A low laugh rumbled out of him. “All week.”
“Good.”
He looked personally offended. “Good?”
“Yes.” Johanna crossed one leg over the other carefully. “Humility builds character.”
“I run into fires for a living.”
“And apparently you needed one woman with a bidding paddle to humble you publicly.”
That grin appeared again.
Heaven help her.
It started slowly before spreading across his face like sunlight breaking through clouds after a storm. Blaze’s smile had always been dangerous because it never felt practiced. Warmth lived inside it. The kind that made people relax without realizing it.
Johanna returned her attention to the evening view.
Too late.
Her stomach had already reacted.
“Technically,” Blaze said casually, “you didn’t humble me.”
She frowned. “What does that mean?”
“You bought me.”
Johanna whipped around so fast her curls brushed her shoulder. “Don’t say it like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like…” She waved one hand vaguely. “That.”
His grin deepened into something openly sinful. “Like you won me?”
“I didn’t buy you… the Saltwater Sisters did that.”
“Yeah. They did it for you.”
“Braxton.”
The name slipped out before she could stop it, carrying a softness and familiarity that felt far more intimate than Blaze.
Something shifted across his face the second he heard it.
The teasing faded. The heat remained. And suddenly the air between them felt heavier.
“It’s been a long time since you called me that,” he said quietly.
Johanna swallowed hard. “It’s your name.”
“I mean… hearing my name coming from you. It’s been a long time.”
Silence settled after that. Not awkward silence. Loaded silence. The kind filled with memories neither of them knew how to discuss safely yet.
The truck curved away from Main Street and followed the ocean road while the sky deepened into rich shades of lavender, peach, and fading gold. Water flashed between buildings in glittering strips while sea grass bent gently in the evening breeze.
