Applewood, 1
When sparks start to fly, someone is bound to get burned.
Beckett wants to spend his days protecting the members of his small hometown and his nights with someone special. As a firefighter, Beckett has never hurt for female attention, but he has never felt sparks with any of the women who give it to him. That all changes one day when he sees Willa, a woman who stirs a fire in his belly, and in his heart.
Willa wants to spend her days rebuilding her career and her nights refocusing on herself. Still dealing with the trauma of a toxic relationship, Willa doesn’t see the need to try and find love in her new town, but that’s a difficult position to maintain when she is constantly having meet-cutes with the gorgeous, strong, and incredibly patient Beckett.
Will their relationship catch fire, or be smothered by the troubles of Willa’s past?
Excerpt:
Swallowing the rebuke that was on the tip of his tongue at the man interrupting his conversation with Willa, Beckett smiled politely at Dale and clasped his shoulder. It wasn’t his fault Beckett was finally getting somewhere with the woman of his dreams only to be interrupted. “That’s great. I was just enjoying Willa’s sugar-coated cereal manifesto.” Beckett’s body turned toward the woman, only to find the aisle in front of him abandoned. “Oh fuck a duck.”
“What’s that?” Dale asked.
Beckett ignored the question as his eyes darted around the empty aisle. Willa was nowhere to be found and his shoulders slumped in defeat. If he believed in fate, Beckett would think it was against him for all the close calls he’d had with that woman without ever actually getting anywhere and wondered if he shouldn’t just give up the ghost. But he believed people were in charge of their own futures, and right now he wanted nothing more than to make that woman a part of his.
“Nothing, Banks. Let’s grab the last few things and head to the checkout.” Beckett’s eyes roamed the market as they gathered the rest of their necessities, and when they landed on a certain blonde at the checkout stand, he smiled again.
As Beckett pushed the cart toward her lane, he took a long look at Willa. Her hair was tucked up in a sloppy bun, giving him a peek at her swanlike neck. Her slender body was encased in a long dress made of a material so light that it swayed with every subtle movement she made. She was a little more than half a foot shorter than him, the perfect height to be able to tuck her head under his chin as he held onto her. Beckett had been attracted to women before, but none as strongly as he was her. Willa was everything he desired in a woman with the bonus of also being someone he found inherently fascinating despite not even really knowing her yet. Those sea green eyes had a story to tell. Beckett wanted to curl up on the floor at her feet and listen to every word.
Unable to hold back any longer, he moved up behind her, frowning when the panic in her voice as she spoke with the cashier became evident. “I swear I had it when I left the house,” she insisted shrilly. She reached into her woven purse and rifled around a moment before coming up empty. “I’m so sorry. Is there a way we can put this aside and I can come back later with my wallet?”
The teenage boy she had been speaking with looked more like a deer in headlights than a cashier at that moment, so Beckett decided to save them both some trouble and slapped his personal credit card on the small counter. “Here,” he told them, pushing it forward. “It’s on me.”
Willa looked over her shoulder to gaze at him, her expression a mix of gratitude and distrust. “You really don’t need to do that,” she insisted. “I can handle it.”
Nodding, Beckett held his hands up. “I’m not saying you can’t. Just trying to be friendly.” He was always friendly, always ready to help someone in need, but he definitely wanted to get into her good graces so that he could ask her out.
Willa’s eyes pierced through him like she was trying to get a read on his aura, or soul, or whatever makes people who they are. Finally, she sighed and smiled at the cashier. “I guess it’s on him.” When she turned back to Beckett, the smile was still there but he could see her guard was back up a little. “I’m not always such a mess,” she mumbled.
Beckett’s eyes came together as he watched her curl into herself a little. “Who said you were a mess?” Fury at anyone who ever made her feel bad for a simple slip up ripples through him as did the need to draw her into his arms for a comforting hug. “We all forget things from time to time.”
Willa nodded, straightening herself again as the apprehension seemed to drain from her body. “Well, thank you.” She had all her groceries gathered and made to leave. Beckett knew that this might be his only shot, so if he was going to take it, he needed to move.
Passing the station credit card off to Dale, Beckett nodded for Willa to follow him toward the door. “You’re welcome.” Coughing into his hand, Beckett stood a little taller and decided to just go for it. “Earlier you said subtlety was overrated, so I am just going to go ahead and tell you that I like you and would love to take you out on a date.” Willa’s eyes widened with pleasure, but soon her apprehension returned.
Her teeth dug into the plush pink of her lower lip as she peered up at him. “I don’t know. I mean, we just met.”
Beckett reached up and started rubbing the back of his neck as he shrugged. “Well, how else were we supposed to get to know one another?” When he saw the wheels of her mind still turning, he smiled and tapped the department logo on my chest. “Tell you what. You know I’m a firefighter now. Why don’t you think about it, and come find me when you have your answer?”
Willa eyed him for a moment before nodding. “I can do that.”
No longer holding his breath, Beckett let the relief of making that first, small step fill his lungs along with some much needed oxygen. Smiling, he reached out to shake her hand. “Until then, it was nice talking to you Willa.”
Willa returned his smile and slipped her hand in his. Her skin was soft and smooth, and he couldn’t help but wonder if her whole body felt the same. “You too, Kemp.” Her fingers trailed lightly along his as she pulled back and turned to leave.
Beckett would laugh at the ridiculousness of her thinking his first name was Kemp if it weren’t for one thing keeping him silent and rooted to the spot. The sensations traveling all throughout his body at the brief touch had him staring down at the place their palms were just joined, searching for tangible evidence of what he felt so strongly, more than he had ever felt it before. There was no visible mark on his skin, but there was one currently being burned onto his soul.
“What’s up, Kemp?” Dale asked as he joined Beckett.
There was a cart full of groceries to get to the truck and a drive back to the station to make, but Beckett couldn’t be bothered with any of that. He stared blankly at his hand for another moment before he met Dale’s gaze, his lips pulling back into a grin. “Sparks.”
- Series:
- /series-applewood/
