Read Online Playing With Fire: inspirational romantic suspense (Montana Fire Book 2) by Susan May Warren - Free Book Online

face, and even if just quickly, kiss her.
    But, no. Because he hadn’t wanted to give her the wrong idea.
    A true gentleman.
    “I told you, we’re just friends.”
    And if that’s all they’d ever be, then that was enough.
    Really.
    Raina hustled off to her room, and a few minutes later Liza heard the shower. Tried to scrape her thoughts away from the fact that Conner had used that shower nearly a year ago.
    Tried to forget the way he came out, towel-drying his wet hair, looking rugged and hungry.
    Oh, shoot. She shouldn’t let him in to roam around her thoughts. God was enough, hello and amen. She didn’t need a man to be complete or happy. And especially not one who couldn’t make her any promises to stick around.
    Liza finished lunch, stopped by Raina’s room to tell her she’d see her at the dragon boat festival parade, watched her leave, and then paid bills at her desk.
    Took out the envelope and read the letter again.
    She shouldn’t put her life on hold for a man.
    Liza wrote a response to Vitae. Sealed it. Then she changed for the parade on the harbor—out of her paint-splattered capris into a clean T-shirt, jeans, flip-flops, and a coat.
    She picked up the envelope and was just leaving the house when the phone rang. Liza stood on the porch, listening, holding the doorknob.
    Aw, shoot.
    She answered just before it went over to her machine.
    “Liza?”
    Her traitorous heart expanded three sizes at the sound of his voice. Roughened, as if he’d eaten a lot of smoke. Tired.
    “Conner. How are you?” She always kept her voice even, a little surprised, but not so much that she put the wrong emotions in it.
    “I just got back from three weeks in Arizona. Thought I’d call you...”
    She sat down on the sofa, smoothing the envelope on her lap. “You sound tired.”
    A pause, and she could imagine him as she’d seen him on the beach, sooty, wrung out, maybe a little shaken.
    “Please tell me you didn’t get hurt or lose anyone.” Oh, maybe too much worry, but—
    “No. I’m fine. But it was pretty rough. I just...” His voice wavered, and she wanted to reach out, through the phone. “Nothing. How are you?”
    Nothing? She wanted to chase that, but instead answered his question, filling him in on Raina and the update on Evergreen Resort and today’s dragon boat race, and she hadn’t even realized how much she’d been talking until the silence echoed on the other end.
    “Conner?”
    She’d bored him into slumber.
    A pause. “Conner?”
    “I’m here. I was just thinking...how nice it would be to be in Deep Haven again. That view of the sunrise over the harbor. And we could grab a burger at the VFW...”
    Was he actually missing—no. But, “Our annual Fisherman’s Picnic is coming up in a couple of weeks.”
    She didn’t exactly know why she’d said that and hated even the hint of hope in her voice.
    “Will you be giving demonstrations?”
    She wanted to laugh, but his question reached in, filled her heart with painful hope. “Of course.”
    She wanted to wince at her breezy, too-high tone.
    “That sounds amazing.”
    Another beat, and maybe he was waiting for her to add a real invitation to their banter.
    But that would mean—what? That she wanted to be more than friends? A sure way to send Conner running the opposite direction, if she knew men. And, sad, pitiful her, she’d rather have his friendship than nothing at all.
    Still—what if—
    “I’d hop a plane in a second if I could.”
    He would? “Then you should come—”
    “But I need to go see my grandfather. He’s still fighting cancer and just finished another round of chemo...”
    Right. Exactly. “Oh, Conner, I’m sorry. Yes, of course. He needs you.”
    “It’s a nice idea, though. Maybe after the season is over.” He said it casually, however, his tone saying never.
    And that was the confirmation she needed. “I’ll be praying for your grandfather.” And for you. Which she did every day.
    Probably, that was