Page 67 of Love in the Time of Wildfires

“What the hell is this?” Damon yelled over the whomp of helicopter blades as they dismounted at the designated landing spot. The ride had been about as close to nail-biting as it got. Getting out and seeing today’s work spot wasn’t much better. As the helicopter left, it kicked up glowing embers, dropping them around the squad.

“Oh great. This is fine.” Damon extinguished a small flame on the forest floor with a stomp of his work boot. “I didn’t realize that today we were literally going to be that dog in a fire meme. Kind of hard to create a back burn, Sonny, when it’s already on fire.”

“Yeah.” The heat was too close for comfort. “Let’s pull back for some space.” Logan needed to do whatever he could to keep his squad safe. This morning the drop seemed like a good plan, but things were changing on a dime.

Today was going to be a long day, but he pulled himself together, gave everyone the game plan, and they went to work. It’s what Logan did—it’s what he always did. When the beast was this close, he couldn’t let his mind focus on anything else.

Logan pulled up his full-face respirator, already hating how uncomfortable it was going to make his day. But when he’d left the apartment, he noticed it still sitting in his truck, deciding to throw it in his bag because River had made him promise to be more careful. He decided to try being better for her sake.

“Alright, let’s get to work.”

They returned to fire camp late in the day. Logan rolled his head to stretch his sore neck muscles. He’d gotten to the age where he had to take pain relievers regularly in the evening or he paid the consequences the next day. Even though he’d worn the mask as much as he could, he still felt the usual layer of griminess everywhere.

All he wanted was to eat, take a couple pain relievers, and then get to his tent so he could at least talk with River before doing it all over again tomorrow.

“Logan,” Ricky said from the entrance of one of the command tents. “I need to speak with you.”

“We haven’t eaten yet, boss,” Damon replied.

“Get your food, Ford. I need to speak to Logan now.” From the gruffness of his boss’s tone, it sounded serious. Logan assumed it was to talk about this morning’s drop-off point and come up with a new plan since he didn’t feel like they accomplished much, even as hard as they pushed.

When he entered the tent, his boss was on the phone and motioned with a finger to enter and take a seat in one of the foldable camping chairs. “Yeah. Okay. I have him here with me now. Hold on for a minute.”

There was a small panic in Logan’s chest, wondering if this wasn’t about work at all. Maybe something happened to his father or his mother. Surprisingly, he’d received a text from his dad yesterday. Just checking to see how you’re doing. Been following the reports, it had read. It had been shocking, as his father had never messaged him while he’d been on a job. He didn’t even know his dad texted. Something was wrong . . . maybe his dad was hurt or in the hospital. As hard as his relationship with his dad had been these recent years, Logan wasn’t sure he was ready to face something bad.

Ricky pulled the phone away, holding it to his chest. “Sonny, you know a girl named River Alfaro?”

Logan froze. “Yeah.”

“When was the last time you talked to her?”

“Something wrong?” Logan had spent most of his life handling emergencies with as little emotion as possible, but he felt ill-equipped to handle one involving her.

“She didn’t show up for work. People are concerned because no one can get a hold of her.”

The small seize turned into a full chest convulsion. The pure exhaustion Logan felt five minutes ago was gone as he moved to get up. His boss stopped him with a hand to his shoulder, keeping him in the chair. “Just wait a minute. There are people searching. They think she went hiking, so they have search and rescue and the forest service out there looking for her.”

Logan rubbed a nervous hand along his dirty scalp. “I, uh, talked to her two nights ago.” He had found it strange when his message to her the previous night had gone unanswered. That wasn’t like her, but he figured she’d gotten busy. For the short time River had lived in Lake Tahoe, she managed to have an active social life, more so than him. “I need to do something.”

“You’re not in any condition to go anywhere tonight. If you want to do something, you can talk to her sister. She’s been trying to reach you.”

“She’s on the phone?”

“Yeah.”

Logan took the phone from his boss.

“Hello?”

“Is this Logan?” Although the woman on the other end sounded as if she were trying to hold it together, she was failing, as the words were teary. He couldn’t get over how her voice sounded similar to River’s, which made his heart drop as he could now imagine what a call from her would be like if she were upset.

“Yeah.”

“This is River’s sister, Mimi. I’m so sorry to do this. I know you’re on a job with a fire—”

“It’s okay,” Logan assured her. “What happened?”

“She was supposed to go hiking with a friend—”