She blinked. “Excuse me?”
“That’s what you and your clan called yourselves in highschool.”
Despite herself, Johanna laughed softly. “It stuck.”
Blaze shook his head slowly. “That’s tragic.”
“What’s tragic is my so-called friends secretly spending eighteen hundred dollars on a firefighter without my permission.”
His eyebrows lifted. “They bid on me?”
“They claim it was an investment.”
A slow grin spread across his face then, warm and entirely too handsome. “Well,” he drawled, “I appreciate them recognizing quality.”
Johanna rolled her eyes, but her pulse still refused to behave.
Around them, wedding chaos continued at full speed, but standing this close to Blaze made everything blur at the edges. His scent drifted toward her subtly, clean soap layered over cedarwood and smoke. Memory hit her hard after that.
Bonfires on the beach.
Summer nights at the fair.
His letterman’s jacket wrapped around her shoulders while he kissed her beneath the pier lights.
Nooo…
This man was a problem.
“I heard you were back in town,” she said carefully.
“Almost five months now.”
Five months. And only now reaching out. The realization bothered her more than it should have. Although she hadn't exactly made herself approachable. And the last time they’d seen each other, she told him never to contact her again.
Blaze studied her quietly for a moment, his gaze moving slowly across her face like he was trying to absorb every version of her at once.
“You look good, Jo.”
The sincerity in his voice caught her off guard. No games. Nocharm. Just honesty.
Her stomach flipped traitorously. “So do you.”
Something shifted in his eyes after that. Warmth deepened there, softer than before. “You mean that?”
Johanna immediately regretted answering honestly.
Blaze laughed quietly.
And Lord… she forgot how much she loved that sound. Not loud or showy. His laughter wrapped around people. Warmed rooms. Made everything around him feel easier somehow.
Johanna glanced away before she did something stupid like smile too hard.
Mistake.Because now she noticed everyone else pretending not to stare.
Bianca openly watching from across the ballroom. Debra smirking behind a champagne tower. Even Sedona had paused mid-meltdown to observe.
Wonderful.
