by Pamela Clare
Vic shook her head. “That would scare me to death.”
“I know what some people say about him—that he’s a playboy, that he’ll never settle down, that he’s afraid of responsibility because he was forced to work too hard as a boy.” Robin’s brows knit together in a frown, hurt behind her blue eyes. “But a man who’s afraid of responsibility doesn’t spend his days off helping his mother. I think it’s the reverse. I think some part of him is afraid he’ll let a woman down, given his schedule. He’s seen a lot of firefighters end up divorced. It’s just another hazard of the job.”
“I didn’t know that.”
Robin’s eyes narrowed. “So tell me your story. I’ve wanted to know more about you since you set tongues wagging during your first visit.”
Eric brushed his arm across his forehead to wipe away sweat, opened the front screen door, and stopped with one foot inside, the door still open.
Someone was crying.
“It’s not your fault, Victoria.” His mother’s voice was calm and soothing, the tone she used when someone was upset. “Men like him are always looking for an opportunity to hurt women.”
Some bastard had hurt Victoria?
Sweat trickled down Eric’s back and chest as he listened, rooted to the spot.
“I can’t believe I trusted him.” Victoria sniffed. “He used me. He humiliated me, and he enjoyed it. He almost destroyed my life.”
“He’s in prison now, and that’s right where he deserves to be.”
Prison?
What the hell?
What had the bastard done?
A dozen ideas flashed through Eric’s mind, none of them pretty.
If she wanted you to know, she’d have told you.
Taylor and Lexi knew. That’s why Taylor had warned him about her.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to trust myself when it comes to men again. I was so stupid.” Victoria spat the last word out, her rage at herself palpable.
“No, you weren’t. There’s no way you could have known what kind of man he truly was. But you know what? I don’t hear the lawnmower. Eric will be back inside in a minute.”
Another sniff. “I don’t want him to see me like this.”
Well, shit.
His mother had always been someone that people trusted, someone they confided in, someone they turned to for support, so it didn’t surprise him that Victoria had opened up to her. But Victoria needed more time, and Eric knew how he could give it to her.
He stepped inside, let the screen door slam good and hard behind him. “Hey, Mom, I’m heading to the auto-parts store to get that cap for your transmission fluid tank. I’ll be back as soon as I can be.”
“Okay, son. Thank you!”
He grabbed the T-shirt he’d tossed onto the floor a few hours ago, yanked it over his head, and stepped outside again, cutting across the yard to his pickup, which sat parked at the curb. He jerked open the door, threw himself into the driver’s seat, then jammed the keys into the ignition. Only when he nearly missed the stop sign at the end of the block did he realize how tense he was.
No, not tense. Angry.
He was pissed off that Taylor hadn’t trusted him with the whole story. He was pissed off that all he had to go on were the ideas his imagination was churning up one after the other. Mostly he was pissed at the son of a bitch who’d hurt her.
Damn it.
He had no tolerance for men who abused women.
Then again, why was he so worked up over this? Sure, he felt compassion for Victoria, but then he felt compassion for anyone who was suffering. But what was with the rage? He was getting primal and protective over her, and he barely knew her. She was the friend of a friend who happened to cross his path. Next Sunday, she’d get on a plane and fly back to Chicago. He’d see her now and again when she came to Scarlet to visit Lexi, and that was it.
You’re falling for her.
A laugh burst from between his lips.
That was loco. Absurd. Completely insane.
Hell, yeah, he was attracted to her. She’d been on his mind a lot since she’d arrived. But there was no chance he and Victoria were going to get together. He didn’t do relationships. He didn’t even have time to get laid these days.
That was it. He was horny.
You’re always horny.
No, seriously. He hadn’t been with a woman in … hell, months? After the wedding, he’d have to do something about that.
Relieved to have worked that out, he drew in a deep breath, turned up his music, and let U2 blast his thoughts away.
Eric had his head on straight and his hormones under control by the time he and Victoria headed up the canyon toward Scarlet, where Austin and Lexi were hosting a cookout for the bridal party. He cranked the music and the AC. “Are you cool?”
“Yes, thanks. It’s so much hotter down here than it is in Scarlet Springs.” A slight puffiness to Victoria’s eyes was the only sign she’d been crying.
“That’s the altitude.”
“I should have guessed. Here, everything is about altitude.”
That made him laugh. “Just about.”
“I like your mom.”
He couldn’t argue with that. “She’s good people. She did right by me, even when it wasn’t easy. She raised me by herself, you know.”
Victoria nodded. “She told me.”
So they’d had that conversation. It figured.
“Have you ever met your father?”
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t use that word to describe him. A father is a man who stands by his kids and their mother. That guy was a sperm donor—nothing more. He dumped my mom when she told him she was pregnant and never gave her a dime.”
“You don’t have any relationship with him?” She seemed to catch herself. “Sorry. That’s just me being nosy. I shouldn’t—”
“It’s okay.” Eric didn’t mind. He’d worked through that shit ages ago. “No, I don’t have a relationship with him. I tracked him down when I was seventeen, introduced myself, and found myself looking at an older version of my own face. He told me he had no sons and slammed the door. That was it.”
“God! I’m so sorry.” Those brown eyes went wide and soft. “I can’t imagine how you must have felt.”
“That day pretty much sucked, but I had good friends, a mother who loved me, lots of people who cared. Austin’s dad took us camping that weekend. He even let us drink a few beers.” He glanced over to find Victoria watching him. “When people make fun of small towns or talk down Scarlet, what they don’t get is that we’re a community. We might not always get along, but we’ve got one another’s backs. How many of your neighbors do you know? I know all of mine. Every last one.”
“That must be wonderful.”
“Most of the time. In my line of work, it also has its downsides.”
Silky, dark brows drew together in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Well, there are fewer than fifteen-hundred people in Scarlet. About seventy percent of our calls are for emergency medical services, not fires. When someone has a heart attack or gets into a serious injury accident or shoots himself in the head, there’s a good chance I know him and his family.”
She was still watching him. “How do you cope with that? It must be hard enough to deal with people’s suffering when they’re strangers, but when you know them …”
“Yeah.” Faces and names slid through his mind—the living, the maimed, the dying, the dead. “People come up to me in the grocery store and on the street. They want to say thank you. Some have questions. They want to know if they could have done something differently. They’re searching for peace. I used to find that awkward. It made me uncomfortable. Now, I feel honored to play that role in their lives.”
He wasn’t sure that made any sense.
He glanced over to catch the hint of a smile tugging at her lips. “What?”
“You are your mother’s son.”
“Yeah?” He’d take that as a compl
iment. “The two of you seemed to hit it off.”
“She said I set tongues wagging last time I was here.”
“She told you that?” It wasn’t like his mother to gossip.
“Is it true?”
“Yeah, I suppose it is.”
“What did I do? Why would people talk about me?”
How was Eric going to explain this? He didn’t want her to think he was hitting on her, especially not after what he’d overheard this afternoon. “I hate to break it to you, Victoria, but you’re an incredibly beautiful woman.”
That hadn’t been creepy, had it? He hoped not. He considered it a feat of self-control that he’d managed to stop with that and hadn’t raved on.
She stared at him, disbelief on her face. “That is what people talked about?”
“Yeah. Is that so strange? ‘Hey, have you seen Lexi’s friend, Victoria? She’s gorgeous.’ You know—that sort of thing.” When she said nothing, he doubled down. “Come on. You know you’re above average in the looks department.”
He expected her to blush or smile or look at him from beneath those long, sooty lashes and say something flirty.
Instead, she looked away. “Thanks, I guess. A lot of good it’s ever done me.”
What the hell did she mean by that?
They got back to Scarlet Springs to find the group hanging out at Austin and Lexi’s place. Vic had seen it last year before Lexi had moved in. A large two-story log home, it had floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room, a sleek kitchen, and an enormous back deck with a hot tub.
Lexi met Vic in the driveway with a big hug, Mack, Austin’s black lab, bounding at her heels. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
Vic shrugged. “I thought it was the margarita.”
Eric came around the front of his pickup. “She needs to rest and drink lots of water. No alcohol—at least not tonight. And speak up if that headache comes back.”
Lexi hugged him, too. “Thanks for realizing what was happening.”
“That’s my job.” He headed for the back of the house, leaving Vic with Lexi.
Lexi turned to Vic again. “I saw him carry you to his SUV. Is something going on between you two?”
First Eric’s mother, and now Lexi.
“Of course not! I’m done with men.” Vic must have been flustered because her mouth took off without her. “The last thing I want right now is to hook up with some sexy, handsome, strong, single firefighter who carries women with altitude sickness off mountains and mows his mother’s lawn.”
One red eyebrow arched. “If you were trying to convince me, you blew it.”
On the back deck, Austin was grilling steaks on a big gas grill, a large cooler full of beer and soda nearby. “You made it just in time. How are you feeling?”
“I’m much better. Thank you.” She inhaled, the scent of sizzling beef making her mouth water. “That smells so good.”
Britta stepped out of the kitchen followed by Winona Belcourt, both women carrying large salads. They set the salads on a long wooden picnic table that was already laden with food, bowls covered with cellophane to keep out bugs.
“Hey, Victoria.” Winona reached to hug her, her dark hair hanging around her shoulders. “I heard the altitude got you. How are you?”
Winona was a veterinarian who ran a sanctuary for injured wildlife and the daughter of a hereditary Sun Dance chief. She had come to Colorado on the heels of her older brother, Chaska, who was also a Team member and one of Austin’s groomsmen—and perhaps the most handsome man Vic had ever met. Brother and sister had both fallen in love with the mountains and stayed. Lexi had volunteered for the sanctuary for about a year now, and she and Winona had become good friends. Lexi even got along with Winona’s big pet wolf, Shota.
“I’m better now. Thanks.”
Voices came from above, jerking Vic’s gaze toward the roof.
Eric stood up there, together with Chaska and Jesse.
“They climbed the chimney.” Lexi said this as if it were the sort of thing one did at a cookout. “Chaska’s testing a new self-belaying device he designed.”
The expression on Vic’s face must have been amusing because Winona laughed. “Climbing is a sickness you can’t cure. Have you met my brother?”
“Yes.” Vic’s gaze returned to the roof in time to see Chaska, his long dark hair tied back in a ponytail, drop over the other side of the house, while Jesse stood on the roof in a climbing harness, rope in hand.
Eric peered over the edge to watch, a big grin appearing on his face. “It works.”
By the time everyone was off the roof, Austin was pulling steaks off the grill, and it was time to gather around the table.
Vic found herself sitting next to Eric, the press of his hard thigh against hers more than a little distracting. She scooted closer to Lexi.
“I don’t bite,” he whispered, then added in a louder voice, “You got water?”
“Yes, Mom.” She held up her ice water as proof, just as Austin tapped a beer bottle with the blade of his steak knife.
“Before you dig in, I just wanted to thank you all for agreeing to stand with us.”
“Hey, I signed on for the beer,” Jesse joked.
“Your support has meant so much to us over the years, and it’s going to mean a lot on Saturday. Cheers!”
“Cheers!”
And there it was—that lump that formed in her throat every time she thought about Lexi getting married. She needed to knock it off, or she’d be a blubbering mess at the ceremony.
They had just started in on dessert—strawberry shortcake—when a boom shocked the air, stopping the conversation and turning everyone’s heads toward town.
Eric got to his feet, pager in hand before the tone sounded.
“They’re playing your song,” Austin said.
“Well, shit. It looks like Hank blew up his house. I told him to do that shit outside.” He slid his pager back onto the waistband of his jeans, his gaze shifting to Vic. “Want to come with me and see my team in action?”
Was he serious?
“Do you really mean that?”
From the distance, came the sound of sirens.
“You’ll have to stay in the truck—no getting out and getting me into trouble. Also, we have to leave right now.”
Excitement had her on her feet. She followed Eric as he hurried down the steps, calling over her shoulder to Lexi and Austin. “Thanks for supper. It was delicious.”
“Bring water!” Eric shouted back to her.
Chapter 5
By the time Vic had fastened her seatbelt, Eric was backing out of Austin and Lexi’s driveway, chatter coming over his radio, most of which she couldn’t understand.
He drove the quarter-mile stretch of dirt road down to the highway, stopping to wait for traffic before taking a left. “Hang on.”
He accelerated onto the road, reaching down to flick a switch on his dashboard.
Flashes of red, blue, and white light danced on the hood of his truck.
“Your truck has lights?” She hadn’t seen anything on the roof.
“They’re hidden behind the rearview mirror. There’s a set on the back window and one on the grill out front.”
“Clever.” She leaned forward to look behind the mirror, amazed that something so bright could be so small.
“I’ve got a siren mounted on the grill, and I’ll probably have to use it in town.” He glanced over at her, his serious demeanor disappearing for a moment behind a grin. “You’ve been riding around in a fire truck this entire time, and you didn’t know it.”
“I’m not going to lie. That’s pretty freaking cool.”
When they rounded the next curve, she saw it—the glowing orange of flames, black and white smoke rising skyward in a column. “Oh, God.”
Eric saw it, too. “Damn it, Hank.”
He turned up the radio, his brow creased as he listened.
Vic listened, too, but she understood only snatches of the conve
rsation.
“Scarlet FD on the scene.”
“It’s fully involved now.”
“We’ve got an exposure on the Bravo side.”
“The RP is the homeowner. We’re all clear.”
Eric let out a relieved breath. “I’m going to kick Hank’s ass.”
Questions chased one another through Vic’s mind, but she didn’t want to distract Eric, so she kept them to herself. Why did he think the fire was Hank’s fault? How could he help at the scene if he didn’t have gear? How did they know for sure no one was trapped inside?
They came to the long downhill that led into town.
“Son of a …”
A stream of red taillights stretched out ahead of them, vehicles stopped bumper to bumper on the road all the way to the roundabout in the center of town. Some people had abandoned their cars and stood on the shoulder of the road, filming the column of smoke with cell phones.
“It’s human nature to want to watch shit like this, but why can’t they pull off the road first?” Eric reached down and flicked a switch, the wail of the siren making Vic jump. “God, I hate tourist season. The traffic is terrible, and the crime rate goes up.”
When people failed to get out of the way, he had no choice but to slow down and eventually stop. Twice he blasted the siren’s horn before drivers began to make way.
Vic couldn’t believe it. “What is wrong with people?”
“If I had the answer to that, I’d be filthy rich.”
Slowly, they made their way to the roundabout at the center of town, but rather than turning right and heading toward the fire, he moved through the roundabout, heading up the hill on the other side and making a left into the firehouse parking lot. Vic recognized it because Lexi, in a moment of pure evil, had arranged for Eric to give her a tour of the place last summer.
“Keep the doors locked. I’ll be back in a few.”
“Why lock the doors?”
He called back over his shoulder. “Tourists.”
Vic watched him jog inside the building, her gaze shifting to the column of smoke, which seemed thinner now. Did that mean the fire crews had almost put it out? Not even two minutes had gone by when Eric reappeared.