Page 6 of Burning Hearts (Chasing Fire: Alaska #1)

SIX

An hour later, there was enough signal on the cell phone stuffed in Jamie’s duffel that Logan was able to use it to contact base camp. Next time he went out, he was bringing his cell phone with him.

The phone rang against his ear and finally connected. “Midnight Sun base camp. This is Commander Newman.”

Logan had called all the way through to the commander’s desk phone. No point going up the chain when he could go straight to the source. “It’s Logan Crawford.”

“Good to hear from you. Jade called in a little while back pretty worried about where you were.”

Logan winced, one hand on the wheel and the other holding the phone to his ear. “I’m good. I’m driving Jamie back to town.”

“Bring her back to base camp.”

Despite being commander, Tucker Newman didn’t normally bark out orders like that. Logan didn’t like the sound of it. “Um, sir?”

“You heard me. Get that girl back to base camp. The rest of your team will be in tonight, so there’s no point catching up with them just to turn around and come back to base.”

“They got the fire under control?” Jade had told him they were going to check out another one.

“A team from up north came down and took care of part of it. I sent one of the drivers out with the bus to pick them up.”

“Copy that, Commander.”

Tucker hung up. Logan handed the phone back to Jamie. “Thanks.”

“Everything okay?”

She hadn’t said much to him since he’d made that comment about her going back to Last Chance County. He didn’t know why, considering that was where she lived. It was where she’d come from. Her brother had proven he could land on his own two feet and would continue to take care of himself. The guy had always been scrappy and street smart. That wouldn’t change just because Tristan was up in Alaska, elbow-deep in whatever those backwoods guys were up to.

“Sure. Everything’s fine.” Logan headed in the general direction of where Tucker had ordered him to go. “Can you type an address into the GPS? We’re headed back to base camp.”

“Where all the hotshots and smokejumpers live?”

Logan nodded. “It’s pretty remote, but that’s not surprising up here.”

He gave her the information, and she got her phone going, plugged into the charger. “I downloaded a lot of the maps of the area while I had signal, just in case I hit a spot with no service.”

“Smart.” The car, connected to her phone, beeped with a couple of notifications. Incoming emails the car wanted to read aloud to her.

Jamie dismissed the notifications.

Logan glanced over. “Work stuff?” When they got back to base camp, she would be able to check in with her company. They had surprisingly good internet.

“Probably just worried about me and looking for an update on Tristan.”

“You told the people you work with about your brother?”

She shrugged. “And my mom and how she’s doing well right now. She’s in this rehab place I found just outside Benson, in Washington. They care about my family.”

“That’s great.” He didn’t want his voice to sound tight, as if he were begrudging them success. Her mom had struggled with addiction to both drugs and alcohol for years. If she was doing better and working to fight back, that wasn’t a bad thing.

One of the guys on the hotshot team in Montana had been a SWAT officer in Benson. He had overcome a pain-pill addiction, and faith had strengthened him in the fight for recovery. Logan hadn’t known the guy before he got clean, found Jesus, and decided to be a wildland firefighter. He couldn’t even imagine who Dakota had been before.

One day, someone would be able to say the same thing about Jamie’s mom. That in knowing who she had become, they couldn’t even imagine who she had been before.

The way they’d say that about the difference in his life.

“Change is good,” he said. “And growth. I’ve bumped into a few people I used to know before I found Christ, and they barely recognize how I act now compared to who I was.”

They fell into a comfortable silence, and he almost forgot the nagging, stinging pain in his side. Right up until he had to fight with the steering wheel to get from the asphalt road onto the dirt that led up to the Midnight Sun base camp.

Grass grew on either side of the road, cut short by one of the guys who worked in the office. Every time he felt cooped up, he jumped on his riding lawnmower and mowed down an acre or two. Logan didn’t blame the guy. He would much rather be outside than indoors, especially during wildfire season.

He crested the hill and Jamie gasped.

Probably because she could see the expanse of the base camp, nestled between the river and the bottom of the hills that flanked the far side of the runway and protected them from the wind.

Likely not because of the eight hotshots jogging up the road in front of them.

“This place is huge.”

Logan loved every square foot of it. “The runway has been here for years, and a few of the older buildings. You can see the Quonset huts between the aircraft hangars on the far side. Those are original, as is the one office building on the east side.”

“What about the rest of the structures and those log buildings on the south side?”

“Four of the guys, they usually go by ‘the Trouble Boys,’ and one of the women—she’s always hanging with them—came up from Montana before winter.”

“The Trouble Boys?”

“Don’t ask me why we started calling them that,” Logan said. “They’re great people.”

She leaned forward to peer out the window.

“Anyway,” Logan said, “they started building cabins on one side of the runway before the winter hit and got it all done quick enough that they spent the cold months doing all the interior work, totally tricking out all the kitchens and bathrooms. We have a huge residence cabin for the guys, another one for the girls, both of which have huge living areas and entertainment rooms. The one in the middle is a cabin for married couples. It has suites, so each couple has a living room and bedroom and their own bathroom.”

“Wow. It’s impressive.”

Logan slowed the car. He rolled down his window as he approached the two men at the back of the pack of joggers running down to base camp. Mitch Bronson was the hotshot crew chief, and beside him ran a huge guy with an overgrown beard—Grizz. No one knew what his first name was.

Logan lifted two fingers and Grizz nodded.

Neither Mitch nor Grizz was sweating, even though they were running a decent pace. They were just bringing up the rear. Keeping an eye on everyone else.

Logan told Jamie who they were. Mitch leaned forward and waved at her through the window. “Mitch came up from Cal Fire a few years ago. He’s great. The kind of guy with an even temperament, who everyone respects because he’s been doing this for years.”

He kept driving and approached the youngest hotshot, Mack. Hammer’s younger brother ran beside Sanchez—the girl who hung with the Trouble Boys. The two of them couldn’t have been more different, though they both had dark hair. Mack grinned at something Sanchez said.

“Hey, guys.” Logan eased off the gas pedal a little more. “Need a ride?”

“Not on your life.” Sanchez started running faster, almost racing the car. Mack sprinted and caught up with her, and the two of them passed Raine, who was an Alaskan native. A local. She shook her head at them as they sped by her and Hammer.

Logan slowed. “I won’t offer you guys a ride.” Instead, he said, “This is Jamie.”

Raine glanced over, her gait slowing as she peeked in the window to get a look at his passenger. “When we get back, I want to hear what happened.”

Logan kept on rolling down the dirt road.

Jamie said, “Is it just me, or does she know who I am?”

He didn’t exactly want to admit he’d mentioned her. “Two more hotshots and that’s the whole crew.”

Sanchez and Mack had caught up to the last two guys, one with Middle Eastern coloring and his hair pulled back in a bun. The other was Kane, who tended to be quiet and kept his attention more on Sanchez than on fire. Logan had known them for more than a year and had never seen Kane and Sanchez act like more than friends, but what did he know?

He introduced them to Jamie and then left them to finish their run while he drove slowly. He didn’t want to kick up dirt behind the car that the others would have to breathe in on the last mile down to base camp.

They passed the wood sign that said “Midnight Sun Wildland Firefighter Base . ”

Finding a parking space took him a couple of laps around the lot, but he managed to squeeze in beside Mack’s vintage motorcycle and the lifted truck covered in dirt that belonged to Mitch.

“Come on, I’ll show you to the office and introduce you to Commander Newman.” Logan shut his door and reached in the back for his smokejumper gear. Ouch. “Actually, I probably need to get checked out by the medic.”

“Afterward, will you show me around?”

Logan nodded. “Of course.” He figured he would need the fresh air after Tucker tore him a new one for getting involved with local gunmen.

She switched out some things between her pack and her duffel and swung the pack over her shoulder. “Need help carrying anything?”

Logan shook his head.

“Just in case I didn’t say it before…” She looked almost nervous, staring at him over the roof of the car. “Thanks for coming in there to get me.”

“You’re welcome, Jamie.”

At one time he’d thought he would spend the rest of his life with her.

But now it was time to let her go.

* * *

Half an hour later, after she’d told Tucker Newman all about the compound and her brother and he’d put in a call to the sheriff, Jamie was finally alone. Tucker’s assistant had gone home for the day so she could pick up her kids from school, and the commander had sequestered himself back in his office off to the side.

Leaving her alone in the open area.

She sat in the waiting-room-style chair and tugged out her laptop, leaving the one from the compound in her bag. She used her personal device to get on the Wi-Fi and sent an email to Samuel, updating him on everything that’d happened. She asked him to run GPS on the ring she’d slipped in Tristan’s pocket.

Once she was done and the email was sent, the clarity of focus passed. Everything rushed back, so many things vying for the forefront of her mind. Most of them centered around Logan and what they had been through today.

Her stomach rumbled. They’d given her coffee, but it had long since worn off.

Two women appeared in the open doorway.

“There you are,” the brunette with the short hair said. “I’m Raine, and this is Sanchez. Maybe you don’t remember. I’m terrible with names.”

Jamie said, “I remember you guys.”

Taking the time to introduce all of them to her as they passed had been such a typically Logan thing to do when he expected her to leave at the first available moment and go back down to Last Chance County.

He didn’t mean for her to connect with the people who lived here. He definitely wasn’t expecting her to want to stay and hang out with new friends. He was just so unflinchingly polite.

Sanchez looked her up and down. “So you’re Jamie.”

Jamie frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Raine turned to glare at her friend. “Sanchez, we were trying to be cool about it.”

Raine looked back at Jamie. “Logan told us you might want a tour of the jump base. Dinner should be ready in an hour, and the smokejumpers will be back by then as well. Things will get busy.”

It hadn’t occurred to Jamie until now that she was probably staying overnight. Logan didn’t want to show her around, even though she’d asked him for a tour. Most likely he wanted to maintain his distance until she left. “I had a hotel room in Copper Mountain. I guess I’m not going to make it back there tonight.”

Raine tipped her head to the side. “I can have someone grab your stuff for you and bring it over if you want.”

That meant Jamie probably needed to check out of the hotel. Things were so up in the air right now. She stood. “You know what? I would love a tour.”

Even with all the walking they’d done this morning, she had been sitting for a while.

Sanchez held out her hand. “I’ll carry your backpack.”

Raine glanced at Jamie. “She was in the military or something. We don’t ask. We’ve just learned it’s best not to argue.”

“Okay then.” Jamie handed it over, and Sanchez slipped the straps onto her shoulders.

The girls led Jamie to the same stairwell she’d ascended to get up to the commander’s office, from which he could watch out the window as aircraft landed or took off from the base. While she’d been talking to him, a plane had landed that he’d told her carried foam retardant they sprayed on fires. He’d gotten on the radio and added some information about windspeed that’d helped the pilot land safely.

“Is it just me, or do you guys seem to know who I am?”

Sanchez, in the lead, didn’t turn around.

These women didn’t look like what Jamie would have thought firefighters would look like. But then, one of the fire lieutenants in Last Chance County was a blonde, so maybe she was just making sweeping generalizations. Even if they were girly, they were also clearly strong women who went up against the guys as equals.

Raine said, “Everyone knows Logan only came up here because of a girl. Some of the crew were at the Jude County base in Ember, Montana, last summer, so they know him pretty well.”

Raine probably had all the guys fighting over her at the Midnight Sun Saloon whenever they went into town. Her short brown hair was curly and messy and framed her face. “I got the feeling they were all pretty surprised to see Logan when he jumped on one of the open spots right before rookie elimination started.”

“When was that? Because I’ve been up here a couple of months.” If Logan had come up here because of a girl, Jamie didn’t want to bump into her and have to make awkward conversation. Maybe that was why he’d fallen back on politeness the second they’d gotten near the base. “Looking for my brother, Tristan.”

Probably by now, they’d all heard the story.

Sanchez stopped at the door. “He came up here looking for you.”

Jamie frowned.

“He knew you were up here looking for your brother.”

“Yeah, there’s no confusion over his opinion on that.” Jamie didn’t really want to talk about it. Logan had told her exactly how he felt about her brother, and nothing had changed since they broke up the last time.

“It’s pretty romantic if you ask me,” Raine said. “Dropping everything and coming up here to find you.” She flinched. “Oh! You should make him mac and cheese!”

Sanchez just stared at her.

Raine was about to say something else, but her phone distracted her. She moved a couple of steps away, talking on her cell phone to someone about hotels in Copper Mountain.

Jamie said, “You were going to show me around?”

Sanchez nodded. “Come on.”

Jamie stepped out, wincing against the sun, high in the sky. She trotted a couple of steps to catch up with them and slid her sunglasses out of the side pocket of her backpack. Much better.

Sanchez said, “This is the south side of the runway. Everything over by the mountains is the north side. The office is at one end, closest to the entrance. The top level is an observation room with a huge living area, if you want to get away from everyone and sit somewhere quiet. Parking is beside the office.” She paused barely long enough to take a breath. “We have one passenger plane for the smokejumpers, one retardant plane, and two choppers—one of which does water drops.”

“You sound like the promotional brochure.” Raine jogged to catch up with them. “Did we ask her about Logan?”

Sanchez just stared at Raine, then looked at Jamie. “On this side of the runway, we have three cabins around a central firepit. Beyond them is an area where you can park an RV or trailer, if you have one.”

Jamie said, “Logan told me there’s a women’s cabin and a men’s one. And one for couples.”

Raine nodded. “That’s the middle cabin. Ours is the closest one.”

Sanchez led them between the runway and the cabins, walking toward the sun that was still high in the sky even though it was after six in the evening. “You can see the hangars on the far side of the runway. Each plane gets its own. There’s a helicopter hangar on the right and two helicopter landing pads next to it. Behind the hangars we have a vehicle depot where they keep ATVs and the pushback vehicles that bring airplanes in and out of the hangars. Next to it—behind the hangars—we have a couple of Quonset huts no one really uses anymore. They’re pretty grimy.”

In contrast, the cabins looked brand-new. “Did you really build the cabins over the winter?”

Sanchez shrugged. “Can’t do much outside with all the snow, but we got the exteriors done before it really hit heavy, and then we just focused on inside.”

Raine said, “It was pretty impressive to watch. But I’m not complaining, since the Quonset huts were gross, and I was about to say something if we had to live another season in them. Although I don’t think anyone realized that the cabins are on the opposite side of the runway from the mess hall.”

She pointed to a building down the road beyond the hangars. At the end of that road there was another hangar with the doors rolled up. Someone drove a forklift out of the building, in a circle, and then back inside.

“It seems like a great setup.”

Raine grinned. “Us girls are all close. We share everything. Even socks.”

Sanchez shot her a look. “You’re the one who’s been borrowing my socks!”

Raine dissolved into giggles, though Sanchez didn’t seem to find it quite as funny. She led them to the women’s cabin, where a row of plastic Adirondack chairs lined the porch. Most had a blanket on top. A mug and a worn Bible had been left on a small round table between two of the chairs.

The girls headed inside, and Jamie turned to look one more time at the Midnight Sun jump base. Hangars. Buildings that looked like they’d been here for years, weathering the elements Alaska threw at them. She saw a brown dog with long curly hair dart out of the mess hall building door and run into the hangar beside it.

No matter the warmth she’d found with these women, who seemed intent on inviting her into their lives, she was still worried about Tristan. Her brother was the reason she’d come up here.

Not Logan and the community he’d found.

A school bus pulled between the cabin and the office where she had spoken with Commander Newman. It turned left and drove in front of the cabins, where the driver parked on the asphalt between the firepit and the runway. A line of bedraggled-looking smokejumpers filed out, dispersing to the three cabins. Logan’s crew.

People who looked out for each other and watched each others’ backs.

Meanwhile, Jamie had never had anyone who showed up for her the way these people would for their team.

At least, not until Logan.

The bus pulled away, and she saw Logan walking across the runway toward them. A female smokejumper with brown hair, probably early twenties, trudged past Jamie and went into the cabin.

Jamie couldn’t tear her gaze from Logan.

She wouldn’t come up to Alaska for anything other than someone she cared about. That was why she’d done what she had to do and shown up to go after her brother.

Had he really come up here to find her? The girls seemed to be convinced it was true. But despite him originally saying he thought they should try and get back together, his actions and his words now painted a different picture, and she couldn’t get a clear image.

All Jamie knew?

She didn’t want to leave before she figured it out.