Hot for You

Riding Tall

Hot For You

Cheyenne McCray

***

Copyright © 2013

Hot for You by Cheyenne McCray

All rights reserved. No part of this e-Book may be
reproduced in whole or in part, scanned, photocopied, recorded,
distributed in any printed or electronic form, or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever, or by any information storage and retrieval
system now known or hereafter invented, without express written
permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places,
and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons
living or dead is entirely coincidental.

E-book conversion by Bella Media Management.

Published by Pink Zebra Publishing at Smashwords.

13-Digit ISBN: 978-1-939778-91-8

First Edition e-Book

***

Leigh’s phone must be off.
Carilyn
pressed her own iPhone’s disconnect button and tucked it back into
her purse. Leigh had said she’d be home all day but Carilyn’s calls
kept going straight to voicemail. But then again, Carilyn was two
hours early.

She steered her car down a busy street and
glanced at a place named the Hummingbird Café, which was next door
to a bar called Nectars. Her stomach growled, making her decision
for her. While she waited for Leigh to call her back, she had to
get something to put in her belly. The café looked like a great
place to get lunch.

She drove around until she found a place to
park, behind the building. It must be a great place if she had to
park around the back. After she killed the engine, she grabbed her
purse and climbed out. She tugged down her thigh-length jean skirt,
shut the door, and locked her car.

It had been a long drive from Kansas City to
Prescott, even with the stops she’d made and the overnight stay at
a hotel in Albuquerque. She pushed fiery red curls that had escaped
from her ponytail away from her face and headed around the building
toward the front entrance. It was a beautiful Arizona spring day
and she smiled to herself. Back home in Kansas it was still chilly
but here the weather was gorgeous. Arizona was so different than
the Midwest.

Through the plate glass window, she saw that
the café was busy and she hoped there was an available table. It
was a quaint-looking place with a blue and white striped awning,
flower boxes filled with geraniums on the windowsills, and a large
hummingbird and flowers painted on the front window. Ironwork
tables with matching chairs were arranged on the patio in front of
the restaurant. Each table was occupied and the sound of
conversation filled the air.

Bells jangled on the door as she pushed it
open and immediately warm delicious smells met her nose. Her
stomach growled again.

A woman with short blonde hair stood at the
hostess stand and smiled at Carilyn. “Welcome to the Hummingbird.
Will anyone be joining you?”

Carilyn shook her head. “Just me.”

The hostess showed Carilyn to a table near
the window. She sat in the chair and glanced out the window at the
busy street before taking a look at the menu.

After a pretty waitress had taken Carilyn’s
order for a club sandwich with home fries, Carilyn drew her phone
out of her purse and pulled up a map for directions to Leigh’s
house. Her friend didn’t live too far away, but Carilyn never
dropped in on anyone unless she knew they were home and they were
expecting her. Leigh wasn’t expecting Carilyn for quite a while
yet.

Her gaze drifted away from the map and back
to the window. Her eyes rested on the backside of a man standing in
front of the café, who was holding a phone to his ear. He had a
powerful build and his navy blue T-shirt stretched across his broad
shoulders. He wore pants that hugged his nice ass and his athletic
thighs. The shirt had Prescott Fire Department across the back. She
wondered if he looked as yummy from the front as he did from the
back and she hoped he would turn around.

Still on his phone, he faced the restaurant,
granting her wish. She sighed as her gaze traveled over his
muscular chest and up to his handsome face and his chestnut brown
hair. If all firefighters looked as good as he did, she might have
to set fire to the kitchen while she was here.

She cocked her head as she remembered that
Leigh was dating a fireman. Was this the guy? If he was, Leigh was
one lucky woman.

The firefighter shoved his phone into a
holster on his belt and walked to the café’s entrance. The bells
jangled as he entered and he greeted the hostess with a grin that
made Carilyn sigh again. She wouldn’t mind having that sexy grin
directed her way, up close and personal.

Mentally, she shook her head. She was only
going to be in Prescott for a month, so no sense in drooling over
hot firefighters here. Not to mention she’d promised herself she
wasn’t going to rush into another relationship after Sam went into
the Peace Corps six months ago. He’d broken her heart but she still
cared for him and hoped he was doing well.

She didn’t even know why she was thinking
about relationships when she was eleven hundred miles away from
home.

Rather than looking away from the man, she
continued to watch him—it was as if her gaze was glued to him.
After the hostess led him to a table not too far from Carilyn, the
hostess left him with one menu. Apparently he was eating alone,
too.

The man raised his head. Eyes the color of
polished oak met hers and the corner of his mouth turned up as he
smiled. Her face warmed and she was afraid she was turning red—a
curse of being so fair-skinned. She looked away from him and back
to her phone. Of course the screen had gone dark so she quickly
pressed a button to bring the map back up. The screen blurred as
she felt the heat of his gaze on her.

Thankfully, the waitress arrived with
Carilyn’s club sandwich. She would just focus on her lunch and not
look at the firefighter again. Yet, she couldn’t help herself and
snuck one more look at him from beneath her lashes. That was one
damn fine man.

The sandwich was great as were the home
fries, satisfying her hunger. Doing her best not to look at the man
again, she paid her bill and left the restaurant. She didn’t know
if she’d imagined it, but she felt warmth on her skin, like he was
watching her leave.

A breath of relief rushed out of her once she
made it outside. Now she could stop drooling over hot firefighters
and get back to real life.

Leigh still hadn’t returned Carilyn’s call,
so she tried her friend again as she walked down the sidewalk. The
day was sunny and warm and a few people walked along the street in
unhurried strides. Everyone looked so casual and relaxed.

She listened to the phone ring. Once more the
call went directly to voicemail. She’d left a couple of messages
earlier, so she pressed the off button, breaking the
connection.

An acrid odor came from ahead and she
frowned. It smelled like something was burning.

When she rounded the building she froze.
Smoke billowed from a car—

Her
car.

Panicked, she raised her phone to dial 9-1-1,
but her fingers were trembling and it slipped out of her hand. Just
as she stooped to pick it up, someone rushed past her.

She heard the squawk of a radio and saw that
the firefighter from the café was running toward a truck, radio
held up to his mouth with one hand, keys gripped in his opposite
fist. He shoved the radio into a holster and jerked opened the
truck door. He grabbed something red and she saw that it was a fire
extinguisher.

“Get back.” He shouted over his shoulder and
she almost tripped over her own feet as she hurried to back up.

Fire crackled and hissed and her heart
pounded. Even from where she stood, she felt the heat of the flames
now coming from the car’s interior.

The firefighter had already started using the
extinguisher, but the flames were growing too rapidly. Sirens
filled the air and a part of her realized the fire department must
have been close because in the next moment a fire truck pulled up
behind the café. Immediately the fireman from the café tossed aside
the spent extinguisher, hurried to the truck, and started working
with his fellow firefighters.

Everything was a blur to Carilyn as the men
hooked up a hose to a nearby fire hydrant and in the next moment
the firefighters aimed a powerful burst of water on the car.

Then it hit her hard and she gripped her
hands into fists. Her laptop was on the floorboard of the backseat
of her car. It was more important than everything in the car
combined and it was most definitely history. All she could do was
watch as her car burned along with her livelihood.

Helplessly, she stared at the scene, her
heart already having sunk to her toes. The fire was out within
minutes, but her car was toast, along with everything in it.

Two police cruisers arrived and officers
blocked off the area, keeping the growing crowd back, away from the
scene.

The firefighter from the café turned and
looked at her. He was the only one not wearing protective fire
fighting gear and smoke streaked his face and bare arms. He started
walking toward her.

“Your car?” he asked when he reached her.

Unable to speak, she nodded.

He dragged his hand down his face. “Are you
all right, Miss—?”

“Thompson.” She swallowed as she found her
voice. “I’m Carilyn Thompson.”

“I’m Cody McBride.” He gave her a critical
look. “Are you all right?”

“I’m okay.” She looked at her car and her
breath came out in a rush. “My car sure isn’t.”

“You’ve been in the restaurant for a while.”
He nodded to the car’s remains. “Any idea on how the fire
started?”

She shook her head. “None.” She turned her
gaze on her car. “My luggage is in the trunk. Do you think it’s all
burned up?”

He nodded. “Not a chance.”

She bit the inside of her lip, having a hard
time believing she’d probably lost everything that had come with
her. Worst of all was the fact she’d lost her laptop.

“I take it you’re from out of town?” he
said.

“Yes.” She cleared her throat. “I’m from
Kansas. I came here to housesit for my friend, Leigh.”

“Leigh Monroe?” he asked.

She looked at him with surprise. “Yes.”

“I like Leigh,” he said. “One of the guys
dates her.”

“That’s right.” She should have thought about
that. She’d been too stunned over her car being on fire to remember
that this firefighter, Cody McBride, might know Leigh.

She started shivering and rubbed her arms
before dropping her iPhone again. He picked it up for her, but
instead of handing it back to her he put his arm around her
shoulders. “You’re probably feeling a little shock.”

“But nothing happened to me,” she said as he
guided her toward the back of the fire truck.