He scanned the bar for Tara. She must still be in the restroom.
The band finished a song and people clapped and hollered. The late-evening crowd partied hard, intensified by the firefighters on leave before heading back out to risk lives to protect Alaska’s beloved wilderness.
Ryan waited impatiently before asking Angela. “Where’s Tara?”
She shrugged. “Still in the ladies’ room, I guess.”
Silva came toward him and motioned his beer at the door. “She left. I warned you, dude.”
Ryan stared at him and bolted out the door. Have I screwed this up before I even got it off the ground?
Chapter 23
“Tara, stop! Where are you going?” Ryan’s voice rang out behind Tara in the cool twilight air.
She hurried ahead of her Afi Slayers squad to catch a ride with them back to Fairbanks.
This was all a huge mistake. Residual pain from her ex still lodged deep inside of her, like a tumor. She should have seen this coming with Ryan. Same replay, different state. How could I be stupid enough to fall for this again?
“Where’s the car, Bateman?” She sped up to a jog, darting eyes around the parking lot.
Bateman pointed to the right.
Ryan came up fast and gripped Tara’s elbow. “You’re with me. Don’t leave with them.”
“Let go of me.” She yanked away from his grip. “I’ll go with whomever I please.”
“I’m sorry. It was because I was on television.” He raised and dropped his arms at his sides.
Tara glared at him. “That’s not why I left.”
“Want us to wait? We’ll be in the car,” called out Bateman. Everyone piled into his Subaru, leaving the passenger door open for her.
“Be there in a minute,” Tara responded.
She narrowed her eyes at Ryan. “Here’s the deal. No matter where we go, you’ll always have women chasing you. You’re—well, it doesn’t hurt to look at you and I’m sure you know that. You’re quite charming and every red-blooded woman picks up on that.”
He interrupted. “Thanks for the compliment, but I don’t want other women.”
“Look Ryan, I don’t want to be that jealous person who can’t stand women flirting with her guy. I did it with Travis and I won’t do it again. I know how this goes and I know how it ends.”
“You don’t know how it ends. No one knows how it ends.”
Tara sat in the Subaru with her hand on the door. She scowled, unblinking into Ryan’s darkened eyes. “No. I’m ending this now.”
“We just got started.” His tone rose. “You know what? I hate McGuire for what he did to you.”
“So do I.” She pulled the door closed.
Ryan opened it. “Let me take you home. I have to tell you something.”
He stood in the glare of the bar’s neon light with a pleading look. His eyes held an urgency that made her curious. And they were hard to resist when he looked at her like that…which pissed her off.
Her better judgment cried out no, and her wild, out-of-control heart screamed yes. Tara sighed, hoping she wouldn’t regret this. “Go ahead, you guys, I’m going with O’Connor.”
She got out and slammed the door and the Subaru pulled away. She folded her arms. “All right. Tell me.”
“Please get in the car, I’ll explain on the way.”
He led her back to the Mustang and opened the passenger door. She sunk in the seat, wondering how her fabulous evening had gone up in smoke. She wished they would have stayed at the river or gone somewhere private. So much for that.
“Seat belt—please,” said Ryan. Ever the safety guru.
Tara grumbled something inaudible and buckled in. She faced the window and let silence bounce around the car.
Ryan broke it by turning on an mp3 mix and pulled out on the Steese Highway. Ed Sheeran sang about finding love and losing it again.
Story of my life.
She watched the midnight sun toy with the mountains and she felt naked and exposed in the twilight. She missed the dark shield of night so Ryan couldn’t read her. Right now she hated that he was so good at it.
“Remember during training when you screwed up? I came down on you hard for a reason.” Ryan gripped the wheel at ten and two, eyes on the road.
“And what might that be?” she said, her voice clipped.
He stared at the road. “I wanted you safe on fire because I…I cared for you. I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
“Cared for me?” Her tone wreaked of sarcasm. “You had a funny way of showing it.”
She watched white highway dashes appear and disappear.
“As your training instructor, I didn’t dare show it. I had to wait until we no longer worked together. You have no idea how hard that was.”
“The last day of training, you said my decision-making ability scared you. What did you mean?”
“How you make decisions to keep yourself and others safe—and how easy it is to get injured or lose your life on a fire.”
Tara stared out her door window. “It’s because of what happened on the Montana fire, isn’t it? You think I used poor judgment trying to save the homeowner.”
“I want you to assess situations and recognize the dangers, no matter who’s in charge. Don’t blindly trust people to watch out for you.”
“What are you saying? That our crew bosses don’t watch out for the safety of firefighters?”
Ryan turned down the music and let up on the accelerator. “Tell me about Smokey the Bear and the fire boss from Colorado. Details.”
“I told you what happened,” mumbled Tara.
He glanced at her. “Tell me again.”
She explained how Colonel Sanders told the women to do what he called ‘assigned duty’ for the 4th of July parade and if they didn’t do it, he’d have them fired.
“Didn’t your gut tell you it was a bad idea?” asked Ryan.
“Yeah.”
“But you did it anyway.” His tone sounded mean to
