Playing With Fire: inspirational romantic suspense (Montana Fire Book 2) (6 page)

The shower was going in the bathroom when she returned with the clothes. Liza set them outside the bathroom door and headed to the kitchen.

Pancakes with nutmeg and cinnamon. And scrambled eggs with peppers, onions, mushrooms. She even thawed a couple of wild-rice-and-pork sausages from the local deli.

But he was taking so long, she thought he might have fallen asleep in the shower. And then what?—she couldn’t rightly go in and drag him to safety.

Liza was just trying to figure out if she should call Joe or maybe 9-1-1 when he emerged, a towel around his shoulders, his hair clean and toweled off, still damp. The navy Deep Haven Fire and Rescue shirt clung to his body, his wide, work-sculpted shoulders, his lean torso. He wore the sweatpants low, his feet bare.

“This smells amazing,” Conner said to her, standing in the doorway. He pulled the towel off his shoulders, hung it on the chair.

She hadn’t realized how dirty he’d been. His beard cleaned up to a shiny gold, his hair sun-streaked white, his eyes bright without the soot on his skin. Yes, he must have scrubbed, because his hands were clean.

Again she noticed the scars on his hands. Conner must have seen her looking as she put the plate of eggs and sausage in front of him. He pulled out the chair, sat down. “They’re from the car accident,” he said quietly. “Not a wildfire.”

The accident. The accident where he’d pulled his brother to safety.

Liza had a feeling that the burns might have occurred while his parents were trapped, while he was trying to free them. But she didn’t want to ask. Instead, she set pancakes down next to his plate of eggs, then the syrup. Powdered sugar.

“This is enough food to feed everyone in fire camp.”

“And yet, I think you’ll manage,” she said, sitting down opposite him.

Conner grinned, tiny lines around his eyes crinkling. A dimple in his cheek. She had to look away at another rush of her pulse.

He just needed a friend.

To her surprise, however, he held out his hand. “My grandfather always made sure we prayed before our meals.”

Liza took his hand. His thumb dragged over the top of her hand, perhaps absently, as he prayed, his voice soft, earnest.

He mentioned the fire, a guy named Tom, and thanked God for Liza.

Then Conner ate like a man who hadn’t seen food for a decade. She had dished up eggs for herself, but played with them, watching.

He finally looked up, reaching for his orange juice.

She grinned.

“I’m a cave man, aren’t I?”

“A little,” she said.

“These are good eggs.” He pulled the plate of pancakes closer to himself. “My grandfather is an amazing flapjack maker. He uses real buttermilk in his batter, lets it rise overnight.”

“These aren’t that good.”

But he’d taken a bite. “Oh yes they are.” Then he winked.

Just. Friends.

“He used to put in chocolate chips for my brother, the wimp.”

“I have sprinkles...”

Conner grinned. “Thanks. I’m good.”

“Is he a smokejumper, too?”

“Justin?” He shook his head, his mouth wry. “He was an NSA agent.”

Was?

Oh. No. And she didn’t want him to finish, but…

“Justin was murdered in the line of duty about seven years ago.”

Oh. Liza stared at him, wanting to weep. “Conner—”

“It’s okay—”

“It’s not okay. I’m so sorry.”

Conner gave her a half smile. “Thanks. It was probably even harder on my grandfather. He and Justin were real close. They never solved the murder. And now, the NSA has decided to relegate it to cold cases. So, I’m afraid we’ll never have any answers.”

It just got worse. Liza pushed her eggs away, unable to speak.

“Wow, I just killed the mood,” he said.

She looked up. “What mood?”

“The one where you were trying to cheer me up, keep me alive.”

“Is that what I was doing?”

He smiled then. “I hope so. Because I’ve been thinking about you all week.”

And see, what was she supposed to do when he said things like that? Ignore the spark inside?

Just.
Friends.

“Coffee?” Liza asked, her voice a little thick.

“No. I need serious sleep, and it’ll only start me buzzing.”

She had the strangest urge to offer him her guest room. Probably not a good idea.

Conner finished his pancakes. “Those were fantastic.” He pressed his hand to his stomach. “It’s a good thing I get twenty-four hours off, because if I went back out now, they’d have to roll me onto the fire line.”

He smiled again, and apparently she’d done her job, cheering him up. Now, if she could only keep him alive.

“Have you been on a lot of fires this summer?”

“About six so far. This is the biggest, though.”

“Six?”

“Yeah—mostly in Montana, a couple in Idaho. The smokejumping team used to deploy out of Boise, but we built a training base in Ember, Montana, which is just west of Glacier National Park. We’re stationed there. We mostly put out fires in the Cabinet Mountains and, of course, the park.”

“Sounds busy and…exhausting. You look like you’re going to drop right here.”

Conner smiled. “Maybe. If I do, just shove a pillow under my head. I’m used to sleeping in crazy places. But I do like the work. I like the fact that at the end of the day you walk away tired, having kept a promise to yourself that you won’t quit. And”—his smile dimmed—“it’s the closest thing to being a part of a family a guy like me is going to get.”

A guy like him?

She might have let his words flicker in her eyes but said nothing. Still, he answered her.

“I live in a trailer, moving from one fire to the next. And like I said, there’s a lot of sleeping on the ground. We never know when we need to deploy—we get about a two-hour notice. Sometimes they take us right off one fire, fly us into another. So it’s hard to put down roots or make friends.”

Probably his way of telling her that if he left, he wouldn’t be able to say good-bye. But if that was meant to scare her off, he had nothing to worry about.

“Some of us are just destined to spend our lives alone,” she said and lifted a shoulder. “Doesn’t mean you can’t have a friend along the way, even temporarily.”

She felt Conner’s enigmatic look all the way to her bones, turning her world a little off-kilter.

Liza cleared her throat, found her footing. “How
is
the fire going?”

“Not great. Jed called in for more tankers, but if we don’t get a handle on it, it’s going to start destroying some of the resorts. Like Evergreen. And something called the Garden? Darek mentioned it at a briefing we had a few days ago at the resort.”

“The Garden—oh no. That’s where Joe’s brother Gabriel lives. It’s a group home. I should call Mona.”

“I think the fire department is already on it,” Conner said and finished off his juice.

Then silence fell, awkward between them.

“I should go.” He got up. “Thank you for breakfast. And for the clothes. If I don’t get a chance to bring them back, I’ll leave them at Evergreen.”

Liza managed a smile, hating how her heart suddenly hurt.

And she might not be the only one, because he just stared at her, a half smile on his face, as if sorry to leave. “I’m glad you were on the beach, Liza. Thanks for this morning. You’ve been...”

Just. Friends.

“Amazing.”

Oh.

“And easy to talk to, and yeah, I think God used you today to help jar me out of my funk. I know I would have perished without breakfast.”

She stood, picked up his towel, held it. “I doubt it.”

“I
know
it.” His eyes met hers, an emotion she couldn’t name just below the surface. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it. “I definitely needed a friend.”

Her smile was genuine. “I’m glad I could be your Deep Haven friend.”

He stood there a second longer, looked at the towel in her hand, as if stirring up words. Then, “I don’t make promises, but if I can get back into town before I leave, I will, okay?”

Huh? Oh. She knew he was leaving, but found her breath caught. She nodded though, her foolish heart tumbling over with his words.

“Stay alive, Conner.”

And then she reached out her hand to him.

He took it. Then quickly pulled her close. Wrapped her in a hug.

A warm,
just-friends
kind of embrace that she probably enjoyed way too much. Because his chest was solid against her cheek, his waist trim and toned, and he smelled freshly showered, the hint of soap on his skin.

“Keep praying,” he said, then let her go.

And if that didn’t help her tuck her heart back into her chest, then she didn’t know what would.

Liza watched him leave, carrying his bundle of smoky, charred clothing, and wished that she wasn’t so easy to walk away from.

Conner couldn’t believe Evergreen Resort had actually burned to the ground.

It still seemed surreal to remember standing there on the shore of Pine Acres, watching from across Evergreen Lake as the nearly hundred-year-old resort was consumed by the forest fire. The blaze overran all twelve cabins, the trees, the swing set, an A-frame house, even the towering pines from which the resort got its name.

Darek had narrowly missed being burned alive at the neighbor’s house, saving his girlfriend Ivy and her friend Claire. They’d floated to safety under a canoe in Evergreen Lake.

Conner still felt a little lightheaded when he thought about the destruction.

Thankfully, it had stopped at the lodge, Jed’s voice in near disbelief as they watched the survival of the stately two-story home glistening wet under the spray of hoses from the lake.

The fire had come right up to the edge of the property, clawing, hungry.

And died.

It also stopped in the field behind Pine Acres, a resort owned by Jensen Atwood, who ingeniously had run a sprinkler system into the green meadow that separated the Acres from the forest.

Conner didn’t want to guess what it cost Darek to see his family’s history burn. He knew that Darek had made a deliberate choice with Jensen to dig a line across the meadow, sacrificing the resort.

Responsibility over passion. He’d chosen saving the town, stopping the fire over his family’s legacy.

Life never came with easy choices. And rarely ended well, something Conner should probably keep in mind as he packed the Jude County buggy outside the fire camp, considering the impulse to head into town and see Liza one more time.

The three days of mop-up had felt like eternity as Jed pushed the crew to put out any final hot spots.

Now Jed came up behind him, carrying a box of flares and drip canisters. “I heard that Jock called, assigned you to Idaho to boost the fire down at Seven Devils.”

A nasty, dangerous wilderness. The Midnight Sun Jumpers from Alaska had even been brought in to fight the fires in mountains that had the most entrapments of any in the country.

Conner wasn’t thrilled.

And yeah, before he left, he wanted to make one last trip into town.

I don’t make promises, but if I can get back into town before I leave, I will, okay?

He knew he’d probably put a little too much into his eyes when he said that, looking for a smile from her—but he couldn’t stop thinking about Liza.

Or the way she’d simply stepped up into his charred, raw, darkened heart and shined light through it. Healed it just a little with her words.
God’s compassion for you never fails. It’s new every morning, faithful. Like sunrises.

He wanted to believe that. But when he saw the truth—like a family’s entire livelihood burn to the ground...

Or his brother, a hero, killed.