by Bella Andre
Anticipation.
She turned quickly from the window. “Good news, Summer,” she called out with forced cheer. “Looks like we’re going to the party, after all.”
Summer let out a happy squeal and then ran into the kitchen to cut up the fudge she’d made that morning into bite-sized pieces for the party.
* * *
Sophie had sounded positively gleeful over Megan’s flat tire, Gabe thought as he double-parked his truck in front of an apartment building and got out to pick up his two impromptu passengers. In fact, while she was at it, his sister had given him hell for not having already offered to take her friend and her daughter to the party.
The worst part about it, of course, was that Sophie was right. He should have offered.
But he hadn’t, because he didn’t trust himself around Megan, didn’t trust their attraction not to flare up and burn both of them.
He knocked on their door, only to have it flung open before his knuckles could make contact more than once.
“Mr. Sullivan!” Summer threw her arms around him.
He hugged her back, looking up into the apartment just as Megan came around the corner...and completely took his breath away.
She looked surprised to see him. “Oh. Hi. I didn’t hear you knock.” Her eyes were soft as she looked at him with her daughter. “Thanks for coming to pick us up on such short notice.”
There were half a dozen things he could have said, at least a handful of replies that would have made sense. But even though he knew better than to go there, all he could get out was, “You’re beautiful.”
And she was. So damn beautiful his heart couldn’t decide between stopping in his chest or racing out of control.
He watched her try to contain her shock at his unexpected compliment. And then her smile.
“Thank you.”
Holy hell.
That smile.
It affected him just as much as it had in the hospital room. He’d seen her determination and tears and forced politeness...but her sweet, genuine smile was what undid him every time.
He felt Summer tug on his arm and barely managed to drag his gaze away from her mother. “You’re gorgeous, too, kid,” he told the little girl, who did a little pirouette to show off her sparkling green dress. “And whenever you say Mr. Sullivan, I think you’re talking about my grandfather, so why don’t you call me Gabe?”
“Okay, Gabe! Can we go now? When did you decide you wanted to be a firefighter? What’s it like having so many brothers and sisters? Was it hard to become a firefighter? Why is your fire hat red?”
The rush of questions from the seven-year-old girl sitting in the middle of the extended cab should have been the perfect way to keep his focus from landing on Megan again and again during the drive out of the city to the suburban home he’d grown up in. Especially since the woman sitting beside him remained nearly perfectly still and silent.
But through the forty-minute trip, despite the mouthwatering smell of the large plate of fudge Summer had made, Gabe was all too aware of Megan’s faint scent, something flowery and clean, along with her gorgeous curves beneath her knee-length velvet dress and those toned legs that he’d been unable to keep from admiring as he’d followed them out to his truck from her apartment.
When he finally pulled up outside his mother’s house to let them out, as he stepped out onto the sidewalk to open their door, Gabe took in a hard breath of cold, crisp air. “I’ll see you both inside in a few minutes, after I park the truck.”
Megan nodded but didn’t make eye contact with him as she helped Summer jump down into her arms.
He hadn’t smoked since his first day in training with the fire crew. But for the first time in years, Gabe would have killed for a cigarette.
* * *
It hadn’t taken more than five minutes to find a space for his truck and walk into his mother’s house, decked out with a ten-foot-tall Christmas tree and carols playing. So then, how the hell could his brothers already have found Megan so quickly?
Ryan and Zach were flanking her on either side and as she laughed at whatever they were telling her, she was beautiful. So beautiful it made something inside him tighten up whenever he looked at her.
He was going to kill his brothers. If they so much as laid a hand on her, they were dead men.
And then, almost in slow motion, he saw Zach’s patented load-for-launch move as his brother reached up to brush a lock of hair away from her eyes.
Gabe was halfway across the room, his hands in tight fists, when his mother stopped him with a hug.
“Honey, I’m so glad you’re finally here.” She looked across the room to where Megan was being entertained by his brothers. “And I’m so glad you brought Megan and Summer with you. They’re both just lovely. Absolutely lovely.”
Gabe tried to get his blood pressure to return to normal. He had no claim on Megan. Maybe Sophie was right. Maybe someone like Megan was just what an asshat like Zach needed to make him see the light and change his ways.
But the thought only made Gabe’s blood boil hotter.
Feeling his mother’s eyes on him, he somehow managed to hold it together enough to grit out the words, “Looks like another great party, Mom.”
“As long as all of you are here, I’m happy. Well, minus one, unfortunately, but I know Smith tried his hardest to get back.”
Smith hadn’t been able to clear his shooting schedule to fly to San Francisco. To his credit, Gabe was fairly impressed with how many family functions Smith managed to attend. They were neck and neck actually—for every movie Smith couldn’t get away from, Gabe dealt with a fire that had to take priority over seeing his family.
Megan’s laughter pulled his gaze back over to her despite his best efforts to look elsewhere. He was torn between wanting to get an emergency fire call so he could get away from temptation...and not wanting to ever stop looking at her.
Judging by the way Zach was hanging on her every word, his brother clearly felt the same way.
“Megan said the sweetest thing to me when we met.” His mother’s hand on his arm had him working to yank his attention back to her. “She thanked me for raising such a wonderful man who made such a difference in her life.” He watched his mother swallow hard. “I almost started crying right there in the kitchen thinking about what would have happened to her and her little girl if you hadn’t been there.”
He knew better than to let himself think about that scenario, about what might have been if he hadn’t gotten to them in time. Instead, he told himself he was glad for the reminder of what they were to each other.
Megan was the woman he’d saved. The one time he’d made the mistake of getting involved with a fire victim he’d saved, things had gone terribly wrong. All these years later, he could hardly believe what Kate had done when he’d broken up with her, that she’d—
“Gabe, honey, are you all right?”
At his mother’s hand on his arm and her soft, but concerned, question, he shoved the memory back down. Still, he needed to get his mother to understand that Megan wasn’t any different from any other fire victim, and that there was nothing special between them.
“She’s still processing the incident. It’s perfectly normal.”
“I suppose so,” she said softly, “but I didn’t expect her to apologize to me.”
He frowned. “She apologized?”
“She feels responsible for you getting hurt. She said if she had moved faster, if she’d just been able to hold it together better, that you wouldn’t have been where you were when the beam fell.”
“That’s bullshit.”
He didn’t realize he’d sworn aloud until his mother looked at him with raised eyebrows, but he couldn’t stand the thought that Megan blamed herself in some way for anything that had happened.
“She was incredibly strong. She should have been unconscious long before then, but she was fighting for her daughter’s life.” He closed his eyes for a brief second and he was right
back there in the smoke. “You should have seen her.”
“Sophie is thrilled they’ve reconnected. I hope to see more of her.”
Only Zach knew that he didn’t date fire victims anymore—and the reason why. Which was probably why Zach thought it was safe to make a play for Megan, because he knew being with her would break one of Gabe’s hard and fast rules.
But his mother had never believed in matchmaking, thank God. So he tried not to read anything into her statement.
“What can I get you to drink, honey?”
Man, did he ever need something to take the edge off. The problem was, even though this wasn’t his official shift, the station was short staffed over the winter holidays and he’d agreed to be a backup on the roster. Which meant there’d be no alcohol for him tonight.
“Go ahead and entertain your guests, Mom. I’ll take care of my own drink.”
“Okay, and if you wouldn’t mind starting a fire in the fire pit outside, I’d really appreciate it.”
Any one of his siblings could have started the fire for her, but he knew she liked to have him do it because she—correctly—assumed he was more concerned with fire safety than the others.
“No problem.”
She kissed him on the cheek and moved back into the throng of old friends, but instead of heading over to the bar for a soda, he made a beeline for the woman he’d planned on staying away from the rest of the night.
Chapter Six
Why was Gabe looking at her like that?
Megan felt the slightest bit fuzzy from the glass of champagne she’d guzzled way too fast, but she wasn’t even close to drunk. So then, why was she all but wobbling in her heels as Gabe moved through the crowded living room toward where she was standing with his brother?
She’d felt him watching her while she’d been talking to Zach and Ryan—and maybe she’d let herself laugh a little louder than normal, if only to make sure he didn’t think she was at all interested in him.
“Call me tomorrow about your flat and I’ll take care of it for you.” Zach Sullivan followed up his words with a grin that had her flushing.
But not because she was attracted to him. Okay, so she was human, and out of all the Sullivan men, Zach was undoubtedly the best looking on a technical scale that measured height of cheekbones and distance between the eyes.
The thing was, for whatever teeny-tiny flutter that had happened as a result of Zach’s undivided attention, there was an earthquake going on inside her from nothing more than Gabe’s hot eyes staring a hole in her from across the room. An earthquake causing ruptures inside, threatening to break open parts of her that she’d sworn to keep locked down.
She opened her mouth to thank him for the offer, but before she could, Gabe moved between the two of them. “Get lost, Zach.”
Zach who? Megan couldn’t take her eyes off the gorgeous firefighter.
“Where’s Summer?” he asked.
Despite all the champagne, her mouth was almost too dry to answer. “Your mother introduced her to some of the other kids. I think they’re checking out the game room in the basement.”
“Good. We need to talk.” He gestured to the backyard. “Somewhere private would be best.”
Even though he was easygoing with her daughter, Gabe had always been intense around her. Still, he seemed more serious than usual right now. Something was wrong, she was sure of it. Only, she couldn’t figure out what. Not, of course, that she’d been able to figure him out at all, yet.
She headed through the French doors that led to the empty back patio, with Gabe close enough behind her that she could feel his heat keeping her warm as they stepped out into the cool air. She moved farther into the darkness, away from the crowd of people drinking and eating and laughing together.
He took off his leather jacket. “Here.”
There was nothing soft or romantic about his brusque word or tone. And yet, when he slipped the jacket on over her shoulders before she could refuse it, she couldn’t help but be warmed by the gesture, both inside and out. She loved the smell of him, the way a little bit of smoke always seemed to cling to him, a scent that was utterly unique to him.
“What do you need to speak with me about?”
“Fighting fires is my job, Megan,” he began with no preamble, no small talk whatsoever. “I’m trained to deal with dangerous, possibly deadly situations. When firefighters get hurt, it’s either their own fault for not taking the proper precautions, or it’s a natural force of the fire that no one can control.” He searched her face and when he clearly didn’t see what he was looking for, he said, “You shouldn’t be apologizing to my mother about what happened to me.”
She couldn’t mask her surprise. “But it’s true. If I could have—”
He cut her off. “I should have had two dead weights to carry out of there, but you never let go for a second. Not for one goddamned second until you knew your daughter was safe.”
There was enough outdoor lighting from the decorative lanterns hanging from the oak’s branches for her to see the expression on his face.
Out-and-out respect.
For her.
“You were amazing, Megan. And I don’t want you to feel guilty about my part in the fire. Not ever again.”
Beyond surprised, she finally said, “Thank you for saying that, although I don’t think I can help the way I feel.”
“Neither can I.”
They stared at each other, the air between them doing that thing with the sparks and the electricity. Suddenly she didn’t know if they were talking about the fire anymore...or the sensual tension in the air.
“I shouldn’t have brought you out here,” he suddenly said. “It’s too cold without a fire. I’ll see you inside in a bit after I get something going in the fire pit.”
Clearly, that was his way of dismissing her. And Megan knew she would be wise to leave before any of the sparks ignited between them. But, darn it, she didn’t like leaving on his terms. And she definitely didn’t like it when he turned away as if she was already gone, and started piling his arms with nearby firewood.
No woman wanted to think that she could be forgotten that quickly. Even one who had sworn not to want the attention of the man in question.
Knowing she was often too stubborn for her own good, she headed to the woodpile and picked up several good-looking pieces of firewood.
Gabe didn’t look happy to see that she was still there. “Weren’t you going inside?”
Quickly guessing that most women Gabe dealt with probably jumped at every command out of that gorgeous mouth, she knelt by the built-in fire pit he was uncovering. “I figured I’d help you get the bonfire going.” She admired the brickwork. “This is fantastic. Summer is going to beg me for one just like it in our backyard. She’s a huge s’mores fan.”
“Your apartment has a yard?”
She shook her head. “Not the temporary apartment we’re in now. But once we find the perfect new place, I might put one in.” Although, even as she said it, she knew she wouldn’t, knew she would be too worried about fire spreading from the fire pit to her building.
“I hope you find the perfect house soon, Megan.” He was silent for a moment before adding, “I’ve been to a thousand fires in a thousand people’s homes, but it’s not the same as having it happen to me. I’m sorry about what you must have lost.”
She didn’t look up from where she was positioning the logs into a perfect pyramid. “I am, too.”
She hadn’t wanted to say as much to Summer, believing instead that her daughter needed her to be strong. She hadn’t wanted her clients to worry that she couldn’t handle their workloads, so she’d simply reminded each of them that she had backup records in a secure, fire-safe location. Her parents were bound to worry no matter what she said, so of course she’d been tight-lipped about her feelings to them, too. And as for her girlfriends, well, the truth was she hadn’t had a lot of time for going out with the girls between working and taking care of Summer. Some
of the other mothers at school were friendly, but she hadn’t felt a strong connection with any of them. That’s why it had been so nice to run into Sophie again.
“Fortunately, most of our pictures were all still on my hard drive, but the things I saved from when Summer was a baby, from her first day at school, her first lost tooth...I wish all of those things weren’t gone.” She made herself shrug and pull her lips up at the corners as she took the matches he handed her. “But they are and we’re doing pretty great, all in all. I got lucky with that kid of mine.”
He was nodding and looking into the fire that she’d just kindled as he said, “You sure did.” The flames took off and he grinned at her. “Nice job with that fire, by the way.”
He’d grinned at Summer plenty of times, but never directly at her. The force of that smile, so utterly genuine, without any of the knowing charm that his brothers Ryan and Zach laid on, had her wanting to take two steps closer to him and kiss him.
As if he could hear her silent yearnings, in an instant his smile fell away and his eyes darkened, filling with that heat that she couldn’t help but be drawn to, heat she was dying to get closer to, to see if it could warm all those places inside her that had been cold for so long.
“I should get back inside to check and make sure Summer’s doing okay.”
His eyes were still hot, still intense when he nodded. “Go.”
She was halfway to the French doors when she realized she was still wearing his jacket. She turned, moved back to where he was staring after her, and lifted it from her shoulders. “Thank you.”
His fingertips moved across her knuckles as they made the transfer and she was glad for the excuse the cold weather gave as goose bumps suddenly appeared on her skin. Only she needed to know it wasn’t the outside temperature that had caused them.
She didn’t wait for him to say “You’re welcome.” She simply turned and hightailed it back to safer ground.
* * *
When the kids found out there was a bonfire outside, they all went to find sticks in the backyard for the marshmallows that Mrs. Sullivan had put out on a nearby table. But the melted sugar on a stick wasn’t the end of the delightful surprises for them.
