Mom, I have to go.

Kira said gently into the phone.

My relief is here.

I'll call again when I get to the airport.

I'll see you in a few hours.

Kira, thank you for this. I know it's a big sacrifice for you to leave your summer job early for the funeral,

especially since you and Doug didn't exactly get along well.'

Charlotte responds,

"'That's putting it lightly, Mom, Kira says. He was a total creep,

but you're my mom nonetheless, and I'm coming home because you need me. I really got to answer the

door, though. I love you. Bye. Kira hangs up the phone and tosses it on her small

twin-sized bed in the corner of the lookout tower as she rushes to the door. Sorry about that,

Kira says as she opens the door, but as soon as she sees who is waiting on the other side, she freezes.

Standing in the lookout doorway is none other than Rhett Lawson, the senior lookout who trained

her freshman group her first summer on the job.

Rhett is a full-time lookout with the U.S. Park Service, and all the girls in her training group

had a massive ladyboner for him, Kira included. She hadn't seen him since the last day of training,

when he gave Kira her post assignment and sent her off up the mountain with a local guide and a packmule.

Kira had been pretty self-sufficient every summer since.

Hey, Wildfire!

Sorry to hear your summer up here as being cut short, he says, referencing the nickname she was

given back in training due to the fact that she was

...