Page 83 of The Fire Line

Harris disliked the thought almost as soon as he had it. There had to be some distance between being careful and acting as though Jay’s presence itself was incriminating. Harris had no idea where that distance ended yet, but avoiding the man altogether because his family knew one more thing about him felt too much like making Jay carry Harris’s problem.

Still, they couldn’t be stupid.

Harris went outside, smoked half a cigarette, came back in, brushed his teeth, and checked the clock. Nine twelve.

This was pathetic. There was no legitimate reason for Jay to come to his cabin, and waiting around for him to appear was Harris’s latest attempt to avoid admitting the obvious.

He wanted Jay there.

Apparently that would have to be enough.

Harris went outside again.

He found Jay behind the equipment room, sitting on the low step with his phone in one hand. Jay looked up, and the small, private smile Harris had seen across the dinner table returned.

“Hey.”

Harris stopped several feet away. This was where the reason was supposed to arrive.

“Hey.”

Jay waited. “You okay?”

“Yup.”

“Good talk.”

Harris glanced toward the yard. Nobody was nearby.

Jay stood. “You come looking for me?”

Harris could have denied it, but the lie would have been obvious, and he already had one sitting between them.

“Yup.”

“Did you have a specific reason?”

“Was workin’ on one.”

“Any luck?”

“Nope.”

A quiet laugh escaped Jay, and then he caught Harris lightly by the front of his shirt and kissed him.

The kiss was brief and entirely certain, just enough warmth and pressure to make every excuse Harris had considered irrelevant. His hand went to Jay’s side before he could think better of it.

Jay pulled back but remained close. “Can I come over later?”

That simple—apparently it had been that fucking simple.

“Yup.”

“I need to finish with Priya. Maybe an hour.”

“Whenever.”

Something eased in Jay’s face. He glanced toward the lodge windows. “Go back without me. I’ll come when I’m done.”