6
Talking about his past always wrung Palo dry. He wasn’t sure the last time he’d been so exhausted. They’d fought fire for four straight days. They’d started this morning at sunrise and only been released at five o’clock. Everyone had agreed they wanted to get back to the Firebirds’ base, so they’d driven through the evening and the slow mid-summer sunset to reach the Illinois Valley Airport.
To see the women there, sitting around the fire as if waiting for them, had caught him so off guard. Curt welcomed by Stacy like he was coming home. The crew sitting around the campfire like they all belonged. Palo had never belonged anywhere except for his early days in the gang and flying beside his foster father.
But none of that was what had knocked him back.
Now that he’d spilled his past in
