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classes, or painting your studio?”
    “You mean in my free time?” She laughed. “I rarely have any.”
    “Everyone needs a life outside of work.”
    “I wasn’t raised that way.”
    “Come on. All work, no play…”
    “Well…” She had to stretch to think of something. “I enjoying going to the movies. Sometimes I get together with friends for coffee or a meal. I date.”
    “Anyone special?” Rafe asked, his gaze hooded and unreadable.
    She considered telling him how she wanted to find her Mr. Right, but she didn’t know him well enough. “Not at the moment. What about you?” she asked. “What do you do when you aren’t fighting fires or out running with friends?”
    “I own rental property and do most of the repairs myself. That keeps me busy. And I buy old houses and renovate them to sell. This year, though, my main focus will be on the home I’m building.”
    “Are you planning to do the construction?”
    He shook his head. “I want the house finished by fall. There’s a lot to do, and I don’t have time to tackle that job. I’ve already hired a construction company.”
    The whole idea put Jillian in awe. “That’s so cool. I can’t even imagine.”
    “I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but I needed to find the right place. Now that I have, the house can’t be built soon enough. Once I move in, I’ll never move again.”
    “Ever?”
    He shook his head. “During the first nine years of my life, my mother and I moved constantly. We never stayed anywhere for more than a few months.”
    “And I thought being an army brat meant moving a lot. I hated that, but I got used to it. So much so, that once I settled permanently in Guff’s Lake, I kept moving around. But now that I’ve found this place with its perfect studio, I’ll probably stay for a good long while. What about your dad? Did he move around, too?”
    Rafe shook his head. “He’s still in Sacramento, in the same house where he raised me. I want to put down roots, too.”
    “How do you know you won’t get antsy and want something different?”
    “I just know. It’s all in here.” He pointed to his head.
    Jillian wished she was that certain about anything. “Half the time, I don’t know what I’ll want in an hour—except to make pottery.”
    “That’s—”
    The door suddenly opened, and Rafe never finished. JR and Chelsea burst in.

Chapter Five
    ‡
    “I smell pizza,” the tall kid who had to be JR said as he plodded into the kitchen. He and Jillian shared the same long limbs. His girlfriend followed, a skinny little thing except for the slightly rounded belly. JR eyed Rafe. “Who are you?”
    Jillian frowned. “Don’t be rude, JR.”
    Determined to make nice, Rafe stood and extended his arm. “Rafe Donato.” He shook hands with Jillian’s brother and nodded at the girl. “You’re obviously JR and Chelsea.”
    Chelsea’s eyebrows disappeared under cherry-red bangs before she smiled at Jillian.
    JR gave Rafe a hard stare. “You’re the guy who walked my sister home yesterday.”
    Rafe understood his wariness as a protective gesture toward his sister, and respected JR for it. “That’s right.”
    The couple sat down, and JR started to reach for a slice of pizza.
    “Hang on. I don’t think your sister expected you for dinner. She may have other plans for the rest of this pie,” Rafe said.
    “It’s okay,” she muttered, with obvious reluctance.
    Again, JR reached for the pizza, and again, Rafe stopped him. “You might want to wash up before touching our food, man.”
    JR bristled. “Who the hell do you think you are?”
    “I know exactly who I am—a senior firefighter who spent the afternoon helping your sister paint the outside of her studio because you didn’t. And, yeah, I scrubbed up before dinner.”
    Rafe fixed JR with a straight-on look the younger man couldn’t hold. His gaze dropped. Grumbling like a teenage kid, he pushed to his feet. Chelsea did the same, and they meandered