Page 20 of Reckless
One hour,two cups of coffee, and three over-starched topics of conversation later, Zoe planted a cool parting kiss on her father’s cheek and dropped into the driver’s seat of her tried-and-true Prius. While breakfast hadn’t exactly been a stroll on the beach, the fact that she’d escaped mostly unscathed gave her hope for the rest of the day.
If only round two wasn’t going to be even more difficult to maneuver than a healthy dose of parental disdain.
Sighing, Zoe tapped her phone screen to pull up her navigation app. She’d only been gone for five years, but downtown Fairview was big enough to make piloting the mostly urban streets a chore, plus the place had seen enough growth spurts in her absence to make her eager for the backup. Alex had stayed true to his promise of remaining completely mum about his plans for their day, to the point that the only advance notice he’d given was that she should wear comfortable clothes she didn’t mind sweating in. He hadn’t even given her the location for their meet up until they’d been on their way out of Hope House after last night’s dinner shift.
Of course, the address hadn’t been immediately familiar. So, of course, she’d Googled it.
And of course, other than a grainy aerial photograph of about three city blocks’ worth of real estate, she’d come up with nothing.
“Okay. Four-sixty-six Edgewood Avenue,” Zoe murmured, forcing the traitorous tremble in her fingers into submission as she hit the navigation icon with the pad of her thumb. At least once she got there—wherever there was—she’d know what sort of reckless crash project she was up against. And more importantly, how to manage it.
She recognized the path through scenic downtown Fairview well enough, even after she’d exchanged the familiarity of Scarlett’s location on Church Street for about ten minutes of city driving. Confusion combined with the anticipation already pushing a steady course through her veins, thrumming over her skin in a low prickle as she crossed the threshold of one of Fairview’s oldest and quietest urban neighborhoods. The automated voice of her GPS guided her through a maze of neatly kept streets lined with classically understated row homes, and wait…this had to be a mistake.
“You have reached…your destination…on the right.”
Zoe pulled over to the curb, alternating her stare between the tidy, brick-faced brownstone outside her passenger window and the display on her phone. The brass numbers on the plate next to the gleaming black door read 466, and she double, then triple checked the address Alex had given her last night at the soup kitchen before quieting the Prius’s engine and exiting the car for a better look.
Why the hell did a young, single, impulsive-to-the-teeth firefighter want to meet her for Mission: Adrenaline in one of the most family-oriented neighborhoods in Fairview?
“Hey. I was starting to think you got lost.” The masculine rumble of Alex’s voice shot through Zoe’s blood with twin helpings of mischief and pure sex, and oh, God, she’d seriously miscalculated how much fortitude she was going to need to get through this day.
She unfolded her spine to its full height, turning toward the spot where he’d appeared in the open door frame of the ground-level garage. “Maybe I was thinking of standing you up,” she replied, and okay, yeah. Meeting his boldness with some of her own couldn’t be that bad a plan.
Except of course, Alex called her bluff. “No you weren’t.” He lifted a sturdy backpack from a nearby shelf in the garage, the hard contour of his shoulders flexing and pulling beneath the snug material of his compression gear T-shirt.
Zoe’s throat worked over a tight swallow. “No?”
“No. You want the chance to get me to follow the rules too badly. Plus, you said you’d be here, and you don’t ditch out on your word.”
Nothing she could argue there. Unfortunately. “Clearly, I need a better game face,” she said, but Alex just laughed.
“I believe in honesty, remember? A game face only covers up what’s real. And you’re going to need to be upfront with what you’re feeling today if you want to get anything out of what we’re going to do.”
“Speaking of which…” Zoe extended one arm in a sweeping gesture to encompass both the brownstone in front of her and the wide ribbon of concrete sidewalk leading up the sun-strewn avenue. “Something tells me you and I aren’t going to take a scenic tour of the neighborhood and call it daring. What are we doing here?”
“We’re joining forces.” Alex swung the backpack all the way up over one shoulder, and seriously, couldn’t he at least have chosen a shirt that didn’t showcaseallof his damn muscles? “I figured if I told you where to meet me directly, it would ruin the surprise. Anyway, we need some equipment for what I’ve got planned, and it’ll be easier to transport it in your car than on the back of my bike. That is, unless you want to go for a ride.”
He tipped his head at the single-bay garage behind him, his gaze cutting a path toward the same sleek red and black motorcycle Zoe had seen him ride into the sunset last night, and realization crashed into her like a brick on a one-way trip through plate glass.
“Wait. You live here? As in, this is your house?”
He had to be messing with her. There were daffodils and crocuses sprouting from the small rectangular plot by the front doorstep, for God’s sake. No way did Alex Donovan, with his predisposition for air travel the hard way and the most lax impulse control in townlivehere. In suburbia.
Was that a lady with a jogging stroller he’d just waved to across the street?
Alex flipped a set of keys over in his palm, the metallic jingle bringing Zoe just far enough out of her shock to catch the nothing-doing expression that went with the gesture. “That’s what the mailbox says. So, do you want to drive, or should we take the bike for a spin?”
“Yes. No. I mean…” She blew out a breath, praying her idiocy would dissipate along with the carbon dioxide. “I don’t mind driving. I’ll pass on the motorcycle.”
His expression broadcast his complete lack of surprise, although all he said as he grinned and entered the key code to close the garage door was, “Maybe next time.”
Zoe bit back the temptation to tell him that today’s outing would definitely be a one and done. She didn’t doubt the conviction—in fact, with the nerves jangling through her belly right now, she was more certain than ever that today was likely to obliterate her comfort zone to the point that she’d never hit the repeat button. But Alex was cocky enough all by himself. The last thing she needed was to toss out anything he could construe as a dare. Not unless Zoe wanted him to follow through on the challenge or die trying.
She popped the locks on the Prius, sliding into the driver’s seat to refit her cell phone back to the dock on the dashboard. “Okay, so where to?”
“Do you ever go anywhere without a game plan?” Alex asked, placing the backpack firmly behind the driver’s seat before situating himself next to her.
Although a smile tilted his mouth as he asked the question, his tone asked for an honest answer, so Zoe said, “Not really, no. I like to be prepared.”
