Brady turned off the truck and made a show of looking at his watch and smirking.
“Think very carefully about how Christmas is coming up before you say whatever it is you’re thinking,” Jeff said cheerfully. “I always keep my receipts.”
Carter gave him a sideways look. “It’s the end of September.”
“Which means I have several long months in which not to shop for Christmas presents.” Jeff returned his attention to Brady. “What have we learned?”
Brady raised his hands. “Next time I’ll call first?”
Now Jeff grinned. Theycouldlearn. “Good. You’re in charge of teaching Mom.”
“What’re you here for, anyway?” Carter asked when Brady blanched. “Since it was so important you couldn’tcall first.”
“Honestly, I just saw the truck was here when I drove by and thought I’d see if you needed an extra set of hands.” He flushed bright red when he said it and covered his face. “I mean, obviously not. But I know campfire night starts at seven, and possession of the house is tomorrow….”
Right—Jeff was still getting reaccustomed to the whole “having family members who actually wanted to help” thing. “We’re all finished here. See you at the park?”
“We’ll be there. For a bit, anyway, until the baby has to go to bed.”
Speaking of, they’d better get a move on. It was almost five and… well, Jeff needed a shower. “Sounds good. Tell Katie I’ll save her a beer.”
They ended up making it to campfire nightalmoston time, but when they pulled up in the parking lot, Carter made no immediate move to get out. Instead he pensively drummed his fingers on the steering wheel.
“Hey.” Jeff covered his hand, trying not to let on. Carter wasn’t supposed to know anything was up yet. This was just another campfire night—his last as Great Bear Lake’s naturalist, but just another campfire night. “Second thoughts about leaving?”
Carter shook his head. “No.” He’d applied for and gotten the job with the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change. But civil service jobs involved a lot of hurry-up-and-wait to start with, and he had things to wrap up at the park too. He didn’t want to leave them without a naturalist in high tourist season.
Jeff would have bet his next royalty check he just didn’t want to give up campfire nights. He was pretty sure they were going to end up attending those anyway.
“I’ll miss it,” he said now, “but… I’m not actually going anywhere. I’ll still have data to track in the park.” That had been one of the things he’d asked about before he accepted the offer. “I don’t even have to move my office. I don’t know how they pulled that off.”
Jeff didn’t pretend to understand the complexities of federal vs. provincial jurisdictions when it came to parks or politics. The very notion of attempting to understand it gave him a headache. But he felt certain Carter was discounting a very plausible scenario. “Maybe they just like you.”
Laughing, Carter finally reached for the door. “Yeah, maybe. Come on. I guess we’d better go.”
He even grabbed Jeff’s guitar out of the back seat for him. He was a gentleman like that.
The campfire had already started by the time they reached the amphitheater. Kids and adults, friends and family and park guests, gathered on the benches, chatting among themselves. A banner that hung between two trees—doubtless made of recycled paper—readCongratulations, Smokey. Someone had taped on a picture of Carter in his park naturalist uniform, doubtless from one of his YouTube clips.
Jeff was kind of hoping they’d let him keep the uniform.
Kara spotted them first and shouted, “Therethey are! I knew they’d be late!”
Max turned around with an enormous camera—a hobby he’d taken up since his stint in rehab. “Smile, losers!”
With all the kids around, Jeff had to quell the impulse to flip him the bird. He stuck his tongue out instead.
Carter turned to Jeff, half smiling. “Your work, I presume.”
Jeff grinned. “My idea. I delegated the actual work.”
Trix brought them drinks and executed a silly curtsy as she passed them over. “I see the honeymoon period continues.”
Jeff accepted the drink. “I can neither confirm nor deny.” He looked around. “Did Joe and Sarah make it?”
“Yeah, but she had to pee again, and you know how Joe hovers. He’s probably, like, holding her purse.” She smiled. “Have you seen her lately? She looks like someone shoved a basketball up her shirt. It’s adorable.”
Not since they finished recording the final cut of the album the month before. Frankly Jeff was just glad she’d finally been able to keep some weight on. “It’ll be good to catch up with them.”
