Can't Help Falling in Love

She was a flesh-and-blood woman that he not only desired, but that he admired...and liked a great deal.

More than he’d ever liked anyone before.

Liked her so much, in fact, that Zach was probably right on the money and like might already be starting to head toward something a whole lot bigger than that. They skidded around an icy corner so fast his brother cursed loudly as he grabbed onto the door to keep from slamming his thick head into the windshield.

Feeling alive again for the first time since he’d walked out of Megan’s hotel room four days ago, Gabe just grinned.

He already knew with utter certainty that Megan wasn’t even close to being like Kate.

Now all he had to do was find a way to convince her that he wasn’t at all like her ghost husband.

It was time to fight fire with fire.

His grin widened at the firefighting cliché as he slammed on the brakes in front of Zach’s cabin and all but shoved his brother out into the snow.

Gabe already missed Megan and Summer like crazy...which meant that it was long past time to put his brand new plan into action.

Chapter Sixteen

Megan was beyond glad Gabe hadn’t called her. For a while there in her hotel room, when he was saying they should “discuss” things, she’d actually thought he wanted more than just one night of sex with her. That he’d wanted a relationship.

He must have come to his senses after the memories of the hot sex had worn off.

A guy like him was probably used to tons of hot sex, she figured. Unlike her. Because even though she been smart and put a stop to ever doing that—him—again, she couldn’t stop replaying their lovemaking in her head. Over and over. Not just at night when she was safely under her covers, either, but throughout the day her mind kept drifting to Gabe and his mouth and his hands and his—

“Mommy, are you listening to me?”

She looked into her daughter’s big green eyes, irritated with the lack of attention she was getting. “Sorry, honey. Do you need help choosing what else to pack? Do you have enough jeans and long sleeves just in case it’s cold in LA?”

Just as they did every New Year’s, her parents were taking Summer to Disneyland for a few days. Megan would have gone with them—roller coasters were just about the only scary thing she let herself do anymore because she knew they were regularly safety tested by on-staff engineers—but she was still behind with a couple of her clients after dealing with the fire and moving and resettling into their new apartment. A few days to herself where she could work every minute that she wasn’t sleeping was precisely what she needed to get back on track so that she could start the New Year on steady footing.

Yet again, she gave silent thanks that Gabe hadn’t come after her. A clean slate was exactly what she needed with her job and her love life.

Not, of course, that love had anything to do with what had happened between them. It had just been hot sex, she reminded herself sternly.

“I was wondering about Daddy.”

Megan’s careening thoughts all centered back down on her daughter again. She smiled and pulled her little girl onto her lap on the bed.

“What do you want to know?” When Summer didn’t answer right away, Megan said, “He loved to blow kisses right here on your tummy.”

She grabbed Summer and kissed her before she could squirm away, laughing.

“I know that,” Summer said, “but was he big and strong?”

Megan stopped and blinked at her. “You know what he looked like. Yes, he was big and strong.” They often went through old photo albums together, so this wasn’t news.

“Do you think he’d have taught me to snowboard like Gabe did?”

Megan had to work like crazy to keep her expression normal. She wasn’t the only one comparing Gabe to David.

“Of course he would have. And he would have been just as proud of how quickly you picked it up as we were.” She caught her slip too late, realized she shouldn’t have said we, that she should simply have said how proud she was of Summer.

She watched her daughter chew on that information for a few seconds. “Do you think Grams and Gramps will let me ride the Tower of Terror this year?”

Megan should have been used to the way seven-year-old brains jumped from one subject to another, but it took her a beat longer than it should have to respond. “I’m sure you’ll find a way to convince them.” She got up off her daughter’s bed and murmured, “I’m going to go make sure their plane is on time.” Megan needed a little alone time to process the strength of the relationship that had already formed between her daughter and the firefighter she’d shoved all the way out of their lives just a few days earlier.

Before she’d even left the room, Summer was back in her small closet, pulling out clothes and shoving them into her already overstuffed suitcase.

* * *

They met her parents at San Francisco International Airport an hour later and as she hugged her mother and father, she suddenly wished she had decided to chuck in her work for a few more days so that she could lose herself in the magic of Disney with her family.

But, yet again, she was too busy being smart to let herself have any fun, wasn’t she?

“You look lovely, honey.” Her mother held her at arm’s length and studied her carefully before they started to walk over to the onsite Italian restaurant where they had planned to have lunch before the three of them got on their plane to Los Angeles. “Have you met someone?”