They arrived at the hospital and Jenny was rushed in for evaluation. Logan was itching to get back to the fire, but he couldn't leave until the doctor gave him the low-down on Jenny's condition.
A short while later, Dr. Caldwell pulled off her mask as she stepped through the swinging double doors. “Logan, why don't you come into my office for a few minutes.”
He followed the middle-aged woman into a tidy of-fice overlooking a courtyard. “Is she going to make it?”
“Honestly, I don't know. I'd say her chances of living without life support are extremely slim.” She paused. “But we found something else while we were examining her, something I think you should know.”
His stomach twisted. It seemed that nothing was simple when it came to Jenny. “Lay it on me.”
“She's pregnant.”
He didn't bother to hide his shocked expression. “Is there any chance the baby could make it?”
“Maybe. She's already almost five months along. Do you know who the father might be?”
“Yes, I think so.” Holy shit. Dennis might become a father in a few months.
“I need to discuss this with my colleagues, but my gut is to keep her on life support for another ten to fifteen weeks until the baby is big enough to take by C-section without too many complications. Could you tell the father to contact me as soon as possible?”
Logan stood to leave. “I will.”
She came around her desk and put her hands on his. “I'm so sorry about Robbie. We were hoping he'd pull through.”
“You did everything you could,” he said, his voice the consistency of sandpaper.
His brain was overloaded with images, with emotions, as the ambulance driver took him back to the mountain.
Gary jogged over. “Good news. The winds are dying down. Humidity is up. If we continue bucket drops at this pace, we should be at least fifty percent contained by this evening.”
And they'd caught the arsonist. Thank God. The end was in sight.
Gary had a good ten years on Logan. He could read between the lines, could see that there was something else on his mind. “What now? Something about Jenny? Is she going to survive?”
He shook his head. “Probably not. She's on life support. But she's pregnant.”
Gary raised an eyebrow. “Dennis the father?”
Gary's question was a good one. Who knew what Jenny had been doing behind Dennis's back besides lighting deadly fires and killing people? “I sure as hell hope so.”
“As long as the weather keeps cooperating, we've got this. Go tell Dennis the news.” Gary dropped his car keys into Logan's palm. “And I don't want to see you back here until you've found Ms. Jackson and put a ring on her finger.”
Wednesday morning, Maya walked out of the Tahoe Basin Forest Service office into the bright sunshine. When Albert had arrived in Lake Tahoe late Sunday night, he'd taken one look at her and insisted on taking her to dinner. He hadn't let her leave the table until she'd polished off a salad and a cheeseburger. Although she'd initially protested, halfway through the meal she'd realized her boss—and friend—was right. She'd been starving.
For two days, they'd hashed through the details of the Desolation Wilderness case, and by Tuesday evening, she'd finished writing up the report. Albert hadn't asked a lot of questions about Logan beyond the case. He didn't have to. Not when it was obvious where her heart lay.
“I'm staying in Lake Tahoe,” she'd told him.
“Logan?” had been his response.
She'd had to laugh at herself. Clearly, love had been written all over her face. And then Albert had surprised her again. He'd felt confident that she was safe, so he was leaving town. And he'd made an appointment for her to meet with the superintendent of the Forest Service. Alone. This wasn't his case, he'd told her. And he wasn't going to take any of the credit.
William McCurdy was a very sharp man, his questions and comments concise and to the point. But she'd refused to leave his office until she was one hundred percent certain he supported Logan's innocence, even though the samples from his garage had been a match in the explosion by the housing development.
“Of course he's not guilty,” McCurdy had told her. “Unfortunately, based on the meager facts initially at hand, I had no choice but to suspend him until we'd conclusively ruled him out as a suspect.”
Much to her surprise, at the end of their meeting, he'd offered her a job working directly for him. The ever-shrinking line between the city and the country was putting wildland firefighters' lives in greater peril than ever before as they worked to save not only forests but houses and homeowners, often getting caught in the middle. McCurdy needed someone to keep an eye on the urban interface.
She accepted without hesitation. Lake Tahoe was now her beautiful new home.
The lake was less than a quarter mile from the Forest Service headquarters, and she made a beeline for the beach, smiling at the news the superintendent had given her that the fire was officially under control. Smoke jumpers and extra hotshot crews had been called off. Amazingly, they'd found Jenny on the mountain. Alive. McCurdy didn't know anything else, but she'd call the hospital soon enough and get the rest of the details for her report.
She kicked her shoes off as she walked toward the clear blue water. The sky had lost its look of dark gloom, the clouds quickly shaking off the gray to return to their usual bleached-white glory. She was finally ready to take in the beauty all around her.
She listened to the water lapping up on the shore, watched a couple of toddlers giggle as they rolled in the sand, and then someone was saying her name and she turned around and saw Logan standing right behind her.
Her heart pounded like crazy, just like it had the first time she'd seen him six months earlier, standing in the doorway of the bar; just like it had five days ago when he'd pulled off his helmet after running up the mountain and she'd realized he was the man she was after; just like it had when they'd finally made love and she'd known love was exactly what she felt for him.
Deep, unending love.
She drank in the sight of him. He was so beautiful, so big and strong.
And he was alive.
But even though she was desperate to be alone with him, to tell him everything that was in her heart, naked and in his arms instead of standing in the middle of a public beach, she needed closure first.