“She blames me,” he said, his eyes falling to the ground. “I don’t even know what to say to her when we get back. I don’t know how to apologize for something I had no control over.”

“You don’t have to apologize. Just empathize,” I said.

“Ellie on the mountain with her camera … there’s light in her eyes. She’s different.” He swung the Pulaski at the ground, this time far away from my feet. “Talk about something else, Zeke. What about what’s-her-name?”

I frowned. “It’s Naomi.”

“Yeah, what about her?”

“She’s…” I swung, hitting the ground harder than I needed. “She’s way outta my league, Tyler. She’s a bad ass. Like, a total bad ass. She doesn’t need anyone. But she’s a widow, and she still loves him and—”

“Oh, man. That’s a rocky road, Zeke. You sure?” he asked.

“You didn’t exactly pick a smooth path yourself.”

He smirked. “Accurate. But what fun is that?”

“I guess.”

“Does she know you’re interested? Or is this one of those times you’re hoping your half-ass flirting will send the message?”

“She knows.”

“She doesn’t know,” Watts said, walking up behind me.

“Man, shut up,” I complained.

Watts and Maddox smiled, and Watts planned to shoot off at the mouth again, but Jubal cut him off.

“Is it break time and no one told me?”

“What the hell is so important?” Chief called from down the line. His radio must’ve gone off at the same time because he scrambled to answer it. After just a few seconds, he jogged to meet Jubal.

“A woman was spotted in the fire zone. We’ve been taken off task and ordered northeast in the direction she was seen.”

Runt wrinkled his nose. “A woman’s just walking around out here?”

“She,” Chief began, glancing for the briefest moment at Tyler. “She might be a reporter. They’ve said she had a pack and a camera. Bobby’s spotted her once. Dark-haired adult female is all he reported.”

Tyler closed his eyes. “Tell me it’s not her.”

“I don’t know,” Chief said. “Either way, we’ve gotta get to her before the fire does.”

“Let’s move!” Tyler yelled, setting a quick pace for the rest of the crew.

Our typical single-file line turned into a wide search net. Bobby had seen her from the air hours before but not since, and we had no way of knowing if she’d changed directions.

We cut through brush, sawed through downed trees, Chief’s anger pushing us forward, knowing he was rightly furious about wasted time.

“Tyler,” I began.

“I know…”

“If it’s Ellie…”

“I know, Zeke, shut the fuck up.”