Winterfall (3 page)

He smiled. “Call me Mark. I was a sniper and a Ranger.”

Being a Ranger wasn’t for wusses. “Sniper explains a lot. That’s where you get the attention to detail.”

“Oh, I was detail-oriented before I became a sniper. I think it’s in my blood.”

“Does that mean you’re anal?”

He chuckled. “Maybe. Sometimes.”

Silence settled over the SUV as they drove slowly. Getting through neighborhoods these days took longer with checkpoints and the huge upsurge in traffic.

“Why are you doing this?” She had to know. “Helping me?”

“You’re a damsel in distress.” He said it with a deadpan expression.

She laughed, but it was a short, cynical sound. “Um…right.”

He threw her another one of those smiles that could melt butter. “Okay, was that too sexist?”

“Yes.”

“Sorry. I’d have helped anyone who needed it. I remembered you from that fire we worked a long time ago.”

His teasing attitude had started to influence her, so she rolled with it. “I’m pretty hard to forget.”

One of his eyebrows quirked. “Yeah.”

“My hair.” Oh, Lord, why had she mentioned that? Why did she feel the need to explain? She usually didn’t. “It’s pretty distinctive.”

“It isn’t your hair that makes you memorable, Juliet. It’s something else about you. Yeah, you’re pretty as hell, but it isn’t even just that. Your presence…there’s something about who
you
are I haven’t been able to forget and can’t put my finger on.”

Her mouth flopped open again. She’d never heard a man say something that deep on such short acquaintance, and it threw her. “You’re straightforward.”

“Always have been. It gets me into trouble a lot.”

“I’ll bet.” She swallowed her surprise. He thought she was pretty? She couldn’t recall any man saying that before. Not one. She didn’t even know what to say. She pushed aside shyness and spoke anyway. “You’re not exactly easy to overlook, yourself, you know.”

“Oh yeah?”

“I remember you from the other fire,” she said.

This time his smile was more reserved. “I’m flattered. I figured after all this time you’d forget me.”

“Not much chance of that.”

She subsided into the quiet and after they’d passed through the last checkpoint before reaching the hospital, he asked, “About your hair…did you dye it like that?”

She drew in a deep breath. She’d asked for this by even mentioning it. “No. That’s the way it grew in.”

She waited for him to ask more, but to her surprise, he didn’t point out how young she was to have so much gray hair.

As they fought their way through traffic, he handled the SUV without aggression and with an ease she didn’t feel. She wanted that sense of nonchalance so badly she could taste it.

“Is your calm for real, or are you just good at hiding what you’re thinking?” she asked.

He grinned. “Both.”

A useful talent, one she hadn’t mastered yet. “I’d like to bottle some of that.”

“I can give you tips.”

“Uh-huh.”

Oh. Well. He couldn’t be serious.
Plenty of people had made her promises they couldn’t keep. She didn’t take anything he said that seriously.

They reached the hospital shortly after, and before long they’d entered the emergency room. She felt well enough and thought everyone’s concern was overblown. To her amazement the emergency room didn’t have as many people as she’d expected. Most of the time the place had severe overflow. He stayed with her the whole time she checked in, and while she appreciated the gesture, she didn’t need him to watch over her like a hawk.

As they entered the waiting room, the television blaring twenty-four hour news made her twitchy. A woman with two sobbing girls sat in one corner, and the woman looked as devastated as the little girl. Her pale face reflected shock and perhaps resignation. An old man sat alone reading a book, while a middle-aged couple huddled in the opposite corner clearly wanted to ignore everything and maybe everybody. The children's pathetic crying tore at Juliet’s heart.

“Have a rest.” Mark’s deep voice rumbled softly. “I’ll be right back.”

Feeling extraordinarily tired all of a sudden, she sank into a nearby hard plastic chair as Mark walked toward the woman and her children. He squatted down in front of the woman and girls, and although she couldn’t hear his voice well, the low sound soothed. The woman’s expression eased and the little girls stopped crying as he talked to them. Before long the woman smiled softly and so did the children.

Wow.

O’Day shook hands with the woman and settled in a chair right next to Juliet.

“What’s wrong with them?” Juliet asked.

His face held deep seriousness. “Her husband was injured in a car accident. It was touch and go for a while, but they’ve learned he’s going to make it. She has family coming from a town over, so she should be okay.”

She leaned forward and propped her forearms on her thighs. “It was kind of you to check on her.”

He shrugged. “Times like these demand we care about each other. It’s too easy for everyone to take an every man for himself attitude.”

“Something we should have done before all…this. The volcano.”

“I agree. It’s a horrible disaster, but it’s bringing out a lot of good stuff in people, too.”

“You’re an optimist.”

“You’re not.”

She sat back in her chair. “Am I that transparent?”

“No.” He leaned a little closer. “But I think there’s a lot of positive in you, too. Makes me want to know you better.”

His eyes went hot and intense, and her breath caught. Attraction bolted through her.

Before she could reply, he continued with, “How do you feel now?”

“Tired.”

“You’ve been in a fire before, haven’t you?” His voice was low, softer than before.

For the second time her breath caught, but for a different reason. She chose the easier intent of his question, because surely he couldn’t mean anything else. “Of course. I fight fires.”

“I mean…before you became a firefighter.”

All her muscles tightened, or at least it felt like it. Fear rolled up inside her. How could this guy know?

Before she could speak, a nurse came into the area and called her name.

She turned to him as she stood up. “Thanks very much.”

“Anytime.”

She left him, unwilling to turn back and look. She doubted she’d see him again, and that should have been all right. Instead, something wide and hollow opened inside her.

* * * *

When Juliet exited the back area, she was surprised to see Mark sitting in the waiting room chatting with the woman and her two daughters.

Of course he’s still here. The man has honorable written all over him.

Juliet hesitated as she watched him in action. She wished she could find something to dislike, because he appeared too damn good to be true. The little girls smiled and so did the woman. Before Juliet came to Mark’s attention, a man and woman rushed into the emergency room and embraced the woman and her two children. After thanking Mark, the woman engaged with her relatives, and he turned toward Juliet. Instead of his ever-ready smile, his expression looked a bit pinched. Either he was worried about the children or some other unknown.

“Hey.” He touched her elbow. Not a grip but a gentle embrace. “What’s the verdict?”

“You didn’t have to wait. It’s been three hours.”

“No problem. I was talking with Rena and her girls. They were waiting for Rena’s brother and sister to get here. I couldn’t leave them alone until then.”

Juliet made a sound between disbelief and amazement. “I can’t believe you’re real.”

“What?”

She shook her head. “You’re Mr. Honorable.”

He laughed and that sparkle returned to his eyes as he steered her toward the exit. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Well, you are. And like I said, you didn’t have to wait for me.”

“I wasn’t leaving you alone, either. Wait.” He stopped as they cleared the exit. He lifted her left hand and his attention narrowed in on her naked fingers. “You’re not expecting a husband or boyfriend to show up here shortly, right?”

“No husband. No boyfriend.”

“No friends to call?”

She swallowed hard, afraid that if she told him one iota of her background she’d burst into tears. For some damned reason, today had chewed up her reserves of tolerance for stress.

“Not lately. No one outside of work,” she said.

“Work being firefighting?”

“Yeah…and accounting. I have a freelance accounting business.” She dug around in her turnout gear and then remembered. “Damn. My cell phone is at the station.”

“Come on.” He’d kept his grip on her elbow the whole time, as if he feared she’d fall over. “I’ll take you back to the station and then home.”

She couldn’t refuse the ride. Well, she could have but to what end? Her overwhelming desire not to be a burden rose up anyway. “You don’t need to do this.”

“What?”

“Babysit. I can get a ride. I’m sure you have something else to do. More security work. Isn’t your boss expecting you back?”

“He is, but until I finish taking care of you I’m not going back to the office.”

“I’m capable of taking care of myself, Security Guy.”

He laughed. “Security Guy?”

“Security Man. Security Dude. Whatever. It’s the way I’ve been thinking of you for months.”

His brows lowered and curiosity made those deep brown eyes intensify.
Ah, hell
. She’d let that cat way out of the proverbial bag hadn’t she?

“Months?” he asked.

“Well…you know.” She stumbled around the words. “The last time I saw you was at that fire. When those men were messing with us. You drove them away. I wouldn’t forget that.”

And the fact you are one hot guy.

Seriousness left his eyes and went straight for teasing. “You gave me a nickname?”

She disengaged her elbow from his grip, not liking the amusement in his tone. She shrugged as her face heated. She knew she was blushing, and that made her mortification deeper.

“Yeah, well…don’t let it give you a big head,” she said.

It was a lame-assed retort, but she’d never been good at quick comebacks.

His teasing was replaced by a heated sensuality that snagged her breath. “No chance of that. I just like that you were thinking about me. I’m flattered.”

Oh, Lord.
She shoved aside the knowledge he liked her attention. Flirting wasn’t a skill she possessed.

“So like I said.” She crossed her arms. “You’ve done your job. You don’t need to babysit.”

“Humor me. You know that anal personality thing you were talking about? This is part of it. I see things through to the end. I don’t give up on people.”

Wow.
Now she knew she was living in some sort of dream world. She wasn’t used to men who followed through. Okay, the men she knew at the fire station were reliable enough. Still, O’Day seemed to push dependable to an all-time high.

Back in the SUV and on the way to the station, he asked, “What did the doctor say about your injuries?”

“Other than some bruises, I’m good. No concussion, no broken or cracked anything. I’ll probably be sore as hell for a couple of days.”

He smiled as they came to a stop sign. “I’m glad I was wrong about the concussion.”

“Crap.”

“What?”

“Ballard and Striker. I didn’t even check to see if they were in the hospital. I didn’t see them in the emergency room anywhere.”

He shrugged. “You’ll find out when you get to the station.”

His nonchalance, his ease with the world no matter how chaotic, fascinated and pissed her off. Oh, and there was that whole envy thing, too. She’d
love
to develop the detachment he seemed to possess. Curiosity ate her up inside, and she hated that, too. She’d developed an interest in Mark O’Day that went deeper than his rock-hard body and the gallantry in his bones. More than the fact he had a god-like charisma that wormed itself right into her feminine libido.

“So who are you really?” she asked, determined to turn the tables on him.

“Mark O’Day, of Irish decent with a nice side of French, Native American and Norwegian thrown into the salad.”

“A good old fashioned America, Mom, baseball and apple pie kind of guy.”

“Not much for the baseball part. I like hockey.”

She eyeballed him for a moment, taking in his height and physique again. “I’ll bet you played it in high school.”

“Yep.”

She drew in a slow breath, feeling the day’s anxiety start to slide away under their light conversation. “That still doesn’t tell me who you are.”

“Okay, I’m thirty-two, six feet two inches tall and single.”

Single.
Interesting that he’d put
that
information into the conversation.

She shook her head. “Where are your friends and family? How did they do after Long Valley blew up?”

His mouth sobered as it went from friendly curve to tight line. “Mom and Dad were killed in a car wreck ten years ago in Santa Fe, where I grew up.”

“Oh, God. I’m sorry.”

“I’m the youngest of three kids. I have two older sisters. My oldest sister lives in upstate New York with her husband who owns a construction company. My other sister lives in Australia with her husband on a cattle station.”

“They’re all doing okay?”

“Very well. The sister that lives in Australia, Carrie…she wants me and my sister Jenna to live with them on the cattle station.”

“Why haven’t you?”

“My life is here doing the work I like to do. Helping people.” A small smile returned to his mouth but quickly disappeared. “I can’t see myself on a cattle station.”

“But you would if you had to.”

“Yeah, if I had to.”

“Is your family close?”

“Now we are. It wasn’t always that way.”

“Did the disaster bring you together?”

“No, our parents’ death did that.”

A lump solidified in her throat at the thought of being a part of something close-knit and important. An ache started in the center of her stomach.

“Sounds like you’ve got a good life,” she said, envious in a way that disconcerted her.