Page 54 of Reckless
“Nope. Ididdo that.” She lifted the phone, the backlit glow flashing across the dimmer lighting in the bar. “My editor should get back to me first thing Monday morning on this, but I’m sure he’ll be game. I don’t mind helping coordinate the food drive in conjunction with writing the story. If you want, that is.”
Shock prickled all the way up Alex’s spine. He’d known everyone would be willing to help, but… “A newspaper story is a brilliant idea, Ava.”
“I helped my friends in Pine Mountain run a really successful fund-raiser for their bar and grill last year,” Brennan added, running a hand over the neatly trimmed goatee covering his chin. “I can reach out to them, see if they’ve got any suggestions you might find useful for getting the word out without spending a lot of cash.”
Before Zoe could agree with anything more than a wide-eyed nod, Rachel said, “My parents own the hardware store over on Atlantic Boulevard. I bet they’d let you use their place as a drop off point for nonperishable donations.”
“Don’t forget all the local firehouses,” Crews interjected, and Alex leaned in toward Zoe with a grin he couldn’t help.
“You know Joss would let you use Vertical Climb as a drop off point if we ask. Kyle even has a pickup truck. If I agree to take another birthday party full of ten-year-olds, he just might help with transporting donations.”
“Wow,” Zoe finally managed, sending her gaze over everyone sitting at the pine bar table. “I don’t know what to say. I mean, I know I came asking for help, but this is?—”
“What we do,” Alex said as her eyes finally settled on his. Zoe’s gaze brimmed with gratitude and something else, something deeper that Alex couldn’t quite pin, and all of a sudden everyone else in the bar—hell, in the universe—felt really far away.
“Teflon’s right.” Cole’s voice, coupled with the reminder of his nickname and its deep roots at the firehouse, knocked Alex back to the buzz and chatter of Bellyflop’s busy bar area. “Zoe, your father has had each of our backs since we arrived at Station Eight. If you need our help at Hope House, we’ve got yours.”
“You have no idea how much this means to me,” she said. “Thank you.”
“Are you kidding?” Rachel grinned, reaching for Zoe’s cup to top it off with a healthy splash from the pitcher at her elbow. “You’re Cap’s daughter, and Hope House sounds like a great place. Besides, first responders are nothing if not an entirely resourceful bunch. Also, highly competitive, which will probably work out in your favor when it comes to collecting items for your food drive.”
“That’s my cue.” Zoe held up her hands as a smile took over every inch of her face. “Let me grab my tablet, and we can start getting a few of these details hammered out.”
She didn’t waste a second pulling her tablet from her bag and getting started. She came up with a volunteer schedule that managed to accommodate everyone’s work and personal commitments, then shared some of the ideas she’d come up with for the grant application, patiently listening to everyone’s questions and suggestions of ways to help. The more Zoe talked about her plans for Hope House, the more her face lit up, as if she couldn’t possibly be meant to work anywhere else. Her eyes glimmered, whiskey-gold with excitement as her notes overflowed from one screen to the next, then to a third, and damn, Alex had never seen anyone so fierce or beautiful in his life.
“Hey,” Cole said, interrupting his thoughts by holding up an empty pitcher to match the one just outside Alex’s reach on the table. “Looks like we’re all out over here. You want to head over to the bar for refills?”
“Sure.” Alex kicked his boots into motion, angling his way through Bellyflop’s now-bustling crowd. Nearly every seat at the mahogany bar was occupied, and he and Cole parked themselves by two of the last remaining spaces next to the pass-through.
“You slept with her.”
The empty pitcher in Alex’s grasp hit the top of the bar with a sharpclunkat Cole’s straight-to-the-point statement, but there was no fast-talking his way out of this. Anyway, as highly sensitive as the topic was, lying about it—or, okay, lying about anything—just wasn’t Alex’s speed. “You really should take that mind-reading show on the road. You could make a freaking fortune.”
Cole’s normally laid-back expression turned graveyard serious. “Jesus, Teflon. Have you lost your mind?”
“No.” The word fired from his mouth, low and sharp around the edges, and Alex took a deep breath to smooth out his redirect. “I’m helping Zoe with this grant project, yes”—he broke off, dropping his voice—“and yes, she and I are spending time together after hours.” At Cole’s sharp look, he admitted, “Fine. Yes, we’re having sex. But wemutuallyagreed to keep things casual. It’s not a big deal.”
Cole ran a hand over the back of his neck, shaking his head in obvious disbelief. “Not a big deal. You do remember Zoe is Westin’s daughter, right? The one he brags about every time her name comes up in conversation. And also when it doesn’t.”
“Believe me, I remember,” Alex said, replacing any frost the words might carry with straight-up honesty. “But she’s an adult, and so am I.”
Cole leaned one forearm against the bar, finally nodding. “Okay, family tree aside, I thought you wanted to do this community service as painlessly as possible. Don’t get me wrong, it sounds like Zoe helps a lot of people at Hope House, and that’s admirable as hell. But you seem awfully invested for a guy aiming for nothing more than a volunteer drive-by.”
Unease filled Alex’s chest instead of air, but he tamped the emotion down. “I don’t have any choice but to do this community service, and phoning it in when Hope House is so short staffed is a dick move, no matter where I’d rather be. Just because I’m helping Zoe for a few weeks doesn’t mean I don’t know the score, though, and Zoe knows it, too. I’m a firefighter. I belong at Eight, and Cap is more than just my boss. When I come back to the house in a couple of weeks, things will go back to normal.”
They had to. Alex’s livelihood—his life—depended on it.
He met his best friend’s eyes without hesitation. “Trust me, Cole. I know exactly what I’m doing.”
But Cole’s stare didn’t waver, either. “That, my friend, is exactly what I’m afraid of.”
19
Alex woke slowly for the first time in a dog’s age, sleep clinging to him like a lover as he rolled over beneath the warmth of the comforter. Not a terrible analogy, considering how the rest of the night before had shaken out. Zoe’s high-velocity excitement from their gathering at Bellyflop had been contagious, to the point that after they had gotten to his house, they’d barely made it to his bedroom before the last of their clothes had hit the carpet. And that had been after he’d made her come in the hallway.
Twice.
Huh. No wonder he’d slept so well.
