Playing With Fire: inspirational romantic suspense (Montana Fire Book 2) by Susan May Warren Page A

dangerously into his warm, husky baritone.
    So, maybe not entirely trouble—because Conner’s superpower was dropping in, saving the day. No, trouble arrived in the aftermath, in the dust kicked up by his arrival, the fact that, inevitably, she couldn’t stop herself from longing to be in his world.
    Which meant that despite her best intentions, she would start holding on, looking for promises, and in short, inadvertently insinuating— forcing —herself into his life.
    Which would only leave poor Conner to figure out how to disentangle himself from her grip.
    We’ll see. We’ll just take each day as it comes. I can’t make any promises.
    No promises—in fact, he’d never made her any promises, something she’d spent nearly her entire adult life telling herself she didn’t need.
    Until Conner.
    However, she had, with general success, spent the last year flushing him out of her system, reminding herself that she didn’t need him—or anyone, really. Their kiss had simply been a misunderstanding, caused by the cascade of the glorious rose-gold sunset, making her see something on the horizon that wasn’t there. Something he hadn’t intended her to conjure up.
    The fact that he took her call and was coming to her rescue said that, frankly, he was more of a real friend to her than she’d been to him.
    Because she hadn’t taken his calls since she’d packed her bags and headed back to Minnesota.
    “Why are you staring at the sky?” Skye was walking over to her through the grassy athletic field. She wore a running shirt and a pair of water-wicking cargo pants, her long blonde hair pulled back into two Laura-Ingalls braids secured with a bandanna, the quintessential trail guide.
    The girl belonged in a magazine, with her slim curves, toned body, and her pretty aqua-gray eyes. A backpack hung over her shoulder, filled with first aid equipment. She was clearly ready to trek out with a search party as soon as the rangers arrived.
    Thanks to Liza’s grizzly sighting, John refused to let the campers leave the grounds—despite Dr. Billings’s outrage—without an armed cadre of rangers.
    Never mind that Esther—and Shep—might be bleeding to death on the mountain.
    Please, Conner, hurry.
    “My friend Conner is jumping in with a couple of buddies to help lead the search.”
    Skye cupped a hand over her eyes, staring at the same clear blue sky. “Jumping—as in skydiving?”
    “Mmmhmm. He’s with the Jude County Smokejumpers, out of Ember. I was just lucky to catch him in between fires.”
    “A firefighter,” Skye said, something of curiosity in her voice. “We had a big fire in Colorado when I was thirteen—our church fed a bunch of hotshots who were working in Glenwood Springs.”
    “I met Conner while he was working a blowup in Minnesota about three years ago.”
    In fact, it seemed to Liza that she always found herself staring up into the sky, hoping Conner might drop into her life. Not always literally, like now, but at least metaphorically, ever since the moment she’d brought him donuts.
    It would behoove her to remember exactly who Conner Young was. Because after she’d patched up her broken heart, she’d finally figured him out. Despite his smile and, frankly, his faith, Conner was like every other man she’d known...here today, gone tomorrow. And, really, hadn’t he warned her of that? A guy like me.
    After they found Esther, she’d stand back, wave good-bye.
    Let him walk out of her life without a backwards glance.
    And most definitely not allow herself to dream up a happy ending with a guy who just wasn’t that into her. Didn’t have room for her in his nomad life.
    Even if he was falling out of the sky like Superman—
    “I hear a plane,” Skye said, and Liza scanned the sky until she found the small plane, white against the blue vault.
    It buzzed high overhead then circled, and she caught her breath when from it dropped a jumper, then two more.
    Chutes opened and they began to drift