Page 10 of Reacher's Ride or Die

“Yeah—you told Gloria that you don’t date, and I don’t either. But there’s something about you that I just can’t shake.” He took a long sip of his drink and could feel the fiery liquid go all the way down to his stomach. His father used to like to call it liquid courage, and he sure could use some of that about now.

“I see,” she breathed, “well, let’s say that I call this a date. Will you do so also?” He thought it was pretty damn cute the way that she was so polite with him. Reacher was beginning to think of her as the hot principal, and he was the naughty schoolboy.

“Yeah,” he said, “I’d like to call this a date—but only if you promise to give me a second date, Brandi.”

“A second date,” she squeaked.

“Yes, but this time, we don’t tell Gloria because she’ll tell Yonkers and I don’t want to have him calling me up on our second date to give me hell,” he said. Brandi giggled and it sounded magical. “That’s the first time I’ve heard you laugh,” he said. “I like it.”

Her blue eyes darted up to meet him and she smiled. “I’m not sure what to think of you, Reacher,” she admitted.

“What do you mean by that?” Reacher asked. “I’m an open book.”

She laughed again and he smiled, “Okay, open book,” she said, “I’ve shared my sad story about my failed marriage. How about you share your story?”

“Well, there isn’t too much to tell,” he said. “My mom took off when I was just a baby and my dad raised me. He did a pretty good job, even if I do say so myself.” Reacher puffed out his chest as though bragging about how he turned out, and Brandirolled her eyes at him. While he told her about his past, she finished her dinner and ordered another martini. He decided that another scotch sounded pretty good to him, and did the same. By the time he got to the point in the story where he rolled into town and met the guys at the Royal Bastards, they were another two drinks in, and he was beginning to lose count, and his train of thought.

The waiter came back to their table with the check and Reacher took it from him. “I’m afraid it’s closing time, and we will need you to settle up,” the guy said. Reacher felt bad for him when he checked his watch and realized that they had been sitting there for almost three hours. “I’m also going to have to insist that you let me call you both an Uber,” he said.

“That won’t be necessary,” Brandi insisted, “I only live four blocks from here and can walk home.”

“Oh, from what I’ve been told, you shouldn’t walk this neighborhood alone after dark,” the waiter said.

“I can walk her home,” Reacher offered. He looked across the table at Brandi, trying to decide if she liked his idea or hated it.

“How will you get home if you walk me back to my place?” she asked. “You can’t ride your bike. You’ve had more to drink than I have.” He wasn’t sure if that was true or not, but he did know that he couldn’t ride his bike anywhere in his present state.

“I’ll call myself an Uber,” he promised. She looked him over, and the suspicious look on her face was nearly his undoing. “Come on, Brandi. If Gloria trusts me, why can’t you?” He handed back the check and his card to the waiter who was standing at their table, watching them go back and forth like he was watching a tennis match.

“Okay, I trust you, Reacher. I’d appreciate you walking me home. If you want, I can give you a ride back here tomorrow for your bike. Just tell me your address and I can pick you up in the morning before I head over to Gloria’s.”

“No need,” he said. “I’ll have one of the guys down at my club pick up my bike and get it back to me. Yonkers probably wouldn’t mind at all—unless he’s still sore that I went on a date with his mother’s nurse.”

“I’m sure that he’ll get over it,” Brandi said. She had no idea how long Yonkers could hold a grudge, but he was pretty sure that they were both about to find out. “Besides, there are no rules about me dating my patient’s son’s friend. At least, I don’t think that there are.”

“Good to know,” Reacher said. The waiter brought back his card and waited for him to sign the receipt as though he didn’t trust Reacher to complete the simple task.

“Are you both sure that I can’t call you each a ride?” he asked.

“We’re sure,” Reacher insisted. He stood from the booth and stumbled just a bit, making Brandi giggle again. He smiled down at her and held out his hand. “Ready?” Reacher asked. She nodded and stood, taking his hand to steady herself. “You okay?”

“About as good as you,” she teased. “I think that between the two of us, we’ll manage walking back to my place, though.” He wasn’t so sure about that, but he liked her spunk. Reacher just hoped that she was right because the last thing he wanted to do was break a promise to her—and he promised Brandi that he’d get her home safely.

Brandi

She was thankful that Reacher agreed to walk her home because, with the way that she was stumbling around, there was no way that she’d be able to do it on her own. Her brain was foggy, and her decision-making skills were iffy—that was probably why she was thinking about asking Reacher to stay at her place for the night.

He opened her front door for her, after taking the keys from her hand. She was sure that if he hadn’t, they’d be standing on her front porch when the sun came up. “Thanks,” she breathed, taking her keys back from him.

“No problem,” he said. “Do you mind if I come in while I call an Uber?” he asked.

“Not at all,” she said. Brandi pulled off her very uncomfortable heels and tossed them by the door. “I’ll get us both some water.” The thought of just laying down and sleeping for days appealed to her, but the nurse in her was shouting at the inner drunk girl to down some water first.

“Thanks, Brandi,” Reacher said as she walked to her kitchen. There was something in the way that he said her name that gave her pause. Every time he said it, sounded like a warm caress onher soul—as stupid as that sounded. The big biker had a sexy bedroom voice, and she wondered if he’d still sound that way in her bed, calling her name. Brandi shook her head, trying to delete the last image of Reacher on top of her in bed, out of her brain.

She heard him cursing in her family room and Brandi knew that finding an Uber wasn’t going as planned. She knew that might be a possibility. Not many Uber drivers liked to come into her neighborhood this late at night. She was usually in her apartment with the doors locked by nine o’clock to avoid having to deal with the unsafe streets. When she first moved into the place, just before starting nursing school, it was great. She really never had a place of her own, and honestly, she didn’t care about her neighborhood’s reputation. It was her place, and she somehow overlooked the drug activity that went on around her building. There were constant police and ambulance sirens, but she had gotten used to that and was even able to ignore them.

She walked back into her family room and handed Reacher a glass of water. “I’m guessing that getting an Uber to pick you up isn’t going to happen,” she said.

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