The Eleventh Hour

“Yeah. One of you, Josh and Tommy stumbling out of a plane after you’d just come off a two-day wildfire on the California–Oregon border.”

His heart lurched.

“I heard about Tommy,” she said quietly. “I’m so sorry. What happened?”

Oddly enough, despite her aversion to his job, it felt right sharing his pain with her. “The fire. A sudden wind.”

She closed her eyes briefly. When she opened them again, tears clung to her lashes. Her compassion reminded him why he’d fallen so hard. “Are you okay?”

He didn’t want to face his grief for Tommy now. He’d been wallowing in it for a week. He slid his hand around her waist. “I’m better now.”

She leaned back and gave him a wry look. “And still smooth as ever.”

Smiling, he gripped her side. “Why am I thinking that’s not a compliment?”

“But it is. And especially convenient for the available ladies of Fairfax.”

“And do you include yourself in that group?”

“Definitely not.”

Damn. “You’re married?”

“No. Just not available.”

“To me?”

“To anybody.” She polished off the pink contents of her martini glass. “Another cosmo, please,” she said to the smiling young bartender who appeared before her.

Steve ordered a beer. “Since when do you drink cosmos?”

“I have for years.”

Something was definitely up with a cosmo-drinking, sassy-mouthed, unavailable Laine. It’s been seven years, man. People change. Look at you.

He was challenged by her lack of interest in him. Because he was still interested in her? Or because she’d once been so dedicated to him?

Either way, it was probably a good idea to back off. At least for the moment. “How’s Aunt Jen?”

“Stubborn as ever. She doesn’t want to leave her house.”

“She may not have to.”

“Chief Arnold seemed to think differently when I was at base camp yesterday. You really believe she won’t need to leave?”

“We’re supposed to be thinking positively on the front line, but no. Evacuations will happen.” He accepted his beer from the bartender; Laine did the same with her cosmo. “If we don’t get some rain soon, the town is right in the fire’s path.”

She held up her glass. “Then a toast to rain. To Tommy.” Pausing, she met his gaze. “And to the rest of you staying safe.”

He tapped his mug against her glass. “To Tommy.” He wasn’t toasting himself. The reluctance he felt at every jump, every trip into the ravaged forest, made a mockery of the other teams’ bravery.

She sipped her drink, then puckered her lips and set the glass aside.

“Too strong?”

“No, it’s…fine. So, how’ve you been?”

He drank his beer, figuring at least they’d agree on the changes he’d made in his life. “I gave up smoke jumping and moved back home to Georgia a few years ago.”

Laine nearly fell off her stool. “You—What?”

“I went home, joined a regular firehouse, started saving cats from trees. I even bought a house.”

She couldn’t grasp it. “What about parachuting from planes into fire-choked forests? What about rappelling from helicopters? What about Italy and Greece? You had hiking, biking, scuba diving and who knows what else planned.”

“The farthest I’ve been from home in the last four years is Atlanta.”

Bad boy Steve had reformed? Settled down? Good grief.

“Did you get married?” she asked, still stunned enough to wonder what else she’d missed.

“No.”

“Have any kids?”

Leaning toward her, he grinned. “No. Are you volunteering?”

That brought back painful memories. When she’d been young and wide-eyed. When she’d thought she and Steve would get married someday, have a family together. Instead, he’d asked her to move in and made it clear he planned to be a smoke jumper until he was old and gray.

Going back there wouldn’t help, and she really didn’t want to go several rounds with him over the past. “But you are here working on the fires.”

“My old team called me when Tommy died. They asked me to fill in.”

He’d probably left home with skid marks. Settled down? No way. “And it’s great to be back.”

He drank his beer. “Oh, yeah.”

See, nothing had changed, her heart reminded her.

And even though her libido protested, she told herself that was a good thing. She didn’t want to want Steve. She had a job to do. A paycheck to maintain. An aunt to battle.

Still, she couldn’t deny how good it felt to sit next to him again. His wild, mischievous smile and confidence had thrown her for a loop from the beginning, but she’d soon learned there was much more beneath his beautiful face and body. He spoke three languages, had spent several years abroad, had a love of art and culture—and never passed up the opportunity to help little old ladies cross the street.

On top of her conflicting feelings, she was baffled by him flirting with her. Did he really want to pick up where they’d left off?

No way. Not a good idea. Her heart had taken too severe a beating the first time around.

“So you’re just back for the fire?”