Page 10 of Almost True
I gesture at my clothes. “Do you think I’d be wearing these if I had a better option?”
“I’d offer to loan you something, but—” Dex clears his throat. “Let’s just say I’m not in the best position myself. We get paid twice a month, so that’ll be in another week. Chief Rhodes might be willing to advance you a bit just to get you set up.”
My face heats up. “No. He’s already done too much for me.” I can’t stand the idea of asking for handouts. I give Dex a sharp look. “You’d better not say anything to him. Or to any of the crew.”
Dex looks genuinely taken aback. “No fucking way. I just told you, I’m nearly broke myself. I know how much it sucks. And no one else knows, so you’d better not mention it either.”
“’Course not.”
We lapse into silence again, and this time it feels like we’re in this together. I know I’m supposed to be scaring Dex off, but there’s a strange part of me that doesn’t want him to stop holding my hand.
Chapter 8
Dex
Half the crew is already there when we arrive at the station, and there are whoops and wolf-whistles when they see me and Korren holding hands. He drops my hand at once and puts as much distance as possible between the two of us, while I’m surrounded by the rest of the crew, many of whom are patting me on the back.
“So, are you two a couple now?” Garret teases.
“No way,” I say with a laugh. “What about you and Ambrose? You were really going for it last night.”
He and Ambrose both fall over themselves laughing. “We did the thing where you slide a hand up the other guy’s leg until it’s too awkward, and I touched Ambrose’s dick—on accident!” he roars over a renewed round of laughter. “And he punched me so hard I thought I’d crack a rib. So that’s the end of that.”
“What about you?” Ambrose asks. “How far did you go last night?”
Garret leans close. “Was there any…nudity?”
“No way. I gave Korren a ride home, we both passed out in our respective houses, and we didn’t see each other again until I dared him to hold my hand this morning.”
“That’s fucking weak, man,” Garret says. “You’ve gotta do something more extreme if you want to win.”
I lower my voice. “Problem is, we’re both really committed to winning that cabin. And I get the feeling Korren has more at stake than me. So I’m planning to wear him down with obnoxious little things before he ropes me into doing something I don’t want to.”
“I bet he’s gay,” Ambrose says under his breath.
I give him a cold look. “Don’t say things like that. He’s just as straight as I am, and he’s new here, so it’s not fair to make assumptions about him based on this dumb-ass challenge.”
“Woah, Dex, I was only joking!”
I realize I’m genuinely alarming Ambrose, so I tone it down. Laid-back. Friendly. That’s who I’m supposed to be.
Uncle Rhodes saves us when he arrives with bagels and cream cheese, and we all descend on the breakfast, Korren eating like he hasn’t had a solid meal in days. Which is quite possibly true.
As we eat, Uncle Rhodes says, “For anyone who wasn’t here for our last break between fires, I’m going to make it very clear that these aren’t actualrestdays. We’ve got to be in peak condition when we respond to the next fire, so we use this time for strength training and brushing up on our wilderness skills.” He’s looking at Korren, but his reminder applies to me too. I got here less than a week before the fire we just returned from, so I’m just as raw as he is.
Except part of the deal is that Uncle Rhodes is pretending I’ve got some training behind me so he can justify putting me on the team when he did. The rest of the guys all got here a month before me and took part in what sounded like a brutally intense boot camp to get them up to speed, while Korren is supposedly already a career firefighter and doesn’t need the same degree of upskilling. I’m still not convinced that’s true.
Once the bagels are devoured and the last of the crew has arrived, we move to the mini-gym at the back of the fire station and get into strength training for the rest of the morning. We do weights and endurance and trust exercises and everything Uncle Rhodes can think of, and I’m dying before the end of the first hour. Some of the guys strip off their shirts as they exercise, and the whole gym reeks of sweat.
Despite his lean frame, Korren keeps up with no problem—when he’s lifting weights, I can see the outline of his bicepsthrough his shirt, and I realize he’s got more muscle than I’d thought.
Which leaves me as the only one struggling to keep up with the rest. I’m solidly built, so I look like I should be stronger than half the team, but a lot of that came from helping my dad with his building job before I started studying. Sporadic visits to the gym in college weren’t enough to keep up that level of fitness.
But I’ve got an image to uphold. I know I told Korren I don’t care about my reputation, but among these guys, it’s everything. I knew a few of them growing up, including Cami and Ambrose, but the others only moved here for the summer, so they don’t know anything about my past or my lack of training. Just that I’m friendly and like joking around.
By the time we break for lunch, I’m feeling broken. Uncle Rhodes didn’t push us this hard when I first started, probably because we were on standby for that other fire, and I’m about to collapse into a puddle of jelly on the floor.
As soon as I’ve helped myself to a sandwich, I drop onto a folding chair and joke around with the guys, pretending every muscle in my body doesn’t feel like it’s just been tortured. I’m keeping half an eye on Korren, too, who is lurking in the background with his food. Cami makes an attempt to draw him into conversation, but he gives curt answers, and soon she gives up.
