Page 8 of Single Mom for the Firemen

“That’s the idea,” I agree. “Get out here, do some good. Keep any assholes from burning the forest down without realizing it…”

“That sounds like a pretty worthy way to spend your time,” she replies, craning her head back toward the cabin. “I’ve got to say, your place is…it’s a lot bigger than I’d expect for anything out here.”

“Oh, yeah? You been snooping?” I fire back, grinning to let her know I’m fooling around. Her cheeks flush slightly, and she shrugs.

“You got me,” she concedes. “I was curious. Wondered what you had going on there.”

“It’s a nice place,” I agree. “Quiet too, most of the time. Till all the campers and tourists come by in the summer.”

“And I guess I’m in that group now, huh?” she remarks, raising her eyebrows.

“Depends,” I reply. “What brings you here?”

She hesitates for a moment before she answers. I can see a slight hitch in her chest, as though she doesn’t really want to come out and say it. I have to admit, I’m curious.

“Uh, work,” she replies evasively. I can tell there’s more going on than she’s willing to admit to, but I figure she’ll tell me when she’s ready—if she wants to tell me at all.

“And I wanted to bring my daughter out of the city for a while,” she continues, her voice shifting to a light, easy breeziness. “She hasn’t really seen much in the way of nature, and I thought it would do her some good, you know?”

“I’d agree, if I hadn’t met you when you’d been trying to burn your house down.”

“Oh myGod,”she groans, but this time she manages a laugh. “Are you ever going to let that go? I was fine. It was just a burned pie. And for the record, we were making it for you.”

I stare at her for a moment, surprised.

“I’m sorry, what…?”

“You heard me,” she replies. “My daughter saw your cabin, and she wanted to introduce herself to the new neighbors. I figured the best way to do that would be with some baking. That’s why I was making the pie—I was going to come round and introduce myself. That’s what people do out here, right? Bake and share it with the community?”

“Something like that,” I murmur. There’s something charming about her reasoning for causing all that chaos, even if I get the feeling that Jake wouldn’t believe a word out of her mouth right now.

“But you have my word that I’m not going to cause any more trouble by baking more pies,” she tells me, holding her fingers up in the Girl-Scout salute.

“So we’re going to miss out on the welcome wagon?”

“If your brother insists on trying to break down my door whenever I turn the stove on, then yeah.”

I chuckle.

“I’ll tell him you said that.”

“Go ahead,” she fires back. “He’s the one who cost you that pie.”

“And your pie is something I should be sad about missing out on, is that what you’re saying?”

“Uh, you have no idea,” she replies, planting her hands on her hips. The corners of her lips curl up into a playful smile, and before I know what I’m doing, I shift slightly toward her. I don’t know if she’s wearing perfume or if it’s just the scent of her skin, but there’s a soft floral fragrance wafting from her, and it takes every bit of restraint I have not to lean down and bury my face into her neck right then and there.

“Guess I’ll have to live with wondering, then,” I murmur. My gaze flicks down to her lips. It’s almost a subconscious gesture—a learned one from all the women I’ve flirted with over the years. But I can’t help but notice the soft curve of her lips, the way her breath hitches slightly when she catches me looking at them. Her teeth rest on her pillowy bottom lip, and she tilts her head slightly, her eyes searching mine, and then?—

“Mom!”

The two of us spring apart as though we’ve been shocked with an electric current. Her head whips around, and she smiles widely as she spots her daughter coming out of the woods, holding a cluster of sticks.

“Can we try to make a boat out of this?” Callie asks, hardly seeming to notice the tension between us in that moment.

Vanessa breathes deep, stepping back from me as though cutting herself off from whatever was in the air between us for a moment.

“Of course we can, honey,” she replies, stooping down and holding her hands out so she can get a better look at what her daughter is dealing with. “Let’s see what you’ve got…”

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