Hotshot Hero Under Fire by Lisa Childs

Author:Lisa Childs
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-02-22T19:52:57+00:00

* * *

“You want him,” Tammy said in Courtney’s ear as she sidled up next to her.

Courtney glared at her friend. “Yeah, right...”

“You can’t stop staring at him,” Tammy said.

She wasn’t wrong. Courtney had been watching Owen all through the funeral and during the luncheon afterward. He looked like hell and probably felt even worse. Right now he was trying to offer his condolences to the widow, but she jumped up and ran away from him, shrieking like a banshee. Maybe that was how some people grieved, but Courtney thought it was a bit extreme.

Maybe that was because Courtney hadn’t really let herself grieve her mother, though. That was partly why she hadn’t returned for the funeral. Seeing her mother in a casket would have forced her to accept that she was really gone. Too young. Too soon. Too senselessly...

Just like this man’s death. She felt a pang of guilt for judging Louanne. And for judging Owen.

He’d lost his friend and had nearly lost his own life over the past couple of days. And now the widow had lashed out at him...like Courtney had been lashing out at him. That pang of guilt became a hollow ache of deep remorse.

Tammy sighed and murmured, “Oh, poor Owen. That had to have hurt.”

He looked like the woman had slapped him. He stood frozen for a long moment before moving toward the door. None of his team members stopped him.

Didn’t they see how much he was hurting? How much he was blaming himself?

Instead of worrying about Owen, they were focused on the widow. Some of them followed her from the room.

“Damn,” Tammy remarked, her brows lowered as she scowled. “Maybe the rumors about her and Luke are true...”

“Luke?” Courtney asked.

“One of the guys who rushed out after her,” Tammy said. “He and his wife just split up, and everybody’s been wondering why.”

“Some things never change,” Courtney murmured. “Everybody gossips about everyone else.” She could only imagine the things that had been said about her.

Tammy nodded. “That’s the nature of my business, you know. But it’s probably just gossip. Louanne looks way too broken up to have been cheating.”

Maybe she was so broken up because she felt guilty. That was probably why Courtney had been so angry with Owen. It was easier to blame him for her mother dying than to blame herself for not sticking around to help with the boardinghouse like Serena had. Maybe if she’d been here, too, their mother wouldn’t have worked herself into an early grave.

“Now I need to give people something else to gossip about,” Tammy said as she looked around the living room. “The new guy is damn good-looking.” She flipped out her compact and checked her teeth for food, then murmured, “Let me find out if he’s single...” Then she headed toward him, deserting Courtney.

She couldn’t handle the funeral anymore. Despite growing up in Northern Lakes, she didn’t know that many people in attendance. Only a handful of the Huron Hotshots were actually stationed in town during the off-season.

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