I lean in slightly, her back connecting with the tree trunk behind her. I inch as close to her lips as possible. Just a breathapart. Her chest rises and falls in rapid succession as I whisper against her jaw, “We’re not. Casual, remember?”
Her exhale ghosts across my face. “Right.” She swallows once. Blinks twice. Then she sweeps out to the side and jogs away.
I release a held breath. “You can do it,” I whisper out loud to the tree. “Casual as a cucumber.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
HAILEY
“Can you believe this place? I’ve never seen so many tents in my entire life,” Ben says as he hammers the fifth and final pole into the packed dirt and feeds the end through the corner pocket of the canvas. He pulls tight and the pentagon domes over our heads.
I eye his handy work. “Not bad.”
“Not bad? This thing looks like it came from—” His sentence stops short when he realizes I’m complimenting him, not teasing. “The circus,” he finishes. “And thank you.”
He pulls at the collar of his uniform.
“It does look like it came from the circus. Imagine the sort of magic tricks we could perform in here.” I wave an ear thermometer in a series of embellished loops.
“If you call taking care of poison oak or wrapping a sprained ankle a magic trick.” He chuckles.
“Hey, not everyone knows how to do those things.”
“But everyone does have Google,” he says.
“Not out here they don’t.”
We’ve already had this conversation. It’s not that I’m excitedfor someone to get hurt, but I don’t do well sitting around all day.
I can’t be on the fire line either. Reed’s out there working with the crew, and he’ll be all distracting with his tight pants and his panty-dropping dimple. I need to keep my underwear right where they are, thank you very much.
Arms full of supplies from the ambulance, Ben asks, “How long do you think this will go on for?”
“My dad was on the same fire for months one summer.” I feel around with the toe of my boot for the nearest worktable. When it connects with a metal leg, I empty my arms on the surface. I yelp as a first aid kit clatters open and look up to find Ben’s grinning face three feet from my own.
“I’d be okay with it,” he says. It’s followed by one of those long pauses and a look that implies something words don’t even need to say. I squirm.
I’m going to be spending a ton of time with this guy. Potentially days on end alone in this tent. If I don’t come out and tell him that nothing will ever happen between the two of us, he might get the wrong idea from sheer proximity alone. As I’m about to squash the grin plastered on his face with honesty, he changes the subject.
“What got you into the EMT field anyway?”
A loaded question that involves telling him about the dad I’m trying to be closer to and the mom I never knew.
I give him the second-best truth. “I like helping people.”
“You’re a fixer,” he says.
“An altruist,” I remind him. “What about you? I know you didn’t get into this field for the occasional poison oak on a slow day.”
Judging by the set line of his mouth, he doesn’t want to answer that question any more than I did.
“A car accident.”
I melt my back against the table, and he does the same.
“It was my senior year of high school. My girlfriend and I were on our way to the homecoming football game.”
A whoosh expels from my lungs and coils around the room, making it feel smaller somehow.
