Burning the Lie

By: Andie Duvall

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

I Faked Loving Her. Now I Can’t Stop.

Fire doesn’t scare me.
What scares me is how fast I notice her when the wind shifts.

I’m a smokejumper in the North Cascades—older, grumpy, in charge.
Control keeps people alive.

Sage Harper stands on the line when everything goes sideways.
She runs logistics, flies the aircraft, and talks my crew through hell like it’s instinct.

She’s sunshine where it shouldn’t survive.
Eight years younger.
Off-limits—and already essential.

When command starts watching us too closely, we choose the lie that keeps us operational.
We say we’re together.

Now it’s forced proximity under fire—late nights, shared silence, her hand finding mine when the fire jumps.
I start listening for her voice first.
Trusting her instincts.
Wanting her safe more than I want control.

I fall without meaning to.

Then the fire breaches containment.
The scrutiny tightens.
And the lie becomes the most dangerous thing I’m holding.

Because if it burns down,
I don’t just lose my career.

I lose her.