Author: Bella Andre

But, yet again, she was too busy being smart to let herself have any fun, wasn’t she?

“You look lovely, honey.” Her mother held her at arm’s length and studied her carefully before they started to walk over to the onsite Italian restaurant where they had planned to have lunch before the three of them got on their plane to Los Angeles. “Have you met someone?”

She could read the hope in her mother’s eyes, knew that while she hadn’t been happy about how young she’d married, she’d also thought Megan was far too young to be living alone. Her mother wanted another husband for her, a father for Summer, and more grandchildren. Preferably back in their Minneapolis suburb, where she could watch over them all.

“No.”

She felt her mother’s eyes on her, too shrewd, and braced herself for more questions, but Summer jumped in first.

“Did Mommy tell you we learned to snowboard last weekend? It was awesome!”

Megan forced herself to smile. “Well, it was awesome for Summer, at least. I’m going to be sticking with skis from here on out.”

“Gabe said you just needed to practice some more,” Summer said, before dragging her grandfather off to show him a stuffed animal she coveted in one of the airport stores.

Her mother raised an eyebrow. “Who’s Gabe?”

Megan answered the question as directly as she could. “He’s the firefighter who got me and Summer out of the building.”

Her mother’s other eyebrow moved up to join the first and then she grabbed Megan’s hands and closed her eyes for a moment as if she were reliving the terror of finding out she’d almost lost them both. When her mother opened them again, they were glassy with unshed tears. “I love that firefighter. With all my heart.”

“Mom! You don’t even know him.”

At her outburst, a dozen strangers turned to look at them.

“I know everything that matters. He saved my babies.”

God, this was just what he’d been talking about, the way people only saw him as a firefighter...and not as the man he was outside of his job.

Wonderful. Charming. Caring. Funny. Not to mention the best lover who ever lived.

Her mother knocked into her musings with, “So you went skiing with him?”

“No.” She looked at the ceiling and admitted, “Yes, but it was an accident.” Summer’s laughter had her looking over at her daughter. “Summer did a little bit of scheming to make it happen.”

Megan was surprised to see her mother smile. “That’s my smart little granddaughter.”

“I’m not—” She paused, changed it to, “We’re not seeing him anymore.”

That eyebrow went back up. “Why not? Is he unattractive?”

Megan could feel herself flushing. “No.”

“Mean?”

She frowned. “No. Of course not.”

“Ah, so he doesn’t like children?”

“Are you kidding? He loves them.” She only realized what she’d said after the words were already out. “Look,” she said to her mother, “it’s complicated. We’re just not right for each other.”

Her mother studied her carefully, again. “Honey, I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye on everything, but can I just give you one piece of advice?”

Megan tried not to groan. “Go ahead.”

“I know it was hard to lose David, especially so suddenly, but you were more than strong enough to deal with that. Strong enough to repeatedly ignore my urgings to come back home.”

Megan was about to open her mouth to tell her—yet again—that San Francisco was her home.

“I know, honey. You are home.” Her mother gave her a sad smile that said while she wasn’t happy about that fact, she’d at least finally accepted it. “I’ve never seen you look like this. Not even when you were with David.”

Guilt washed through Megan and her mother must have seen it because she grabbed her arm.

“Summer’s father was a nice man, but he wasn’t the only nice man out there. He’s gone, Megan. Don’t you think it’s time to move on? Don’t you think it’s time to let yourself risk falling in love again?”

Megan looked up into her mother’s serious face. What could she say to her?

Oh, well, Mom, thanks for the heartfelt advice, but after Gabe and I had crazy monkey sex in Lake Tahoe, I told him not to contact me and Summer again.

Thankfully, Summer and her father returned showing off the new pink stuffed poodle in its carrying case, and then they were all heading into the restaurant and eating spaghetti and listening to Summer talk.

Chapter Seventeen

Timing is everything.

~ from “Firefighting 101” ~

Gabe Sullivan would never be a wine connoisseur like Marcus. He’d never be able to take the perfect picture like Chase or throw a baseball 100 miles an hour like Ryan. And he would never make a movie studio a hundred million dollars over a weekend like Smith regularly did.

But he did know one thing better than almost anyone.

Firefighting.

It was long past time to take those rules he lived and breathed by as a firefighter and apply them to the rest of his life.

Specifically, the woman he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about for the past week.

December 31. The last day of the year. It had been a good one.

But he was planning for the next one to be a whole heck of a lot better.

Skill—and staying smart—had always been the main tenets of Gabe’s success as a firefighter.

But he’d never been stupid enough to discount luck, and that feeling deep in his gut that told him when to keep going—and when to run like hell.

He pulled up outside Megan and Summer’s apartment. The sky was clear blue above him, perfect for a night of New Year’s Eve fireworks...and for him to deploy the first stage of his plan. He hadn’t called ahead to make sure they’d be here, but he had a good feeling about this.

No doubt Megan would try to fight their attraction. He expected that and was prepared to work harder than he ever had at anything to convince her to come around. Gabe knew it wasn’t going to be a quick turnaround.

But, he thought with another slow grin as he remembered their oh-so-sweet lovemaking in Lake Tahoe, a little anticipation wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

He took the steps two at a time up to the door into her apartment building, his long strides quickly putting him in front of her place. He was just about to ring her doorbell when the door opened.

Jesus, he thought, just as stunned as he’d been that day she’d come to see him in the hospital, she’s beautiful.

“Gabe?” She put her hand over her chest as if to try to still her heartbeat. He could see her pulse moving in the gorgeous curve of her neck. “What are you doing here?”

Instead of answering her question, he took in the basket of clothes in her hands. “Laundry.”

“You need to do laundry?” she asked in a confused voice and he liked the way he’d stunned her into losing the thread of what she was doing.

As he smiled down at her, thinking how adorable she looked with her ponytail, sweater, and jeans, she flushed. “Oh. You mean me? Yes. I need to do laundry.”

That was right when she looked down at the basket. When her face flamed even hotter, Gabe followed her gaze to the scrap of pink lace lying on top. She quickly shoved a T-shirt over her panties, but not before Gabe added another goal to his list: To make love to Megan while she was wearing those pink panties.

She looked back up at him and he had to shove his hands deep into his jeans pockets to keep from pulling her against him and kissing her beautifully soft lips.

“I came to see you and Summer.”

She licked her lips, clearly nervous about his unexpected appearance. He loved how strong she was...but he also liked that he could make her nervous.

It was why he’d wanted to surprise her, so that he could gauge her genuine reaction to seeing him again, rather than letting her prepare for the meeting and get all those walls she was so fond of built up.

As he’d learned at the firefighter academy, timing was everything.

“Summer isn’t here. She’s in Disneyland with her grandparents.”

Gabe had planned on including Summer in their plans for the evening, and he would miss the little girl, but he couldn’t deny his pleasure at this chance to be alone with Megan again.

“She must be having a great time.”

Megan pulled the basket of clothes closer to her, as if they could protect her from whatever his intentions were. “She is. I just got off the phone with her. She met Mickey and Goofy at breakfast this morning. I usually go with them, but I had to work so I couldn’t.”

Gabe continued to grin at her as the pulse in her neck continued to rock and roll. “You’re nervous about seeing me again.”

She shook her head too fast. Too hard. “I’m surprised.” But she didn’t meet his eyes as she said it.

“Surprise.”

Her eyes flew to his and he could have sworn she shivered at the husky tone of his voice. But then, a moment later, he watched her still herself and pull her shoulders back.

“We talked about this. In Lake Tahoe.”

“No,” he reminded her. “We didn’t discuss anything at all.”

“Fine,” she said in a short voice. “We can discuss it now. And then you can go.”

He was surprised—but not in a bad way—when she stepped fully into the hall, slammed her door shut behind her, and stalked to the stairs. He followed her down to the basement, admiring the angry sway of her hips as she shoved her shoulder against the laundry-room door and let it swing back in his face.

It was tempting to laugh, but he was afraid she’d take it the wrong way. He appreciated her spark, knowing he would never be happy with a submissive partner. He’d take her facing off against him a hundred times over having her shrink into his arms as if he alone were responsible for the sun shining.

She yanked open the washing machine, shoved the clothes in, poured half a bottle of detergent over them, then pushed in her quarters. When the machine started to—loudly—crank to life, she turned to him, her arms crossed over her chest.

“Go ahead. Discuss away.”

“You’re beautiful, Megan.”

Her eyes widened with pleasure at his compliment for a split second before she tamped it down. “I’ve got work to do.”

She went to move past him and Gabe decided he had no choice but to reach for her. He grabbed her hand and pulled her against him. “Give me a chance.”

She was stiff against him, but she didn’t pull away. “I can’t. And you know why.”

“No,” he told her softly, “I don’t.” Before she could protest, he said, “You know about my past. I want to know about yours, Megan.”

He could see by the stubborn set of her mouth that she wasn’t happy about being cornered like this, that she didn’t think he was playing fair.

But if there was one thing Gabe knew for sure, it was that playing fair never got a firefighter where he wanted to be. But while he wasn’t asking her to welcome him in with open arms—not yet, at least—erasing never would be a good start.

She yanked her hand away from his. “Fine. I’ll tell you what you’re clearly dying to know. But not in the laundry room.” She took a step back. “After you.”

He grinned, knowing she must have figured out how good the view had been on their trip downstairs. Little did she know that her sassy attitude turned him on just as much.

He waited for her to let them into her apartment. Just as he had the first time he’d been there, Gabe immediately felt comfortable in her space.

After all but slamming the door, she sat down hard on the nearest seat. “What do you want to know?”