Page 12 of Playing with Fire

Beckett smiled softly. “Well then. I look forward toeventually,” he said, getting out of the car and rounding the hood. Opening her door, he passed back her keys and led her up the walkway to the front of the house. His time was running short. Even though he wanted to ask her out again, he understood that now definitely was not the right time. “Until then, make sure you rest your ankle, apply ice off and on for twenty minutes at a time for the next two days, keep that bandage on except in the shower, and make sure to keep it elevated as well.” Another thought hit him as he tried to make sure she was taken care of. “Your work doesn’t require you to be on your feet all day, does it?”

Willa’s head tilted upward as she groaned. “Ugh, I didn’t even think about work. I just started and now I’m going to be asking for special treatment.” Her head shook impatiently as she unlocked the door. “This cannot end well.”

Wanting to get any more information about Willa that he could, Beckett pushed open the door for her and helped her over the raised threshold. “Who do you work for? I may not be a doctor, but I think a sick note from the firefighter who rescued you might go a long way with your boss.”

Willa chuckled, the light sound raising his spirits that had dropped at having to say goodnight so soon. “Well, I’ll take what I can get, though I’m not sure even a note from a hero will be enough to appease the mayor.”

Beckett chortled. The sound startled Willa, so he heldup his hands. “I’m sorry,” he apologized, unable to contain his laughter. “Um, I think you’ll be okay, and if the mayor gives you a hard time, you just have him call me.” At Willa’s confused expression, Beckett coughed away his amusement at the situation to explain himself. “Nate’s my little brother.”

Understanding dawned on Willa’s face just before her hand met her forehead. “Kemp. Of course. I can’t believe I didn’t put it together when you told me it was your last name.” Her head shook again, some of her muddy hair falling into her face as she studied him more closely. “You guys don’t really look alike.”

Beckett reared back slightly. “Really? Most people can see the family resemblance.” Nate and Travis looked the most alike, probably because of their beards. Aiden, Felix, and Beckett favored their mom’s side a bit more, but everyone in town was always telling them that they looked a lot alike.

A soft smile came over Willa’s face as she continued to inspect him. “It’s the eyes,” she said quietly. Beckett’s fingers had been itching to touch her in a non-rescuer capacity all night, and as she stared at him with a blissful look in her eyes, his control was dwindling rapidly. Tucking her hair behind her ear, he searched the pools of soft green for any sign that he was making her uncomfortable. “Your eyes are prettier, like liquid gold with a ring of fire around the center.” Her body swayed toward his and for the briefest moment, Beckett wondered if Willa was going to kiss him. Then her body started to crumple and he realized with a start that her foot had given out.

Beckett snaked a hand around her waist to steady her. The feel of her under his arm felt so damn right, and he hated that it wouldn’t last longer than the time it took to get her settled. “Thanks for the compliment, though it’s not worth you getting hurt any worse,” he teased. Willa bumped his shoulder as he helped her into the house. Once she was seemingly upright, he backed away toward the door. “Take care, Wild Woman.”

Willa nodded, her expression almost dreamy. “See you around…Beckett.”

Hearing his name cross her lips caused his heart to swell. Beckett clutched his chest right over the beating organ as Willa’s enchanting smile disappeared behind the door. As Beckett turned and made the walk toward the street, where Jude was waiting for him, he continued to hold his hand on his chest, wondering how exactly a heart could grow three sizes in one evening.

Chapter Eight

~Willa~

Lottie was giving Willa some major side-eye as she poured two cups of coffee before placing one on the gray quartz countertop in front of her. Her friend had been staring at her that way all morning, and Willa couldn’t blame her. She had been tight-lipped and evasive about her getting lost on the hike with Dan and Beckett’s subsequent rescue, and Willa could tell that the curiosity of what really went down was eating her friend alive.

Last night when she arrived home from work, Lottie found Willa lying in her room with her foot elevated on a pile of her own cherished patchwork throw pillows. She was fresh from the shower, having hobbled her way there after saying goodnight to Beckett. The water was definitely needed to wash away the filth from the hike, but after all the time she’d spent in her hero’s arms, she hadn’t needed its warmth. Even just thinking Beckett’s name had her heartbeat ticking upward and her palms sweating slightly, her skin flushing hot as she tripped back into the memory of how hard, howrighthis body had felt against hers. It was a feeling Willa would have to get used to since it seemed to be the norm every time she was in his proximity.

Being carried down the mountain in his arms had been like something out of a fairy tale, though it would have been nicer without the injured ankle and copious amounts of mud. Willa’s unkempt appearance didn’t seem to bother Beckett, though. If anything, the interest she saw in his eyes at the grocery store had only deepened in the days since. The fact that he found her attractive, even when she resembled a wet rat, had been a nice boost to her healing ego as well.

“Okay, I can’t take this anymore,” Lottie whined. Brown liquid splashed over the edge of her coffee cup when sheslammed her mug down. “A bad date and twisted ankle would not put that starry-eyed look on your face. What really happened last night?”

Lottie had gotten the bare-bones version of events, nothing more than that the date sucked big time and Willa had gotten a little hurt, but from the determined gleam in her caramel eyes, the woman who was always digging for a story wasn’t going to settle for the brush-off this morning. Willa hadn’t filled Lottie in on the details for two reasons, the first being that she had been dead tired after the whole ordeal and just wanted to do nothing but read and go to bed. The second was that the thing between her and Beckett, whatever it was, felt new and a little exciting. Willa hadn’t had anything close to that for quite a while. She wanted to keep the feeling for just a little while longer before having other people weigh in on what it could or couldn’t be.

Still, Lottie was Willa’s best friend. It was wrong to keep her in the dark. “Fine, I’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to put any of it in your newsletter.”

After Lottie rolled her eyes, she offered Willa a pinky to swear with. When the sworn oath was out of the way, Willa filled her friend in on all the details, watching the wheels turn in Lottie’s head as she did. From her expression, Lottie was forming an opinion, and Willa was a little wary of what it might be. She didn’t want the good feelings she was starting to have toward Beckett to get tainted, not yet anyway. That was the whole reason she had chosen Dan for the date.

When things eventually went south, something she was certain was destined to happen with anyone, it would be no big deal. Willa could already tell that if Lottie told her some town gossip about Beckett that changed her good opinion of him, she would be a lot more than just put out. That in and of itself should scare her, and it did, but not as much as it would have even amonth ago. Maybe she was making progress or maybe Beckett was just that charming. Either way, the knot of worry in her chest in regards to relationships unwound just a little.

Finally, when Willa finished regaling Lottie with the tale of her date gone sideways, a wide grin came over her friend’s face. “That’s fantastic, Will. Beckett is a really great guy and the fact that he rescued you on top of everything else, I mean, talk about swoonworthy.” Willa giggled as she watched Lottie pretend to fall back on an imaginary fainting couch.

Resting her head in her hand, Willa replayed the memory for herself for the hundredth time since it happened. “It was pretty great,” she admitted. Feeling his strong arms wrapped around her body, knowing that no matter what happened he wouldn’t let any harm come to her and that she was safe and secure had been amazing. Trusting a man so implicitly wasn’t something that Willa did, at least not anymore. It was a bit strange that she already felt she could trust him.

Lottie shot her a knowing stare. “It’s more than ‘pretty great.’ It’s amazing.” She picked at the blueberry muffin on her plate before popping a bite into her mouth. “After the last couple of years, I would think that being rescued by a hot firefighter would have you jumping for joy, injury notwithstanding.”

Nabbing a bite off her plate, Willa stuffed it into her mouth to stall for time. Maybe she should be jumping for joy, and in a lot of ways, she was. It felt good to feel wanted, to see interest spark in someone’s eyes as they gazed upon her, and to feel comfortable with a man she barely knew. But there was still that small voice in the back of her mind, telling her to slow down, to not leap before she looked.

“I don’t know, Lottie.” Willa tried to push back the lump of worry that had suddenly bubbled up in her chest. “What if the things I’m feeling were nothing more than physical attraction? That drew me in once before, and look where I ended up.”

Lottie’s sympathetic expression had tears threatening to fall from her eyes. When she came over and slung her arm around Willa, one finally spilled over. “Not every guy is Jeff. And I’ve known Beckett or at least known enough about him for pretty much my whole life that I can confidently tell you that he’s not that type of guy.”

“You can’t be sure of that,” Willa admitted sadly. No one could ever know everything about someone. Did that mean she was destined to be alone forever?

Lottie scoffed as she held Willa tighter. “I can’t be sure of anything, but one thing I can tell you with as much certainty as possible is that every single Kemp man is a good one. Bonafide marriage material if I ever saw it.”

Willa glanced at her friend, wondering about her inclusion of every one of Beckett’s brothers. “Even Nate?” Willa sniffed. Knowing how Lottie felt about the mayor, Willa was surprised to actually hear her friend sing his praises.

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