Burns So Bad (Smoke Jumpers) (23 page)

He met her with his familiar slow
smile, wrapping his fingers around hers as she jumped down. Into his arms.
Naturally. For a moment, with her body pressed against his, she lost her
breath.

“You ready?” He reached into the
truck bed and pulled out her crutches.

For early evening, it was still mind-numbingly
hot even beneath the shadowy elms lining the sidewalk. Mary Ellen’s home was a
laidback California bungalow. Powder blue with white trim and a sweet
wrap-around porch sporting two fire-engine red Adirondack chairs drawn up with
a ringside seat for whatever happened in Strong. Gia could easily imagine
spending evenings there with Rio as she limped up the walk.

Mary Ellen met them at the door and
they exchanged the usual pleasantries. Not asking and answering the real
questions. Just
how’s your day been?
and
thanks for the
place to crash.
No one mentioned the kiss or Gia’s popping Rio in the jaw.
Thank God for manners.

Mary Ellen pushed open a door at
the end of the hall. The guest bedroom was done in yellows and white with an
adjoining bath. The place definitely sported more space than the cabin, that was for sure. Rio followed right on their heels,
carrying her duffel bag.

“Go,” Mary Ellen said as soon he’d
dumped his load, waving him back down the hall. “It’s girl time now. You’ve
done your part.”

Rio shot his mother a look, clearly
wanting to stay right where he was, but she looked back. And he went. Holy
moly, alpha male Rio Donovan backed down and left.

“Teach me that.”

“What?”

“Getting Rio to obey.”

Mary Ellen gave a snort of
laughter. “Practice, honey. Practice and desperation. I had three of those boys.”

The smile in her voice said she
wouldn’t have traded any one of them.

“Don’t believe a word she says,”
Rio hollered from the kitchen. A moment later, she heard the front door shut
and his truck start up.

Uh-huh. This should be good.

“You should get off your feet.” Concern
filled Mary Ellen’s eyes as she eyed Gia’s ankle. She fought the instinctive
urge to say she was fine.

“Are you going to tell me embarrassing
stories about Rio?”
Please?
She sat
on the bed and swung her ankle up. God. That did feel good.

Mary Ellen smiled and settled in
the chair near by. “I sure could.”

“But will you?”

“I guess that depends,” the other
woman said slowly, “on why you need to hear these stories.”

“Rio’s my jump partner.”

Mary Ellen just nodded. “And?”

And—what?

“Are you together?”

“We’re jump partners,” she
repeated.
Definitely
not thinking
about their very public last kiss. “And he was worried about my safety.”

“He’s brought jumpers home before,”
Mary Ellen agreed, warmth and concern filling her eyes. “But I’m thinking
you’re different. He’s certainly never carried in a bag before. Or worried
about what I might say.”

Holding out on the older woman
seemed wrong, but what was she supposed to say? We had wild monkey sex—twice—and
the condom broke? There were things you just didn’t tell a man’s mother.

“I’m a girl?” she suggested
finally, when the silence had stretched on for too long. Mary Ellen Donovan
could give the U.S. military lessons in interrogation.

“You are,” Mary Ellen said
agreeably. “And I raised him to have manners. But he looks at you differently.”

Honestly.

He
looked
at her?

That was ridiculous evidence to
base a relationship on. Even if she liked the sounds of it. Rio’s mother
clearly wanted him to have a girlfriend. That was all. Gia had to wonder what
the older woman would say or do if she knew about the potential grandbaby.

“Ben warned me not to pry,” Mary
Ellen confessed. “But I’ve never been good at taking orders.”

“Me neither.” She grinned at the
other woman. So they had two things in common: Rio. And a dislike of orders.

“Well, there’s that.” Mary Ellen
sighed. “We’ll work the rest of it out. You’ll tell me when you’re good and
ready, or I’ll drive you crazy prying. You take your pick but, in the meantime,
I owe you a story.”

###

Rio stayed out as late as he could,
working around the hangar and then going for a run. Ten miles hadn’t been
enough to knock any sense in him however. Nope. His head still went a million
miles a minute thinking about the woman he was running from.

So here he was.

Hovering in his mother’s hallway.
Man up.
He knocked softly on the bedroom
door and then opened it. Gia was curled up in bed, reading. She stuck her
finger in her book and looked up at him. Her face was scrubbed clean, but her hair was mussed like she’d been running
her fingers through it. She was pretty as hell and he ached to climb in bed
beside her.

She watched him for a moment.

And then she smiled.

“Hey,” she said.

“Just checking in.” Not
on
, he thought.
In.
“How’s the ankle?”

“Good as new.”

Which was a lie, but maybe more of
a white lie now. He eyed her ankle, propped up on a pillow. Maybe he should
take a look.

“Stop it,” she said.

“Stop what?” Staring at her?
Because he didn’t think he could do that. Hell, he’d happily look at her for
the next five, ten or maybe fifty years.

He thought about that for a moment while she set the book on
the bedside table and shook her head.

“Stop thinking you need to see my
ankle for yourself. I’ve been to the doctor and all I need now is some time. A
couple of days and we’ll be running again. I want back on the roster.”

“We’ll see,” he said because
over my dead body
wouldn’t come out
right.

She sighed. “You’re going to make
sure Jack forgets to add me back in, aren’t you?”

“Maybe,” he admitted.

“Are you jumping?”

“We’re short-handed,” he pointed
out. “If the call comes in, I go up.”

There was a moment of silence while
he hovered in the door.

“Can I come in?” he said finally. Nonna’s
guest bedroom had a queen-sized bed and the spot to Gia’s right looked pretty
damned good.

She looked at him like she was
deciding something. “All right.”

He wasn’t sure why she was being so
hesitant. This was Gia. She’d never had a problem asking for what she wanted.
Hell, she’d demanded he get into bed with her. The sex had been fantastic. So
why did she seem to be having second thoughts now?

He
stepped into the room before she could change her mind, leaving the door
cracked. She promptly craned her neck, trying to see around him into the hall.

“Ben convinced Nonna to take a
walk.”

“Oh.”
She looked relieved. He didn’t blame her for not wanting an audience. Even if
they weren’t going to do anything—and they
weren’t
, he reminded himself, because she was exhausted and
recuperating.

Not
to mention possibly pregnant.

She eyed the duffel bag in his
hand, but she didn’t say anything. Base camp now had two vacancies. He set the
bag down on the floor and moved towards the bed.

“I’m staying down the hall,” he
said. “Just in case.”
And… surprise.
Maybe he should have mentioned his plans earlier.

He
sat down on the empty side of the bed, eying the white chenille spread.

The plastic bookstore bag crinkled in his hand as he dropped
it beside him. He’d get to that in a minute.

“You got everything you need?” He
unlaced his boots and toed them off. If he put dirty boots on the bed, Nonna
would kill him. Stretching out beside Gia, he rolled onto his side until he
could see her face. She smelled good, like some kind of fruity shampoo. His
favorite scent in the world.

“I’m set.” She hesitated. “Your
mother’s fantastic.”

“The best.” He meant it too. Nonna
had singlehandedly rescued him and he wouldn’t forget that.

This was a damned awkward position
to have a conversation in. Reaching out, he pulled her onto his chest. She wasn’t
reading anyhow. She stiffened for a moment, then relaxed into him. He cupped
the back of her neck and rubbed.

“Magic hands,” she murmured.
“That’s what you have.”

“How do you feel?”

“Fine.”

Her hand slipped between them,
finding his chest. And his nipple. She stroked and, damn, did she have any idea
where her fingers had strayed?

She looked up at him and ginned.
“And you?”

She knew.

So he dipped his head and kissed
her. A quick, soft, hi-there-you-are kiss while he slid a hand over her belly.
Hard to believe that beneath all that toned sexy there could be a very small,
almost not there baby.

“I meant this,” he said.

“Oh.” She dropped her head back
onto his chest. “It’s still too soon, Rio.”

Weren’t women supposed to have a
second sense about these things? Because what he still didn’t know about
pregnancy could fill a book. Which reminded him. Shifting her into his left
arm, he reached behind him and snagged the plastic bag.

“I brought you something. Just in
case.”

He sat up, pulling her into his
lap, and handed her a small stack of books from the bag. The lady at the
bookstore had been really happy to help him pick out a few titles. She’d
assured him that
What to Expect
was
practically a must-read. Hell if he knew.

“You don’t think this is jumping
the gun a little?”

He liked being prepared.

So shoot him.

And so maybe he’d read the first
one sitting in his truck. He wanted to be there for her, but he didn’t know
anything about pregnancy other than the basic mechanics. Which was enough, if
he thought about
Gia
popping out a
baby, enough to scare him shitless. Moe information couldn’t hurt, so he’d
bought the books.

“If I am pregnant, there are
options,” she said carefully. “We don’t have to have this baby.”

The fierce protectiveness that
swept him was both old and new. He rubbed his palm gently over her belly
because that could be the newest member of the family. Strange and scary, sure.
But not unwelcome. Family was family, no matter how small.

“Is that what you want?” He held
his breath like a first class idiot waiting for her answer. His brothers would
laugh their collective asses off. Rio had never pulled his punches, ever, and
now here he was, dancing around the elephant in the room.

She pulled away from him slightly,
angling her head to see his face. “I want to hear what
you
want.”

Busted.

He’d imagined Gia, round and
waddling with their baby, and he was… curious.That was all. He’d seen women, at the
grocery story and in town and they looked like they’d swallowed a damned
watermelon. He sure as hell wasn’t thinking about how they got the watermelon
out
. But they’d be a family. He’d be
adding two to the happy threesome of Jack, Evan and Nonna.

“If there’s a baby,” he said
roughly, “I’m seeing this through, okay? He or she is going to be family.
Our
family.”

He didn’t know what that meant, but
he’d figure it out.

When she didn’t answer right away,
he gently nudged her chin up with his thumb so he could see her face. “Gia?
What do you want?”

She hesitated. “Rio—”

“Whatever you need,” he promised.
“I’m going to give you that. If I don’t do something, you tell me.”

“Rio—” This time, his name
came out as a laugh. “You don’t take orders. We both know that.”

“I’ll learn. I’m serious, Gia.
Whatever you need, it’s yours.”

He felt rather than saw her nod
against his chest. He was still holding her when he drifted off to sleep.

###

Mary Ellen tiptoed down the hall.
Ben had coaxed her out for a walk. Exercise was good, but the company was
better. He wanted a relationship. He’d made that plenty clear in the last year
and had even kissed her. Once. He hadn’t repeated the attempt, but she had a
feeling he was waiting for some kind of a sign from her.

Which was the problem, wasn’t it?

She didn’t know what she wanted.

She paused outside door of Gia’s
room. Gia was an interesting conundrum. When Rio had asked if Gia could stay
with her for a few weeks, he’d presented her as a fellow smoke jumper who’d
taken a nasty tumble—and who’d witnessed a drug grow firsthand. The ankle
she could certainly help with, and the drug dealers didn’t worry her. Between
Ben and her boys, she had four potential bodyguards. The president of the
United States couldn’t have better or more dedicated security. Anyone who tried
to get to Gia or into the house wouldn’t get far.

What she hadn’t figured out yet was
what else there was between Rio and Gia. Because there was definitely something
and she didn’t think it was just chemistry. Oh, that was there. She didn’t fool
herself. She’d raised three good-looking alpha male sons. They’d had lovers,
but she’d taught them to respect women and she trusted they weren’t careless.

Gia had the potential to be
something more.

And Mary Ellen wanted Rio to be
happy.

On the surface, he was the most
laidback, happy-go-lucky of her sons already. That was the surface though.
Underneath he still hadn’t dealt with all of the baggage he’d picked up as a
child before she’d got him. His sensual charm and playful demeanor were weapons
he wielded with deadly accuracy. No one outside of the family got close to him.

He’d dated. Often. She’d never
worried about him being lonely. Just the happy part of the equation. Jack and
Evan were settling down, which made her want the same thing for Rio.

And now he’d brought Gia here.

Gia’s door was cracked, but the
room was dark. She shouldn’t look in.

She really, really shouldn’t.

Thank God Ben wasn’t here to bust
her.