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man.
    It was too soon after Leif’s death to even be thinking about someone else—especially Adam. He was indirectly responsible for the fact that she didn’t have her husband to warm her bed at night, to work alongside her during the day and to share her dreams and goals. Sure, they’d had their rocky times, but Leif had changed and their marriage had been on the mend.
    At the edge of the rushing stream Bo needed a few encouraging digs of her heels to keep moving. Slowly he picked his way across, and then scrambled up the steep bank, his big hooves sliding in the mud.
    Hayley leaned forward, one hand gripping the mane. Adam started to slide backward. “Hang on.”
    He wrapped an arm around her waist and leaned forward, reaching for his own bit of mane. His fingers dug into her just below her ribcage and his hard chest pressed against her back. “Are we having fun yet?” he said, his warm breath close to her ear.
    In the midst of feeling uncomfortable about his closeness, she laughed. Bloody Adam Banks. She should have let him get his damn shoes dirty. Or she should have gone farther upstream before attempting to cross. It was her own darn fault for wanting to make this journey as short as possible.
    At the top of the bank, Bo made a final surge, crashing through the tree ferns. Adam lost his grip and slid right over the horse’s rump, landing in the mud. When he scrambled to his feet, dark brown streaks covered the front of his polo shirt and his pants. Hayley hooted with laughter, then quickly covered her mouth.
    Adam tried to brush off the clods but only smeared them around. “Only the truly depraved laugh at other people’s misfortunes.”
    “Sometimes if you don’t laugh, you cry.”
    He glanced up sharply, then smiled. “Glad I could provide you with some light entertainment.”
    “Want to get back up?” she asked, hoping he’d say no.
    “Thanks, but I’ll walk from here.”
    “Suit yourself.” And no, she was not disappointed. Well, maybe a little. But that must only be because she truly was depraved.
    All levity evaporated as they walked up the slope of the ridge. At the highest point they emerged from the untouched forest and into a stand of trees with charred trunks and bare limbs, stark reminders of the firestorm that had swept through nearly a year ago. Another fifty yards and even these blackened ghosts petered out. Then there were no trees at all. The mountain was a wasteland as far as the eye could see, down into the valley and halfway up the other side of the hill.
    Adam’s steps slowed, then stopped altogether. “Holy shit.”
    “No kidding,” Hayley said grimly.
    He glanced back to the untouched forest a mere hundred meters away. “So how did it happen? How did your property get razed and mine escaped with barely a singed leaf?”
    “A fluke of nature.”
    “Tell me more. All I know is that the wind pushed the fire up the mountain.”
    “That’s right.” Hayley didn’t like to relive that day. She actively tried to cast it out of her mind, but the stark landscape never let her forget. “The wind was blowing steadily from the northwest, seventy miles an hour and gusting up to ninety, ninety-five. Leif led his firefighting crew down the slope below Timbertop, clearing and back-burning to create a firebreak. During the afternoon the wind veered around to the northeast.” Just as the Bureau of Meteorology had predicted . “It pushed the fire in the other direction.” She swallowed. “Toward the volunteer fire crew.”
    For a moment she couldn’t speak and the taut silence stretched.
    “It’s okay,” Adam said. “You don’t have to talk about it. I get the picture.”
    “The fire roared up the mountain like a freaking freight train,” Hayley said, barely hearing him. “Jumping the break and taking out everything in its path.... Including Leif and his crew. They...they were dead before they could retreat.”
    Her halting recitation of the details stalled on the choking