Free Burn for You: Outback Skies, Book 2 by Lexxie Couper Page A

from the kitchen without a backward glance.
    Leaving her alone.
    “Okay,” she whispered to the empty room. “Okay.”
    Hugging her shirt to her breasts, she retrieved her discarded pants and G-string from the floor and then redressed.
    Evan didn’t return.
    Nor did he reappear as she crossed to the front door.
    The only thing that followed her through it was thick silence and a numb certainty she’d never see him again.

Chapter Five
    “You’re an idiot.”
    Evan raised his eyebrows at Ryan’s blunt statement. “For what? Going back out in the chopper at two a.m. despite the captain telling me to stay put? Should I remind you that you were out there as well? Beating down the last of the flames with a burlap sack, to be precise?”
    Ryan snorted, adjusted his cowboy hat farther back onto his head and crossed his arms over his chest. He was covered in soot and dust, the only clean areas of skin on his face the laughter lines on either side of his eyes. Not for the first time since knowing the gay heli-musterer, Evan found himself wondering how many women in the Ridge fantasized about turning Ryan to the other side.
    “That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it, Ev,” Ryan murmured, the declaration a gentle rebuff.
    Even at this early hour of the morning, with dawn only just breaking, the Outback Skies pub was full. The sounds of its patrons hung on the air around them like a low droning buzz, broken every now and again by cheers or laughter. The Mutawintji National Park fire was officially out, extinguished completely three hours ago. The people of Wallaby Ridge were celebrating, along with the few members of the media who still lingered in the town.
    As far as Evan could tell, Jenna and her cameraman weren’t among their number. That was good.
    Yeah, right.
    Ignoring the dull, empty ache that had been in his stomach since he’d turned his back on Jenna in his kitchen, he cast his friend in a steady stare. “Whatever you think you know, Ryan,” he said, reaching for the beer the owner of the pub had put in front of him when he’d first sat down, “you’re wrong.”
    Ryan snorted again. “Mate, this is what I know. You’ve got a beautiful, successful, intelligent woman who obviously thinks you’re the bee’s bloody knees wanting to have a relationship with you and you’re behaving like she’s some kind of superficial, shallow cow who’s going to run screaming for the hills the second you get your gear off. Ergo, you’re an idiot.”
    Evan narrowed his eyes. “Considering we’ve only been talking about the fire since the convo started, I’d like to know where you’re getting your so-called knowledge.”
    Ryan threw back his head and laughed, a good-natured, open chortle that made those around their table flick him curious grins.
    “Ah, mate,” he said, smirking at Evan. “You really should pull your head out of your arse. Despite the fact you’ve been talking shop for the last hour, you’ve been checking the door every time it opens and shrinking into the seat as you do so.”
    “I have not.”
    “Bloody oath you have.” Ryan grinned. “About the only time I’ve seen any real emotion in your face since you walked in was when Harry told you that reporter from Chanel Eight News was really pretty and that she seemed to have a thing for you.” He made quotation marks with his fingers either side of his head, his grin stretching to a smirk. “And let’s be serious, the woman has done nothing but ask about you since she got here.”
    Slouching low in his seat, Evan tugged his baseball cap’s peak farther down his face. A tight sensation coiled in his stomach. An image of Jenna filled his mind, the smile he so easily remembered from their past relationship taunting him. He used to live for her smile when she’d hung out with him and Tracey. Every time she’d smiled back then, his body would throb with an elemental happiness. He hadn’t seen her smile since she’d arrived in the