He already knew with utter certainty that Megan wasn't even close to being like Kate.

Now all he had to do was find a way to convince her that he wasn't at all like her ghost husband.

It was time to fight fire with fire.

His grin widened at the firefighting cliche as he slammed on the brakes in front of Zach's cabin and all but shoved his brother out into the snow.

Gabe already missed Megan and Summer like crazy...which meant that it was long past time to put his brand new plan into action.

Chapter Sixteen.

Megan was beyond glad Gabe hadn't called her. For a while there in her hotel room, when he was saying they should "discuss" things, she'd actually thought he wanted more than just one night of s.e.x with her. That he'd wanted a relationship.

He must have come to his senses after the memories of the hot s.e.x had worn off.

A guy like him was probably used to tons of hot s.e.x, she figured. Unlike her. Because even though she been smart and put a stop to ever doing that-him-again, she couldn't stop replaying their lovemaking in her head. Over and over. Not just at night when she was safely under her covers, either, but throughout the day her mind kept drifting to Gabe and his mouth and his hands and his- "Mommy, are you listening to me?"

She looked into her daughter's big green eyes, irritated with the lack of attention she was getting. "Sorry, honey. Do you need help choosing what else to pack? Do you have enough jeans and long sleeves just in case it's cold in LA?"

Just as they did every New Year's, her parents were taking Summer to Disneyland for a few days. Megan would have gone with them-roller coasters were just about the only scary thing she let herself do anymore because she knew they were regularly safety tested by on-staff engineers-but she was still behind with a couple of her clients after dealing with the fire and moving and resettling into their new apartment. A few days to herself where she could work every minute that she wasn't sleeping was precisely what she needed to get back on track so that she could start the New Year on steady footing.

Yet again, she gave silent thanks that Gabe hadn't come after her. A clean slate was exactly what she needed with her job and her love life.

Not, of course, that love had anything to do with what had happened between them. It had just been hot s.e.x, she reminded herself sternly.

"I was wondering about Daddy."

Megan's careening thoughts all centered back down on her daughter again. She smiled and pulled her little girl onto her lap on the bed.

"What do you want to know?" When Summer didn't answer right away, Megan said, "He loved to blow kisses right here on your tummy."

She grabbed Summer and kissed her before she could squirm away, laughing.

"I know that," Summer said, "but was he big and strong?"

Megan stopped and blinked at her. "You know what he looked like. Yes, he was big and strong." They often went through old photo alb.u.ms together, so this wasn't news.

"Do you think he'd have taught me to s...o...b..ard like Gabe did?"

Megan had to work like crazy to keep her expression normal. She wasn't the only one comparing Gabe to David.

"Of course he would have. And he would have been just as proud of how quickly you picked it up as we were." She caught her slip too late, realized she shouldn't have said we, that she should simply have said how proud she was of Summer.

She watched her daughter chew on that information for a few seconds. "Do you think Grams and Gramps will let me ride the Tower of Terror this year?"

Megan should have been used to the way seven-year-old brains jumped from one subject to another, but it took her a beat longer than it should have to respond. "I'm sure you'll find a way to convince them." She got up off her daughter's bed and murmured, "I'm going to go make sure their plane is on time." Megan needed a little alone time to process the strength of the relationship that had already formed between her daughter and the firefighter she'd shoved all the way out of their lives just a few days earlier.

Before she'd even left the room, Summer was back in her small closet, pulling out clothes and shoving them into her already overstuffed suitcase.

They met her parents at San Francisco International Airport an hour later and as she hugged her mother and father, she suddenly wished she had decided to chuck in her work for a few more days so that she could lose herself in the magic of Disney with her family.

But, yet again, she was too busy being smart to let herself have any fun, wasn't she?

"You look lovely, honey." Her mother held her at arm's length and studied her carefully before they started to walk over to the onsite Italian restaurant where they had planned to have lunch before the three of them got on their plane to Los Angeles. "Have you met someone?"

She could read the hope in her mother's eyes, knew that while she hadn't been happy about how young she'd married, she'd also thought Megan was far too young to be living alone. Her mother wanted another husband for her, a father for Summer, and more grandchildren. Preferably back in their Minneapolis suburb, where she could watch over them all.

"No."

She felt her mother's eyes on her, too shrewd, and braced herself for more questions, but Summer jumped in first.

"Did Mommy tell you we learned to s...o...b..ard last weekend? It was awesome!"

Megan forced herself to smile. "Well, it was awesome for Summer, at least. I'm going to be sticking with skis from here on out."

"Gabe said you just needed to practice some more," Summer said, before dragging her grandfather off to show him a stuffed animal she coveted in one of the airport stores.

Her mother raised an eyebrow. "Who's Gabe?"

Megan answered the question as directly as she could. "He's the firefighter who got me and Summer out of the building."

Her mother's other eyebrow moved up to join the first and then she grabbed Megan's hands and closed her eyes for a moment as if she were reliving the terror of finding out she'd almost lost them both. When her mother opened them again, they were gla.s.sy with unshed tears. "I love that firefighter. With all my heart."

"Mom! You don't even know him."

At her outburst, a dozen strangers turned to look at them.

"I know everything that matters. He saved my babies."

G.o.d, this was just what he'd been talking about, the way people only saw him as a firefighter...and not as the man he was outside of his job.

Wonderful. Charming. Caring. Funny. Not to mention the best lover who ever lived.

Her mother knocked into her musings with, "So you went skiing with him?"

"No." She looked at the ceiling and admitted, "Yes, but it was an accident." Summer's laughter had her looking over at her daughter. "Summer did a little bit of scheming to make it happen."

Megan was surprised to see her mother smile. "That's my smart little granddaughter."

"I'm not-" She paused, changed it to, "We're not seeing him anymore."

That eyebrow went back up. "Why not? Is he unattractive?"

Megan could feel herself flushing. "No."

"Mean?"

She frowned. "No. Of course not."

"Ah, so he doesn't like children?"

"Are you kidding? He loves them." She only realized what she'd said after the words were already out. "Look," she said to her mother, "it's complicated. We're just not right for each other."

Her mother studied her carefully, again. "Honey, I know we haven't always seen eye to eye on everything, but can I just give you one piece of advice?"

Megan tried not to groan. "Go ahead."

"I know it was hard to lose David, especially so suddenly, but you were more than strong enough to deal with that. Strong enough to repeatedly ignore my urgings to come back home."

Megan was about to open her mouth to tell her-yet again-that San Francisco was her home.

"I know, honey. You are home." Her mother gave her a sad smile that said while she wasn't happy about that fact, she'd at least finally accepted it. "I've never seen you look like this. Not even when you were with David."

Guilt washed through Megan and her mother must have seen it because she grabbed her arm.

"Summer's father was a nice man, but he wasn't the only nice man out there. He's gone, Megan. Don't you think it's time to move on? Don't you think it's time to let yourself risk falling in love again?"

Megan looked up into her mother's serious face. What could she say to her?

Oh, well, Mom, thanks for the heartfelt advice, but after Gabe and I had crazy monkey s.e.x in Lake Tahoe, I told him not to contact me and Summer again.

Thankfully, Summer and her father returned showing off the new pink stuffed poodle in its carrying case, and then they were all heading into the restaurant and eating spaghetti and listening to Summer talk.

Chapter Seventeen.

Timing is everything.

~ from "Firefighting 101" ~ Gabe Sullivan would never be a wine connoisseur like Marcus. He'd never be able to take the perfect picture like Chase or throw a baseball 100 miles an hour like Ryan. And he would never make a movie studio a hundred million dollars over a weekend like Smith regularly did.

But he did know one thing better than almost anyone.

Firefighting.

It was long past time to take those rules he lived and breathed by as a firefighter and apply them to the rest of his life.

Specifically, the woman he hadn't been able to stop thinking about for the past week.

December 31. The last day of the year. It had been a good one.

But he was planning for the next one to be a whole heck of a lot better.

Skill-and staying smart-had always been the main tenets of Gabe's success as a firefighter.

But he'd never been stupid enough to discount luck, and that feeling deep in his gut that told him when to keep going-and when to run like h.e.l.l.

He pulled up outside Megan and Summer's apartment. The sky was clear blue above him, perfect for a night of New Year's Eve fireworks...and for him to deploy the first stage of his plan. He hadn't called ahead to make sure they'd be here, but he had a good feeling about this.

No doubt Megan would try to fight their attraction. He expected that and was prepared to work harder than he ever had at anything to convince her to come around. Gabe knew it wasn't going to be a quick turnaround.

But, he thought with another slow grin as he remembered their oh-so-sweet lovemaking in Lake Tahoe, a little antic.i.p.ation wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

He took the steps two at a time up to the door into her apartment building, his long strides quickly putting him in front of her place. He was just about to ring her doorbell when the door opened.

Jesus, he thought, just as stunned as he'd been that day she'd come to see him in the hospital, she's beautiful.

"Gabe?" She put her hand over her chest as if to try to still her heartbeat. He could see her pulse moving in the gorgeous curve of her neck. "What are you doing here?"

Instead of answering her question, he took in the basket of clothes in her hands. "Laundry."

"You need to do laundry?" she asked in a confused voice and he liked the way he'd stunned her into losing the thread of what she was doing.

As he smiled down at her, thinking how adorable she looked with her ponytail, sweater, and jeans, she flushed. "Oh. You mean me? Yes. I need to do laundry."

That was right when she looked down at the basket. When her face flamed even hotter, Gabe followed her gaze to the sc.r.a.p of pink lace lying on top. She quickly shoved a T-shirt over her panties, but not before Gabe added another goal to his list: To make love to Megan while she was wearing those pink panties.

She looked back up at him and he had to shove his hands deep into his jeans pockets to keep from pulling her against him and kissing her beautifully soft lips.

"I came to see you and Summer."

She licked her lips, clearly nervous about his unexpected appearance. He loved how strong she was...but he also liked that he could make her nervous.

It was why he'd wanted to surprise her, so that he could gauge her genuine reaction to seeing him again, rather than letting her prepare for the meeting and get all those walls she was so fond of built up.

As he'd learned at the firefighter academy, timing was everything.

"Summer isn't here. She's in Disneyland with her grandparents."

Gabe had planned on including Summer in their plans for the evening, and he would miss the little girl, but he couldn't deny his pleasure at this chance to be alone with Megan again.

"She must be having a great time."