Reckless

And she hadn’t a clue how to let go…

Chapter 2

Chapter KEEP THINGS LIGHT. Keep things safe.

Kyle repeated the words in his mind three days later as he climbed out of his car in the parking lot of BMC, the bookstore/music center/café where Heidiworked. He shaded his eyes, spotting Heidi’s old Sunfire convertible parked a couple of rows up. Good, she was working. That meant that he could talk to her in the safe environment of her workplace, safe being a relative term.

At any rate, he was sure there would be little risk of seeing her naked here. Itwas hard enough being with her and Jesse in public without imagining her sans clothes.

Which made what hewas about to ask doubly difficult.

“Oh, for God’s sake, she’s just a woman. More than that, she’s your best friend’s girl. Get over it.”

But no matter how stridently he censured himself, he knew that the attraction he felt for Heidi far surpassed coveting his buddy’s girlfriend. From the moment he’d ridden into Fantasy and had finally met Heidi, he’d known he was in trouble.

And he had done everything in his power to fight the unwanted feelings.

“Kyle?”

He pulled his gaze from Heidi’s car to find himself looking at Heidi herself. She was wearing her work apron, the white fabric snug against her slender frame. It was as if she’d emerged from his thoughts, looking somehow out of place in the parking lot.

He realized he hadn’t said anything yet and managed a simple, “Hey.”

She walked in his direction. “What are you doing here?”

He squinted at her.

“Trying to expand your horizons by buying a book?”

He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his slacks. He’d taken off his suit jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt, but still wore his tie. “Actually, I heard the clam chowder was pretty good here.”

Her smile eclipsed the sun. “The best, considering I’m the one who makes it.”

“You going somewhere?”

She glanced over her shoulder and then at her watch. “Yeah. I thought I’d get a few errands out of the way during my break.”

“I was hoping we could talk.”

Now that hadn’t come out quite the way he’d wanted. It almost sounded like what he had to say was personal. While it was, it wasn’t the kind of “personal” that should have inspired the wary look on her beautiful face.

She checked her watch again. “I’m sorry, but I really don’t have the time. I only have fifteen minutes before I have to be back at work.”

Kyle grimaced. Probably he should have just gone in and ordered and waited for her to come back. Now if he did that, she’d likely avoid him at all costs.

Hell.

“It’s not what you might be thinking,” he said.

“I’m not thinking anything,” she said, beginning to walk away. “Why would I be thinking anything?” She shrugged. “You know, aside from you going out of your way to be rude to me ever since you came to town eight months ago.”

“Pardon?”

She planted her hands on her hips. “You heard me. I mean, come on, Kyle, did you think I wouldn’t notice that you don’t like me very much? I don’t know why that is…and I don’t want to know. So why don’t we just continue on the way we have been. You know, with chilly cordiality?”

Chilly cordiality? Now that was a description.

Unending cold showers would be more his choice of wording.

He looked her over. She really didn’t have a clue, did she? Despite the other night at the bar when he was afraid he’d revealed more than he’d ever intended to, she thought he didn’t like her.

Which should have suited him just fine.

But suddenly it didn’t.

“I’ve really got to go…”

She turned to walk away. And without realizing he was going to do it, he grasped her wrist to prevent her from leaving.

“We really need to talk, Heidi.”

HEAT, sure and swift, swept over Heidi’s skin from the casual contact. A heat she didn’t want to acknowledge. There was only one thing worse than the possibility of being attracted to her boyfriend’s best friend: knowing that he didn’t return the sentiment. In fact, she was convinced that not only was Kyle not interested in her sexually, he wasn’t interested in befriending her either, no matter how hard Jesse tried to push them together.

“I don’t know what we could possibly have to talk about,” she told him now.

Liar. She could start by telling him how something had changed in her feelings toward him the other night. Something elemental. Something confusing. Something frightening.

Nina had told her that plans often didn’t turn out exactly the way you wanted them to. That wasn’t Heidi’s experience. At least not in recent years. And she didn’t even want to consider that her well-laid plans would go anywhere but where they should. She’d been raised in an environment where simple things like cooking dinner and regularly paying the electric bill hadn’t been planned, so she’d taken it upon herself to impose order on her own life. As soon as she was old enough, she’d gotten herself up and to the bus stop on time, changing from an often-tardy student to one with no late slips. She’d gone grocery shopping with her mother, and while Alice Joblowski had lingered in the book section leafing through the latest titles, Heidi had consulted a list she’d made of ingredients for meals for the next two weeks, because you never knew when her mother would think to go to the supermarket next.

She liked order in her life.

And her reaction to Kyle’s skin against hers now was nothing if not disordered.

She slipped her wrist out of his grip.

“Look,” he said, shoving his hand back into his pocket, seeming as irritated as she was. “I know you and I…well, we haven’t really gotten on well since I moved here. But Jesse would like to change that. And, frankly, so would I.”

Heidi frowned. “I’m okay with the way things are.”

He looked at her closely. Perhaps a little too closely.

“What is it that you want to talk about, Kyle?” She made a point of checking her watch again. At this rate, she’d be late returning from break. And she hadn’t finished one of the three errands she’d wanted to run.

“I want you to help me plan a surprise birthday party for Jesse.”

“A SURPRISE birthday party?” Nina repeated sometime later, after Heidi had returned to work.

The two women were in the café’s kitchen, Nina sitting on the prep table snacking on oyster crackers while Heidi put all her energy into kneading a fresh batch of sweet dough.