Free Flame (Firefighters of Montana Book 5) by Victoria Purman Page A

like. The cold air from the freezer wafted towards her, cooling her hot cheeks.
    Vegetarian lasagna? Nope. Dex would be a meat kind of guy, she was sure of it, which meant a choice between beef stroganoff or her favourite Indian-inspired chicken curry. She went for the beef.
    Five minutes later, she was on the road. The frozen meal was on the seat next to her and her heart was in her mouth.

Chapter Eight
    C ady had looked up Dex’s address online and she was now cruising down his street on the new side of Glacier Creek, looking for his apartment complex. The street was new and gleaming and fresh, filled with low-rise modern apartments, neatly trimmed communal lawns, and trees that were still saplings. She couldn’t figure it out. This didn’t seem like Dex McCoy at all. Why did he live in an apartment in Glacier Creek when he could still be living on the family ranch, North Fork? The McCoy’s had run cattle for generations and once Dex had finished high school, it seemed logical he would stay and work the family ranch. He’d left everything to his brother Mitch and his wife Sarah to handle. It was sometimes the subject of gossip among the townsfolk who frequented Cady’s Cakes, all these years later, about why he’d left the ranch. Cady had tried not to listen in to those conversations when she’d been serving customers, but she seemed to have some ultrasonic hearing when it came to Dex McCoy. She had always been able to hear his name across her shop, even if it was whispered behind a closed hand fifty feet away.
    Cady slowed when she spotted his number and pulled up out front. His truck was there in the street, it’s faded red looking out of place in this new part of town. She took a deep breath, lifted the food parcel from the passenger seat, and got out of the car. It was short walk up a neat path to his front door. She knocked, and then took a step back, tucked her hair behind her ears, and jiggled her car keys in one hand.
    The door opened.
    She gripped her keys so hard they made imprints on her palm.
    “Cady?” Dex rubbed the confused expression from his mouth with a swipe of his big hand.
    “Hi, McCoy.” She knew he was home, but it was so good to see him safe and sound and in one piece that she wanted to hug him.
    But of course she didn’t. He looked tired. His dark eyes were hooded, the growth on his chin suggested he hadn’t seen a razor in a few days and maybe he’d forgotten to pack a comb in his smokejumping pack because his hair was ruffled and sticking up. And although he was wearing what appeared to be clean jeans and a fresh, long-sleeved T-shirt and not his smokejumping gear, Cady could smell smoke.
    “What are you doing here?” His tone was a mix of confused and surprised. “I’ve just got back from base.” He looked at the parcel in her hands. “What’s that?”
    “I brought you some dinner. It’s the least I could do since I know you’ve been up the mountain for near on two days, facing who knows what, and I thought you might be ravenous and too exhausted to cook.” The words ran from her mouth in a full force blast. Get the words out, get it done, and get outta here. That was her new plan, a plan she’d hatched when she realized what being so close to Dex was doing to her. And that crooked smile? She’d never seen it before in her life. Her whole life. Not since she first met Dex at high school when they were thirteen years old, not in all the years since.
    “You do cook, don’t you?” she asked him.
    He dropped his gaze to his bare feet and then looked back up at her. The smile that appeared on his mouth combined with the look in his eyes to send something sizzling inside her chest.
    “I reheat. And I grill a mean steak. Does that count?”
    “Depends on how the steak turns out. I like it medium rare myself.”
    “Same,” he said.
    There was so much about Dex she didn’t know. So much she’d supposed and guessed and predicted, but she didn’t really understand him.