She shifted, nervous. “Bobby’ll be here by sunrise. I had to pack up and come down here last night. They’re moving me here for the duration so the helo can stay closer.”

“Where was it?”

“Steamboat Springs,” she said, looking around.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said, returning her focus to me. “Still waiting on my tooling to get here. I’m sort of useless without it. The helo is good to go for the day, and he’ll be here by the time you reach fire camp.”

“Sounds good,” I said.

Reese walked away, taking a gulp of her energy drink.

“That shit’ll kill ya,” Watts said, his gaze settling on me again.

“So will everything else,” Reese called back.

“Stop looking at me,” I said.

“Then spill it,” Watts said.

Taylor wadded up his napkin and launched it at my face. “Talk, pussy.”

“Do you wanna share about your nights with Falyn?” I asked, sitting.

Taylor crossed his arms, unamused.

“Then shut up,” I said.

“C’mon, man!” Watts begged. “I thought she was married. Didn’t she say she was married? Or did she just say that to let me down easy.”

I leaned forward. “Naomi doesn’t let anyone down easy, and I swear to Christ, Watts, if I ever get to see her again and either of you shit stains bring this up, I’ll kill you in your sleep.”

Taylor breathed out a laugh. I was pretty sure he wasn’t afraid of anything, including death, so my threat didn’t faze him.

“She’s a widow,” I said, sitting back against the chair. I took another bite of a plain pancake—my fifth—no syrup, no butter, no peanut butter or Nutella, just golden fried batter rolled like a taquito.

“Did she kill him? She looks like she could,” Taylor said.

“Not funny,” I said.

“Morning,” Trex said, waving to us as he made his way to the front desk. Darby was there, looking happy and comfortable with Trex leaning a little bit over the desk to greet her.

“Looks like you missed the boat on that one,” Taylor said. “And now you’re chasing a widow?”

I shook my head. “I’m not taking advantage of her grief or anything, damn. I didn’t know she was a widow when…” I stopped myself.

“When you fell for her?” Watts asked, a shit-eating grin on his face.

“Fuck you,” I grumbled.

Taylor nudged Watts, and they both laughed.

Runt sat at our table sipping coffee, his eyes swollen, his brown hair sticking up in every direction.

“Did Mama not kiss you awake?” Watts asked.

Runt responded with a yawn, blinking slowly. The young ones always had a hard time getting up.

“I’ll kiss you awake,” Watts said.

“Leave him alone,” I said with a frown.