Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock (general ebook reader .TXT) 📗

“That’s terrible,” said Jenny. She had heard they’d lost thirty. The number was going up.

“I know. I hate coming in here to shower and running into people from there. I feel so guilty. But luckily, no deaths.”

“Well, people don’t blame you, do they?”

“I think people always want someone to blame in a tragedy. And that wacko with the illegal radio station really set us back.”

“Coyote Jones? He’s not a wacko.”

It was just a gut reaction, but Jenny immediately sensed she’d hit a nerve defending him.

“Okay, well, I have to go do the briefing. Nice to meet you.”

“People really trust him,” Jenny said quickly. “It’s just, you know, he’s local and everything. And his signal reaches into three states….”

Did the woman just raise an eyebrow?

“I mean, nobody knows him personally. But he’s been our go-to guy for years for everything—storms, fires, weird weather fronts…”

Why was she trying so hard to make a point about Coyote Jones? She was acutely aware of being naked under her towel and her teeth were starting to chatter, but for some reason she kept talking.

“I mean, yeah, he’s not FCC legal or anything, but you’re all kind of on the same side. We’re really appreciative, I promise.”

“We can’t have conflicting information. If we say go and he says stay, somebody’s going to get hurt.”

Jenny wished she’d kept quiet.

“You’re freezing. If I meet Nate, I’ll tell him you’re looking for him.”

“Oh, please don’t. I don’t even know him.”

The woman cocked her head again, then shrugged and said, “Well, I hope you get to go home soon. Sounds like your house will make it. Nice to meet one of the lucky ones.”

One of the lucky ones, Jenny thought as she dressed.

She felt like the woman was holding back, as if she’d wanted to enlighten Jenny about what was really going on.

She pictured how disappointed Jade and her friends would be when the person leading the briefing turned out to be a woman instead of the dishy guy they were hoping for. A woman with a dragon on her ass who hates Coyote Jones, Jenny thought, trying to make all those bits of information fit in her head.

She pushed the door open and ran smack into a firefighter coming out of the men’s locker room with a towel over his head and scissors in his hand.

“Oops! Whoa, careful—I almost impaled you.”

“Oh, hey!”

“Wow, what are the odds of running into you, Miss Scarlet?”

“It’s Jenny. And thank you for saving my cat.”

“Jenny, hi. I’m Nate.”

“What happened to your face?”

“It ran into the claws of a very scared cat.”

“Oh no, Colonel Mustard did that? I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine. I was dragging him out of what he thought was a safe place, so I don’t blame him.”

“Was it safe?”

“Well, as long as the fire didn’t reach your laundry basket.”

“I’m just heading over to see him.”

“I bet that will make him feel better.”

“I really am sorry.”

“Got a minute?” He held up the scissors. “I need to go very, very short.”

When she’d met him, his hair had been hidden under a hard hat. But now it hung down like thick vines around his face, which was no longer covered in soot. He wasn’t much older than she was.

“I thought I could just tie it back all summer, but it’s a pain in the ass. Also dangerous. Crew boss says to cut it.”

“I don’t know anything about cutting hair.”

“But you know how to work a pair of scissors?”

“Yeah, if you don’t care how it looks.”

“I was just going to do it myself, so the bar isn’t very high. And besides, I wear a hard hat ninety percent of the time.”

“Okay, if you’re sure.”

It was awkward as hell. Jenny knew that if Jade were following a firefighter outside to sit on a log and cut his beautiful hair, she would be flirting and carrying the conversation as if she’d known him forever. But Jenny was dying to get back to Colonel Mustard.

“You know, my sister would be much better at this.”

“Cutting hair?”

“Well, probably that too. No—talking, flirting, whatever this is…” Way to go, Jenny, batting a thousand here.

“Um, not flirting, if that’s what you think.”

“Yeah, no, I just meant…Oh God, I’m sorry. Whatever. I don’t know what I’m saying.”

He laughed. “Relax. I joined the Forest Service to forget a girl, not find one. You’re perfectly safe.”

He had the towel across his shoulders and was sitting on the log with his back to her.

“Okay, just strike everything stupid I said from the record,” said Jenny.

“Already gone,” he said.

“Well, are you ready?” She made a couple of snipping sounds near his head.

“Please just don’t chop off my ear.”

If she were Jade, she might mention Van Gogh and the idea of mailing a severed ear to one’s love interest. But again: not Jade.

She picked up a thick chunk of hair.

“Still okay?”

“Yeah, but not if you keep asking.”

One snip and it hung limp in her hand. She waved it in front of his eyes, but he said nothing. She thought he might be holding his breath.

“So tell me about the girl you’re trying to forget. I mean, if you want to.”

But he talked about firefighting instead. The long hours, the food, the adrenaline rush. She kept snipping away, trying to focus on his words rather than on the intimacy of his hair between her fingers, smelling like burnt toast.

“I was hoping to get on a crew as a smoke jumper in Alaska.”

“Alaska?”

“Well, it would have gotten me farther away from home. You know, from things I’m trying to forget.”

He changed the subject.

“I have a twin brother who’s in Alaska at a summer camp.”

But Jenny was stuck on what he’d said before. “Things I’m trying to forget.”

Jade’s stupid umbrella.

If that umbrella didn’t exist, Jenny wouldn’t have been reminded of its significance. It was like a portal between what might have happened to Jade and how that event had shaped them, defined them.

Every time Jenny thought about that stranger saying “Just come through these trees with me,” she felt