Grady said goodbye to his family at the end of their weekly Saturday night dinner.

“I’m headed out.” He held his hand up to wave.

His father and younger brother, Dale, barely looked up from the TV while his mother and two pregnant sisters waved him off with no interruption to their heated discussion on natural versus medicated childbirth.

Connor, the devoted father and husband, was in his own little cocoon of syrupy, sweet love with one arm around his wife and the other one cradling his baby.

Only Jenna dashed toward him, realizing this was different from an ordinary goodbye.

“Are you feeling okay?” she asked, touching his arm. “You looked preoccupied.”

“Making plans. I’ve troubled you and Larry long enough.”

“I didn’t mean for you to leave. You know you’re welcome to stay as long as you like.”

“It’s time,” he said. “You were right about me moping around.”

“Where are you going?” She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight. “You’ll keep in touch, won’t you?”

“I will.” He tried to extricate himself and make an escape, but Jenna’s actions drew the attention of Cait, who felt it was her duty as eldest child to meddle with all of her younger siblings’ lives.

She waddled over with her pregnant belly leading the way. “Grady Hart. No sneaking out before the card games.”

“Sorry, but I have to get going,” Grady mumbled with his hand on the doorknob.

Cait narrowed her eyes and assessed his body language. “You’re as twitchy as a long-tailed weasel in a room full of rocking chairs.”

Grady rocked from foot to foot, as Cait’s loud voice drew the attention of his mother.

“Leaving so early?” Mom asked. “Do you want to take some food?”

“No, it’s not necessary.” Grady’s palms started to sweat. He should have simply snuck off without attending the family dinner and game night.

“You’re running away, aren’t you?” Cait concluded, picking up on his nervousness.

“Oh? Running away?” Mom inquired, tilting her head. “You can stay with us as long as you want.”

Now that Cait spilled the beans, Grady opened the door and said. “I can’t stay. I have to keep moving or I’ll rust.”

This opened the flood gates as everyone dropped what they were doing and charged toward him.

Dad wanted him to go back to firefighting, while Mom thought he should settle down and get a permanent job, preferably close by.

Connor wished him luck with his wanderlust. “Gotta get it out of your system before you start a family.”

Meanwhile, Jenna made him promise to text pictures and updates of his travels. Melisa wanted postcards for her classroom, and Nadine wanted him to kiss his niece and to be back for Melisa and Cait’s joint baby shower.

“Where are you going?” Mom asked. “I’m concerned you’re not putting down roots.”

Roots were the last thing he needed, and he could never imagine himself sharing the same type of warm, gooey love his parents, and now most of his siblings, were wrapped up in. Cozy, too cozy, and so stifling. Of all his siblings, only happy-go-lucky Dale was a free man, but for opposite reasons.

Dale always thought there was someone better out there. He was an eternal optimist, flitting from one pretty girl to the next.

Grady knew better. He was realistic. Love wasn’t for him, and even if it were—it always ended unhappily.

The only sure thing in life was death, and if it wasn’t death, it was deception.

He hugged his mother and kissed her on the cheek. “Thanks, Mom, I won’t be far. Just have to get some fresh air.”

“Don’t stay away too long,” Mom said, tearing up. “We enjoyed having you here since Christmas. I knew you’d eventually go back to the fire lines. It’s in your blood.”

“Yeah, well, I’m sitting the year out. Trying something new.”

“You need to get back on that horse,” Dad said, coming up to him and roping him into a man-hug. “The sooner you’re back fighting fires, the better. Don’t put it off too long.”

Larry clapped a hand on his shoulder. “If you ever need to talk, I’m a good listener, and I’m not a Hart.”

“So am I. You have any questions about women, you come to me,” Cait offered, even though she was technically a Hart—although she’d belatedly taken her husband’s surname, Wonder.

“Grady’s given up on women,” Jenna said to Cait. “He doesn’t even want a dog.”

“You’ll need companionship.” His mother patted his arm. “If you stay with us, you can even get a dog. I’m taking allergy shots now. I don’t want there to be any excuse why we can’t have our entire family, including our fur and feather babies here.”

“I know that, and thanks.” He gave his mother a kiss and turned toward the door.

“Here’s a list of fire chiefs I know.” Dad shoved a piece of paper into his hand right before he stepped out. “In case you want to apply for a position.”

“Don’t worry, everyone.” Grady waved to his large and utterly adorable family. “I’m taking a time-out, but I’ll be back. No need to act like I’m going off the end of the earth.”

“If you happen to go by Colson’s Corner because of a certain female, tell her ‘hi’ from all of us,” Cait, the most nosy of all his sisters, said as a parting shot.

Last December, Cait and Brian had spent time in the mountains renewing their marriage and had gotten to know Linx Colson when they found two lost chow chow dogs.

“Come back here.” His youngest brother, Dale, finally realized he was leaving. “We’re setting up the poker table. At least stay until you lose all your money.”

Dale was the prankster and joker of the family, and all he cared about was having fun. Nothing ruffled his feathers, and Grady doubted he had a serious bone in his entire body.

“Don’t you ever feel like jumping on a motorcycle and riding off to parts unknown?” Grady asked. “You should try it sometime. Let’s you know the real you.”

“Sounds fun. I might join you if they don’t stop trying to push me into firefighting,” Dale said, laughing.

“Actually, it’s more fun if it’s just you and the open road,” Grady grumbled, but allowed himself to be steered back to the Hart household.

He had considered taking his brother along, but they were opposites, and Grady could only take so much of his brother’s jolly bonhomie.

Nope. Grady was a loner and there was nothing more remote and undisturbed than the site of his burned down cabin.

Hours later, after playing Texas Hold’Em, Spades, Hearts, and Hand and Foot as well as two rounds of Clue, Grady made his final escape and checked into a motel in Sacramento for the night.

The next morning, after renting a used fifth-wheel trailer, he pulled it up the mountain and found his plot of land. Weeds had grown rampant over the burned-out foundation of his cabin, and the forest had taken back the clearing.

Grady unhitched the fifth wheel and set it up under a spreading pine tree for shade. He spent the rest of the day clearing brush and whacking weeds. Instinctively, he put up a firebreak between the forest and the foundation of his cabin. He dug a trench and planned to fill it with gravel. It was hard work, and it took the edge off of his restlessness—a little.

Would he put down roots in this remote mountain cabin? He’d been happy here once, long ago. During the weekends he had off while training smokejumping rookies, he’d come here under the canopy of tall trees to enjoy the solitude.

One day, a tiny puppy had crawled out from behind the woodpile, and Grady was no longer alone. He’d named her Sasha, after his crazy red-headed jump partner in Siberia who washed everything down with vodka. His Sasha went with him everywhere: to the creek, on long hikes, and even skiing where she eagerly pulled him at fast speeds down cross-country trails.

It had all ended with a fire.

Grady stared at the place where the woodpile had been. If he had ever had a desire to put down roots, this small piece of mountain would do. It was as if Sasha had sprung out of the earth and then gone right back to it, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

A warm settled feeling came over him, and he felt her presence. Everywhere he looked, he saw her. Her favorite spot next to the fireplace, the way she ran around the yard, and the place where she once treed a bobcat.

Closing his eyes, his mind took him back to another female who still haunted this very location. A wild and tempestuous woman who’d trained to fight fires, who’d shared his passion for preserving the forest, who’d climbed peaks with him—and who’d kept his bed ablaze and his heart on tether hooks.

He’d been running from her long enough. She’d been haunting him for way too long.

It was time to exorcise her hold on him, and for that, he would have to make her tell him the truth.

Was there a baby, or was it all blackmail?

* * *

“How many online applications did we get for the adoption event?” Linx sat in her sister’s diner across from her best friend and most loyal volunteer, Tami King.

The two of them went back to elementary school, and had only lost touch when Tami went to college.

“I’m still going through them to remove the flakes and trolls,” Tami said, checking her notepad. “But I’d say we have a good seven or eight. We also have that guy who’s running Dogs for Vets …”

Tami’s voice trailed as her eyes quirked with mischievous interest.

Linx shrugged and stared at her reflection in her black coffee. “He’s asking for older dogs, and God knows how hard it is to place them.”

“Why would he want geriatric dogs when they don’t last as long?” Tami asked as she picked up a breadstick and munched on it.

“They’re calmer, if they don’t have personality issues,” Linx replied. “Most of the vets want companionship. An older one is already housebroken, hopefully, and has been through sorrow and grief—kindred spirits.”

“Then we should give him as many as he wants,” Tami concurred.

“There’s a problem, though,” Linx said. “Our policy is that whoever adopts our rescue dogs is the final owner—not a pass through. We are the ones who should vet the eventual homes of our guests.”

“Ideally so,” Tami said. “But we’re overcrowded, and some of the old guys have been here forever. Plus, we’re running low on funds, and we need to enlarge the kennels.”

“I don’t trust the guy.”

Tami let out a snort. “With your heart, sure, but you’ve got to admit it’s interesting he’s turning up now.”

Tami didn’t know the details on Linx’s long-ago relationship with Grady, only the fallout—which was bad enough.

“What’s so interesting?” Linx swirled a breadstick in the dip and looked for her sister, Joey. Why was it taking so long for her to take their order?

Her gaze froze.

“Speak of the devil.” She clenched her jaw. “There he is.”

Six-foot-two inches of rough and tough man took off his aviator sunglasses and glared at her from the entrance of the diner.

That man was too arrogant for his own good. What gave him the right to walk around like a modern-day James Dean, complete with black leather jacket, black boots, and skin so tan he could be mistaken for a pirate?

Heck, he even smoothed his thick hair back like he was a twenty-first century reincarnation of a rebel without a cause.

“You’d think he owned this town.” Tami eyed him with eager curiosity as he wove his way toward them.

Linx fought to keep her face from heating up as she reached for her phone and commanded it to call her brother, Todd, the town sheriff.

Grady put his hand on the back of the booth. “Why, Miss Linx, I thought you fought your own battles.”

Linx tapped the end-call button and slid her phone into her pocket. She’d clue her brother in later, and yes, she did fight her own battles, and she wasn’t going to let the likes of Grady Hart worm his way back into her good graces with some tall tale of doing good for veterans.

Bed was a different story, maybe, but a woman had to keep up appearances, especially in front of her family.

Except doing battle with Grady Hart was always a losing proposition. The man had an advantage—the smoldering gaze, work roughened hands, the grizzly stubble on his strong jaw—and he took it—early, often, and with much relish.

Linx tore her gaze from the mouth which would so easily and knowingly ignite her most sensitive zones. She grabbed a breadstick and shoved it into the creamy dip, in and out. Slowly, she twisted it between her succulent lips and gave him a sweet, innocent smile. “Jumped any fires lately?”

Fire season in the Sierra Nevada region, Gold Country California, started in May, and with the weather as dry as tinder, fires broke out all over the state, keeping crews of smokejumpers and wildfire firefighters busy, sooty, and exhausted—too busy and exhausted to cause trouble in her hometown of Colson’s Corner—a tiny village too high up and remote to garner much traffic.

“Only spitfire I’m jumping this year is you.” Grady bent down and scooted into the booth facing her, with Tami traitorously making room for him.

“You’ve never missed a fire season in, what, ten years?”

“Sitting this one out.” Grady took a breadstick and crunched it nonchalantly, as if she’d invited him to join them.

“But why?” Linx made her voice smooth with a dab of flirtation. “Big man like you always did two fire seasons a year. You injured?”

“Nope.” Grady looked over his shoulder at Joey, Linx’s younger sister who owned Joe’s Diner. “Figured I’d try something new. Something along your line of business.”

Linx expected him to wince, to dodge her jab, but Grady had faced down flames armed with only a shovel and a saw.

A little snark from a woman wouldn’t faze the tough guy at all.

“Coffee?” Joey put down a menu and turned over an unused coffee mug.

“Don’t mind if I have some.” Grady gave Joey a flirtatious wink. “Can I ask you a question?”

“You just did.” Joey’s eyelashes fluttered as she refilled Linx and Tami’s mugs.

“Then I’ll ask another. Why is the diner called Joe’s Diner and you’re a girl named Joey?”

“That’s three questions.” Joey’s cheeks flushed pink under Grady’s friendly gaze. “I think you owe me a big tip.”

Tami almost choked on her coffee as she stared at the tip of her breadstick which was soggy and limp. Linx kicked her bestie under the table, not at all happy with Grady flirting with her baby sister.

“We’d like to order, if you don’t mind?” she said. “And in answer to Grady’s impertinent questions, the ‘Y’ fell off the sign and Joey doesn’t like her real name.”

It was Josephine, of course, but what young woman wanted to sport an old aunt name?

“Breakfast is on me,” Grady said. “I’m here to discuss business. I’ll take a lumberjack special.”

Linx ordered her usual blueberry waffle with a side of eggs sunny side up, and Tami ordered fruit compote over yogurt.

After Joey departed, Grady hooked a glance at Tami who was President of the Chamber of Commerce and the town’s only realtor. “Looking for office space. Might I bother you for a showing?”

“Definitely. I’m sure we have quite a range to suit your needs,” Tami purred. She was already pressed against him, since she was an almost-plus-size who was perpetually dieting.

Linx didn’t want to feel possessive, but she’d draw the line between her and her sister and best friend.

“Something must have happened.” She zeroed her gaze in on Grady. “You missed Australia in December, and now you’re missing all the action here.”

This time, she detected a slight wince between his eyebrows. “The dogs and veterans need me more. Besides, isn’t your shelter overfull?”

“True, but we have a policy that only the final adopter can take the dog from our center,” Linx said.

“You got my list, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but I don’t handle third-party adoptions.”

He didn’t know how desperate she was to place the elderly dogs, but then, he didn’t have to. She would uphold the standards of her policy to let him know he wasn’t God’s gift to rescue centers—no matter how many good deeds he was prepared to do.

“Your dogs need homes, I presume?” He lifted an eyebrow, letting her know he wasn’t buying her resistance.

“How do I know they’re good homes? How do I know they can handle a dog? Just because they’re veterans doesn’t mean they’re exempt from the application process. What if they have PTSD? Or they’re mentally ill? There was a veteran not too far back who tied her therapy dog to a tree and shot him.”

“Suspicious, much?” Grady narrowed his eyes. “What’s this really about? You afraid of me?”

“You, no way.” Linx puffed her chest, drawing his heated gaze.

“Then let me go over and scout out the dogs. I can take pictures and do a preliminary evaluation of personality and temperament. I’m also working with a trainer and therapist to make the match.”

On the surface, he seemed reasonable, without a hidden agenda, but Grady Hart was angling for something, and it wasn’t a quick, no-strings roll in the hay.

Still, he was a master at making her look crazy and unreasonable.

“Fair enough,” Linx said. “Meet me there when we open.”

Next to Grady, Tami made faces to remind Linx why Grady should not go over to the rescue center.

Linx used her foot to nudge Tami’s leg, letting her know she was well aware of the danger. She’d lock Cedar up in the bathroom. No problem.