Page 6 of Reckless (Adventures in Love 3)
“All set?” he asks after opening the driver’s door a minute later, and I reach over for Pebbles, who is not happy about being moved.
“Yes, and thank you again.”
“It’s not a big deal.” He takes off his hat, which is covered with snow, and tosses it into the back of the cab; then his jacket follows suit, leaving him in a tight thermal with buttons at his neck.
“Again, it is a big deal.” I hold on to Pebbles a little tighter when he tries to get away from me to get to Maverick. “I don’t have any cell service; do you?” I ask him as he backs out of his parking space.
“I didn’t when I hit the mountain.” He passes me over his phone from the cup holder, and I stare at it. “You can check; the code’s one two three four.”
Using his pass code, I unlock his cell and see that he has one bar. “Do you have Cybil’s number?”
“No, but if you call Tanner, he’ll be there with her,” he tells me, so I go to the contacts and press call on Tanner’s number, only to have the phone beep in my ear.
“There must be a tower down or something.” I place his phone back in the cup holder between us. “I hope Cybil isn’t freaking out.”
“You can call her when we get to my place,” he says, and I press my hand against my stomach, which flutters with nervousness at the mention of his place.
“How far do you live from here?” I ask as he pulls out onto the highway, which is completely empty except for his truck.
“On a clear day thirty minutes. Not sure how long it will take to get back to my place now, but it shouldn’t take the three hours it took me to get to you.”
“Three hours.”
“The only turnaround after the rest stop was an exit about twenty miles back, and since I was on the opposite side of the highway with no clear way to turn around after I passed you, I had to wait to take it.”
“I feel like I need to thank you again.”
“You don’t,” he assures me quietly before turning up the radio. Figuring that’s his way of telling me that he’s done talking, I turn my attention to the road ahead of us, ignoring or at least trying to ignore the anxiousness in the pit of my stomach.
Chapter 3
MAVERICK
After parking in front of my house, I shut down the engine, then turn to study Jade, who passed out about an hour ago. Before tonight I never noticed how pretty she is. Then again, I’ve only spent a handful of hours with her, and we’ve never been alone or even had time to talk. Reaching across the space between us, I grasp her biceps and give it a squeeze, watching her lashes flutter open before she turns her head my way.
“We’re here.”
“I fell asleep,” she says, sleepily sitting up. “What time is it?”
“After three.” I unhook my belt, then reach into the back seat to grab my coat and hers.
“You must be exhausted.”
“I’m good.” I put on my jacket and wait for her to finish getting hers on before I open the door to get out. Then I stop by my open door to meet her gaze. “Do you need anything besides your suitcase and the bag with the dog food in it tonight?”
“No, that should be good.” She yawns as I hop out and head around the hood to the passenger side. I open her door and shake my head when I find that she’s putting a lime-green turtleneck sweater on her dog. “Hey, don’t look at him like that. You’re going to give him a complex.”
“I’m not judging him. I’m judging you,” I tell her, helping her down as she laughs.
“Well, don’t, because he’d freeze if I didn’t put something on him.”
“What did dogs do before humans came along?”
“I think they were wolves, so my guess is they were accustomed to being outside in the elements. Pebbles is not a wolf, and he doesn’t even have much fur to keep himself warm, so thank goodness I can help him out.” She kicks away a small area in the thick snow and sets her pup down, ordering him to potty, which he does on command. “So this is your place?” She picks him up when he’s finished and I’ve grabbed her bags from my back seat.
“This is it.” I walk with her up to the front porch of my two-bedroom, two-bathroom log home. “It’s not much right now, but over the next three years I plan on building another house farther back on the property and using this cabin for friends and family when they come to visit.”
“How much land do you have?”
“A little over twelve acres.” I let her in the front door, and she stops to take off her boots and coat while I do the same. “I wanted more land than this, but I didn’t want a place so far out of town that getting milk on a Saturday morning would be a hassle.”
