Just as we started to get to the good stuff—like groping—his phone rang.
I heard a small whine leave my body as Hector broke away from our kiss. He still held me tight as he looked back at his phone screen on the counter to see who was calling.
His groan let me know it was not a call he could ignore.
We disconnected, and Hector walked to the phone to pick it up.
“Madeira,” he answered, sounding irritated already. “Where? Ahhh…shit.”
His irritation now seemed to be morphing into pissed off, and I wondered what the call was about.
“Yeah…okay,” he continued. “Give me fifteen to get there.”
He hung up and turned to me. “That was Jennings. There’s a small fire on the north side of the park.”
Crap. That wasn’t good. We had high winds and very dry conditions, so any fire that started was very likely to spread quickly.
“Is everybody okay?” I asked.
“For now, but Jennings said based on the information he has, it’s headed toward the campground, so I need to go over and help try to evacuate those folks,” he replied.
“Okay, go do your thing,” I told him. “Is it just the two of you?”
“That’s the weird thing,” he added. “Jennings said he’s been trying to get in touch with Diden to go block offthe other entrance while he goes and checks it out, but she’s not answering her phone, even though she’s supposed to be on post. That’s not like her to not respond.”
Ann definitely struck me as the responsible type, but maybe something had come up.
“Sorry, babe,” he said, leaning into me. “I’ll try to make this quick.”
“It’s okay. Be careful,” I told him. “I know it’s mostly dirt out there on that side of the park, but if there’s enough vegetation to burn, it can definitely spread for a few hundred acres before it burns itself out.”
“I’m not worried about the park. I’m worried about it spreading into the campground,” he said, grabbing his badge and other gear.
“We’re under a red flag warning today, so it’s not out of the question that some of those embers could get picked up and lofted far away—and quickly,” I explained.
“Alright,” he said, leaning down to kiss me. “Hopefully, the fire department gets there quickly and I can be back soon.”
He walked over to the door to put his shoes on and grab his keys before turning back to me.
“Do not feed him extra treats,” he warned.
My only response was to smile back at him as Sarge sat happily at my feet.
He shook his head at me, as though he knew I wouldn’t listen.
Once he was out the door, I turned to Sarge andcrouched down to his level. “Daddy says no more treats, but I think we’re going to pretend we didn’t hear that.”
He licked my face—clearly letting me know he agreed with me.
After Hector left, I decided to clean up the kitchen and get some laundry going. That way half the to-do list would already be done by the time he got back, allowing us to focus on picking up from where we’d left off. Priorities.
My phone rang in the kitchen, and I rushed to get it, hoping it was Hector saying he was on his way home. It wasn’t, but I still smiled seeing Christine’s name pop up on the screen.
“Hey girl,” I greeted her. “I thought you were working today. I figured you’d be busy already.”
“I’m actually about to leave here in ten minutes, but I wanted to ask if I could borrow your black sequin dress for my cousin’s wedding next weekend,” she asked me.
“Yeah, totally,” I told her.
