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their hopes decimated.
    Blazin’ Kate is the poster child for risk. She’s going to get people hurt trying to prove that she’s just as good as her father.
    His words had twisted through her brain all week, from her up-at-dawn eight-mile run through PT with the team. It poked at her through their refresher training on landing rolls, letdowns, suit-up practice, and emergency aircraft techniques. She’d mulled it through even as she hung out in the loft repairing parachutes.
    If anyone were trying to prove himself, it was Jed.
    “I still don’t understand why Jed got so lathered up when you saved Pete’s life,” Gilly said, turning to Kate. “Pete would have made an ugly smear all over our pretty landing zone.”
    “Hey.” But Pete grinned and glanced at Kate. “She’s my hero.”
    “You would have done the same thing,” she said. “We got lucky.”
    “Anytime you need saving, I’m your man.” Pete winked and walked over to Reuben.
    Gilly’s gaze followed him, then landed on Reuben. Oh, well then...
    In a second she returned it to Kate and cut her voice low. “So, listen. I know you and I know Jed, and I’ve been thinking about the most recent Great Fight and your assertion that you’re ‘over’ him.” Gilly added finger quotes for emphasis. “And I think you’re not coming clean with your BFF.” She leaned in close, her blue eyes shining. “What aren’t you telling me? After all those years of batting your eyes at Big Jed Ransom, something happened that you’re not telling me, didn’t it?”
    And just like that, heat rushed to Kate’s face, betraying her.
    Gilly leaned back, mouth agape. “No—”
    “Shh. It wasn’t like that. We...nothing happened. Not really.”
    “Please. I can’t remember a day when you didn’t pine for Jed Ransom, not since the day he showed up and your daddy decided to make him his protégé.”
    “Dad liked him way too much,” Kate said, her mind so easily conjuring up Jed as a lanky, broad-shouldered seventeen-year-old, dark hair combed Elvis style, wide-eyed and eager to make the Jude County hotshot team. He’d shown up on the doorstep of the Airstream, looking for Jock Burns, and when he found him, stuck to him like he wanted to be adopted.
    “He was always a little overprotective of you. Poor Jed probably thought he was your brother instead of a hot male in the company of a girl who wanted to give him her heart. Either that or Jock threatened his life if he even looked at you with anything but a protective eye.”
    Kate nodded, the memories sweet. “Remember that time he took my dad’s pickup?”
    “When Jed tracked us down fifteen miles into the Kootenai? Oh, he was steamed. He’d just come back from some big fire in Alaska, and he acted like you were supposed to be waiting for him. As if.”
    Kate offered a weak smile. As if. Miraculously, she managed to tame the memories before they surfaced. The feel of Jed’s hand on the small of her back, the other on her cheek, the look in his devastating eyes when his gaze traced her face.
    The feel of his mouth brushing her skin.
    I never blamed you.
    Oh, yes he did.
    She took a sip of her malt, let the chill into her bones.
    “Well, I think he might regret panicking and accusing you of tainting the rookies with your sense of epic heroism.” Gilly glanced around the room at the tired, despondent recruits. “I think they might need a healthy dose.”
    The music changed to the Jackson 5, “I Want You Back.” Oh baby all I need is one more chance.
    “And oh my, look who just walked in.” Gilly nodded toward the door just as Jed stepped inside.
    He hadn’t shaved, giving himself over to a smattering of dark whiskers across his chin, but looked freshly showered, his hair shiny and slicked back, wearing a crisp white T-shirt and faded jeans, flip-flops. He shoved his hands into his pockets, his jaw tight as he surveyed the room, apparently friendless.
    “Invite him over here,” Gilly