Read Where There's Smoke: inspirational romantic suspense (Montana Fire Book 1) for Free Online Page B

said.
    “No—”
    But her heart went out to him just a smidgen when she saw him slide onto a high-top chair, away from the crowd.
    Stay out of my way.
    “We nearly died together.”
    She didn’t know why—or how—the words slipped out. But seeing him sitting there, his biceps stretching the sleeves of his shirt, looking worn and not a little lonely, she could practically feel him tremble in her arms despite the courage he’d attempted in his voice. We’re going to live, Kate, I promise.
    “What—?” Gilly cut through her memory. “Did you say you nearly died together?”
    Kate played with the straw in her malt. Nodded. “It was my rookie year, up in Alaska.”
    “Oh, I remember. Jock was so angry when you joined the Midnight Sun Jumpers.”
    “Little did I know that Jed was on the team.”
    Gilly’s eyes widened. “What? Why did you never tell me?”
    Kate looked away.
    “Oh, Kate.” Gilly slid her hand to touch Kate’s arm. “What happened?”
    She didn’t know where to start. Looked at Jed.
    He picked at his curly fries. Had barely touched his beer, now sweating on the counter.
    We danced. We kissed. And then he nearly died trying to save my life.
    “About my fifth jump of the season, we were called in to knock down a fire on the Porcupine River, north of the Yukon. Jed was my jump partner.”
    She saw it then, about two acres of flame crawling toward higher land. Their LZ—landing zone—surrounded by tall pines and huge boulders and, of course, the river. The tunnel of smoke to the east, the smell of smoke faint, a hint of danger.
    “I jumped before he did. About a quarter mile down, as I came into the canyon, a wind shear rushed up and practically threw me over the ridge into the fire. I stalled, then managed to refill. I somehow steered away from the fire, but I messed up—I overcorrected and came down a good three miles from the drop zone. In a small clearing surrounded by pine.”
    “I put down and rolled—a clean landing, but when I came up, I heard someone shouting. Jed—snagged in a tree.”
    “He came after you.”
    “Yeah. He thought I was in trouble, off course, and decided to follow me. But then he came down hard into the trees and his leg got caught on a limb. Not a compound, but a fracture all the same. He was able to let down, but he could barely walk. We called for a pickup, but we were short a chopper, and the jumpers couldn’t cross the ridge. We were cut off. And right in the path of the fire.”
    “No one can read a fire like Jed.” This from Pete. She hadn’t seen him sidle up next to her, his head on his hand, leaning into the story. Reuben, too, stood nearby, now holding a pool cue, chalking it over and over.
    She wasn’t sure, then, how much of this story she should tell and shot a glance at Jed. He simply stared at the mirror behind the bar, as if reliving the story with her. Except, in the crowded bar, he couldn’t exactly hear her, right?
    “We got trapped. And I...” She shook her head. “Anyway, Jed grabbed me and threw me to the ground, shook out my shelter over me. I was climbing in when I realized—with his fractured leg there was no way he could keep his shelter secure. So I climbed in with him, helped him hold his shelter down.”
    “You rode through a fire—in the same shelter?” Gilly asked, her voice betraying exactly how Kate felt about it.
    Kate nodded.
    “You saved his life.”
    She shook her head, ran her finger down the moisture on the side of the glass. “Nope. The thing was, I was pretty freaked out. And I’m not sure if I wouldn’t have simply gotten up to run if he wasn’t holding me down. He saved my life.”
    The team fell quiet, Pete glancing to Jed. Gilly played with the edge of her napkin.
    And there was no need to tell them the rest, because maybe they got it. You didn’t go through something like that with someone and not emerge bonded.
    “No wonder he freaked out when you came after me,” Pete said quietly. “The guy