Dani had been right; the bonfire was ginormous. It was easily as tall and wide as my Jeep and I could feel the heat rolling off of it from twenty feet back. Dozens of people milled around, red cup in hand, mainly congregating close to one of the six kegs stationed around the clearing. As expected, almost the entire high school student body was present and accounted for, although there was a group of young men whose faces weren’t familiar.
I didn’t need two guesses to know who they were. If the flock of girls batting their lashes around them didn’t give it away, that wildness in their eyes did. All smokejumpers I’d come across had it. That wild, adventurous twinkle that never seemed to dim. They came every summer. Some were the same as the year before, but a handful were new faces. I suppose that was part of the appeal of the lifestyle: getting to roam from place to and see some of the most beautiful parts of the country from fifteen hundred feet.
As if parachuting out of low flying aircraft wasn’t extreme enough, the smokejumpers did it close to raging forest fires. If there was an award for most dangerous, deadly, and adrenaline pumping career, smokejumping would have won by a landslide.
“That can’t be Elle Montgomery,” a voice said from off to the side. “At a party? A party with alcohol on private property?”
I elbowed Dani as Derrick Davenport ambled our way. Derrick had played football in high school and was heading to U of W in the fall. Derrick was friends with Logan, not best friends, but close enough to make me sweat.
“And here I thought I was Savannah from South Carolina,” I said, totally hacking up a southern accent. “So much for everyone being too drunk to notice me.” I shot Dani a glare as Derrick stopped in front of us.
“Where’s the Mr.?” Derrick asked, peering over my shoulders.
“He’s out of town for baseball,” I said as another one of the guys who’d been on the football team showed up with two empty red cups in hand.
“Hey, Elle,” he said, looking as surprised as Derrick had to see me here. “Hey, Dani. Pour yourselves a beer and drink up.” He handed us the cups and pointed at the keg beside us. “This is a party, haven’t you heard?”
Dani grabbed my cup and had our cups filled and properly frothed in record time. The girl knew how to work a keg. Handing me one, she tipped her cup and took a drink. If you call upending the entire cup a “drink.”
“What did Logan say when you told him you were coming to the Summer Kick-Off Party at old man Shanigan’s?” Derrick asked.
I took a swig of the beer to stall and made a face. I wasn’t a connoisseur, but I’d had enough sips of it to know this was the cheapest kind. “I didn’t exactly tell Logan I was coming.” Yeah, that sounded bad. “Yet,” I added. “Dani convinced me to come after work and I didn’t get a chance to talk to him.”
Derrick’s expression changed, like he was seeing me in a whole new light.
“Yeah, Logan doesn’t know,” Dani piped in, “so don’t slip and say anything.”
“It’s not a secret,” I said. “I’ll tell him tomorrow when I talk with him. I’m sure he won’t think it’s a big deal.”
“Yes, he will think it’s a big deal and that’s the reason for no, you won’t tell Logan tomorrow.”
I took another drink of my beer, but this wasn’t a dainty sip.
“Damn, Elle Montgomery. At a party and tipping back a beer.” Derrick shook his head, obviously amused. “If I knew you had this edgy side, I wouldn’t have given in so easily when Logan said he was going to ask you to Homecoming our sophomore year. My loss.” He smiled at me as his eyes wandered down my body in a way that made me squirm. “And don’t worry. I’ll take your secret to my grave.”
“It’s not a secret,” I repeated as Dani grabbed my elbow and weaved me through the crowd.
“God,” she said, making a disgusted face, “Derrick Davenport is such a horn-dog. I was going to need a shower if we hung around his filth any longer.”
“I seem to recall you enjoying that horn-dog once or twice last summer,” I teased as I nodded my head at a few familiar faces who called out my name.
“Eww. Please don’t remind me of that. There’s a reason I’m so big into repressing memories, you know?” She stopped in front of a huge tree stump and plopped down. She patted the space beside her. “Room for two.”
“Remind me again why I’m here?” I said as I took a seat.
“Hmm,” Dani said, staring at the group of smokejumpers and their groupies. “Let me get one of them to remind you.” Her smile curved up as her eyes lingered on a few of the blond ones. Dani’s weakness was men, but the blond ones would one day be the death of her.
“Come on, Dani,” I said, waving my beer at them. “You can do so much better than some adrenaline junkie on an ego trip who wouldn’t know commitment if it permanently attached to his pompous ass.”
“Who’s been telling on me again?”
I froze, and if it hadn’t been for Dani’s incessant nudging, I would have stayed that way. I didn’t need to look to the side to know who was standing there. That voice was tattooed into my mind.
“You,” I said, lucky I was able to get one word out. While I couldn’t say Cole looked better now than he had earlier, because the wet hair and body thing really worked for him, he did still manage to make me feel things I shouldn’t be feeling in his dark jeans, green jacket, and knowing expression.