Beck Hale used to pass through Timber Creek for only a few days each summer—her brother’s smokejumper best friend, and a crush she could keep harmless because he never stayed.
This season he moves into the crew house, and side-by-side work plus a shared roof leave her with no safe distance left.
Lake afternoons, Sunday dinners, and a kiss she did not see coming pull her past the line she had drawn for years.
He still lives like a man between places, following fire season in one town and ski season in another, with no plan to settle.
She has always known his stay would be temporary, yet she cannot stop hoping this summer might be the one that finally holds.
