Page 31 of Reckless
“Oh, I know him, all right.” The words were out before Zoe could capture them for a do-over, and Sara connected the look on her face with the reason she was making it in about three seconds flat.
“Wait.That’syour Wrong Guy? The one you, ah…you know. Tried to pretzel?”
Zoe’s laugh was a three to one ratio of irony to actual humor. “Yeah. That would be him.”
Thankfully, the steadily growing crowd gave them just enough cover to go unnoticed as she and Sara made their way to the stretch of oak and brass lining the back wall of the dining room. She slid onto an out-of-the-way stool by the break in the bar that served as the wait staff’s pass-through, bracing for impact as Sara settled in behind the wood with a catlike smile.
“Girl. I’ll give you this. When you jump into the pool, you sure do aim to make a splash. Alex might be a little Ken doll for my taste, but there’s no denying he’s not hard to look at.”
A ripple of heat dashed down Zoe’s spine as if to second Sara’s observation, but Zoe sat up as tall as she could to snuff it out. Alex might be off the roster at Station Eight for the next three weeks, but he was still a firefighter, all the way from his helmet to his hell-yes attitude. She might’ve had a momentary lapse of sanity yesterday with all that risk-taking, but it couldn’t—wouldn’t—happen again.
“Yeah, well, easy on the eyes or no, firefighters and I don’t mix. What happened between me and Alex was an impulsive mistake. I came here to have a drink and put it far behind me, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”
Sara grabbed a stainless steel drink shaker from the tray of clean barware on the counter behind her, filling it with a hefty scoop of ice before following suit with an even heftier portion of Grey Goose. “You sure about that?”
“Yes.” Zoe cleared her throat once, then twice to make sure the words held conviction. “Absolutely. I’m sure.”
“Well, good, because he looks about as serious as I’ve ever seen him,” Sara said, although if her eyes had strayed from the drink ingredients under her hands, Zoe hadn’t caught the sneak peek. “Also, he’s about five paces behind you and coming in hot at four o’clock. Heads up.”
Zoe sucked in a breath, hoping like hell that thehuh?!flooding her central nervous system didn’t translate to the expression on her face. “Thanks,” she murmured, and Sara had barely winked in reply before Alex arrived at the bar.
“Zoe? What are you doing here?” he asked, and damn it, those wide-open baby blues were just freaking unfair. But they were going to have to do this face to face soon enough, and anyway, they were both adults. She had a kitchen to run, and he had community service to fulfill. There was no reason they couldn’t both do precisely that.
“I know I take my job seriously, Donovan, but I am human. Plus, I heard these were the best in town.” She gestured to the martini glass that had magically appeared on the stretch of glossy oak at her elbow, softening the edges of her expression just enough to take any heat out of the words.
“Okay, okay. Fair enough. I guess that was kind of a dumb question.” He tipped his head in concession, his smile lasting for less than a second before pressing into a flat line. “Listen, I’m not really a beat-around-the-bush kind of guy, so I’m just going to say this. I owe you an apology for last night.”
Zoe’s belly did the knot-and-squeeze beneath the thin cotton of her shirt. “You don’t owe me anything,” she said, but the sudden flash of determination darkening his stare locked the rest of her protest in her throat.
“Yeah, I do. Kissing you like that was out of bounds. I won’t cross the line again.”
Her pride prickled at the conviction tightening the angle of Alex’s lightly stubbled jaw, but she stuffed the feeling aside. This was their chance to get back to business, and she’d be a fool to let her blistered ego keep her from making the smart play. “I’m sure you won’t. Fresh start on Monday?” Zoe held out her hand, and after a pause so scant she’d have missed it if she’d blinked, Alex met it with a firm shake.
“Sure.” He let go of her fingers, pushing both hands into the pockets of his jeans before nodding at her untouched drink. “Anyway, I don’t want to keep you. Have a good night.”
He turned back toward the dining room, but before Zoe could even swivel halfway around on her bar stool, he’d retraced his steps back to her side. “I know you think I don’t take you seriously, but you’re wrong.”
Too surprised at his about-face to speak, Zoe sat glued to her bar stool, staring at Alex as he continued.
“The reason I didn’t kiss you at the picnic, and the reason I didn’t take you inside last night isn’t because I look at you like you’re my kid sister.”
“It isn’t?” she managed, lifting a brow to broadcast her doubt, but Alex stepped in to meet her mistrust head on. With his hip angled against the bar and her still-seated position, the shift brought them perfectly face to face, both his expression and his stance unwavering as he caught her gaze and held it.
“No. It isn’t.”
Wait. He was serious. “Then what is the reason?”
The edges of Alex’s mouth twitched into an irony-laden smile, but he answered with no hesitation. “The reason I didn’t take you inside last night is because Idon’tlook at you like that. I see exactly what’s in front of me, Zoe. But you and I aren’t the only people in this equation, and that’s why I was out of line. That’s why it can’t happen again.”
Zoe’s brows tightened in confusion before a bolt of understanding sent them flying high. “You turned me down because my father is your captain?”
“Yeah, Gorgeous,” Alex said, shooting just as straight as ever. “I turned you down because your father is my captain.”
Just when Zoe had thought this whole thing couldn’t get any more embarrassing, she’d gone and gotten cock-blocked by her father.
She was going to need more than one drink to relax her way past this.
“That’s one hell of a code of ethics you’ve got there,” Zoe said, the lemony tartness of her martini shrinking her tongue as she took a much-needed sip, and now Alex’s smile came more easily.
