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“Sold—if you don’t mind sharing a table with someone who has soot in his hair.”
Her spirits took a decided uptick. “As long as you don’t get any on my pepperoni, I can live with it.”
“If you’ll point me to the bathroom, I’ll remove as much of the grunge as I can.”
“Straight down the hall, first door on the right. I’ll order the pizza. Do you have any favorite toppings or crust styles?”
“Any crust is fine. I’ve never met a carb I didn’t like. And I’m not too picky about toppings—unless your idea of a three-cheese pizza is brie, gorgonzola, and Havarti. Or you like to top it with pears, arugula, and prosciutto.”
She gave him a get-real look. “Who’d eat a pizza with those combinations?”
He arched his eyebrows.
Ah.
Bri tried to tame her smile. “Serena was into gourmet pizza?”
“Gourmet is a generous term. Our taste in pizza was one of the things we didn’t have in common.”
“I think the pizza makers at Sal’s would have a stroke if I requested any of those ingredients.”
“My kind of place. Whatever you order will be fine. Give me five minutes. Ten if the soot is worse than I think it is.”
“Don’t hurry. Sal’s is fast, but it’ll take a minimum of twenty minutes.”
“In that case, I’ll also call Nan while I’m in there and let her know I’ll be later than expected.”
With that he disappeared down the hall.
Bri remained where she was until the water was turned on half a minute later as her unexpected guest cleaned up for their shared dinner.
Shared dinner.
A delicious tingle rippled through her, but she squelched it at once. She shouldn’t let herself get carried away. This was a simple thank-you for all he’d done for her this week. Nothing more.
Oh, come on, Bri! Who are you trying to kid?
Expelling a breath, she pinched the bridge of her nose and faced the truth.
She’d had the hots for the handsome ATF agent since the day he’d shown up at Les’s fire. No, he didn’t fit her dating timetable, but why not give the man a chance? It wasn’t as if she had to rush into anything serious. She could open up a little, test the waters. What did she have to lose—except her heart?
Bri pulled out her phone and crossed to the table. Lowered herself into one of the chairs. Settled her aching leg on the other one.
The relief was immediate.
But a broken heart wouldn’t be soothed as easily.
And while it was too early in the game to be certain she and Marc would click once they got to know each other better, if she were a betting woman she’d wager they would—and that this man could end up claiming her heart.
A situation rife with danger if the sparks fizzled on his end.
Yet wasn’t life all about risk? Hadn’t she spent months jumping into raging wildland fires, braving voracious flames and capricious winds that could turn on her in an instant, trapping her in their angry path? Risking her life with every callout?
Yes.
But somehow, the possibility of getting burned by Marc was even scarier.
She scrolled through to Sal’s number, tapped on the screen, and put the cell to her ear as she homed in on the magnet Mom and Dad had given her the day she’d left for college, which had been front and center on her fridge ever since.
