Jules slipped between her sheets, ready to pass out into a long sleep, when her cell phone rang, the familiar song indicating her mother was calling.

She cursed and got up again to grab the phone, knowing her mother would pester her until she finally picked up.

“Hello, mother.”

“Jules, darling. How are things going?”

“We just got back from our first fire and I wanted to catch up on sleep, if you must know.” Jules loved her mother, but the woman also had the annoying habit of treating Jules like a baby doll.

“So early? Darling, when are you going to give up this crazy idea of fighting forest fires and come home? I mean, women weren’t meant to get all dirty and sooty.”

“I like what I’m doing,” Jules argued back, feeling a band of tension wrap around her forehead. Their values in life were just too different. Jules’s mother lived in a posh suburb of Los Angeles and liked to imagine herself part of the social elite. She rubbed elbows with celebrities as often as possible and could never seem to understand why Jules wanted no part of that lifestyle.

“You’re not getting any younger. You’re never going to find a man out there in the mountains. There is a plethora of celebrities in town right now, many of them on the rebound. They are ripe for the picking and you should get yourself back here and take advantage of that fact.”

“Yes, mother.” Exhaustion tugged at every cell in her body. Jules was far too tired to fight with her mother and since they’d had this same conversation more times than Jules could count, she chose to agree and listen to the gossip about whatever celebrity was the catch of the day. Although she wasn’t concerned in the least about who Brad Pitt was currently dating, or whether or not Liam Hemsworth was a free agent once again.

Both of them paled in comparison to the man who’d just invited her out. On a date! That thought shocked the living daylights out of her. How on earth had she been blindsided enough to agree to a date?

“… really, you need to come home.” Her mother said, yanking Jules out of her thoughts.

“I’m not coming home until fire season is over.”

“Darling, love isn’t going to wait forever.”

Jules shook her head, releasing a long-suffering sigh in the process. She wasn’t convinced love even truly existed, let alone if it existed for her.

No man had ever been able to understand her love of being a firefighter. Certainly not the posh, narcissistic men her mother wanted her to meet in Los Angeles. She’d humored her mother during the winter months, but those dates had been complete disappointments and she’d sworn after the last one she wouldn’t put herself in that position again.

“I hate to cut this conversation short, but I really do need to sleep.”

“Very well. I still think you’re wasting your life acting like a guy. I can only hope you come to your senses before you’re too old to draw the attentions of a suitable man.”

“Good night, mother. We’ll talk again.” Jules preferred not to respond to her mother’s statement. After disconnecting the call, she lay on her bed, thinking about the conversation with her mother.

Her mother had been disappointed in love time and again. First with Jules’ father who’d left them when she was four years old never to be seen again. Many years later she’d found out that he now lived happily with a woman who was the spitting image of her mother – but twenty years younger.

It wasn’t her mother’s fault that she’d taken on a rather cynical approach to love after that betrayal. Jules even understood where her mother’s thinking had been birthed. From then on, the older woman had been on a downward spiral with one meaningless relationship after another. Learning by example, Jules had ruled out the existence of love and true partnership, until recently.

She’d been comfortable with herself, using random relationships to take off the steam, not missing anything. And then along came Tyler, bursting into her life like a bulldozer, steamrolling everything she believed to know about love.

Every time she saw him, her knees went wobbly and her heart started hammering a happy tune. At first, she’d labeled it as purely lust, but it was much more than that. His visage popped into her head first thing every morning, and she drifted off to sleep to fantasies of him every night. She smiled when she saw him and worried when he was out there fighting fires. And that’s exactly why you can’t get involved with him. He’s a distraction to your focus.

But never had a distraction felt better.

In the morning, she woke up early, determined to blow off the date with Tyler.

It was for the best. For both of them.

* * *

As usual, Tyler woke early. Since his limbs were stiff and his muscles sore with the strenuous work of the past two days, he decided to skip the workout and go for a leisurely run. He loved the early mornings when everyone else was still asleep. It held something serene and powerful.

As much as he wished to see Jules, he thought it best to avoid bumping into her, before he’d received an email from Vivian. But his sister wasn’t much of an early bird, so he didn’t even bother checking that early in the morning.

So, he donned a pair of running shoes and set out to explore the trails behind the camp. Pumping fresh and cool air into his lungs, he switched on the next episode of Zombies, Run! and jogged off. After two miles his sore muscles had warmed up enough to stop protesting the movement, and he chuckled at himself. Exercise always helped, to clear the mind or to disperse physical aches.

At mile three he changed the program on his phone to ramp up the speed and half an hour later he returned to camp panting, exhausted, but happy and content. He made a beeline for the shower, spent some much-needed time on shaving, grabbed breakfast and then gave himself permission to check his emails.

Vivian’s message grabbed his attention first.

He opened it and as he read the details she’d managed to pull together in just a few hours and a few phone calls, he knew her Christmas present was going to have to be huge.

“Vivian, you are the best,” he said to the empty dorm and went in search of the chief of operations.

“Hey Armstrong, good job yesterday,” Chief Carter said as Tyler entered his office.

“Thanks, chief. I was wondering if I could go into town to run a few errands?”

The chief studied the roaster. “Sure, you’re on reserve. As long as you can return to base within an hour you’re fine to go anywhere you wish.”

“Thanks. I’ll be back before noon.”

Tyler jumped into his car, glad nobody had seen him and asked for a ride. He could do without prying eyes while he checked off the items on Vivian’s shopping list.

When he returned to base two hours later, he joined the rest of his crew cleaning, organizing and replacing their gear and equipment bags, and restocking everything in readiness for the next alarm.

Jules crossed his path twice before lunch, but despite her attempt to talk to him alone, it hadn’t been possible. The first time she’d been called away by the chief and the second time, Gunner and Jeb bolted in with a few stupid jokes on their lips. It didn’t matter.

He could wait until this afternoon. Since they both were on reserve, he’d take her out on a date she wouldn’t forget. Ever.

In the afternoon he went looking for Jules and knocked on her door.

“Come in,” her sweet voice answered

Tyler entered and smiled when he looked around the small space. It was so her. She’d used colorful throw pillows to make the room cozy and give it a personal touch. Unlike his own quarters, that looked exactly like it had when he’d first arrived. Decorating wasn’t anywhere on his list of accomplishments.

She closed her laptop and stood from her desk, her eyes widening when she saw him standing in the room, holding the yellow rose in his mouth, exactly like Vivian had instructed. He’d thought it cheesy and seriously doubted his sister was serious, but by the soft expression in Jules’s eye, she considered it anything but cheesy.

“For me?” she asked with a smile.

“Hmhm.” Tyler said, relieved when she closed the distance and took the rose from his lips. “Here.” He handed her the invitation card to dinner and a small box of chocolates and before she could answer, he rushed out in a hurry.

The next twenty minutes he spent with his stomach tied in knots, waiting for Jules to appear at the designated meeting space near the parking lot. His heart missed a beat when she appeared in a pair of jeans, sexy as hell western boots and a red neckholder shirt that made her auburn hair shine. As requested in the in the invitation card, she carried a long-sleeved jacket with her, slung across her shoulder, bopping up and down with each step she took. Her hair was caught in a messy ponytail, making him wonder how it would feel to let it loose and run his hands through it.

“You look gorgeous, Jules. Ready to go?”

Jules eyed him up and down and then bit her bottom lip before confessing, “I actually was determined to cancel this...”

“But now you can’t?” Tyler asked, his heart humping.

“Now I can’t.”

He smiled at the tone of her voice and couldn’t help but ask, “You really wanted to cancel our date?”

“This isn’t a real date. I don’t hook up with co-workers. Ever.”

“I’m not sure why it’s such a big deal. All I’m asking for right now is one date.”

“My track record with relationships isn’t something I’m proud of,” she admitted with a sad smile. “During fire season I need to stay focused, and when our thing comes to the inevitable end, I certainly don’t need the stress and worry a breakup brings with it. I don’t want to hurt either one of us.”

“Why are you so sure it won’t work out?”

“Maybe because that’s the way I grew up. It never worked out for my mother. Or anyone in her social circle. It’s a never-ending series of heartbreaks.” Jules looked so sad he wanted to wrap his arms around her and make her pain go away. Her candidness endeared her even more to him. His own parents had been happily married for more than thirty years, and still loved each other like on the first day they met. Even after raising six kids.

“Let me show you what you’re missing,” Tyler said.

“I haven’t been missing anything.”

“Give me a chance to prove you wrong.”

She laughed at him. “You’re so sure of yourself, rook.”

“As sure as I am about my chosen career. I’ve known I wanted to be a firefighter since I was nine.”

“Really? It took me a lot longer to find my calling, but now I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

“Why did you want to become a hotshot? It’s not every day a woman decides to go after what’s still considered a man’s job,” Tyler said.

“At first it was only the challenge that motivated me, but then I smelled blood in the water. I love the mountains and I love protecting them. The rush of adrenaline, the fight against an enemy that stretches your limits, the camaraderie…everything.” She smiled, and her eyes started twinkling as she added, “It doesn’t hurt that my mother is horribly irritated by my life choices.”

Tyler chuckled. “A fighter and a rebel? I like that.”