Page 44 of When We Were Reckless
So I said yes. Another leap of faith.
Maybe I should be looking at this differently. If Jesse didn’t believe in true love, there was no point in sitting around, wishing and hoping for something that could never be.
Maybe I’d channel the fearless heroine from the story I was writing. Tonight I’d be reckless and daring. Throw caution to the wind without worrying about the consequences.
I was tired of waiting for something to happen. So why not take charge andmakeit happen?
I had some things I needed to learn, and who better to teach me than a guy who was no stranger to risk-taking.
Chapter Fifteen
Jesse
I don’t knowwhy I asked her to go for a ride. Maybe it was because she sounded so sad on the phone. I knew how much she loved her dad and how much she looked up to him. When Quinn was a kid, her dad doted on her like Jude did with Gracie. Being the only girl and a lot younger than her brothers, I suppose it was only natural that he’d treated her like a little princess.
So finding out that her dad had cheated on her mom, and now this… it had to have hit her hard. I could empathize. I knew how it felt to be betrayed by someone you loved. Or, in my case,I thoughtI’d loved.
She came out through the garage and walked toward the motorcycle I was straddling. She was wearing the jacket I bought her with tiny shorts, the little rebel, and carrying the helmet I told her to keep for the next time we went for a ride.
“Hey Jesse,” she said with a little smile when she stopped next to me.
My eyes roamed down her legs, over the toned calves, and to the cheetah print Nikes on her feet, then back to her face. “Why are you wearing shorts?”
“I was hot.”
When I rode on my own, I wore a T-shirt and jeans. Sometimes I wore shorts. The truth was that if you were in a motorcycle crash, covering your legs in denim wouldn’t do jack shit to protect you. But with Quinn, I wanted to minimize the risks as much as possible.
“You need to change into jeans.”
“I’ll be fine.” Quinn was so stubborn. Always had been. “Besides, I trust you.”
“You trust me.”
“You know how to handle a motorcycle. You’ve been riding forever. So we’re not going to crash.”
She sounded so sure of herself, so sure ofme.
I glanced at her dark house. When I’d invited her to go for a ride, it hadn’t even occurred to me that she’d have to sneak out. “Would your mom be okay with this?”
I vaguely remembered Abby telling me that if Quinn asked for a ride, I should say no. But that had been years ago when Quinn was just a kid.
She shrugged one shoulder. “She’d be fine with it. It’s no big deal. Let’s just go somewhere, okay?”
“Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t know. Just…” She rocked back on her heels. “Where do you go when you want to get away from it all? Do you have a special place?”
I thought about it for a minute. There was a place I used to go sometimes. Just to decompress and get in the right headspace before a race. But it would be a stupid thing to do late at night.
“Take me there,” she said as if she’d read my mind.
“You have to hike to get there. It’s too dark. It would be too dangerous.”
“I have my phone flashlight, and I’m wearing high tops. Let’s go there. Take me to your special place. Please,” Quinn pleaded.
I studied her face. My sunshine girl should never look this sad. I opened my mouth to say no, but she held up her index finger to indicate that I should wait a minute. Then she handed me her helmet and hurried away. A few minutes later, she returned with a triumphant smile on her face and two head torches in her hand.
I had to give it to her. Quinn was one of the most determined people I’d ever met.
