stupider?

  But Jared simply smiled. “Well, I can’t exactly see my own face unless you’ve got a mirror on that utility belt of yours, Batman. Need to make sure we’re icing the right places.”

  There was a teasing glint in Jared’s green eyes but also a hint of challenge. And Troy was a sucker for a challenge. Give him something to conquer and he was there, proving he could not only do it, but he’d do it with the best of them.

  So instead of insisting Jared take the ice pack since he was the trained EMT, he stepped in closer and brought the damp towel up to press against Jared’s jawline, where the discoloration was already obvious.

  Jared winced and Troy automatically pulled back.

  “Sorry, was that too hard?”

  “No, pressure is good.” Jared reached up and covered his hand, pressing the cold compress back to his jaw and then holding it there instead of dropping his hand.

  Troy had the ridiculous urge to tangle their fingers together, but he held himself still.

  Well, mostly still. Somehow he ended up drifting closer until his hip was pressed against Jared’s outer thigh and his elbow was tucked into Jared’s side.

  They held there, warily watching each other, the air around them shifting and changing moment by moment.

  No need for him to wonder about his sexuality anymore. It was black-and-white, cut and dry, set in stone. He was so not straight. No way, no how. Not with the way his entire body was tightening. The way he could easily imagine leaning forward and closing what little distance there was between them to seal his mouth over Jared’s pouty lips. He had no idea what the hell came after the kissing bit, but shit, he wanted to find out.

  Maybe he should have been freaked out by this revelation, but it honestly wasn’t a huge surprise with the few inklings he’d had over the years. Mostly he just wondered why his body had taken this long to get its gay on. Having a relationship with another guy had to be easier in many ways. He’d just never really got women but figured he wasn’t the only guy experiencing that problem. A boyfriend, however… a boyfriend would be an entirely different experience. One he was suddenly very keen to discover.

  There was just one big, fat problem with all this.

  He didn’t know the first thing about dating other men.

  Were the rules different? He was pretty sure Jared was gay, but what if he was wrong? What if he tried to kiss the guy, or even just asked him out, and got punched in the face for his efforts? All thoughts he’d been entertaining about having a boyfriend being easier abruptly flew right out the window and left him feeling more unsure about himself than he had in over a decade. Probably since he was like fifteen and just figuring out how to navigate the treacherous waters of sex. In fact, right then, the combination of hormones in overdrive and uncertainty about how to proceed left him feeling like he’d reverted back to his teenage self.

  Jared’s cell phone ringing in his pocket couldn’t have come at a better moment. Whatever spell that’d been cast between them was broken as Jared dropped his hand from where it’d still been covering Troy’s on the compress.

  Troy took a large step back and turned to the sink, busying himself with wringing out more water dripping from the dish towel and trying to give Jared some semblance of privacy if he wanted to answer the phone. When the ringing continued, however, Troy glanced over to see him standing there staring at the screen of his phone, brow creased and expression troubled.

  “You can take it. I’ll be in my office if you need—” He’d already started toward the doorway of the small kitchen when Jared sharply shook his head and the pho
ne stopped ringing.

  “It was nothing. But I have to get going anyway.” Jared seemed to be looking everywhere but at him, and the mischievous sparkle that’d been in his deep green eyes since the moment they’d met this morning was dead and gone.

  He wanted nothing more than to say or do something to bring that devilish glint back, or even just wrap his arms around the guy and ask him what was wrong. But not only wasn’t it his place to do either of those things, it’d just be plain weird.

  “Yeah, I’ve got a lot of work to get back to myself,” he replied, holding up the obvious stack of notes they’d already discussed.

  There was a long moment of silence in which Jared took his EFD cap out of his back pocket where he’d crammed it when they’d stepped into the building and shifted the hat around through agitated fingers.

  “So, I’m assuming everything was up to standard?” Troy asked. If anything, he at least needed to make sure their meeting had been successful when he reported to Buck later. Even if it had gone from wonderful to awkward and he had no idea why. Maybe Jared had seen something in his face when they’d been standing there staring at each other? Maybe he’d completely misread the situation and made the guy feel uncomfortable. Shit. This right here was why he avoided dating, or any kind of interpersonal relationship for that matter. He always seemed to do or say the wrong thing. At least that’s what Jeanie had told him over and over.

  “Yeah, everything seemed up to standard.” Jared smoothed back his auburn hair from his forehead and worked the ballcap on. “There’s a couple of other things I need to lay eyes on, but I don’t need a guide. I can do it on my way out. I’ll probably be back later in the afternoon to grab up those empty beer bottles at the campground.”

  “Already on my to-do list.” He sent Jared a reassuring smile, which did absolutely nothing because the guy was still avoiding his gaze. “I don’t mind taking care of it. I want to check in on Lewis and Aaron later anyway.”

  Jared nodded, edging toward the doorway. “Probably a good idea. I better run or my station chief will be wondering where I got to.”