Free Wildfire at Dawn by M. L. Buchman Page A

offered a spectacular view of the squared-off top of Mount Hood. He settled down on an Adirondack chair to wait for Laura to get her charges back to their rooms. The sun was warm and the chair comfortable.
    He’d never been big on having girlfriends. Women who he spent a week or even a summer with, sure. Not a girlfriend though. But when he’d seen her falling out of control toward the boulders, his gut had wrenched even harder than if she’d been one of his own team in trouble.
    He’d kept an eye on her as he yelled at his own ropemates to dig in, dropped his end of the rope, and raced down the slope toward her. She was a woman of action who didn’t know how to give up even though she was thrown down harder with each try. It’s what he looked for when testing firefighters, but he’d never before found it in a girlfriend.
    Two-Tall was gonna laugh his ass off, but Akbar didn’t care. An afternoon with Laura—even one as wild as this one—had been worth it.
    # # #
    Laura found Akbar asleep in the afternoon sun; he looked as comfortable as a cat. She generally went for the taller guys, and because she’d lived her whole life in central Oregon, they were mostly pretty conservative white guys.
    Akbar fit none of that. He was strong, funny, and had saved her behind. And the tourists. She hadn’t been prepared for the jerk to be stupid enough to ignore so many of her explicit instructions simultaneously. She’d have to remember that for the future. Remember it was okay to boot a tourist back down the chair lift because they were a safety risk.
    If Akbar hadn’t been there… She shuddered and pushed the thought aside. He had been. And together, they’d saved the day. Move forward from here.
    She sat in a chair facing his, almost every inch of her sore from the multiple attempts to brake the fall. She’d be hurting in the morning. Trail ride. She could ride Mister Ed no matter her condition. Besides, there was one name she could cross off the list. She’d offered today’s people a free ride tomorrow if they wanted it.
    “Thinking deep thoughts, Space Ace.” Akbar’s voice sounded slow, thick with his nap.
    “Thinking sore thoughts.”
    “Don’t worry, you’ll have a nice tip to make up for it.”
    She laughed at him, “Not likely.”
    “Let’s just say that if he doesn’t want to meet me again at the bottom of a dark hole…” His grin looked evil and she decided not to ask.
    “I’m done for the day,” more like done in. But she wanted to spend some time with Akbar. Just him and nobody else. “Can I interest you in dinner?”
    His smile was slow this time, “I hear the Lodge has pretty good food.”
    “It does,” she acknowledged. What kind of alone time did she want with him? Not a hard question. “Or I could cook? I have a cabin about halfway between here and your airfield.”
    That stopped him. The slow smile went away, but it wasn’t replaced by a leer as she’d half expected after meeting him at the Doghouse. Instead his voice was soft. “You sure, Laura? Really sure?”
    She nodded, not quite trusting her voice. This wasn’t like her. None of this was like her. But she was more sure after seeing his thoughtful reaction.
    He looked up at the Lodge for a long moment.
    Laura was half afraid that he was going to refuse her. It was too fast. She was being wanton or needy or—
    “I wonder,” Akbar said slowly, as if testing the idea. Then he aimed that smile at her and she felt herself melt inside. “I wonder if the Lodge does take-out?”
    “Don’t trust my cooking?” She tried to feel offended, but take-out sounded wonderful.
    “Don’t want to waste one moment of an evening with you in the kitchen.”
    She smiled back at him. That too sounded wonderful.
    # # #
    Akbar followed her pickup about twenty minutes along the highway. It was a heavy duty with a mid-bed hitch that he bet matched a big horse trailer. At the moment it had a couple bales of hay which occasionally tossed little