Rescue Me(21)

And that’s when Willow got desperate, when Sierra’s idea suddenly turned from wretchedly awkward to brilliant. “Deputy Sam Brooks would be going with us, along with my sister, Sierra.”

It had the effect she was hoping for.

Nora settled back in her chair, nodding. Chet glanced past her, perhaps at Sierra, and offered a shrug.

“All right, Willow,” Pastor Hayes said. “You coordinate with Josh. But yeah, if Sam’s going, then you can take the kids up the mountain.”

She was reaching to gather up their plates when she heard Nora add, “And back down again, safely.”

Willow had a feeling she wasn’t kidding.



He wasn’t going to sing hallelujah or anything, but Pete could admit to a rush of relief when Jess didn’t answer her door.

At least then he didn’t have to spend the day pretending that something hadn’t changed between them the night he’d driven her home.

He pulled out his cell phone, checked for a text from her, but his messages were empty.

Huh. She was probably out getting supplies. Which meant he could sit on the porch and wait for her, or . . .

Or maybe she, too, felt the awkward shift in their friendship.

Which meant he should leave it alone. Give them time to find their footing again. He didn’t know how the teasing turned from fun to fire. Probably when she’d asked him what kind of girl he wanted and he’d answered with the truth.

He blamed it all on fatigue and nearly being eaten by a bear—but he’d let it spill out. “I’m partial to blondes. Grimy, sort of feisty ones with no real social life. The kind I can beat in a game of horse.”

Really? Oh, he wanted to bang his head on something solid, maybe the oak doors to her house, and knock his brains back into place.

She’d laughed it away, but it was too late because she’d already stirred up longing like a live coal inside him when she’d shaken out her long blonde hair.

His heart had thundered, his entire body began to hum, and it turned deafening when he’d walked her to her door, despite his instincts screaming at him to run. Or actually that was his brain—his instincts whispered a completely different song.

Then, in the kitchen of her wreck of a home, she stared up at him, her beautiful aqua blue eyes in his, her golden hair in waves, and he heard the whispers begging him to weave his fingers into her soft mane, to pull her to himself.

The desire crashed around inside him, tried to take control, and he’d nearly surrendered. Nearly put his hand to her neck, touched his lips to that beautiful mouth.

Shown her exactly the kind of girl he wanted.

In desperation he’d come up with the lame question about the résumé. Not that he hadn’t been thinking of asking her for help—but suddenly, it became his lifeline.

He needed something, anything to save their playful, perfect friendship, to keep himself from doing something stupid that would someday make her regret knowing him. Because eventually he’d end up hurting her—he knew that too well about himself.

What was it that his smoke jumper friend Kate had once said to him? “Pete gives them just enough to stay interested, but not enough for them to show up on his doorstep the next day.”

He’d laughed it off then, but really, his image as a good-timing guy protected everyone, including himself. He could admit that having women jockey for a turn with him on the dance floor put a Band-Aid on the wounds. It kept him smiling. Moving forward.

Until Jess. She’d somehow made him believe that he could actually be a good guy. It started with him fixing up her house, but since then had morphed into a late-night, pizza-eating, basketball-shooting, let’s-watch-football, buddy friendship, the kind he hadn’t had since leaving the Jude County Smoke Jumpers last fall.

He wasn’t going to jeopardize that. Besides, how could they work together if they were, well, together?

It had been heaps easier when his teammates consisted of just the guys—Reuben and Conner, even Jed, fellow members of the Jude County Smoke Jumpers. Maybe he should have stayed, but coming home to help his mom recover from her fight against cancer seemed the right move.

The fact that Sam hadn’t sent him packing only lit the crazy hope inside Pete that he could actually repair his mistakes, restart his life, become that guy he thought his father would want him to be. Dependable. Serious. Responsible. A guy who valued relationships and stuck around for the hard stuff.

Instead of running.

Although, as he pulled away from Jess’s house and headed for the PEAK ranch, he could admit that, given the amount of relief that gusted through him when Jess didn’t answer, running felt like the right move.

He still felt like a jerk. He should probably stick around and wait. Or . . . maybe he’d double back later.