“Sorry for waking you up, but we should get moving. I want to take advantage of the early morning daylight hours as much as we can. Once the sun comes up, the heat is going to be brutal. Especially since all of the shade in the forest has been burned away.
The last thing Riley felt like doing right now was hiking, but she couldn’t really argue with Hunter’s logic. Besides, he had saved her life, so the least she could do in return was make the hike out as pleasant as possible for him.
“Alright, alright. I’m up,” she said, groggily rubbing the sleep away from her eyes. Hunger pangs hit her stomach sharply, and she looked hopefully at Hunter’s knapsack. He saw the direction of her eyes, and figured out what she wanted before she could even ask for a snack.
“You must be hungry, huh?” he said. “I’ve got protein bars or Spam. Take your pick.”
“Ugh, I’ll take a protein bar. I don’t know how anyone can eat Spam. That stuff is disgusting.”
“It’s not that bad,” Hunter said, tossing a protein bar at Riley. “It’s especially good when you pour a little Gatorade in the can and let the fruity saltiness of the Gatorade mix in with the meaty saltiness of the Spam. So delicious.”
Riley looked at Hunter like he had lost his mind. “You’re going to make me barf,” she said. He shrugged and started stepping into his jumpsuit.
“You should try it sometime before passing judgment. It’s very good, I promise. Do you wanna pack the flame retardant clothing you’re wearing? It’s gonna get pretty hot soon, so you might be more comfortable in just the shorts and t-shirt you were wearing yesterday.”
“Oh, yeah,” Riley said, shoving a huge bite of the protein bar into her mouth. “Why are you wearing all that gear? Doesn’t it make more sense to just leave it and replace it later? It can’t be that expensive, can it?”
“It’s all very expensive, and the jumpsuits are custom made. So if I lose this one, it takes a while to get a new one. Besides, I’m already in enough trouble for the stunt I pulled yesterday, jumping off the rescue helicopter. If I lose my gear that might push Ian over the edge.”
“He sounds mean,” Riley said, motioning to Hunter to turn around so she could change in privacy. She actually didn’t care that much if he saw her in her bra and panties, but he had seemed so careful to respect her privacy last night that she thought he might think it was weird if she just changed in front of him.
“Ian’s not mean,” Hunter said, his voice slightly muffled since his face was turned away from Riley. “He’s a pretty awesome guy, and a super nice alpha—I mean, a super nice chief. But I really went against protocol by jumping off that helicopter. I could have died, and Ian would have had to explain what happened to the higher ups. That would have been really unfair to him.”
“Makes sense,” Riley said. “Although I do have to say that I’m quite glad you bucked protocol, because I’d be burnt to a crisp right now if you hadn’t. Alright, I’m done changing. You can turn back around.”
Hunter turned around and reached over to take the fire retardant clothing as Riley handed it back to him. As she passed it off to his waiting hands, their fingers brushed against each other. Riley’s eyes flew up to Hunter’s as she felt a shock that felt like hot electricity during the moment they touched. He held her gaze for a few beats before turning his attention to putting the clothes back into his gear bag, and Riley could have sworn she saw a flicker of desire in his eyes. But the moment ended almost as soon as it started, and Hunter abruptly zipped his bag of gear closed.
“Alright, let’s get moving,” he said, turning to start their hike.
They walked for a few hours, making small talk and discussing little bits and pieces of their backgrounds or hobbies. Riley learned that Hunter had spent time in the army, and that he was something of a cheese connoisseur—which the rest of his crew members liked to tease him about.
“They all say cheese plates are too girly,” he said. “But I love a good cheese and olive plate. Besides, I can’t take the rest of the crew’s teasing too seriously. I’m the youngest guy on the crew, and they think that gives them license to give me a hard time about anything and everything.”
As the morning wore on, the sun rose higher and higher until it was directly overhead. Riley was sweating little rivers, and she wasn’t even wearing a heavy jumpsuit or carrying bags of gear like Hunter. She felt a little guilty, watching him lug everything around. But he seemed to do it so effortlessly, while she could barely keep moving when she only had her own body weight to worry about. At one point, she made a token offer to help carry something, and he brushed her off. No doubt, he realized that he was doing a far better job of hauling everything than she possibly could.
Just after noon, they came across another rocky area, and Hunter decided to stop there for lunch. The rocks offered a bit of shade, and Hunter wanted to wait out the hottest part of the day before continuing on their way. He stripped off his gear and jumpsuit, and Riley could see that his green flame retardant uniform was soaked in sweat. He must have been burning up for most of the hike, but she hadn’t heard a word of complaint come out of his mouth. If that had been her, she was pretty sure she would have been whining nonstop.
He found a canteen of water, and, even though he probably needed to quench his thirst more than she did, he offered it to her initially. When she tried to push it back for him to drink before her, he insisted that she take it first. He was such a gentleman.
She drank thirstily, but paced herself. The canteen was large, but she didn’t know if this was the only water he had, and she wanted to make sure she left some for him. He drank after her, and then started looking for food.
“Same menu as this morning,” he said. “Protein bars or Spam. Gatorade optional.”
“Um, protein bar. Of course.”
Hunter shook his head. “Still missing out on the really good stuff.”
“You know what? Screw it. Let me try the Spam and Gatorade,” Riley said. “Then you can’t tell me I would like it if I just tried it, because I’ll have firsthand knowledge that it’s disgusting.”
Hunter grinned. “Yes! You’re going to love this. Do you want Citrus Cooler or Rain Berry flavored Gatorade?”
“Citrus Cooler flavor sounds slightly less gross. I’ll go with that.”
“Coming right up,” Hunter said. He popped open a can of Spam, and poured the Gatorade straight into the can. He handed her the can along with a small utility fork intended for camping, and watched patiently while Riley took a bite.
Riley braced herself for the moment that the Spam and Gatorade mixture hit her tongue, and told herself to swallow it no matter what. She didn’t want to waste food out here. But, to her shock, the flavor mixture didn’t make her want to vomit. In fact, the fruitiness did mix well with the Spam, just as Hunter had said. Hunter watched her face carefully, and grinned when he saw that she wasn’t scrunching up her brow in disgust anymore.
“See! What did I tell you? So good, right?”
“Yeah, it’s actually not that bad,” Riley admitted, taking a second bite. “It does beat the cardboard flavor of the protein bars. But how did you ever manage to come up with the idea for such a weird mixture?”
“My buddy Luke actually discovered it by accident. He likes to prank people, and one time he thought it would be funny to put just enough Gatorade in my Spam to give it a weird flavor. He thought if it wasn’t enough that I noticed the colored liquid of the Gatorade, but enough to flavor the meat, that I would take a bite without noticing and then spit it out in disgust. Well, I didn’t notice the Gatorade, but I did notice the change in flavor. And instead of spitting it out, I loved it. Then he had to try it, and he loved it, too. Now everyone on our crew eats Spam this way. Everyone except Charlotte, that is. She still refuses to try it, so you’re already braver than her.”
“Ha, I’m not sure I’m braver than a smokejumping chick, but I will admit that Charlotte is missing out by not trying this.”
Hunter gave Ril
ey a shy smile, and opened his own can of Spam, pouring some of the Rain Berry flavor Gatorade over it. “Well, Charlotte’s very brave, but so are you. You don’t have to jump out of planes to be brave. There are a lot of ways to show courage. I think that coming out here to spend time in the wilderness by yourself instead of sitting around and moping was brave. You should have planned a little better for the possibility of getting lost, but, hey, it all worked out in the end.”
Riley blushed, and, this time, there was no heat from a wildfire to blame for her reddening cheeks. She quickly looked down at her Spam and Gatorade mixture and muttered a weak “Thank you.”
“Hey,” Hunter said, reaching over and putting his index finger under her chin to gently lift her face back to where they were eye to eye. “Don’t hide that pretty smile. When someone gives you a compliment, it’s because they recognize how kick ass you are. No need to feel self conscious about that.”
Riley smiled and blushed again, but, this time, she didn’t duck her head away. She held Hunter’s gaze as he kept his finger under her chin, and her heart pounded as he looked deep into her eyes with his churning, deep green eyes. They sat there, looking at each other for several moments, and Riley thought for sure that Hunter was going to kiss her. But then he dropped his finger, and the moment passed.
“Anyway,” he said. “I think you’re plenty brave enough. No need to be a dumbass like me and jump out of perfectly good airplanes to prove it.”
Hunter went back to shoveling food into his mouth, and Riley followed suit, acting as if nothing had happened between them. On the outside, she looked calm and collected, but just beneath the surface, her emotions were churning just like his eyes. He had lit some sort of spark inside of her, and she had a feeling that not even a smokejumping firefighter was going to be able to put out this blaze.
Chapter Five
Hunter wanted to wait out the hottest part of the day under the shade of the rocks, and Riley certainly didn’t intend to argue with him about that. After they finished eating, they lay down out of the sun’s reach to rest. Riley was still recovering from the exhaustion and excitement of the day before, and she fell asleep on the cool, shaded ground almost the moment she shut her eyes.
A few hours later, she once again awoke to Hunter’s voice and gentle shaking.
“Hey, wake up, sleepyhead,” he said. “It’s getting late in the afternoon. We should try to make some progress on our hike now that the sun is less intense.”
Riley nodded blearily, and stumbled to her feet. Hunter had already put his jumpsuit and gear back on, so as soon as Riley rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, they started moving again. Hunter seemed even more chipper than he had been that morning, and Riley wondered again where he got his energy.
As they walked, Hunter called out his plan to her over his shoulder.
“I talked with Ian on the radio while you were sleeping. As long as I’m taking us in the right direction, which, hopefully I am, we should hit Klamath River in less than two hours. If we follow the river south for a day or so, we should run straight into the visitor center at the southern end of the forest. The river flows right by it. From there we can get a ride out of here. Walking along the river will give us a plentiful supply of water, too, because I have a portable water filtration system in one of these bags here. We can safely drink even the river water.
Riley nodded, forgetting that Hunter had his back to her and couldn’t see her nonverbal response. She wondered what would happen when they reached the visitor center and were hauled out of here. Would she and Hunter say goodbye, never to see each other again? Would these three days they shared be the extent of their time together? The more the hours with Hunter ticked by, the more Riley had started to feel that she didn’t want to go back to her life without him. But she wasn’t so sure that he felt the same way about her. He’d had a clear chance to kiss her during lunch today, and he had passed on it. Maybe she was imagining the chemistry between them. Maybe she just wanted to put him on a pedestal since he had saved her life.
As they continued hiking, and the shadows started growing longer, Hunter fell silent. Riley took this silence as a confirmation that her assessment had been correct—Hunter had no interest in her beyond helping her get safely back to civilization. As a firefighter, that was his duty. He was just doing his job. She should just enjoy the friendship they would share over the next few days, and not try to overanalyze every little thing Hunter said or did.
Less than half an hour later, Hunter pointed in front of them. “There it is,” he said in an excited voice, turning back to grin at Riley. “We found the river. From here all we have to do is just follow it out to safety. Go us!”
He held his hand up for a high five, and Riley obliged him, although she had not done anything much to speed this little mission along. Hunter looked up at the sky, and then back at Riley.
“How would you feel about setting up camp here for the night? We could probably keep going another hour or two, but I don’t think it will make a big difference in the grand scheme of things in how quickly we get out of this forest. I’m beat, and I would imagine you are, too. I wouldn’t mind just calling it a day and relaxing for a bit.”
Riley nodded. “Sounds good to me,” she said. She actually felt surprisingly energized after her nap back at the rocks, but she certainly wasn’t going to rush Hunter to get them to the visitor center. More time in the forest meant more time with him before they had to part ways. Besides, even though the hottest part of the day had passed, the air still felt hot and heavy, and it would probably remain that way until after the sun had fully set. Hiking during the early morning had felt much better than this.
Hunter started unloading all his gear again, and Riley shook her head in wonder at how cheerful he was while taking off the large bags and unzipping his jumpsuit. If she had been the one dealing with all of that gear all day, she would have been a grumpy mess by now. But Hunter didn’t complain as he stepped out of his jumpsuit and stretched out his limbs.
“I don’t know about you,” he said, “But I’m going to take a dip in that river. I’m a dirty, sweaty mess, and I don’t know how you’ve managed to be polite enough not to mention yet how awful I smell.”
Riley laughed. “I’m sure I don’t smell any better. I’ve been wearing the same dirty, sweaty clothes for three days now.”
Hunter grinned like a little kid and took off running toward the water. “Last one in is the rotten egg!” he shouted, as he splashed into the river before Riley even had a chance to kick her shoes off. After she removed her hiking boots, she followed him at a slower, tentative pace, and stuck one foot in the water.
“It’s a little chilly,” she said.
“Oh, come on,” Hunter said. “After all that hot hiking, it feels good.”
He waded out to the middle of the wide river, where the water came up to his chest. Then he disappeared under the water for several seconds before bouncing back up with a whoop. Riley slowly started wading out to him, giving her body time to adjust to the chill of the river. When she was a few yards away from him, he swam over to her.
“How do you like it?” he asked
“It feels good. It’s nice to get some of this dirt and sweat washed off.”
“If you like it so much then why are you taking so long to go under?” he asked.
“What’s the rush? We have all evening,” she said, crossing her arms defiantly.
In response he pounced on her without warning and dunked her below the surface. It only took a moment for her body to adjust to the cool shock of the river water, but her eyes and nose filled with water from the surprise dunk. She shrieked as she came back above the surface, and lunged at him to return the dunk. But he had anticipated this, and jumped quickly out of her way.
“You rascal!” Riley exclaimed, trying to lunge for him again.
Hunter laughed, a rough belly laugh that bubbled up from deep within him. Riley had no chance of catching and dunking him, but she was en
joying the game. She put in a few more good faith efforts to dunk him before giving up to focus on washing the dirt and soot out of her hair. She pulled out the pony tail holder she’d been using and let her long, dark brown tresses cascade around her shoulders. The strands were curling up a bit on the ends like they always did when they were wet, and Riley worried that her hair was going to become hopelessly tangled She had lost everything she brought with her in the fire, including her comb. But she could deal with tangled hair, if it meant getting rid of some of the smoke smell. That awful smell had permeated everything—her clothes, her hair, and even her skin still smelled like the fire.
Riley became so preoccupied with washing out her hair that she didn’t notice Hunter was watching her. When she finally looked up and saw him staring at her with churning green eyes, she stopped short.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said. “It’s just your hair. It’s so long. And beautiful.”
Riley smiled shyly. He had the same look on his face that he’d had earlier when she’d thought he was going to kiss her. She dropped her eyes to his lips and licked her own, trying to give him the hint that she would welcome the chance to experience his arms around her and his mouth on hers. But he turned away abruptly and then disappeared under the water again.
Riley sighed. Despite his tough, confident exterior, Hunter seemed very unsure of himself when it came to showing a girl he liked her. And Riley was sure this time that she hadn’t imagined or misread the longing look in his eyes. He wanted her, but something was keeping him from going for it. Maybe he didn’t want things to be awkward for the remainder of their trip out of the wilderness. Riley could have tried to push him a little bit, but she didn’t want to be the one making the initial move. After the fallout from her last relationship, she wanted a guy who was willing to show her that he was really into her. If Hunter’s feelings weren’t strong enough to overcome the worry of rejection, then were they really strong enough to last in the long term? Riley wasn’t so sure, and she definitely wanted something long term. She wasn’t the kind of person who could just sleep with a person and move on like it had all been a fun little exercise. She got too attached too quickly. She loved too fiercely.
Fire Bear Shifters: The Complete Series Page 12