Much later, when they had each drifted back to the surface of awareness, he murmured in her ear, “You know, Hazel has already assured me there’s a good job waiting for me here in Mystery.”
Jo, almost forgetting to take her next breath, replied, “Think you might take her up on the offer?”
“If I was ever tempted, it’s now. She’s pretty convincing when she says there’s no better place on earth to put down roots and raise a family. I’d like to give it a try.”
She sat up in bed and looked at him. She remembered how he’d pulled her to him after they’d made it safely to Hazel’s car. Their faces black with soot and exhaustion, he had made her feel as if she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. There was nobody besides her, he’d told her, and so far he’d done nothing but prove it again and again in the weeks since.
She’d sworn when they parted that fateful day, he’d said the three magic words—“I love you”—but the frenzy afterward made her think it must have been her imagination.
“Nick Kramer, are you thinking of settling down?”
He gave a wary sideways glance. “Only here. Only with you. Otherwise, I’m lost. All I’ll have is that fistful of air.”
“So you’re asking me to marry you and help raise that family of yours?” Her face was taut with wonder.
He caressed her breast and pulled her back down into the bed. “I sure am. So what’s the answer?” He gave her that slow, sexy smile she had come to know was hers alone.
She kissed his lips. “The answer is yes, but just a warning, though, Hotshot—life around here isn’t as exciting as smoke jumping.”
“I beg to differ,” he countered, lowering his mouth to hers. “There’s plenty of fire in you.”
Almost three months after the rescue on the Stony Rapids River, a brand-new blanket of powdery snow covered the Bitterroot National Forest like an ermine cloak. It was the first real accumulation of the winter.
Ranger Mike Silewski slowly prowled the park’s main access road, the Blazer’s front snowplow lowered for action. While he worked, he kept the radio tuned to the midday news report out of Helena. The newscaster closed with a human-interest story that instantly riveted Mike’s attention:
“Wedding bells will soon be chiming for a Mystery, Montana, music teacher and the heroic smoke jumper who saved her life. And Hazel McCallum’s world-famous Lazy M ranch in Mystery Valley will soon host its fourth big wedding in recent memory.
“In a ceremony slated for late May, Joanna Lofton, twenty-five, and highly decorated firefighter Nick Kramer, thirty, a Colorado native, will tie the knot on a relationship that began a few months ago when they were briefly thrust into the national spotlight.
“Last August Montana residents joined millions of other Americans in a tense, minute-by-minute vigil after Kramer and three comrades risked almost certain death to rescue Lofton and her fellow rafters from fire-ravaged Crying Horse Canyon.
“Neither one of the engaged couple was available for comment regarding their plans. But cattle magnate Hazel McCallum, seventy-five, granted a brief interview from her home. She confirmed that Kramer, now a special consultant to the Montana Bureau of Forest and Land Management, has become a resident of Mystery Valley. He is also teaching forest conservation at Summerfield Community College near Mystery.
“‘I’m on the board of regents for the college,’ McCallum told reporters, ‘and happily the other regents share my belief that our instructors should be working professionals who’ve done more than just read some textbooks. Nick’s course has been wildly popular. We’re lucky to have him. In fact, he’s just the kind of man this valley needs.’
“Ms. McCallum hinted, at the end of her interview, that she expected a substantial number of weddings in Mystery’s near future.
“When asked to elaborate, she declined, saying only: ‘Oh, I’m a sentimental old romantic, is all. It’s just a hunch.’”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8606-5
PLAIN JANE & THE HOTSHOT
Copyright © 2003 by Ruth Goodman
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*Matched in Montana
Plain Jane & The Hotshot Page 13
