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.

  FOUR

  Flames licked into the sky, visible above the trees before Charlie even turned the corner on the ATV. Just over a mile away thanks to the switchback in the road, he spotted it.

  A propane truck on its side, fully engulfed. As he sped toward the vehicle, he assessed the whole scene and the area around it.

  He pulled up, stopping the ATV at a safe distance, and dug out his phone, fumbling the buttons but managing to get the call going.

  “Commander Dafoe.”

  Miles. “Commander, it’s Charlie Benning. I need fire response to my location. There’s a propane truck blocking the road up to the camp, fully engulfed. Possible casualties.”

  He didn’t see the driver or another vehicle. How had it exploded?

  The flames would die down when the natural gas had burned away, but by then it could be too late.

  “Sparks and embers are hitting trees on both sides of the road.” And all the campers were trapped up the hill. “If we don’t get this thing suppressed, we’ll have another wildfire on our hands.”

  “Copy that, Benning.” Miles sounded like he was on the move. “We’re stretched thin, and you’re too far out from town resources. I’ll call the BLM, but you and Price take the lead. This is what those kids train to do. They’ll help.”

  A siren sounded behind him from the direction of camp.

  Charlie twisted around to see an old rural fire truck pull up. The driver’s door opened, and Orion jumped out. “Let’s get to work, everyone.”

  Jayne jumped out of the passenger side and started calling out names. “Aria, Tiger, you’re on the hose.”

  Miles said, “Anything else?”

  Charlie turned back to the fire. “See if you can get me a retardant drop. It’s not worth the risk of this getting away from us.”

  “I’ll make the call.”

  “Thanks, Commander.”

  Miles hung up.

  Orion came to stand by Charlie and nodded. “Good call.”

  “I don’t like this.” And he felt odd in wildland firefighting gear rather than the turnout coat and pants, helmet, and air tank he had carried for years.

  Two of the teens raced by with a hose. Someone called back, and they knelt. Water jetted from the end of the hose. They worked with efficiency and competence.

  Huh.

  Alexis came over to him. “Here.” She held out a Pulaski. “We should do what we can to keep the trees from catching, right?”

  “I’ll get the chain saw.” Orion jogged back to the truck.

  “We need to clear anything that might bridge between the flames on the truck and the fuel in the forest.”

  Alexis ran for the front end of the truck, parked nose to the trees.

  Charlie turned to Jayne, who had pulled a handkerchief over her mouth. “Guess that makes you incident commander.” He jogged after Alexis toward the trees.

  The engine hadn’t blown, but the truck lay on its side perpendicular to the road. “We need to get the driver out.”

  “Then we’ll need to get around the other side and make sure there are no other people here with injuries, right?” she said. “Once the fire is out, we can climb up and look in the cab.”

  “It’ll be me doing that. Not someone whose guardian had to sign a waiver.”

  Alexis shot him a look.

  The breather from that whole Jayne/Orion thing might taste a whole lot like fresh smoke, but being with her was what he’d wanted more than anything.

  Alexis with him. It was all he’d ever wanted.

  She held on to a Pulaski. “So, what do we do, boss?”

  He chuckled. “Clear the ground.”

  Whoever maintained this road had done a solid job of getting brush off the shoulder. But where the trees began, the earth was swallowed up by thick bramble, with thorns that would shred clothes but which also grew ripe berries he had snacked on many times so far this summer.

  “Clear the lower branches too. Right?”

  He nodded. “That’s right.” Then he looked up where the front end of the truck almost touched a tree. “And we need to watch this oil leaking from the engine. Make sure that if it catches fire, we don’t go up with it.” He blew out a breath. “This should be a hazmat team, two fire trucks, and the fire chief on scene.”

  “Welcome to Montana.” One of the teen boys strode over, his helmet drooping over one eye. “We do things ourselves up here.”

  Charlie said, “Dig a trench. Don’t let that oil get to the pine needles. Got it?”

  “Yes, sir.” The kid dug his shovel into the ground.

  Charlie looked at Alexis. “You good?”

  “Uh, what?” Her cheeks flushed. The first sign of life he’d seen from her in months. Because of a boy?

  Sure, there had been plenty of life in her when she’d told Orion he was her brother, but that had dissipated quickly.

  Charlie had been on the cusp of figuring it out himself. But he hadn’t put together who Orion was to him, so it hardly counted. He glanced back at Orion. His teammate and colleague.

  His son.

  On the far side of the street, Orion lopped branches off the tree. The top was already alight. They needed it to fall away from the other trees.

  Charlie pulled off his gloves. He stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled.

  Orion turned. Charlie motioned to the tree, then made a cutting motion and pointed at the middle of the street on the far side of the truck.

  Orion nodded.

  Jayne had the kids focused on the blaze. She patted the shoulder of the one battling flames with the hose. “Focus that to the front now. The dirt around the engine needs to be soaked.”

  Charlie left Alexis to her job, pulled his gloves back on, and climbed on the truck wheel, which radiated heat. He hauled himself up to the very top and looked over at the underside of the truck.

  No second vehicle, like so many of the traffic fires he’d dealt with in his career. Accidents where one person had collided into another for varying reasons and caused a disaster. He turned and looked up the road, where Jayne stood watching him. Then at the ground around the truck.

  This made no sense.

  What on earth had caused the propane tank to explode before it could make its delivery and refill the camp tank? These things were designed to be as safe as possible.

  He picked his way to the passenger door, which faced the sky. If the driver was still alive, Charlie could call for a helicopter.

  Charlie pulled the handle and got the door open. He looked in. Winced.

  The driver lay crumpled against the door at the bottom of the cab.

  Charlie turned and caught Jayne’s gaze. He shook his head.

  “Heads up!” Orion repeated that two more times. “Tree falling!”

  The burning tree shook, then started to ease over toward the ground, picking up speed as it fell.

  It hit the dirt and gravel mix at the center of the road and exploded.

  The ground sprayed up in a shower of dirt. Concussive force smacked Charlie, and he flew backward. This is it. At least he had the letter in his pocket for⁠—

  His body hit the dirt and he blinked up at the sky.

  “Daaaaad!” Alexis slammed to her knees beside him.

  He coughed. Black spots erupted like fireworks.

  “You should breathe. You need to breathe, okay?”

  The fire. The camp kids.

  Jayne. Orion.

  Charlie looked up at Alexis, who had tears in her eyes. Like the ones that he’d seen in Jayne’s. Alexis gripped his hand. “Dad!”

  He gasped, then coughed again. Then sucked in a breath. He focused on even breaths, in and out. Until he could say, “I’m good.”

  He gripped her hand and sat up, letting out a moan.

  “Don’t stand up. Just stay there.” She held on to his hand.

  “Charlie, you good?” Orion came over and crouched.

  He managed to nod.

  Someone said, “Land mine.”

  “What are you talking about, Tiger?” Alexis asked.

  “That’s what blew the tanker.” One of the teens moved into view. “When I saw the tree blow, I recognized it from a video I saw online. Someone buried a mine in the road, and it blew the tanker.”

  “More than one,” Orion said. “If a second device blew the tree.”

  “Land mines?” Alexis shifted in her crouch. “What on earth?”

  He’d been thinking the same thing. Charlie grunted. “Is the fire out?”

  Jayne touched his shoulder. “Almost. What about the driver?”

  “He didn’t make it.” Charlie looked around to where the teens worked the scene, clearing vegetation in danger of catching fire. Showing the level of training they’d had in their movements.

  “We should request a medical chopper here. Get you taken to the hospital.” Jayne sounded scared. “But if there are land mines in the road, we can’t ask them to land and take the risk. We need to clear the area, backtrack our steps and get out of here.”

  Orion said, “The propane truck is blocking the road out. So unless we have a medical emergency on our hands, we might need to sit tight and wait.”

  “We don’t.”

  Orion studied Charlie for a second, and Charlie wondered if he saw the intention in him. Orion said, “We can get you back to camp, at least. Have the nurse check you out?”

  “His heart rate isn’t too elevated.”

  He whipped his head around to Alexis. “That’s why you’re holding my hand?”

  “I’m gonna check for a concussion now. Are you going to freak out about that too?” Alexis turned on the flashlight on her phone. “How does your head feel?”

  He stared at her.

  “What hurts, and how bad is it?” She shone the light in his eyes. “I know what I’m doing.”

  He blinked against the glare. “What is happening?”

  “I’m trying to figure out if you gave yourself a concussion with that backward dive off the tanker that scared the life out of me.”

  Charlie touched her cheek with his glove. “Everything is going to be fine.”

  She scrunched up her nose. “You’re supposed to tell me you’re fine.”

  But he wasn’t.

  And they would both know it was a lie.

  “Call your parents.” A couple of kids groaned, but most already had contacted their folks. Jayne had sent out a text update to the listed parents in her files, informing them what happened with the tanker.

  Orion had stayed with the ATV at the site so he could meet the emergency responders to pull the driver’s body out. The rest of them had brought Charlie back so he could recuperate from taking that hit.

  She’d checked on him a short time ago and found Alexis in there, the two of them having a quiet conversation that seemed serious.

  Jayne had left them alone.

  She faced the kids now, gathered in the common room where they had more than one kind of game console and a huge flatscreen TV. “Let your parents see your faces so they know you’re okay. Walk around and show them all the safeguards we have in place that protect us from fire.”

  The oven buzzed from the kitchen behind her, loud enough that everyone heard it. She grinned. “And then we’ll have chocolate cake.”

  A cheer went up.

  “Dinner is in an hour.”

  Jayne headed back to the kitchen, where she had the trays already laid out. Ham. Cheese. Rolls. Butter. Always better after they’d been cooked in the oven.