Page 68 of Reckless
“Well, I couldn’t help but notice how you guys all hovered around the soup kitchen like vultures last week when I made macaroni and cheese, so I thought I’d bring some.”
“Stop.” Rachel’s eyes flashed with oh-yes goodness. “Did you use that super-secret recipe you were telling me and Ava about? With the spicy chorizo and bell peppers?”
She kept her smile as coy as possible, but holy crap, it was a ten-foot-tall order. “Possibly.”
“Brennan is going to be bent out of shape that he missed out,” O’Keefe said, his tone implying that he’d be more than happy to describe the meal to his buddy in borderline-bragging detail.
But Zoe had his number. “I thought you might say that,” she flipped back, sending a playful wink in the paramedic’s direction. “Which is exactly why I dropped off a tray for him and Ava just before coming out here.”
Rachel’s laughter met O’Keefe’s groan head on, and she hip-checked her partner with a gentle bump. “Serves you right.”
“Okay, okay!” O’Keefe returned the gesture with an enthusiastic nudge. “Anyway, you have great timing, Zoe. We all just got back from a pretty hairy fire call.”
Just like that, her heart stuttered hard against her rib cage, her throat turning instantly dry. “Is everything okay?” She swung her gaze around the common area as subtly as possible, but caught no sign of either Alex or her father.
Crews stepped in beside her to take the grocery bags from her fingers, the bitter-burnt scent of smoke still clinging to his uniform. “Some brainiac didn’t want to miss a single second of the baseball game on TV. So he fired up his humongous gas grill inside his garage to keep him closer to the house.”
“Really?” That didn’t soundsobad.
“Yup.” O’Keefe shook his head, unfolding his frame in one of the chairs surrounding the long communal dining table. “We got there just in time to keep the damn propane tank from blowing a crater into Oak Street. Too bad for the guy his garage didn’t fare quite so well.”
“Oh,” Zoe managed weakly, and God, she wasn’t cut out for this. “Did anyone get hurt?”
“Nah. Just a few scrapes and a hell of a lot of property damage,” Cole said, his smile small but reassuring. He leaned in, his voice nonchalant even though she was certain he knew the score. “Alex is in the engine bay, rechecking all the equipment.”
She ran her clammy palms over the front of her jeans, but at least now she could breathe. Mostly. “Thanks.”
Zoe knew she should take a few minutes to get the mac and cheese in the oven and start preparing the green beans she’d brought as a side before rushing out to the engine bay. After all, she and Alex hadn’t told her father about their relationship yet, and dropping everything to make a beeline for the guy would probably raise every eyebrow in the room.
But the knee-jerk urge to lay eyes on him won out. Zoe headed for the double doors on the opposite side of the common room, her hand hitting the handle on the door leading to the dormitories on one side and the engine bay on the other at the same time its counterpart swung on its hinges.
“Oh! Hi, Lieutenant Osborne.” Zoe smiled at the veteran firefighter who had been at Station Eight since she’d been in elementary school, and whoa, time had added some hard edges to his face.
Oz ran a hand over his graying stubble before recognition settled over his stare. “Zoe. Look at you, all grown up now.”
“That’s me,” she agreed, taking in his gaunt frame with a pinch of concern. “How’s it going?”
“It’s going,” he said, tough as ever. “What brings you out here to visit a bunch of graceless firemen?”
Zoe slipped her smile back over her face. “I brought dinner.”
“Hell, girl.” Oz’s return smile brightened his face just enough to remind her of how he’d looked last time she’d seen him, and maybe he’d just had a couple of long shifts. “You sure know how to take care of us, now don’t you?”
“I do my best. I threw in a bunch of brownies for dessert, so make sure you save room.”
“Will do. Good to see you.”
He continued toward the common room with a wave, leaving Zoe to complete her trip to the engine bay. Rescue squad’s vehicle stood directly in front of her, nose out and doors wide, with Station Eight’s blue and white ambulance directly adjacent and equally ready to go. Her feet shushed over the concrete floor, anticipation thrumming through her veins as she rounded the ambo’s back bumper to make her way to Engine Eight. Alex stood about ten feet away in front of one of the large storage compartments, his blond brows creased in concentration even though his movements were completely fluid, and oh, God, Zoe was so in love with him it hurt.
Her feet moved faster, completely of their own accord. “Hey,” she said, the word arriving about two seconds before she threw her arms around him, and Alex grunted in surprise.
“Hey.” He pulled back just far enough to swing a gaze around the engine bay. But Zoe pressed up to slide a kiss over his mouth.
“Between the engine and the ambulance, we’re pretty well hidden, and anyway, no one else is in here. I checked.”
The hard ridge of his shoulders relaxed under her touch. “Well, in that case, c’mere, Gorgeous.” Alex threaded his fingers through her hair, his kiss making up in ferocity what it lacked in slowness.
After a few seconds that heated Zoe from head to toe—with layovers in all the best places—he pulled back. “So, did you come all the way out here just to give me a hard-on while I work? Because I’ve got to tell you, mission complete.”
