Chapter 6 #2
Paige snatched a strip of bacon from the serving plate and pointed it accusingly across the kitchen. “You’re smiling at your phone.”
Johanna straightened her expression. “I am not.”
“Yes, you are.”
“She absolutely is,” her mother added calmly while flipping another pancake onto a plate.
Johanna looked betrayed. “Whose side are y’all on?”
Her father chewed slowly behind suspiciously amused eyes before lowering his coffee mug. “Depends. Is Blaze behaving himself?”
Paige barked out a laugh loud enough to echo through the kitchen. “Daddy!”
“What?” he asked innocently. “That’s a valid question.”
Johanna dropped back dramatically into her chair. “I’m moving.”
“Nobody’s stopping you,” Paige chirped. “But the Sheraton Beach Facebook group will still find you.”
Probably true. This town treated gossip like a competitive sport with strong community involvement.
Johanna lowered her eyes back to the text message glowing on her screen.
Simple and direct.
That was part of what made him so dangerous now. He wasn’t trying to impress her with games or charm-heavy nonsense. Blaze asked for what he wanted with calm confidence, like he already trusted the answer eventually coming his way.
And somehow that certainty settled low beneath her ribs in a way she didn’t entirely trust.
Before she could think too hard about it, Paige snatched the phone straight out of her hand.
“Hey!” Johanna lunged forward. “Give that back!”
Paige danced backward across the kitchen grinning like a menace while Johanna realized chasing her would only encourage the behavior. With a long-suffering sigh, she sank back into the chair and took another bite of pancake instead.
“Blaze invited Jo to a bonfire tonight,” Paige announced dramatically.
Their mother popped the last piece of bacon into her mouth before rising from the table. “You should go.”
Johanna looked up so fast her curls shifted over her shoulders. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
Paige clutched her chest theatrically, batting her thick eyelashes. “And wear something that reminds him exactly what he's missing.”
“Talking will be good for the both of you,” her mother said calmly while carrying dishes toward the sink. “You have unfinished business to discuss.”
Johanna looked toward the kitchen windows where sunlight spilled across the backyard and illuminated the old oak tree her father hung swings from years ago.
Unfinished business.
That was certainly one way to describe the emotional tornado Blaze dropped back into her life.
Her father folded the newspaper completely now, giving her his full attention.
“Baby girl.”
Johanna looked back at him.
“If you spend your whole life afraid of getting hurt,” he said gently, “eventually you stop letting yourself feel anything real.”
The room quieted around his words.
That was the thing about her father. He rarely involved himself in emotional conversations unless something truly mattered to him.
But when he spoke, everybody listened.
Johanna swallowed slowly because the worst part was… they were making sense.
And she hated that.
Paige leaned across the island with her huge expressive eyes sparkling dangerously. “Well.”
Johanna already distrusted that tone completely. “Well, what?”
“What are you wearing tonight?”
“Can we not discuss this over breakfast?”
“No,” Paige answered honestly.
Her mother reached across the table and patted Johanna’s hand gently. “Mary Jo, let that man pursue you a little.” The softness in her voice made Johanna pause.
Because maybe that was part of the problem too.
Blaze had always pursued her openly. He never hid his feelings or made her question where she stood with him.
Loving her had seemed to come naturally to him in a way that still felt overwhelming after years of dating emotionally unavailable men who communicated through confusion, mixed signals, and emotional avoidance.
The problem had never been whether Blaze loved her. The problem was that once upon a time he'd loved her and still left.
But Blaze felt different this time. And somehow that scared her more than uncertainty ever could, because trusting him again meant risking the kind of heartbreak she'd barely survived the first time.
Her phone buzzed again. Paige practically levitated.
Johanna opened the message cautiously.
BLAZE: If Paige’s interrogating you, tell her I said mind her business.
Johanna stared down at the screen before slowly lifting her eyes toward her sister.
Paige narrowed hers suspiciously. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Johanna burst out laughing.
Blaze remembered exactly how her family operated. Of course, he still knew Paige was nosy. And with that knowledge, he somehow slid right back into the rhythm of her life like he never truly left.
That was the real problem.
Being around Blaze didn’t feel like starting over. It felt like coming home to something she never fully stopped missing.
And honestly, that realization terrified her.
Paige pointed dramatically. “Read the message!”
Johanna stood and clutched the phone against her chest. “I’m leaving.”
“You better say yes!”
“I’m protecting my privacy!”
“I’ll even drop you off because you’re going tonight!”
Johanna paused near the doorway because unfortunately… that part was true.
She was going.
And every person in this house already knew it.
Before Johanna stepped outside, her father’s voice stopped her gently.
“Just remember something, baby girl.”
Johanna turned back. “What?”
“People don’t spend years loving someone by accident.”
The words followed her all the way home.
And by the time Johanna closed her apartment door behind her, one terrifying truth had settled heavily inside her chest. The real danger wasn’t Blaze kissing her.
It wasn’t the gossip.
It wasn’t even the possibility of getting hurt again.
The real danger was that somewhere between moonlight, old memories, and one emotionally devastating kiss, Johanna Bennett had started wanting Braxton Carter back too.
* * *
By eight o’clock, Johanna had changed clothes four separate times.
The behavior annoyed her deeply because it implied emotional investment she had no intention of acknowledging. Unfortunately, every outfit suddenly carried consequences when Braxton Carter entered the equation.
The fitted white sweater Paige suggested lasted less than three minutes before Johanna ripped it back off in irritation.
The neckline dipped just enough to invite attention, and she already knew exactly how Blaze would look at her in it.
Like he was trying to stay respectful while imagining very disrespectful things.
She wasn’t volunteering for that kind of attention tonight.
Then came the denim jumpsuit.
Paige took one look and nearly screamed herself into cardiac arrest. “Oh, you’re going to slay tonight!” Johanna immediately hated the outfit after that.
Now, five minutes before Paige was coming to scoop her up, she stood in front of her bedroom mirror wearing dark fitted jeans, knee-high boots, gold hoop earrings, and a soft cream turtleneck sweater that hugged her curves without openly advertising them.
Casual, simple, and, emotionally responsible.
At least that was the goal.
Johanna leaned closer to the mirror and applied one final layer of gloss while trying to ignore the nervous energy fluttering low in her stomach.
“This wasn’t a date,” she reminded herself. That distinction mattered.
She already gave Blaze one date, and he used every second of it to emotionally destabilize her beneath moonlight and ocean wind.
Tonight, technically qualified as a bonfire.
A casual gathering with firefighters, family, friends, and whoever else Sheraton Beach considered emotionally invested in Blaze Carter’s personal business.
Which somehow made it feel even more dangerous.
Dinner had been private. Intimate. Tonight was Blaze letting her see the life he’d built since returning to Sheraton Beach.
His friends. His crew. The people who mattered to him. And that carried an entirely different weight.
Johanna set the gloss down carefully and studied herself in the mirror again.
Her curls spilled softly around her shoulders tonight instead of pinned neatly away, and the realization irritated her because Blaze always preferred her hair down.
He used to slide his fingers through it absentmindedly whenever they sat together on the beach, twisting curls around his knuckles while talking about nothing important for hours.
See, this was exactly the problem. Everything somehow circled back to Blaze.
The memory of his mouth against hers flashed suddenly through her mind, warm enough to send heat crawling slowly up her neck.
Johanna grabbed her earrings aggressively.
She needed emotional discipline. Fast.
Her phone buzzed against the vanity.
BLAZE: Can’t wait to see you.
Johanna stared at the screen for several seconds.
No emojis or extra explanation.
Just calm masculine confidence like the man already knew she’d show up.
Her pulse betrayed her instantly.
Annoying.
Johanna typed back before common sense could intervene.
JOHANNA: I might come. I might not.
Three dots appeared almost immediately.
BLAZE: Liar.
The audacity of this man truly needed regulation.
Johanna bit back a smile that threatened anyway.
Because the infuriating part was that Blaze knew she’d spend thirty minutes pretending to debate the invitation before showing up anyway.
Johanna stared at the message one more second before tossing her phone into her purse.
The February air outside would be cold enough for coats around the bonfire, which meant Blaze would probably wear hoodies or flannel or something equally masculine and entirely too attractive for her emotional stability.
Wonderful.
Absolutely wonderful.
She grabbed her wool coat from the hook near the door and slipped it on slowly before taking one final glance around her apartment.
Everything looked exactly the same.
Meanwhile, her entire internal system behaved like she was heading toward a life-altering event instead of roasted hotdogs with firefighters.
Ridiculous.
Johanna reached for her keys and exhaled softly.
One bonfire.
That was all this was.
Just a few hours spent near the ocean with people she already knew.
Nothing life-changing.
Nothing dangerous.
But deep down she suspected Blaze Carter hadn’t invited her tonight just to sit around a fire. He invited her because he was slowly finding his way back into her life.
And the truly terrifying part… she was starting to let him in.