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The first couple weeks, Ked learned everything he could about the station and the surrounding area he’d be protecting. Protecting the land, the lake, the sky, and he was ready for it. There was an excitement that bubbled up inside him that made him grin from ear to ear each morning when he rose, and it continued throughout the hectic days.
Harrigan made no bones about how much he loved the area too. He wanted to assure that when he left, it would be cared for. “I raised my kids here. I’ve been a part of this place for over thirty years. If I get the notion you aren’t caring for it properly, I’ll be back, and you’ll be running for cover.”
Ked had to ask. It had been on the tip of his tongue for days. “Why are you? Leaving, I mean. You obviously don’t want to.”
He grumbled a bit, mumbling to himself more than to Ked, but finally spat, “None of your business. Now get to that paperwork so we can go check that trail those folks said had a tree fall across it.”
“Yes, sir,” he whispered, and got back to going over the many documents that were required to be filled out once a week. It was much the same as those pages he had to fill out on the computer, but hard copies were needed, Harrigan had said.
Two more reports of poachers came in and the game wardens still had not come. No one had seen the poachers themselves, just what game they’d left behind to rot. “Why don’t we go and just take a look?”
“Catching them poachers would be a job for more than two men. The reports are coming from too many areas. They’re harder to catch than other law breakers, mostly because they kill and move on. Them warden boys’ll come when they can. It’s a big place, and they gotta chase bears outta neighborhoods, round up coyotes that are killing pets, and all sorts of things. Be patient.”
Patience had never been his strong suit.
After hiking three miles on the trail they were warned had the tree fall across it, they found it and got it moved to the side and Harrigan sent a text to someone about it.
“Don’t we take care of that?”
“We got a fella who takes these felled trees and carves ‘em up into things or cuts them for the bundles Millie sells. It’s how he makes his living, so we help him out with it. Community, Ked, that’s what we have here, not just some town of strangers.”
That was what he loved about it the most. “Wow, he carves them? Who is it?”
“Name’s Ashby. He lives out west a few miles. He doesn’t come down often. Likes his privacy. He’ll be by for it in a few days, most likely.”
“A hermit? We have an actual hermit?”
Exasperated, Harrigan growled, “Not a hermit. Lord. Just stays to himself most of the time. He’s not some crazy mountain man that has a pet grizzly or something.”
On the way back to the station, Ked was picking pine gum off his fingers when Harrigan slowed the truck and rolled down his window. Ked looked up to see a minivan filled with kids he recognized, but a man he didn’t.
The man had dreads and was African American too, or also biracial, seeing as he was lighter skinned, and he was young...and gorgeous. “Bruce, how are you?” Harrigan asked as he nodded to the man in the van.
“I’m good, Dan, thank you. Oh, and I wrote a letter to your superiors in Washington about making your vehicles run on biodiesel. They didn’t tell me to go fuck myself. Yet.”
“It wasn’t enough you got us a windmill and solar panels for the station?”
Bruce smiled and he was even more handsome.
“Is this your new protégé?”
“My trainee, yes. Bruce Ramos, this is Ked. Ked, Bruce.”
Ked gave him a wave and got waves from him and four little hands as well. “Nice to meet you! I met your wife and some of your kids. Well, I didn’t meet them, I saw them, but anyway, hi!”
Bruce chuckled and said, “Tera told me she met you at Millie’s place. Come up to the house sometime for dinner.”
“I’d like that!”
“No, you won’t,” Dan whispered to him from the side of his mouth. Aloud, he concluded, “Well, Bruce, gotta get back to it. Have a good one.”
“You too, Dan, and good to meet you, Ked.”
The kids were all screaming and causing the van to rock like a soccer team was playing a match in the back. Ked wondered to himself if they did that near some of the sheer drops in the road if they’d rock it right off the side.
As soon as they were away from Bruce and his kids, he got a stern warning from Harrigan. “I’m not one to tell you what to do with your free time, but I’d watch going to eat at that house. Lord, the stuff they eat isn’t fit for a Billy goat.”
“Oh, they’re vegans, right?”
“Yeah. Rice is about the only thing I recognize and if it’s not fried and on the side of my Chinese food, you can keep that too.”
Ked laughed and partially agreed. “It’s okay, and I’ve eaten vegan before. One of my old roommates converted a year ago. It’s not great, but it’s not too horrible.”
“You can keep it. Besides the food, though, they’ll talk your ear off about living green. Now, I’m not saying I don’t agree with it, saving the planet from all that fracking and whatnot, but the way they go about it, pushy as hell and can get downright shitty about things. It’s everything I can do, and with Hannah threatening my balls, to not tell them where they can stick their ideas.”
Ked liked these talks with Dan. He learned so much about people, even if it was one-sided. “What do they do for money?”
“She makes dresses, blankets, jackets, and shirts and things out of hemp and wool. They have a few sheep. They call it cruelty free wool, but with those kids riding them poor sheep, I don’t see how they can say cruelty free with a straight face. Bruce, there, he writes for eco-magazines and things. I can’t say they make a lot, but enough to get by. Hannah buys clothes from Tera now and then. Nice stuff, really. She’s an artist with a needle and thread.”
Before he dropped Ked off for lunch, he informed him, “The campground by the lake will start getting filled and the cabins are opening up soon, so we’re likely going to get flooded with tourists. Flooded meaning forty or so a weekend, a few less during the week.”
“Cabins?”
“Between here and Blue Lake, there’s a fella that rents cabins during the warmer months. He’s set to open Saturday, so we’ll both be on that day, keeping our eyes out for fires where they shouldn’t be, flower picking, you know, all the things people think they can do.”
“Oh great! I mean, not that people do that, it’s against the law and just bad for the forest, but great that we’ll have something to patrol. Not that it’s been boring. I’m learning so much, but not many people do anything wrong around here, so it’s picking up old trees and I was hoping for more, and now we’ll have more! It’s just great. I mean, not great, but-”
“You’re stuck in a loop, Ked. Move the needle.”
After slamming his jaw shut, he opened it enough to say, “Sorry.”
“The guy that runs it, well, he’s an ass. Not the friendly type we’re used to around here, but he lives in the city the rest of the year. Three months here gives him enough money, I’m guessing. Who knows? I don’t, and don’t really care.”
Keeping his jaw tightly shut against the millions of questions that came to mind, Ked just gave a nod and took the conversation back to the one thing he’d been obsessing over. “Okay, can I ask you something, if I keep it short?”
With a resigned huff, Harrigan relented. “I guess.”
“If, and only if the game wardens don’t come, we can go check it out, the reports on the poachers, right?”
Ked could tell he was trying to calm himself, so he didn’t yell at Ked. Out of gratitude for that, he sat quietly, waiting for it. When Harrigan did answer, it was through a clenched jaw. “Yes.”
Elated, Ked bounced a little in the seat and set his mind to exactly what he’d like to do to people who killed wildlife out of season.
While he was eating a bologna sandwich a little while later, Ked felt his phone vibrating with a call. Out of his front pocket, he scrambled to grab it, hoping it was Harrigan and the poachers had lit a forbidden campfire out of the campground site or something to that effect.
When he saw the caller ID, however, he wasn’t exactly disappointed, but he answered to Calvin, “Thought you were poachers.”
“What? Are you stoned?”
Ked laughed and answered, “No, I’m not high! It’s just, well, the job is great, don’t get me wrong, but I haven’t had any real meat yet. Just picking up old logs and talking to people.”
“Then you should be happy! You do love to talk.”
“Shut up,” he chuckled. “What’s up?”
“Calling to see if all your dreams have come true. Do you like it? Well, you answered that a little.”
“No, I really love it. It’s so beautiful here, and all the people are really, really nice and my boss, well, he’s cranky most of the time, but I think it’s because he’s retiring and moving and he doesn’t really want to move, so that’s his thing, but I think he likes me. Anyway, his wife is amazing, and she’s so nice, and the other people here, they’re great too.”
“You haven’t changed a bit. That’s good to know. Anyway, any hot guys?”
Laughing more, he answered, “I’m not here for guys, Calvin.”
“That wasn’t an answer.”
“Not really. I mean, there are guys, obviously, and the one that about made me pop wood is this hippy guy, but he’s married with a million kids, so he’s not a prospect, but no one is really, not until I get comfortable in my job, because, let’s face it, that’s why I came here, not for guys.”
“Don’t go too long without getting laid, Ked. You’ll be as cranky as your boss. Maybe that’s it for him. It’s not Florida, he may just need to bang his wife.”
Groaning loudly, Ked admonished, “That’s gross, Calvin! She’s beautiful and I’m sure they still do it, but even if they don’t, I’m pretty sure it is Florida, and don’t make me think of straight people having sex, that always grosses me out. I mean, to each their own, but it’s not my thing and I don’t want mental pictures of Harrigan and his wife flying through my head while we’re at work. Come on!”
Calvin’s giggle was legendary in their circle of friends. It started out nearly silent, then increased in volume and quickness until it sounded like chipmunks squeaking to one another.
“Sorry! But hey, if you are about to be the big cheese there and the guy’s retiring and all, why do you have to take orders? I mean, don’t get fired or anything, but why can’t you go and investigate on your own?”
He opened his mouth to start rattling off all the reasons he couldn’t do that, then realized he didn’t have any. “He is retiring in a couple months, and it will technically be my station. I mean, I share it to an extent with the game wardens, but it’s a forest ranger station, not a warden’s station. Shit, Calvin! Why can’t I investigate on my own?”
“Exactly. There, I always make all the bad into good again. You’re welcome.”
“Thanks, Calvin. I miss you. You’ve got to come up here to visit soon.”
“Mmm, orgy in the mountains.”
“Alone! Or with your man, but no damn orgy. I have to remain respectable while I’m here.”
“Ew, respectable. How boring. Talk soon, blue eyes.”
“Bye, Calvin.”
As soon as his phone was back in his pocket, Ked’s mind started to work. He’d thought of it himself, of course, but to have someone else suggest it made it feel like he had permission. Not that he needed it, as Calvin had pointed out, as he was about to be the big cheese.
He heard a distant yelling and knew right away lunch was over and Harrigan was ready to head to the cabins. He ran to the door and threw it open, hollering, “Be right there!”
After he clumsily wrapped his sandwich in the paper towel he’d been using, he stuffed it in the fridge and left his apartment, taking the steps down two at a time, getting a scolding from Harrigan for it. “You wanna break your neck?”
“No, but I’m anxious to see this campground.”
“Christ on a cracker. Get in the truck.”
He did and they started out down the road from Bear Lake, and when the sign came that announced Blue Lake, Harrigan turned left and headed for it.
“That’s why I didn’t see them on the way here.”
“Yeah, they’re off in the trees. He’s got a real problem keeping up the warnings about not having fires outside the cabins and such. He thinks because he’s on private property, he can do what he wants. He burns down my mountain, he’ll think different.”
The camp came into view five minutes after they had left the main road, and Ked marveled at the place. They were scattered in the trees, not in a line like he’d imagined, giving each place its own little piece of the forest.
They were classic cabins too, little more than rectangles with rooves, a stone chimney poking out of the top of each one.
The office wasn’t much bigger, and as Harrigan parked in front of it, Ked started taking it all in.
There were wooden barrels and crates out front, empty, but Ked saw they wouldn’t be for long. There were at least twenty plastic pots full of seedlings to plant, of every color and variety, from petunias to ground cover.
There was a cute “closed” sign in the window, the letters made up of bears contorting into the letter shapes, and there were teddy bears lining the front window for sale, by the looks of it. Before they could get out of the truck, a model-worthy woman came out of the door carrying a watering can for the plantings. She had flannel shirt with the sleeves cut off tied above her bellybutton and short-shorts that showed her legs all the way up to her round ass.
Harrigan was staring and said to himself, “Well, this is new.”
“Who is she?”
“I guess we’re gonna find out.”
As soon as they were out of the truck, Harrigan took the lead and went over to her, holding out his hand and introducing himself and Ked. “Ma’am, I’m the forest ranger in these parts, Dan Harrigan, and this is my trainee, Ked.”
She had gorgeous amber eyes and light brown hair streaked with blonde. She had wide lips that were shining with gloss, the only makeup she wore, and her smile was warm and inviting. “Hello there. It’s so nice to meet you.”
“I’m used to seeing the gentleman that owns the place. Wolf Peltzer.”
“He’s inside getting the displays clean.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
“Karolin. Karolin Peltzer.”
Ked heard Harrigan whisper, “Well, I’ll be.”
The word vomit was coming, but he held it back, all the questions having a traffic jam in his throat. The one question that was more of an accusation came when he watched Harrigan staring at Karolin’s ass as he moved into the camp office.
Fuming over that, ready to defend Hannah, all of it died the moment Wolf Peltzer looked up from the display.
The man was a god. Salt and pepper hair, with a lot more silvery salt than pepper, and tattooed arms that made a sleeve all the way over his nice biceps and under the short sleeves of his gray t-shirt.
His eyes were startling blue, like new steel, and his beard was like his hair, trimmed, silver, and lined his chiseled face perfectly. Ked didn’t know his mouth was open until he felt the bit of drool forming and ready to escape at the corner of his lips.
“Wolf, how are you?”
He held his hand over the display and answered, “Good, Dan. You?”
“Good. This is Ked,” he said, glancing over at him, then doing a double take as he saw Ked staring. “Ked!”
Shaking his head as he realized he was being a creeper, Ked lowered his eyes and shook the man’s hand. “Nice to meet you,” he mumbled, then shut his mouth and willed his lonely dick not to perk up in that moment.
“Do I have to run around and make sure the warnings and procedures are in place, or can we skip the hassle this time?”
Wolf let out a sigh as he said, “It’s all there, Dan. And speaking of hassling, isn’t that what you do to me every year?”
“I wouldn’t if you’d make sure your guests know not to keep food out the bears can get into, make campfires outside of the designated spots, and if you’d make them buy firewood from you or Millie, they could stop taking it from the forest.”
“That’s half the fun of camping, and if it’s on my land, they can take all they want.”
“The problem is, they don’t stay on your land when they’re hunting it, now do they?”
Ked figured the verbal scuffle could go on for a long time. There was obviously no love lost between the two men. “Sir, maybe we should check the signs, make sure they’re all in good shape.”
He expected a tongue lashing from Wolf...what a name, wolf, a natural predator, but he didn’t get one. On the contrary, Ked felt a wave of definite sexual energy coming across the counter. “Ked, right?”
“Yes, sir. It’s short for Kaden Edmond Donegal, K-E-D...” Trailing off, he realized his mouth was filling with saliva and he quickly closed it.
“That’s adorable.”
It made no sense, with that woman outside that had even a happily married man like Harrigan popping wood, but Ked’s gaydar was doing backflips. The guy was flirting with him unless Ked was way off base, and he rarely was.
“Come on, Ked. We’ll come back after they’ve had a chance to set up and make sure their signs are up to code.”
A smile could be seen twitching on Wolf’s lips, and Ked returned it fully. “Sure thing. We’ll be back.”
“Bye,” Wolf purred.
Back in the truck, Dan was furious, and at first, Ked didn’t understand why.
“Motherfucker, all this time, I thought it was me busting his balls over the way his people trampled the park, and there it is, plain as day.”
“Sir?”
Starting the engine and slamming the shifter into drive, Dan sneered, “He’s a racist prick.”
“Sir? Really?”
He glanced over at Ked and shook his head. “I guess you wouldn’t see it, but didn’t you noticed how he ignored me and only spoke to you?”
Then he understood. He hoped he was right and Harrigan was wrong, and he was pretty sure he was. “Oh, that. Well, sir, I don’t think that’s the case. I think he...liked me.”
“Sure! Another white guy!”
“No, sir. Another gay guy.”
Harrigan had just gotten to the main road and he slammed on the brakes before he could advance onto it. He turned his head to gape at Ked, moving his mouth like he was searching for words.
“G-gay? He’s...no! What about that woman? Same last name! They musta got married while he was in the city. How the hell would he want you when he has that at home?”
“Sir...”
Waving his hand wildly, he corrected, “No, I get that, and I don’t mean nothing bad, but he’s got a beautiful wife and he’s gay? Don’t make sense, not a lick.”
“Ever heard of a beard?”
He slumped on the seat and huffed, “Fuck. I never would have thought.”
“I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. Not that I’d go for it. I mean, yeah, he’s fantastic looking, sure, and damn, I could just feel he’d be great, but I don’t do married guys, never have. Well, that one time, but I didn’t know he was in the closet with a wife at home, and the minute I found out, I told him to fuck off in no uncertain terms, and well, there was Calvin and Ron, but they weren’t married and they were very open. I mean, very open. The first week I was there, I must have been with-”
“Do not finish that sentence. If I have to picture that, I’ll slug you. I swear to Christ.”
Thinking about how Calvin had placed a picture in his head of Harrigan and Hannah boning, he knew the feeling. “Right. Drive on.”
