“Ditto,” Bobby replied as he pulled me into a hug. “I’m stoked you’ll be around for the season.” He clapped me on the shoulder and went to hug Dad.
Bobby and I’d been friends since Cub Scouts. Our dads were leaders together in the local troop, their friendship dating back to Dad’s Forest Service days.
“Is Leonard coming?” Dad asked as Bobby and I slid into the booth across from him.
“He’s meeting us here in a few minutes. He stayed late to finish up a few things at the ranger station.”
Now seated, I was finally able to look closer at the pink shirts without outright staring. Along with a large picture of a young, beautiful, blonde woman, they read:
MISSING: Haley Thomas
AGE: 27
Height: 5’7”
LAST SEEN: Dead Man’s Creek Trailhead, Salmon-Challis National Forest
A tip hotline was printed underneath the photo in big, bold numbers.
“Can I get you boys anything to drink?”
The question pulled my attention back to our table. “Uh, a water, please,” I said when it was my turn to order, smiling at the server.
“What do you think? Mozzarella sticks?” Bobby asked before she left, waggling his eyebrows at me.
Josh’s pinched face flashed through my mind, the very look he’d given the menu the last time we ate there. He’d pestered me to add more cottage cheese to my meals for weeks afterward. “And spinach and artichoke dip,” I answered, my stomach growling its very ownfuck youto the image of my ex’s carb judgment.
Also, fuck cottage cheese.
Bobby grinned. “God, I missed you. It’s great you’re here without…uh, anyone else. I mean, then too, of course.” He cringed and studied the menu like we hadn’t eaten there once a week for most of our lives.
Like Mom, Bobby never really warmed to Josh.
“All good, man,” I said with a half laugh. The muscles in my face hadn’t stretched like that in a while. It ached in a good way. “And I missed you, too.”
“How’s Jade doing? And the baby?” Dad asked once we’d placed our drink and appetizer order.
Bobby’s eyes twinkled. “They’re good. I never did know how to say no to her mother. I don’t know how I’m gonna learn with Molly.”
Fuck, my friend looked happy. He married the girl he’d loved since high school a few years back, and they’d just had their first child in February.
“Sorry we’re stealing you away,” I said.
Bobby shook his head. “Jade’s mom is watching Molly for the evening, and I was all but pushed out the door after them. She mumbled something about an hour-long shower and chips and queso in bed. I don’t think she’s had a night to herself since the baby came. We both needed a break.”
Dad smiled. “How’re Leonard and Joan taking to grandparenthood?”
Bobby’s smile faltered a bit. “Ok, I think. Dad’s been stressed with work, though. Sounds like it could be a hectic fire season.”
The bell over the front entrance chimed again.
“Speak of the Devil,” Dad said, waving the newcomer over with a smile. “Glad to see you made time for us!” he hollered over the din.
Still clad in his park service uniform, Leonard shot a cocky grin our way. “Not before beer,” he called back, earning a fewweary chuckles and a muted ‘cheers!’from one of the patrons sitting at the circular bar in the center of the room.
I almost missed the man who slipped in just behind him.
He was also wearing a uniform, except his had a distinctlaw enforcementlook,all black with a service weapon on his hip rather than the more relaxed brown and green of the park ranger getup. When I looked past the uniform, though, I realized I recognized him.
