Page 66 of Call it Reckless

“Thanks, honey.” Em stood on her toes to kiss Zach’s cheek, but he swiftly turned his head, capturing her lips instead. I had to look away, so intimate was the look they gave each other.

I tried not to let my memories get in the way, but I remember thinking I saw that same look the night Reid spent the night.

“I thought maybe we shared something special that night.”

“So, want to tell me what’s going on other than just a friendly visit?” Em asked.

I offered her a wry smile. “How’d you know?”

“As happy as I am that you just dropped in, I know that’s not your usual style. You wait to be invited. So, I’m telling you now, you have an open invitation to drop in any time you want. Now, what’s going on? Is everything okay with the opening? That’s coming up soon.”

She offered me a safe topic, and I jumped on it. “It’s almost scary how everything is coming together so easily. We both have everything we need, and we’re finishing training the new staff. I think getting it ready is more exhausting than actually running the business.”

“It’s going to be great,” she assured me, then narrowed her eyes at me. She tipped her chin up. “What else is going on?”

I hesitated, not wanting to tell her everything. The last thing I needed was to put her in between me and her best friend. “I didn’t answer an email from Lexi Braxton, and I’ve upset her and her dad.”

Em’s brow furrowed. “Why wouldn’t you answer her? And why was she emailing you, anyway?”

I explained the situation.

“Well, that’s easy. Just answer her and explain what happened to both of them. I’m sure they’ll understand.” She grew quiet for a minute, then continued with a more serious tone. “Reid knows a lot about how aggressive the media can be. When the robbery happened and his wife died, there were all kinds of press here for a few days.” She stared at a corner of the room. “Thank God for your dad. He knew how to handle them. Reid and his wife’s family had to navigate a lot of it on his own, although I know Uncle Brock did his best to help them, too.”

Unexpected tears sprang to my eyes. My dad had been an amazing man.

“Oh, honey, I didn’t mean to upset you.” She moved to sit beside me, giving me a one-armed hug.

“No, I like being reminded of stories like that. But it catches me off guard sometimes, too.”

“I know these past several months have been hard. To put it in racing terms, life for you has always been about a series of left turns. You knew where you were going and what you wanted. I’ve always admired that about you. Now, you’ve been thrown off track, literally and figuratively.”

“That’s true,” I admitted.

“But you’re also already creating a new path, only this one comes with unexpected turns. It’s only natural that you’re going to feel a little bit off-kilter sometimes. It’ll get easier, though. And don’t forget, we’re all here for you, just like you’ve been for us. You just have to let us in.”

I heard the gentle rebuke in her voice and leaned my head on her shoulder. “I have a hard time with that,” I admitted. Weakness in racing was equivalent to losing. Not being tough in a traditional man’s world equaled not being good enough.

“Letting someone in doesn’t make you vulnerable, dear cousin. But it does let someone share your burden and make your load lighter.”

“You’re probably right.”

“I usually am.” She laughed. “At least on this.”

“How’d you get so smart, anyway? They didn’t teach you that in cooking school,” I teased.

She rolled her shoulders in her gentle way. “Life has a way of teaching us the hard lessons, don’t you think? It’s what we take away from those lessons that make us who we are. We can let it make us strong or resentful.” She bumped her shoulder into mine. “Go talk to Reid. He’s very protective of Lexi. Hell, he’s protective of everyone he knows, but he’s a good guy. He’ll understand.”

I wasn’t as confident as her since she didn’t know what else had happened between me and Reid, but I nodded. Her advice was still accurate. I needed to apologize, at least for the email part of it. The rest would have to be determined.

CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO

Reid

Lexi and I were finishing cleaning up from our dinner, the meal she’d been unhappy about after I reneged on my promise of pizza. Breaking a promise seemed to be a bad habit I was forming, at least the wayanotherperson saw it.

I thought back to the note I’d left Bristol. Should I have time-stamped it and promised a specific time I’d call? Couldn’t she at least understand that sometimes my life was not my own, and I had other obligations?

But something about the weekend had made her snippier than usual. The woman was a conundrum. Every time I thought we’d made progress, we ended up having a setback of some kind. I wasn’t sure there was any coming back from this latest one. I’d just have to learn to see Bristol around town and not think about the one night we shared.

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