Free Plain Jane & The Hotshot by Meagan McKinney

adrenaline rush, Nick Kramer was finally pushed from Jo’s thoughts, but when they arrived back at camp late that afternoon and Hazel made a mysterious disappearance, Jo couldn’t help but feel uneasy. It didn’t do not to watch that matriarchal matchmaker. Hazel was usually up to no good, and Jo was convinced she was now the target of the woman’s schemes.
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    Hazel had learned, when the smoke jumpers stopped by for supper two days earlier, that tonight they would be off duty. And she had made plans then to ensure that Jo would “bump into” Nick Kramer later tonight, during the star-navigating exercise.
    First, however, she had a certain motherly duty to attend to. After all, if she was going to cross Jo’s path with Nick’s, she needed to peer a little closer into Nick’s heart. Hazel trusted her first impressions, and instinct told her Nick was a “keeper.”
    Nonetheless, Jo had recently sailed through rough romantic waters, and Hazel had no desire to plunge her vulnerable friend into a whirlpool of additional heartache.
    She waited until late that afternoon, when the girls were helping with supper and the smoke jumpers were likely to be awake after their previous night’s labors. Then Hazel slipped quietly away to visit the men’s camp, which was located about two hundred yards below the cabins on Bridger’s Summit.
    â€œGetcher britches on, boys!” she called out as she approached their circle of one-man tents. “Female approaching camp!”
    In fact, a few of the firefighters were barely dressed, and Hazel discreetly ogled some sloping pecs as her eye quickly rushed over the camp, looking for Nick. She spotted him immediately, shaving in front of a metal mirror that had been nailed to a tree.
    â€œHazel,” he greeted her cheerfully, scraping some bristle off one side of his strong-jutting jaw. “Excuse us if we’re not ready for company. What brings you to our neck of the woods?”
    â€œI’m just curious about something,” she replied, glancing around to make sure none of the lounging men was close enough to overhear.
    â€œOh, yeah? What?”
    â€œWhat’s your honest opinion of Jo?”
    â€œJo?” he repeated.
    â€œWe’ve established her name,” Hazel said. “Now tell me what you think of her.”
    Nick’s eyes cut from the mirror to Hazel’s face, then back to the mirror. He angled the razor up under his nose and said cautiously, “Who wants to know?”
    â€œI’m the one asking, aren’t I? Just spit it out, big boy. I won’t share it with her.”
    â€œWell…she’s damn good-looking,” he essayed, obviously holding back. “Great face, great body.”
    â€œAll right, for a man that’s a typical start. But let’s get past the cattle auction. What else do you think of her?”
    â€œNot so quick,” he resisted. “What’s she think of me?”
    â€œNot too much, evidently.”
    Hazel’s bluntness was deliberate, and just as she’d hoped, her candor triggered his own.
    â€œWell, since you insist on knowing, the feeling is mutual,” Nick retorted, his voice revealing resentment. “She’s the pouty-princess type, thinks her pedestal is mighty high. Likes to stamp her foot and lay down all the rules, push a guy around for the power rush. I’ve had it up to here with women who deliver ultimatums.”
    He almost said more, Hazel could tell, but he suddenly shut up.
    Still, sunlight is the best disinfectant, thought a jubilant Hazel, and his brief comments just now threw open casements of illumination. Just like Jo, he’d obviously been hurt in love, and also like her, he was confusing the person who hurt him with all membersof the opposite sex. A common mistake, but also a tragic one.
    Both these kids, Hazel marveled, are proud and sensitive, and ironically, have much more in common than