She could read the hope in her mother’s eyes, knew that while she hadn’t been happy about how young she’d married, she’d also thought Megan was far too young to be living alone. Her mother wanted another husband for her, a father for Summer, and more grandchildren. Preferably back in their Minneapolis suburb, where she could watch over them all.

“No.”

She felt her mother’s eyes on her, too shrewd, and braced herself for more questions, but Summer jumped in first.

“Did Mommy tell you we learned to snowboard last weekend? It was awesome!”

Megan forced herself to smile. “Well, it was awesome for Summer, at least. I’m going to be sticking with skis from here on out.”

“Gabe said you just needed to practice some more,” Summer said, before dragging her grandfather off to show him a stuffed animal she coveted in one of the airport stores.

Her mother raised an eyebrow. “Who’s Gabe?”

Megan answered the question as directly as she could. “He’s the firefighter who got me and Summer out of the building.”

Her mother’s other eyebrow moved up to join the first and then she grabbed Megan’s hands and closed her eyes for a moment as if she were reliving the terror of finding out she’d almost lost them both. When her mother opened them again, they were glassy with unshed tears. “I love that firefighter. With all my heart.”

“Mom! You don’t even know him.”

At her outburst, a dozen strangers turned to look at them.

“I know everything that matters. He saved my babies.”

God, this was just what he’d been talking about, the way people only saw him as a firefighter...and not as the man he was outside of his job.

Wonderful. Charming. Caring. Funny. Not to mention the best lover who ever lived.

Her mother knocked into her musings with, “So you went skiing with him?”

“No.” She looked at the ceiling and admitted, “Yes, but it was an accident.” Summer’s laughter had her looking over at her daughter. “Summer did a little bit of scheming to make it happen.”

Megan was surprised to see her mother smile. “That’s my smart little granddaughter.”

“I’m not—” She paused, changed it to, “We’re not seeing him anymore.”

That eyebrow went back up. “Why not? Is he unattractive?”

Megan could feel herself flushing. “No.”

“Mean?”

She frowned. “No. Of course not.”

“Ah, so he doesn’t like children?”

“Are you kidding? He loves them.” She only realized what she’d said after the words were already out. “Look,” she said to her mother, “it’s complicated. We’re just not right for each other.”

Her mother studied her carefully, again. “Honey, I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye on everything, but can I just give you one piece of advice?”

Megan tried not to groan. “Go ahead.”

“I know it was hard to lose David, especially so suddenly, but you were more than strong enough to deal with that. Strong enough to repeatedly ignore my urgings to come back home.”

Megan was about to open her mouth to tell her—yet again—that San Francisco was her home.

“I know, honey. You are home.” Her mother gave her a sad smile that said while she wasn’t happy about that fact, she’d at least finally accepted it. “I’ve never seen you look like this. Not even when you were with David.”

Guilt washed through Megan and her mother must have seen it because she grabbed her arm.

“Summer’s father was a nice man, but he wasn’t the only nice man out there. He’s gone, Megan. Don’t you think it’s time to move on? Don’t you think it’s time to let yourself risk falling in love again?”

Megan looked up into her mother’s serious face. What could she say to her?

Oh, well, Mom, thanks for the heartfelt advice, but after Gabe and I had crazy monkey sex in Lake Tahoe, I told him not to contact me and Summer again.

Thankfully, Summer and her father returned showing off the new pink stuffed poodle in its carrying case, and then they were all heading into the restaurant and eating spaghetti and listening to Summer talk.

Chapter Seventeen

Timing is everything.

~ from “Firefighting 101” ~

Gabe Sullivan would never be a wine connoisseur like Marcus. He’d never be able to take the perfect picture like Chase or throw a baseball 100 miles an hour like Ryan. And he would never make a movie studio a hundred million dollars over a weekend like Smith regularly did.

But he did know one thing better than almost anyone.

Firefighting.

It was long past time to take those rules he lived and breathed by as a firefighter and apply them to the rest of his life.

Specifically, the woman he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about for the past week.

December 31. The last day of the year. It had been a good one.

But he was planning for the next one to be a whole heck of a lot better.

Skill—and staying smart—had always been the main tenets of Gabe’s success as a firefighter.

But he’d never been stupid enough to discount luck, and that feeling deep in his gut that told him when to keep going—and when to run like hell.

He pulled up outside Megan and Summer’s apartment. The sky was clear blue above him, perfect for a night of New Year’s Eve fireworks...and for him to deploy the first stage of his plan. He hadn’t called ahead to make sure they’d be here, but he had a good feeling about this.