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at an older version of my own face. He told me he had no sons and slammed the door. That was it.”
    “God! I’m so sorry.” Those brown eyes went wide and soft. “I can’t imagine how you must have felt.”
    “That day pretty much sucked, but I had good friends, a mother who loved me, lots of people who cared. Austin’s dad took us camping that weekend. He even let us drink a few beers.” He glanced over to find Victoria watching him. “When people make fun of small towns or talk down Scarlet, what they don’t get is that we’re a community. We might not always get along, but we’ve got one another’s backs. How many of your neighbors do you know? I know all of mine. Every last one.”
    “That must be wonderful.”
    “Most of the time. In my line of work, it also has its downsides.”
    Silky, dark brows drew together in confusion. “What do you mean?”
    “Well, there are fewer than fifteen-hundred people in Scarlet. About seventy percent of our calls are for emergency medical services, not fires. When someone has a heart attack or gets into a serious injury accident or shoots himself in the head, there’s a good chance I know him and his family.”
    She was still watching him. “How do you cope with that? It must be hard enough to deal with people’s suffering when they’re strangers, but when you know them …”
    “Yeah.” Faces and names slid through his mind—the living, the maimed, the dying, the dead. “People come up to me in the grocery store and on the street. They want to say thank you. Some have questions. They want to know if they could have done something differently. They’re searching for peace. I used to find that awkward. It made me uncomfortable. Now, I feel honored to play that role in their lives.”
    He wasn’t sure that made any sense.
    He glanced over to catch the hint of a smile tugging at her lips. “What?”
    “You are your mother’s son.”
    “Yeah?” He’d take that as a compliment. “The two of you seemed to hit it off.”
    “She said I set tongues wagging last time I was here.”
    “She told you that?” It wasn’t like his mother to gossip.
    “Is it true?”
    “Yeah, I suppose it is.”
    “What did I do? Why would people talk about me?”
    How was Eric going to explain this? He didn’t want her to think he was hitting on her, especially not after what he’d overheard this afternoon. “I hate to break it to you, Victoria, but you’re an incredibly beautiful woman.”
    That hadn’t been creepy, had it? He hoped not. He considered it a feat of self-control that he’d managed to stop with that and hadn’t raved on.
    She stared at him, disbelief on her face. “ That is what people talked about?”
    “Yeah. Is that so strange? ‘Hey, have you seen Lexi’s friend, Victoria? She’s gorgeous.’ You know—that sort of thing.” When she said nothing, he doubled down. “Come on. You know you’re above average in the looks department.”
    He expected her to blush or smile or look at him from beneath those long, sooty lashes and say something flirty.
    Instead, she looked away. “Thanks, I guess. A lot of good it’s ever done me.”
    What the hell did she mean by that?

    * * *
    T hey got back to Scarlet Springs to find the group hanging out at Austin and Lexi’s place. Vic had seen it last year before Lexi had moved in. A large two-story log home, it had floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room, a sleek kitchen, and an enormous back deck with a hot tub.
    Lexi met Vic in the driveway with a big hug, Mack, Austin’s black lab, bounding at her heels. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
    Vic shrugged. “I thought it was the margarita.”
    Eric came around the front of his pickup. “She needs to rest and drink lots of water. No alcohol—at least not tonight. And speak up if that headache comes back.”
    Lexi hugged him, too. “Thanks for realizing what was happening.”
    “That’s my job.” He headed for the back of the house, leaving Vic with