Page 14 of You Chive Me Crazy
Lucas grinned. “Oh, but I definitely would dare.”
I paced back and forth, then started feeling wobbly again. “Whoa.”
“See? That’s what I’m talking about!” Lucas said, grabbing my arms to keep me steady. “You’re playing with fire, tater tot.”
I didn’t know what was worse: Lucas thinking he knew what was best for me or him calling me tater tot. He was trying to be cute, but I didn’t need cute from him. I needed a place to rest my head.
“Are you coming with me or not?” Lucas asked. “Last chance.”
I sighed when it appeared I didn’t have any choice since he was going to hold my suitcase and food truck hostage. “Fine, but that doesn’t mean you get to boss me around.”
Lucas opened the passenger door for me. “Get in. Watch your head.”
I glared at him. “Did you not hear what I just said?”
“Please?” He gently helped me into the car, then leaned across my body to fasten my seatbelt. “There we go . . .”
Lucas was too close.
Even with my fuzzy brain, his cologne was alluring, disgustingly appealing.
“I could have done that,” I said
“But would you have? I think not.” Lucas closed my door with what felt like a slam and went around the front of the car to the driver’s side.
“Where are we going?” I managed to say as he got in and closed his door.
Lucas turned to me with a blank look. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
ChapterFour
LUCAS
The winding road I was currently navigating en route to Big Bear Lake made the Viper roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain look like a kiddy ride, but nothing made my head spin or my stomach churn more than the presence of Miss Zoe Bell.
The woman had me so conflicted I wanted to scream.
So why was it I had felt the need to take care of her when I could have just left her back at the hospital with professionals who knew what they were doing? Was it guilt? Why did she have such a hold on me? And what was I trying to prove? Nothing made sense.
Even back at the culinary institute it had always baffled me the way she had gotten me to do just about anything she had asked. Was it those big, innocent doe eyes? What else could it be?
I wanted to please her, for some reason. There was something about her that scared the hell out of me, but that also attracted me like the male praying mantis to his female executioner.
She had made me completely forget that I was supposed to be on my way to Germany. I should have been in a terrible mood.
Zoe sat quietly beside me, lost in thought, as I wisely kept the radio off. I had expected her to grill me about our destination, but to my delight, she seemed content to simply bask in the peace and quiet. Or maybe she had finally tired of being so crabby.
Not that I didn’t understand Zoe’s mood and frustration.
I had read somewhere that eighty percent of all food-related businesses fail in the first five years. The pressure of the festival had obviously taken a toll on her. Zoe had poured her heart and soul into her food truck business, and the thought of it almost being destroyed in an instant, by a random deer in the middle of the road, was enough to make anyone flip their lid.
Then there was the tiny fact of her running into the man she probably had hoped to never see again in her lifetime. That would be a stressor on a good day.
I certainly admired Zoe’s selfless nature and the way she put herself in harm’s way just to avoid hurting that deer. It wasn’t the first time she almost killed herself trying to save an animal.
When we were in school, Zoe pulled her car over to save a dog who had been running loose on the expressway. She ended up badly scraping both of her knees after she fell while trying to dodge a car who didn’t have the decency to slow down when all the other cars behind her had stopped.
Luckily, Zoe hadn’t been injured seriously—just a case of nasty road rash—the Good Samaritan able to capture the dog and return it to his grateful owner. For as long as I could remember, she had always been a protector, never afraid to jump into action when someone needed help. I really admired that about her.
