“Yes, sir. Would you like one spoon or two?”
Zach reached for his wallet to pay. “Oh, two spoons, definitely two.”
By the time Reagan joined him at the table, he’d managed to down about a quarter of the bowl. Spoon poised in the air, he was about to dig into what looked like a scoop of mint chocolate chip when she slumped into the chair across from him.
“Enjoying your ice cream?” she asked.
“You bet. You want some of this? I got you a spoon.” He held out the white plastic spoon to her like a peace offering. Their fingers brushed as she took the utensil. Her gaze lifted to meet his.
“I might try a bite or two. It would be a shame to waste all this homemade ice cream.”
“Who said anything about wasting it? I plan on finishing the whole bowl.”
“You can’t be serious. We’ve got to get back on the road.” She dipped her spoon into the scoop of rocky road.
“You’re the smarty pants who ordered the monster cone.”
“I was in a hurry and it’s the first thing I saw on the menu.” She slid the ice cream into her mouth and slowly drew the spoon back out, drawing his attention to the way she surrounded the lucky piece of plastic with her full, pink lips.
“You’ve got to admit it, it’s good.”
She dipped her spoon in for another bite. “You really think you can eat all this?”
“I don’t think it, I know it. It’s a mental game. Convince yourself you can do something, and if you truly believe it, you can.”
“Is this another piece of wisdom you gained from the monks?”
“Nah. Just common sense. What’s something you want to do that you’ve always been afraid of or felt like you can’t?” Everyone had some kind of fear or challenge. He’d battled a few of his own self-doubts and had become a huge proponent of helping others recognize their limitations and overcome them. Especially when the person he was helping was a beautiful woman from his past.
Reagan took another bite of ice cream and looked thoughtful for a moment. “I don’t know. Flying, I guess?”
“All you have to do is convince yourself that you can do it. Picture yourself taking off and landing safely. Envision flying up in the clouds.”
“That’s it?” She snorted. “You could have saved me a visit to the shrink and hundreds of dollars in prescriptions for anti-anxiety meds if it were that easy. That may work for you, Buddha, but I’ll stick with my happy pills.”
Zach rolled his eyes and shook his head. “It’s all in your head.”
“Yeah, my head, my pounding heart, shaky hands, roiling gut…”
“Try it next time you get on a plane. I bet it will help.”
“Oh yeah? What life-shattering challenge did you manage to get over with your self-inflicted mind tricks?” she asked.
Her teasing smile lit up her eyes, and Zach wanted to kiss the grin right off her face. Flirting helped pass the time, but they were entering new territory now.
He leaned back in his chair and let his spoon rest against the bowl. “I was in a bad accident a couple of years ago while I was shooting some rock-climbing gear on some cliffs. My rigging gave way, and I fell about thirty feet to the canyon floor. My leg was crushed, and they had to carry me to a place where the chopper could land and airlift me out. Took me about six months before I could walk again. Every day I told myself I could do it. Now my leg is more metal than bone. But I’m walking, right?”
Reagan had paused, spoon mid-way to her mouth while he told his story. She set the spoon back in the bowl and reached across the table to put her hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”
He shrugged. “How would you? We lost touch.”
Her eyes took on an unfocused glaze for a moment. Before he could say anything, it passed. She squeezed his arm then leaned back in her chair. “Well, we’ll have to keep in touch from now on.”
Not likely she’d ever want to see or hear from him again if he went through with the assignment from Scazzoli or his plan to keep other members of the press away backfired. But it was a nice thought. “You bet. We’ll have to keep in touch. Now help me finish this ice cream so we can ride the choo-choo train. Pretty please? If we finish the whole bowl we get two free tickets to ride the train up the mountain.”
“We don’t have time for you to indulge in one of your childhood fantasies and go for a choo-choo ride.”
Zach cleared his throat and leveled a heated gaze at her. “For your information, my fantasies have come a long way from train rides. Unless you want to take a ride on my special engine.” He wiggled his eyebrows like he was issuing a challenge.
Reagan met his gaze and gasped. He didn’t think it was possible to choke on ice cream, but she coughed and put her hands to her mouth where a small line of melted rocky road trickled from the corner of her lips. She grabbed for a napkin and wiped her mouth.
“Behave yourself, will you?”
“Behaving is so overrated. Now, are you going to help me eat this monster bowl you insisted we order, or am I going to become lactose intolerant all by myself?”
The flush on her cheeks subsided.
“If you let me go up the hill, I promise after that we’ll drive through the night and not stop until we get to Miami,” he promised.
Letting out a huffy sigh, Reagan thrust her spoon back into the middle of the mound of ice cream. It had started to melt and all the flavors blended together. “Fine. But this is it. No more stops. A quick ride up and right back down again.”
“You got it. And if you decide you want to ride on my special engine…” His words trailed off as his gaze lifted to her face.
“You’d better stop offering, or I’ll put that engine out of commission, buddy.”
He had no doubt she could. Zach smirked and dug his spoon back into the bowl. Only about twelve hundred more bites to go.
11
Reagan put her hands to her stomach in an attempt to squelch the massive gurgling. She hadn’t had that much ice cream since…well, never. What had possessed Zach to force feed himself the entire bowl?
The entire bowl except the huge portion she’d ingested. And now regretted. How had she let him talk her into a train ride? They were still at least eight-hundred miles away from Miami. And now she was about to board a tiny train car that would take her to the top of some Civil War memorial?
She hated heights. Flying was the worst, but even tall buildings made her stomach churn. Her thoughts briefly lingered on the field trip they’d taken to Sears Tower in the seventh grade. She was the only one who’d puked at the top and had to ride the elevator back down with one of the chaperones, then spend an hour at the bottom waiting for the rest of the class. They had teased her for weeks. How had she let Zach talk her into scaling a mountain?
It was that damn grin of his. Depending on which way his lips quirked, he could make it challenging, teasing, or sexy. Sometimes all three at once. She’d always taken more risks around Zach. He brought out something wanton and wild inside her. Always had.
Seemed like the other guys in high school overlooked her for the social butterflies or perky, bubbly cheerleaders who went to all the football and hockey games and cheered for their boyfriends. Reagan missed out on a lot due to her dad’s campaign demands and social schedule. As the daughter of a prominent senator, she had been expected to make herself available for photo opportunities and be at her dad’s beck and call. Teddy loved the limelight, but she preferred to spend time with her few close girlfriends or bury her nose in a book. Until she met Zach.