Phoebe,” he explained. “Just this once. Because she’s evacuated.”
Before Faith could say no, he brought it to the little girl on the leather sofa in the family room. “Tonight is a special occasion.”
“What?” She took the glass he held out.
“I get to have the pleasure of your company for dinner.”
“Wow.” Carefully she took a sip. “I promise I won’t spill.”
“I know you won’t.”
He walked back into the kitchen where Faith stood with her back braced against the island. She was giving him a look. “What?”
“You’re very good at this,” she said.
The tone didn’t make her words sound like a compliment so he decided to clarify his actions in a positive way. “If you mean taking care of friends going through a rough time, then yes I am.”
“I actually meant you’re quite practiced at charming women.”
There was a whole lot of subtext in those words. “Charm isn’t a bad thing.”
“It is if it’s not sincere.” She folded her arms over her chest.
“Look, as far as I’m concerned we’ve become friends. So if what you see in my behavior is charm in a bad way, then I’m not sure what I can do about that.”
“Just stop it.”
“I can’t be what I’m not,” he pointed out.
“Neither can I.”
“Okay.” Sam dragged his fingers through his hair. He was going to say this and let the chips fall wherever. “You don’t have to tell me I’m right, but I think there’s a better-than-even chance some guy did you wrong.”
“You don’t—”
He held up a hand to stop her. “You’re right. I don’t know for sure. But the fact that defensiveness is your default position makes it a very good possibility.”
She didn’t respond to that.
“I assure you that I have no ulterior motives. I value your friendship and don’t want things to get awkward between us. There’s nothing to worry about from me and you can take that promise to the bank.” He smiled. “No pun intended.”
Her lips curved up slightly. “Okay.”
Sam’s word was important to him and he didn’t give it lightly. He’d drawn a line in the sand and wouldn’t cross it, even though the idea of kissing her had occurred to him. But he was sure there was a jerk in her past and he wouldn’t be another one who played her.
When she could go back to her house in a day or two, this feeling would pass. There was no doubt in his mind that he could resist her for that short a time.
“You didn’t have to come with me and volunteer to help feed the firefighters.” Faith glanced at Sam in the driver’s seat, which was appropriate since this was his car. Although she was pretty sure that’s where he sat in every part of his life.
“This is my town now and I want to pitch in.” He slid her a look but the expression in his eyes was hidden by the dark aviator sunglasses. Very sexy glasses that amped up his appeal by a lot. “I want to make sure the firefighters’ staging area is a safe distance from the fire line.”
“You don’t trust Des Parker?”
“I don’t know him.” There was a hint of disapproval in his voice.
That was an interesting negative reaction to someone he’d never met. “He’s a good guy.”
“Jury’s out on that. All I know is you were pretty smoky when you got home last night.”
“That would sound so much better if you’d said I was smokin’ hot.”
Sam didn’t look at her but the corners of his mouth curved up. “You’ll do. And I’m here to make sure you’re not literally smokin’.”
He navigated the winding two-lane road in a confidently masculine way that made her stomach quiver in that feminine way it did when fascinated by a guy. Admittedly that reaction was just plain stupid, but, sadly, too real. The best thing she could say about the inconvenient feeling was that it took her mind off worrying about what condition her home was in.
But as they got closer to the staging area, visibility was reduced because of smoke hanging in the air and it got noticeably thicker every mile. The wind wasn’t as bad, but it was still a factor in battling the blaze.
“I heard firefighters are coming from as far away as California and Oregon to help put this thing out.” Sam glanced over.
“That’s the rumor.”
“They’ll get it contained.”
“Sure doesn’t feel that way right now,” she said.
“It won’t burn forever.”
“You can’t know that.”
“Wow.” Sam glanced over again. “I didn’t take you for a glass-half-empty kind of person.”
“It’s hard to be chipper and perky and optimistic when everything you have in the world might be gone.”
“I know. But you have to stay strong.”
“Says who?” She was feeling angry and resentful and looking to take it out on someone. It was his bad luck that he was in the line of fire, no pun intended. “Do you have any idea what it feels like to face the possibility of losing everything? Even with insurance there will be out-of-pocket expenses that I can’t afford. You would only have to write a check. Chump change.”
“I admit that having access to more resources makes the prospect less daunting.”
Well, pickles. She’d expected him to be all sunshine and unicorns, not agree with her. Now what was she going to argue with him about?
“So, I met Kiki.”
“Did you?” The corners of his mouth curved up.
“Yes. When I delivered the breakup bouquet.”
“I see.”
Faith wanted more of a reaction so she could push back on something because she was really in the mood to push back. “Don’t you want to know what my impression of her was?”
He shrugged. “Since I won’t be seeing her again, discussing it is like shutting the barn door after the horse got out.”
“I can see why you’d think that, but
