Into the Flames

Chapter 3

3

Brianna would never forget the first moment she ran into Finn Abrams. It was an accident—literally. She'd been doing her annual fall cleanup of the gardens at the Goodnight Moon B&B. She'd been trundling a wheelbarrow of wood chips down the path toward the bed of hydrangeas that needed an extra layer of mulch. The most handsome man in the world had stepped onto the winding brickwork path.

He was so romantic-looking, with dark curls tumbling over his forehead and his lean, brooding face, with those hollows under his cheekbones and shadowed, troubled eyes. Instantly, she wanted to brush his hair away from his face and pepper kisses on those full, unsmiling lips. Chase all the darkness from his expression.

She'd tripped over a brick, or maybe it was her own tongue, and lost control of the wheelbarrow. The next thing she knew, she was dumping wood chips all over his shoes. And his legs, which were bare below his khaki shorts. And then he lost his balance and she had to drop the wheelbarrow, which hit him in the bare shin. Then she rushed around to help him up, wading through the pile of wood chips to get to him.

When she reached him, he turned his face her way, and that was when she lost her balance and wound up on her butt in a pile of mulch. One side of his face was perfect, the other a red, angry, raised mass of burns.

"I…I'm so sorry," she'd stammered. "You surprised me. I mean, not because of your face…I mean, yes, because of your face but not that side of your face, I didn't even see it at first, and oh God, that's not even what I mean…" She buried her face in her hands and inhaled wood dust. Started coughing. Couldn't stop.

Finally the man extracted himself from the pile of wood chips and stood up. He was actually smiling—she thought, although the film of dust clogging her vision made it hard to tell.

"Thank you," he said sincerely. "Getting knocked over by a wheelbarrow is turning out to be the highlight of my day. Are you okay?"

"Yes." She coughed up some dust. "Are you? What about your shin?"

She watched with hopeless lust as he bent down to check out the red mark on his leg. He was movie-star handsome, even with the burn scars on his face.

"It's nothing," he told her, offering his hand to help her up. "Let me help you with your load here."

"No, no, I couldn't let you do that. You're staying here, right?"

"Yes, I'm Finn Abrams." He shook her hand once she'd made it to an upright position.

"Brianna Gallagher. I'm really sorry, again. I don't usually mow down the guests at the Goodnight Moon."

He brushed a wood chip off her shoulder and gave her a half-smile. "They don’t know what they’re missing."

Just then a woman sauntered toward them. At first Brianna thought she was Gwyneth Paltrow, she was so tall, her hair so blond and perfectly windblown. Later, she found out it was Annika Poole, actress and rising star. "Finn? Is everything okay?"

She reached the two of them and took Finn's arm and surveyed the scene with a vaguely perplexed expression. Brianna felt paralyzed under her distant scrutiny, as if she were a garden gnome. She wanted to explain, but had no idea where to start. The sight of your boyfriend made me lose all muscle control and dump a load of mulch on his boots?

No, definitely not.

"I'll…uh, clean this up," she said instead. "I just have to get my spade. Please don't worry about this mess, it'll be gone before you know it."

"It'd be a lot quicker with two of us." Finn frowned. But the willowy blond whispered something in his ear, and he made a face. "Sorry. I forgot we're already late for something."

"Really, I'm fine. Don't even worry about it."

The stunningly gorgeous pair turned to go, while she got busy picking wood chips out of her bra. Sadly, Finn chose the worst possible moment to turn back and caught her with her hand down her shirt. He pretended not to notice, but by the speed with which he steered the blond down the path, she knew he had.

Yeah, not the best first impression.

"Brianna!"

She jumped. Finally, Rollo's voice broke through her trance. "Sorry. What were you saying? I was a little…distracted."

"Look, Bri. The thing about Finn is—"

"I know I don't have a chance with Finn!" she cried. "I'm like…" She picked up a bit of potato from her plate. "A potato. And he's…I don't know…arugula."

"What?"

"Okay, maybe watercress."

He half-closed one eye and tilted his head. Then he scratched at his jaw, as if he was trying to mask a laugh. "This vegetable analogy is not really working for me. I have no idea what you're getting at."

"Okay, I'll spell it out. I'm ordinary. I don't have one ounce of glamour in me. But Finn is…romantic and tortured and brooding."

"Like watercress?"

She flounced back in her seat. That was the problem with spending all your time in the plant world. You thought of everything in botanical terms. "Fine, pick some other vegetable."

Finally he lost it and started laughing, the deep rumbles rolling from his huge chest, creases fanning from his eyes. "You're priceless, Brianna. If Finn had any sense, he'd be begging you to go out with him."

"Well, he's not. He's a little busy with his supermodel-movie star girlfriend."

Rollo made a face, shrugging that off with a flick of his endlessly broad shoulders. "Girlfriend is stretching it."

"Not helping."

"Will it help if I point out that everyone loves potatoes? What about French fries? Scalloped potatoes? Hash browns?"

"No." She looked at her hands, which she was twisting in her lap. Now she felt like crying. The whole thing with Finn was so hopeless. She'd tried to shake it off, but so far nothing had worked. None of these dates—blind or otherwise—made her forget about him. "I think the problem is me. I have no…game. No moves. No mojo. At least not when it comes to men. I'm always the friend. And that's fine, but…"

Once, just once, she'd like to be adored. She'd like a man to look at her the way Sean looked at Evie, the way Josh looked at Suzanne. As if she was beautiful and essential.

She lifted her eyes to meet Rollo's. Genuine kindness shone from their blue depths. She hoped to God it wasn't actually pity, because she didn't want that. Not for a second. She'd rather dive into a vat of wood chips than suffer through someone feeling sorry for her.

"Maybe…" Rollo paused, stroking his beard. Not all guys could pull off a beard like his, but it suited his bear-like build and thick head of walnut hair. "Maybe we can help each other."

"What do you mean?"

"I know Finn well. He's a good friend from our Fighting Scorpion days back in Colorado. He's actually staying with me for a few months. He's working on the screenplay for the Big Canyon movie. He claims he's going to help me fix up my house."

"Fix up your—oh, right. I forgot that you bought that house up on the cliffs. The Harringtons’."

"Yup. Escrow just closed and I'm moving in. Finn's taking over the guesthouse. The place doesn't need much, but he swears he's going to help out. Anyway, I think that if Finn spent time with you, he'd start to see what an outstanding person you are."

"Well, that's nice…" She actually felt her face heating from his compliment. Rollo was such a good guy. A really great friend.

"The one thing really missing at the house is some decent landscaping. I'm thinking about a koi pond."

"Are you really?"

"f**k no. Never saw the point of koi. But I'll do it, if that helps you out. You need a reason to be around. Like I said, Finn's going through some heavy stuff. The burnover was tough on all of us, but it was the worst for him."

"Didn't you break your leg in three places?"

"Yes." He moved quickly past that, like someone who didn't like anyone feeling bad for him. "Point is, he's hurting right now. And he's under a lot of pressure. He could use a cute little Peter Pan-Tinkerbell type to make him smile. And I think if you were around, he'd start to see your true magnificence."

She snorted. Magnificence? Yeah right. "And what about your crush?"

"Eh, forget it." He scrubbed one big hand through his hair. "She doesn't want to get tangled up with me."

"Quid pro quo. If you're going to do a koi pond for me, I have to hold up my end."

"It's pointless. She's not interested and I have…a lot going on."

Somehow she got the impression he wasn't telling her everything.

"Once she knows you more, she'll love you just like the rest of us." Brianna couldn't actually remember a single time Merry had even mentioned Rollo. But Suzanne loved him, because he'd carried Josh out of a wildfire. And Evie loved him because he always, always had Sean's back. Everyone who knew Rollo loved him.

Why not Merry?

"We just have to figure out the way to her heart." She pondered, already relishing the challenge.

"How?"

She shrugged. "I'll just ask. Everyone knows how tactless I am." She grinned at the big man across the table from her. "Piece of cake."

"That easy, huh?"

"No, I was thinking we should have some cake. Have you ever tried their Chocolate Magma Cake?"

One great thing—among many—about Rollo was that she didn't have to hide her appetite around him. There was something to be said for a guy who was always up for dessert.