Page 23 of Burnin' For You
Gilly returned with her empty tray to the kitchen, brushing past Juliet.
“Youcanbe tough and tender. Brave and beautiful. Sweet and strong. You don’t have to turn off the sweet girl inside to be a firebomber.”
Gilly couldn’t look at her. “You’re not in my world. These guys depend on me—they nearly died last week.” She picked up a tray of freshly frosted white chocolate cupcakes.
“And you nearly died saving them,” Juliet said as Gilly returned to the front. Juliet walked over to the door, unlocked it, and turned the Open sign over.
The sun gilded the sidewalk, and across the street the diner, too, opened.
Gilly set the tray of cupcakes on a case shelf.
Juliet turned to her. “Being afraid isn’t a weakness. And neither is being pretty, or even letting someone sweep you off your feet. Especially if he looks like Reuben.”
Out front, a truck pulled up.
“Listen—it’s just easier for you, Juliet. You don’t look like you need defending.”
“You don’t either. Not with that permanent chip on your shoulder, the dare-me aura practically radiating off you. I can guarantee that the last thing the guys around you think is that they have to protect you.”
Yeah, well, that wasn’t the feeling she’d gotten from Reuben as he’d fallen—as he’d wrapped his arms around her, twisted his body as if to cushion her.
And yeah, she’d ended up half under his body, but even then he was pushing himself off of her.
Not to mention the look of horror on his face.
Except that could have been from the way she’d completely freaked out. She sighed, the echo of the past crashing over her. Raising gooseflesh.
Juliet put her hand on Gilly’s arm, jarring her free from her thoughts. “You’re safe, Gilly.”
Gilly found her eyes, her worried expression. “Yeah. I know.”
“No, really. I’m armed.” Juliet held up her chocolate frosting gun again. “But in truth, don’t let your fears—or your failures—tell you who you are or who you can’t be. Or who you can’t be with.”
“You sound like Dad.”
“Casualty of a lifetime in the second pew.”
Gilly grinned. Shook her head as she returned to the kitchen. “Listen, Jules, I’m happy being single. Just me, my plane, the teams, and fire. Except I won’t even have that if Miles doesn’t take me off the restricted list.”
Juliet rolled her eyes. “I do not understand you. You are surrounded by cute firefighters and all you can think about is dropping them out of the sky.”
“Spoken like a girl in a pink T-shirt, the words Hot Cake written on the front.Pul-eeze.”
The buzzer went off, and Juliet retrieved the banana-nut muffins, set them on the counter. “What, you don’t like working here?”
“It’s not that—it’s just, well, as I’ve said, I’m just not a hot cake.”
A throat cleared behind her and she froze.
Turned.
And of course, there stood the man who’d swept her off her feet—and right onto the floor.
He’d clearly heard her, too, because a blush pressed his whiskered cheeks. He wore a black T-shirt stretched across his muscled chest, a pair of desperately faded jeans, boots, and a Stetson pulled low over his eyes.
“Hey,” he said quietly.
“Hey,” she said.