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Smoke rose from the trees in the distance, almost obscuring the destruction the fire had left behind, but the lower half of the mountain, once covered in vibrant green forests during the summer, was brown and gray, no signs of the once beautiful landscape that’d existed only days ago.

Scanning the horizon for where I knew my home used to be, there was nothing, just more destruction underneath the heavy cover of smoke.

“We’re here,” Charley whispered, wrapping her arm around my waist and leaning the side of her head against my shoulder. “You’re not gonna go through this alone. Whatever you need, both you and Reese.”

We were both quiet, just awestruck by how much our home had changed so quickly. All because of someone else’s recklessness.

“Have you spoken to Reese?” she asked, and I shook my head.

“My phone was lost. Tripp called dispatch and found out that she was safe, but honestly, the last day has been a bit surreal.”

“If you know her number, you can use my phone,” she offered, holding it out to me.

I took it, letting out a heavy breath as I settled on the couch facing away from the windows. It hurt too much to look at that and talk to my sister at the same time.

My hands shook as I typed in familiar numbers, thankfully it’d been drilled into my head by my hyper protective sister that you should always have important numbers memorized, because the favorites on your phone wouldn’t do any good if your phone was gone.

“Charley? Is everything okay?” Reese answered, and my lip quivered, tears escaping from my eyes as relief coursed through me. While they’d never been best friends, Reese and Charley were in the same grade back in school.

“It’s Ann…” My voice cracked, but Reese’s reaction wasn’t much different, a sob echoing from the speakerphone.

“Oh, thank God,” she breathed, sniffling loudly. “Where are you?”

“The lodge at West Peak Ranch. They’re gonna let me stay the night here. My phone is gone.”

“You’re not hurt, are you?” she asked, going into nurse mode. “I can come to you if you need treatment. I don’t have a car, but I can get someone to take me from the hospital—”

Her rambling was almost comforting, because it meant she was still here. Still safe.

“I’m okay. Tired, but okay. How are you? I heard Baker came for a visit.”

She growled, and I smiled, swiping the tears off my cheeks. “That bastard massacred the front door with an axe and dragged me out of bed in my pajamas.”

“So, you’re still besties is what you’re telling me,” I laughed, imagining exactly how pissed off she must have been when firefighter Baker came to the rescue.

“Yeah, that’s a hard pass,” she scoffed, but something about the tone of her voice sounded off.

“Marty said you’re welcome to come up here tonight. The lodge has mostly cleared out.”

She sighed, and I had a feeling it was going to be impossible to drag her away from the hospital. “Actually, I’m gonna stick around town tonight in case they need to call me in. He offered me the extra bedroom in his apartment. I’m in the on-call room now, but they won’t let me clock in. Stupid bullshit hospital policies about me not having enough time between shifts to be allowed on the floor.”

“He who?” I asked, my intuition clueing in that it might be a certain firefighter offering his place to my sister.

“Baker,” she grumbled, and I held back a laugh. “He lives above his parent’s storefront in town, so it’s only a short walk to the hospital. Since my car is gone, it’s the only logical solution that doesn’t involve me having to arrange a ride.”

“Sure, soundslogical,” I replied, making eye contact with Charley who was also trying to hold back a laugh as my sister attempted to downplay staying at the apartment of a man who she hadn’t been able to stand being in the same room with for years. Everyone knew those two had been circling each other for a long time, and with the loaded looks I’d seen Baker aim in her direction, I knew he was still carrying a torch despite her frosty demeanor.

The sound of the chimes my sister’s phone made when she was getting a page from the hospital echoed across the speaker, and she rushed me off the phone, making me promise to stay safe.

“Let’s get you some clean clothes and I’ll find an empty room for you, but from the sound of it, I think the last guests have cleared out.”

Charley left me in an empty suite that overlooked the forest to the north with a fresh set of sheets to cover the oversized king bed and a stack of clean towels.

While Tripp and I had gotten cleaned up in the hot spring last night, we’d been very, very unclean this morning between the acrobatic, sweaty sex we’d had in the middle of the night using the last condom from my emergency kit and from our ride back to the ranch this morning.

After making the bed, I stood at the window, staring off toward the river where he was, hoping the fire break they were building would stop the spread, because I didn’t want to see anyone else I cared for lose everything.

Tristan