Page 19 of Love in the Time of Wildfires

“I wouldn’t say that. You showed me where the spot was, for which I thank you. Now I know where to go if I want to come back later.”

“You mean at night?”

“I don’t know. Nightish.”

He scoffed. “No. You’re not coming back here at night.”

Now the annoyance was on the other foot. “Are you desperate to become a father, Logan?”

His whole expression dropped as he stared at her for several seconds. “No.”

“Then stop auditioning to be mine. Trust me, the role has been filled.”

They sat in silence for several minutes. River felt bad for losing her temper, wondering if she’d ruined everything and the guy would never take her hiking again.

“Why does your mom want a picture of you?” she asked, expecting to get her head bitten off, but not knowing what else to talk about.

He dug the end of his stick into the ground, reminding her of a boy pouting. “It’s for a firefighter calendar. Her women’s group is doing it to make money for some new penguin enclosure at the Sacramento Zoo.”

“Penguins?” River was a huge animal lover and believed that if animals were captive, they should be in the best enclosure they could be in. But after working in the zoo industry herself, she wasn’t much of a believer in captivity anymore. The animals she cared for at the museum had been brought in injured and would never recover in a way to make it possible for them to survive in the wild. Most zoos didn’t work in the same way, even if they did invest some money into research and conservation. Either way, she could think of other more important causes firefighter calendars could be used for, especially these days.

He eyed her. “Aren’t you going to bother me about the picture?”

“No,” she said seriously. “It’s your body. You should be able to decide whether or not to use it for whatever cause you want.” He didn’t respond to this, and she didn’t have anything else to say either.

But after a few minutes, he stood.

“Are we leaving already?” she asked. Perhaps he was miffed with her for not warning him about the red fox’s level of activity during daylight hours. Even so, this had been the first hike she’d done in a while and she was enjoying being out in the woods. Despite being a grumpy tour guide, River enjoyed spending time with him. She wanted to chalk it up to being desperate to hang out with anyone, but this felt different.

“No, I’m looking to see where I can take that picture.”

This brought some confusion. What in the world made him change his mind when he’d seemed so against it before? He must have noticed her bafflement because he replied, “I promised my mother, and we might as well, right? So this isn’t a completely wasted trip.”

“I already told you that it’s not wasted because—”

“Can you help me?”

“Um.” She wasn’t sure what this entailed, but she was happy to volunteer for whatever. “You want me to take the picture?” Curiosity unlocked itself. This could be fun and maybe she’d get to see what the guy looked like when he smiled. If that was the case, it made the hike even more worth it.

She followed him as they walked toward a small grove of trees that had somehow escaped the destruction, their leaves green. “You think this is a good spot?” he asked.

“Sure.” She was surprised to be asked her opinion. “Just tell me what you want and I’ll take a picture.”

He handed her his phone and even though it was a smartphone, it was old and beaten to crap. “Actually, how about I take it with my phone? I have a pretty good camera.”

“Okay.”

After returning his device, she walked a distance away in order to take a wider shot. She honestly had no idea what this potential calendar person was looking for when it came to an image, so it was better to give them options. She fiddled with her phone app and—

As she lifted her gaze, he smoothly reached over his back, grabbing his T-shirt and removing it in one graceful swoop.

Holy Chesty McChesterson, Batman.

Wow. Okay. Her eyes had to be as large as space satellites, her expression the same as Pepé Le Pew’s when spotting a black-and-white cat for the first time. Who could blame her? The guy was built. He was so broad and hard-looking, with dark chest hair radiating from his torso. She bit her lip at the sudden hunger filling her, hoping it wasn’t obvious.

Logan tossed his T-shirt to a nearby branch before his gray eyes focused in her direction. “Everything okay?” he asked, looking more amused than she’d ever witnessed before. Okay, this didn’t feel fair when she’d recently sworn off all men.

“I . . . yeah. Uh-huh. Me fine.” She wanted to smack her forehead against the trunk of a nearby tree. “I didn’t know . . . these pictures . . . that it would be like this,” she blurted, making a weak hand motion toward his body.