Read Online An Ember To Bear (Fire Bear Shifters 5) by Sloane Meyers - Free Book Online Page A

situation until you’re in it. The way you reacted shows how much character you have.”
    “Well, I’m so glad I had the chance to meet you, and I’m so glad to hear that you’ll be staying around here,” Mindy said. “I don’t have that many girlfriends, since working at the hospital makes it hard to have time to get out and meet people. I would be more than happy to make grabbing coffee and pie at The Sweet Crust a regular thing.”
    Bailey laughed. “You won’t get any resistance from me if you want to set up a regular coffee and pie date.”
    “That’s the spirit,” Mindy said. “Now, tell me about your new boy toy. I can’t believe you’re dating a firefighter. And, if I remember correctly, that guy who dropped off the pie for you was one of the hottest firefighters I’ve ever seen.” As soon as Mindy said the words, she involuntarily thought that she’d seen some sexy firemen in her day, but none of them could compare to the way Zach looked. Mindy felt a little horrified that she had even let that thought cross her mind. All she really knew about Zach was that he was a smokejumper and a really obnoxious drunk. She definitely shouldn’t be daydreaming about him. Mindy furrowed her brow and frowned, but Bailey didn’t seem to notice as she kept talking about her new romance with Trevor.
    “Yeah, you know what the funny thing is, though? He’s not a normal firefighter like the ones that work at the station. He was volunteering at the station when the hotel fire broke out, but he’s actually a smokejumper. Basically, he fights wildfires by parachuting out of the plane to the front lines of the fire. It sounds crazy, and scary, but he seems to love it. He even convinced me to go skydiving with him, which I have to admit was the experience of a lifetime. I was terrified, but I’m glad I did it and got a small taste of what he does. His job is pretty badass, but I know I’m going to worry about him this summer when the wildfire season starts and he’s jumping out of planes all the time.”
    Mindy sat staring at Bailey with her mouth slightly open. “Trevor is a smokejumper?” she said. “That’s really random, because I met a smokejumper two nights ago. I wonder if they know each other.”
    Bailey narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “You’re kidding me,” she said. “The smokejumper wasn’t named Zach by chance, was he?”
    “He was,” Mindy said. “I’m guessing that means that you do know him.”
    “Yeah, I do know him, unfortunately,” Bailey said. “He’s on Trevor’s crew of smokejumpers. There are six of them—five guys and one girl. Zach is the only one who I don’t like. He’s a total jerk. He’s got some issues over some bad breakup or something that happened years ago. I don’t really know the full story, but it seems like this girl hurt him pretty badly. I guess he can’t let it go, and he doesn’t want to see anyone else happy. He’s really mad at Trevor for dating me. The other night, when you met him, he had just stormed off from a barbecue the smokejumping crew was having. He was so mad that I was at the barbecue that he literally left in the middle to go to a bar by himself.”
    “Wow,” Mindy said. “He sounds like a total charmer. When I met him, I thought he seemed a little unstable, but I had no idea he was at the bar because he was angry about a friend dating someone. That’s ridiculous. He was so upset that he drank more shots of whiskey than I can count, and I ended up driving his drunk ass home. Not only that, but I had a tire blowout on the way to the hangar where he lives, and I had to change it by myself in the rain. He was too drunk to do anything but wander around the car and tell me how beautiful I was. Then, to top it all off, the next day he showed up at the hospital looking for me. He was so blackout drunk the night before that he couldn’t even remember which bar he had left his truck at. I guess the only thing he could remember was meeting