Only Her Smokejumper Firefighter - Cami Checketts Page 0,9

notice to her: This isn’t for you, Mavyn Vance, you she-devil heartbreaker, so don’t get any ideas.

He stepped forward and extended his hands, not touching her as he awaited her permission.

“Mavyn?” Grams asked, giving her an impertinent wink.

Mavyn sighed. She’d get this over with and then disappear. She stepped in and rested her left hand on his shoulder, clasping her right hand with his. His warm palm wrapped around the side of her waist. He didn’t get too close, almost holding her stiffly away from him. Even their joined hands and his palm on her waist, hers on his muscular shoulder, was too much. She wanted to tug him closer and never leave the arms that were created for her.

They quietly danced. She had no idea what to say and by the way his jaw was clenched, it seemed he was either fighting his feelings for her or done letting himself feel anything at all. His entire body was so stiff and unyielding that she found herself fighting tears of frustration and longing. No. She needed to be strong. It was much better for both of them if they didn’t have a relapse to the connection and intimacy they’d shared that evening. Keep the past in the past.

“I’m sure the weddings were beautiful,” she said into the stiff silence lingering between them like the spray of a skunk’s behind as they moved across the dance floor in an unyielding waltz.

He finally looked at her. “They were,” he said as if she had no business being part of his family’s celebrations.

“I’m sorry I intruded on your family time. I came for Cora.”

“Thank you for reminding me that you’d never come for me.”

She opened her mouth to say she’d run across hot coals for him, but she couldn’t let him know that.

“I warned Quill about Cora,” he said before she could reveal her love for him.

“Excuse me?”

“I told my brother that I didn’t know Cora, but if she was your friend, he should tread carefully as you are not to be trusted.”

The oxygen was robbed from her lungs. If she’d had any doubt how deeply she’d hurt him, how much he hated her, here was the proof. Only her loyalty and love for her friend strengthened her enough to speak. “Cora is the most pure, beautiful, and kind person I know. Her faith is strong. You can trust her with your brother’s heart.”

He softened slightly but not enough that she dared to hope he could forgive her, not that she could allow him to. His body went rigid again and his blue eyes were cold as he said in a low, gravelly voice, “So what you’re saying is Cora is nothing like you?”

Mavyn took that like an arrow to the heart. She gasped for air, pulled from his arms, and said, “That’s right.”

She hurried away from him and back into the women’s restroom she’d found Cora crying in an hour before. She would not cry. That was ridiculous. She was too strong to let any man into her heart; too strong for tears over a harsh interaction with the one man who had made his way in even with her fighting him.

She didn’t look forward to driving back to Missoula tonight, but at least it would get her out of the same valley as Ren Chadwick and protect her from the anger and hurt in his blue eyes. She’s nothing like you, she’s nothing like you. He saw the truth for what it was. Her friend Cora was fabulous and good. Of course she was nothing like Mavyn.

The door burst open and Grams came in. She looked Mavyn up and down. “That was no kind of apology or dance. You two didn’t get close enough to even brush bodies.”

Brush bodies? Mavyn needed help, but no divine intervention would come for her. She backed away, shaking her head. Run was the only solid idea in her mind.

“I tried,” Mavyn insisted, jutting her chin out. Not really. She should’ve groveled and begged him to forgive her. Yet what would that have accomplished? She couldn’t be with him, so it was better that he saw her as a siren or evil temptress.

“Well, try harder.” Grams looked stubborn enough she was probably a match for Mavyn’s own determination.

“Ah, Grams.” She sighed. “Your grandson is incredible, but I’m not the right one for him.”

“We’ll see about that,” Grams sniffed. “Are you going out there to dance with him or am I dragging you by those pretty curls?”

Mavyn