Page 8 of Light My Fire

What? And now she was flirting with him? Had she not learnedanything?Maybe Nate was right. She should have kept driving.

He raised an eyebrow at the nickname. “Not a hotshot, by the way. I’m with the Jude County Smoke Jumpers. Hotshots are ground pounders. We jump out of the sky.”

“Oh. I see, like Superman.”

He grinned and waggled his eyebrows.

She rolled her eyes.

He laughed. “We got called in a few weeks ago to provide support for a fire west of here.”

“Staying in town?”

“No. We’re out at Sky King ranch. They have a landing strip for our jump plane, and Barry Kingston provided supply support for us.”

“Nice spread,” she said. “They run adventure trips to Denali. Or used to. Kingston has three sons—triplets. But they all joined the military a few years ago. Followed in their sister’s footsteps. She joined the army right after high school.”

“Larke. Yeah, she’s inside getting hit on by one of our smokejumpers.”

Of course she was. Stevie knew Larke well…but good luck getting past those brothers of hers. She could almost feel sorry for his friend.

Stevie finished off the wing, dropped it into the container. “Their mom died when Larke was a kid—cancer. She’s had to learn to survive in an all-male, frontier family. I sure hope your friend knows what he’s getting into. Lots of kindling for trouble there.”

“Oh, Riley loves jumping into the middle of a fire. He’ll be fine.”

“I’m sorry—I haven’t even introduced myself. Stevie Mills.” She held out her hand, then winced and pulled it back, reaching for the wipe packet.

“Save it. Eat your wings.”

He angled her a look, considered her. “Can I ask why Vic calledyoutrouble?”

She was wiping her fingers with the wet wipe. “It’s a long story.”

He nodded then, and she had the bone-deep sense that it wasn’t just a platitude. “There are always two sides.”

That made her reach deeper, take out a little more of the truth. “No one cares, really, about my side.”

“I do,” he said softly.

She really wanted to like him. Could see them becoming friends.

Although, that’s what she’d said about Chad, too.

“The story is short and not very sweet. I used to be a cop in this town. And I dated Nate’s brother, Chad.”

Tucker had gone quiet, just his chest rising and falling.

“One night, right here in this parking lot, Chad…” She swallowed. Found her voice. “Got out of line.”

He glanced at her, and his jaw tightened.

“There was a…an altercation with…someone who thought I might be in over my head.” She didn’t know how else to say it. Or rather, couldn’t put specifics to a night that had taken everything from her. “Chad was injured in the fight and, well, later…he died.”

Now Tucker turned, his full gaze on her. “Oh my—”

“Yeah, I know. I feel terrible—”

“Wait.” He held up his hand. “Full stop, right there. A guy hearsno, he stops. What happens if he doesn’t is on him, not you.” The growl in his voice, low and lethal, rumbled through her.

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