Chapter 3

Charlie blinked against the red haze of anger he’d tried for years to tamp down when it threatened to overtake him.

An older woman headed toward them, looking at each one in turn before she said to Jayne, “The propane delivery will be here soon. I’ll take the kids.”

Jayne nodded, her face pale. This older, more mature version of the girl he’d loved was still stunning. No less than she had been at seventeen. Blonde hair, blue eyes. A smile that had made his knees weak. Hands he’d held, fingers he’d stared at, wondering how they could be so strong and so soft.

Charlie looked at his daughter, aware of his son’s attention as well, but he had to know if she was all right. He tried to communicate that with his expression .

How much weight have you lost?

She knew. It wasn’t surprising, considering how astute she was. And the question hadn’t been concern so much as an accusation. Maybe there was care underneath somewhere…

Deep underneath.

But the bottom line was the thing he’d been avoiding since the beginning of summer. She knew now that he wasn’t okay. He hadn’t hidden it from her.

The older woman cupped her hands around her mouth. “Let’s go, everyone! Back to camp!”

Jayne called out, “Thanks, Bridget!”

Kids started toward the trail behind Alexis, which led to the camp. A couple waded out of the lake. Overhead, a tanker plane flew past, too high to read which one it was.

Bridget turned back. “Alexis, do you want to come with us?” She spoke as though she hadn’t noticed the tension between the four of them, standing off against each other. Then her gaze flitted from one to the other, and he realized she knew there was something very wrong.

Charlie looked from his daughter, who had figured this whole thing out first, to Jayne, who’d lied to all of them. Orion was more of a victim, like Charlie. Lied to. Anger spilled from his lips with the words as Charlie said, “Or you can stay here, with your family .”

Jayne flinched.

Orion glanced at him. “Did you know?”

Alexis was the one who said, “He didn’t know.”

She looked about as mad as he felt. “Lexi?—”

“He had no idea.”

She hadn’t said that because she cared. More like she was capitalizing on an opportunity to make him look clueless—a shadow of what her mom had taught her.

Alexis walked away, catching up to the other teens.

Orion probably wanted to go as well.

Jayne squeezed the bridge of her nose. “That’s why she’s been so standoffish since I told that story.” She dropped her hand back to her side. “I messed up. I told the kids your name.” She shook her head. “I never do that. She must have put it together.”

“And you?” Orion turned to face Charlie. “We’ve been working together for weeks.”

Charlie had wrongly assumed Jayne started a relationship with someone quickly after the end of that summer, too busy trying to fix his other problems. “I didn’t see what was right in front of my face.” And he’d wasted time he could’ve used to get to know his son.

Time he would never get back.

He looked at his son now. “She never told me she was pregnant.”

Jayne said, “ She is standing right here.”

Orion turned to her. “You lied to both of us.”

“I asked if you wanted to know.”

Orion looked like he wanted to say something else, then he turned and just walked away, following the others who were out of sight now.

Charlie stared at his son’s back. Then he looked at her. He could hardly believe what he’d heard, so much that he had to ask again.

“He’s really my boy?” Fire burned in his gut that had nothing to do with the land around them. “You were pregnant when I left?”

Tears spilled from her eyes. “I didn’t realize until two months later.”

“And you didn’t find me.” Never told him. Never called or wrote a letter or email. Not once. “So I had no idea that when I met Orion Price, I was coming face-to-face with my son.”

She winced and more tears came. “I’m sorry. Is that what you want to hear?”

“You’re unbelievable.”

“You think it would’ve been better?” she said. “That you’d have stuck around and been the man we needed you to be?”

“You never gave me the chance.” He turned away, reeling so much that the world spun around him. Pain sparked in his lower back. He took a couple of steps so he could sit on the ATV, but he’d moved farther from it than he thought.

She’d made the choice for him, regardless of whether he’d have been able to settle down at that age. Be a father. Maybe a husband, as well. He’d never know if he’d have had it in him back then to do the right thing.

“Charlie—”

His foot snagged on the ground, and he stumbled but didn’t go down. He slammed a hand down on the ATV Orion had ridden and caught himself on the metal over the engine. Hot. He pulled his hand back and grabbed the handle instead. He shifted and got his behind on the seat, sideways. But that put her in front of him while he leaned against the ATV.

“Are you okay?” Jayne frowned, swiping at her damp cheeks.

“I’m fine.” The refrain popped from his mouth, like he’d trained the response on repeat all summer. And even before then, back at the Eastside Firehouse. Trying to convince everyone he was fine, despite the doctor’s report. He’d kept the news from the department and cut out before it came to light.

Jayne jogged to a pack leaning against a shed. She came back with two bottles of water and handed one over.

He chugged the entire thing, trying to figure out when he’d eaten last. Lightheaded and hot from exhaustion and fighting fires. Anyone would understand his need to rest. Didn’t mean anything.

Certainly wouldn’t cause a person to jump to the truth as a conclusion.

Not before the aftermath of his plan.

Jayne took a sip of hers. “We should take the ATVs back to camp.”

He studied her. This stranger he didn’t know, and the upset on her face. She should be upset, considering what she’d done. He lowered the bottle. “You didn’t think I needed to know?”

Fresh tears sparked in her eyes. “It wasn’t…when I found out, it was bad.” She winced. “My mom screamed at me and kicked me out.”

He knew her father had died when she was a kid, then her grandpa. She’d been at the camp the summer before her senior year, even though her mom told her she would disown Jayne over it. She’d told him that she only wanted to feel close to her dad while she could. Not to actually fight a fire.

Her mom hadn’t understood that.

Why was he remembering all this now? It had been twenty years. Twenty-two considering the age of his son. Nearly twenty-three.

Charlie shut his eyes. He needed to take a breath or he’d let out all this anger. Even if he wanted to, what would it change? What was done had been done, and they couldn’t go back and change it now. He could spend the rest of the summer with his son.

“I had nothing.” She sniffed back tears. “The camp director saw me on the side of the road, hitchhiking. He picked me up and then let me stay here over the winter. I helped out. After Orion…I never left. I found a home here.”

“And you couldn’t have called?” He knew she was the director now, but back then he’d have tried, at least, to be there for her. He knew that much.

“I didn’t want to get the same treatment my mom gave me.” She brushed blonde flyaway strands from her face. Still as beautiful as she’d ever been. Wise. Caring. Smart. The kind of person who’d complete the task and help the person beside her at the same time. “I couldn’t take the risk you wouldn’t want anything to do with us. It was the hardest decision I’ve ever made, and I second-guess myself sometimes. But the bottom line is that neither of us were ready for marriage.”

“So you raised him alone.”

“I had a family here.” She motioned in the direction of the camp. “You got married…and had Alexis.”

He looked down…at the pocket where he’d tucked the letter he’d written to Jayne. The past and the present, colliding. “You’re right. I did do that.” Charlie got up and went to the other ATV. “Let’s go.”

He tucked the bottle in his pocket and drove away from her.

She was going to ruin his entire plan.

* * *

Jayne parked the ATV under the carport, behind the other ATV. She used the side door, figuring she knew where Orion had gone. She didn’t want to talk to Charlie. Not after he’d jumped on the other ATV and left her there. Speeding off, spraying dust behind him so that she had to tie a handkerchief around the bottom half of her face. She didn’t need to breathe it in.

She tugged the handkerchief down and used the back hall to get to her office. A hundred things rolled through her head. Thoughts about Charlie—and the anger that had been clear on his face. Orion. Alexis. The fire heading toward them. The campers, and the occupant in one of her three rental cabins.

Bridget had taken over management of the teens. When Jayne drove her ATV past the sheds, Bridget had them all gathered around so she could give them instructions.

Ready to leave meant exactly that. She’d have them pack but leave their things in their rooms.

The door to her office was ajar.

Orion sat behind her desk, working on her computer. The camp dog, Sparky, a mutt who’d wandered in one day and bonded to her son, lay beside the desk.

“Did you see anyone in the woods when you and Charlie were looking for me?” Oh, saying his name actually hurt.

Orion didn’t look over from the computer monitor. “Is that really what you want to talk about?”

“If there are people in the woods, we’ll need to include them if we get an evacuation order.” She tossed her gloves on the sideboard, the surface cluttered because she had no junk drawer. Or at least, that was what she always told herself. On the wall, she had a map of the Kootenai ranges, the northeastern edge of Idaho, and the border into Canada.

So much of it was ablaze right now. A couple of fires had met up and morphed into bigger conflagrations.

She might be serving dinner here tonight, or she might be driving the bus full of kids and their things back to town.

“So we’re avoiding talking about him?” Orion sat back in the chair.

No news to report, apparently. She’d learned a long time ago that if he had nothing useful to say, then he kept quiet. As though using too many words would be inefficient. He’d always kept his thoughts to himself.

Kind of like Charlie. But without the destructive behavior that had been his trademark back then. At the time it had been a risk, an excitement. When she’d discovered she was pregnant, part of Jayne hadn’t wanted to bring all that into the life of an innocent baby.

But what good had it done Orion to not know his father?

“You never asked,” she said. “But I also didn’t tell you. And that will always be on me.”

He gave her a tiny nod. They hadn’t parted on good terms, but they’d always been honest with each other. “I can’t believe I’ve been with him this whole summer.”

Jayne bit her lip. “What is he like?”

Orion flinched. “Why are you asking me?”

“Alexis has mentioned her father, and her mother?—she’s deceased.”

“So you’ve got a shot at getting back in there. Mothering another kid like you do with all the ones here.”

“Orion Charles Price—” She realized what she’d said.

Right about the time Orion realized what she’d done. “You gave me his name.”

Jayne paced back to the sideboard. She set both palms on the edge and hung her head. Lord, I didn’t want it to happen like this. She’d expected it to never happen. They’d live their own lives and never meet.

Why had he come here, of all places, and done it now, of all the times he could have?

Charlie and Orion would both need to get back to their team of hotshots. Alexis could sure use time with her father so she could settle her grief and begin to heal. Would he be the kind of dad to support her?

Jayne didn’t know what quality fatherhood looked like. She certainly knew what it was like to have a mother she never seemed to measure up to. So she’d been honest with Orion about her failures. All the myriad of ways she needed Jesus so badly.

She’d raised a good man who wanted to make his way in the world. As a smokejumper . The idea of it made her sweat with fear. “I freaked out at you the last time we talked.”

“Are you going to apologize for everything in one day? Tell me how sorry you are for every scraped knee or time I was picked on at school?”

“These are a bit bigger than that.” Jayne turned and leaned on the edge of the sideboard. “I should have told him about you.”

“I like the way my life turned out.” Orion studied her. “How many people can say that?”

“Not many do.” She’d tried not to have any regrets, jumping on spontaneous trips with Orion—a couple that took them past Last Chance County where she knew Charlie had been. “But how can you?”

“You might regret not telling me, but I didn’t miss him.” Orion sighed. “I should be mad. But I know how hard you worked to give me the life I needed. To be there for me and run this place.”

Jayne blinked back hot tears. “And now?”

She half expected him to hate her. To pile on guilt the way Charlie would when he had his energy back. The way Alexis seemed to want to do with her father.

She had friends whose children had broken their hearts, stolen from them, or walked out to “live their own lives.” She’d built something with Orion, because at the end of the day, it had only been the two of them.

After he graduated high school, she’d focused on camp, knowing he needed time to live his life. The things he chose to do. The places he chose to go. All of it made her proud.

Everyone made mistakes, but God had done something in both of them.

She wiped away a tear. “This is insane. I can’t believe he’s here.”

“He’s a good guy. Knows his stuff,” Orion said. “He probably saved Houston’s life today.” There was something else in his expression. She was about to ask what when he said, “He told me he had to turn his life around. He had no one. His ex-wife poisoned Alexis?—”

Jayne cut him off. “Don’t tell me his private business. Don’t break a confidence.”

“He’s been sober for years.” Orion stood. “You should at least know that.” Her son pulled her to him and kissed the top of her head. “You’ll figure this out.”

“What I should be doing is taking care of the camp kids in case we have to evacuate.”

“I’ll stick around as long as I can until I get ordered back to my team.”

She nodded. “You’re the best, Ry.”

He grinned. “I know.” His grin slipped and he winced. “I guess I should go talk to my father. See what he’s doing.” He looked down for a second. “What’s Alexis like?”

Jayne gave herself a second, since her son had gained a father and a half-sister in one day. She was as much a mother as she was a girl who hadn’t always made the right choices—and a camp counselor with a personal connection to one of her teens. “She’s great.” Jayne smiled. “She’ll give us all a run for our money.”

A firecracker tornado of teenage emotions wrapped up in grief. Determined to do amazing things in the world despite the fact Alexis felt like she’d never been handed anything for free in her life.

The situation between her parents seemed to have been complex. Some kids who came here had suffered, and she saw it on their faces. A few times she had called Child Protective Services when it’d become clear they were in danger at home and maybe they shouldn’t go back there at the end of the summer.

Alexis might have some emotional or mental things to work through, but she had the grit to persevere.

Orion looked like he wanted to say something else.

When he didn’t, she said, “I really am sorry you never had him in your life.”

Her son, the man standing in front of her—the baby she had cared for and raised on her own—gave her another hug.

He stepped back.

The entire building rocked. Her painting of the mountains west of here rattled and then fell to the ground. Glass shattered.

Someone down the hall screamed.