course it did.” His voice was soft and sympathetic.
Had she given another person reason to see her as a victim? She hated the worry that lined her parents’ faces whenever they looked at her. “I’m totally fine,” she said, playing fast and loose with the definition of fine. “I just miss the old me. Do you have any siblings?”
“Nope.”
“I’m the oldest of three sisters, and growing up, everyone called me the daring one. Or, if they were feeling less charitable, the troublemaker. Now I don’t even have the backbone to cross a parking lot without imagining the bogeyman, or to stand up to the president of the tenant board.”
“That would be Mrs. Tyler?” His tone was the vocal equivalent of a shudder. “I met her. She may actually be the bogeyman.”
“Yeah, she does put the ty in tyrant.” Over the summer, it had crossed Riley’s mind that she might feel safer if she bought a dog, even just a small one; since she worked at home, it wasn’t as though it would be cooped up alone all day. When she’d petitioned the three-member board about getting a pet, as per building policy, Anna Tyler had reacted with the same civic outrage as if Riley had proposed starting a meth lab.
But Riley’s problem was a lot bigger than an unpleasant tenant board president. “I want to feel like myself again. I want to do something spontaneous, maybe even reckless! Like...” She cast about for an example, trying to remember the carefree way she’d once looked at life. “Like jump naked into the pool!”
His sharp intake of breath reverberated in the stillness.
What am I doing? Her new neighbor was more than a self-proclaimed good listener, he was also a very attractive and virile man. Mention of getting naked could lead to some awkward hallway encounters. “I don’t know why I said that.”
“It was a spontaneous declaration. So, good on you.”
She tried to amuse herself by imagining the scandalized expression on Mrs. Tyler’s face if tenants took to skinny-dipping. But it was impossible to picture the well-coiffed dictator’s outrage when Riley’s mind was focused on the man in the elevator, mere feet from her. The dark, which had seemed confessional in an anonymous and cozy sort of way, was beginning to foster an illusion of intimacy. Riley hadn’t dated much in the last year, despite her mother’s efforts. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d felt this pull of connection to a man.
“I’ve been skinny-dipping,” Jack volunteered.
The uncooperative imagination that hadn’t wanted to supply a picture of Mrs. Tyler looking appalled was perfectly happy to speculate on Jack Reed in his full glory. Though his chiseled face gave him a lean appearance, before the power had gone out, she’d gotten a good look at his muscular arms in that T-shirt. Not bulky, but sculpted. If the rest of him— Stop that!
She cleared her throat, hoping she didn’t sound as breathless as she felt. “Given your work with law enforcement, I assume this exhibitionism was on private property, where you weren’t breaking any public decency ordinances?”
“It was at summer camp. I was fourteen and had spent the week flirting with a gorgeous and worldly fifteen-year-old. She suggested a midnight swim, minus our bathing suits. Which would have been the most romantic night of my young life if she and her giggling friends hadn’t run off with my clothes. My skinny-dipping was followed by streaking through camp, swearing a string of profanities the likes of which Camp Kinahoopee has probably never heard before or since.”
She laughed. “Skinny-dipping, streaking and cursing? You rebel child.”
“What about you? You hinted that you made plenty of trouble in your day.”
“Contrary to what my poor mother probably believes, I rarely set out with specific intent to break any rules. I just loved anything that made me feel alive and exhilarated—like roller coasters and going off the highest diving board in the county.” And having sex her freshman year of college in her boyfriend’s convertible with the top down. Warmth spread through her again, but this time it wasn’t all embarrassment. A distant, disobedient part of her wondered what kind of car Jack drove. “I have always been a sucker for a double dare, which led to my involvement in a plot to steal our rival school’s mascot when I was sixteen. We returned it after homecoming.”
He chuckled. “Honor among thieves?”
“Honor, and the threat of expulsion. When I was eleven, a kid in our subdivision dared me to race my bike down Dead Man’s Hill with no helmet. I wiped out at the bottom, still have a faint scar midthigh, but what I remember most is the indescribable rush of freedom. The wind whipping against my face, the sense that I was flying.” When was the last time she’d felt so giddy and uninhibited? “I don’t remember the pain at all. Probably because I knocked myself unconscious when I flipped over the handlebars. Is it weird that I thought the concussion was worth it?”
“A little bit, yeah. Although maybe I’m not qualified to answer that, since I’ve never had a concussion. I did, however, court expulsion in high school.”
“Ooh, kindred spirit. Do tell.”
“I organized a student protest against the school dress code.”
“Did you protest it by streaking?” she teased.
“No, but if I’d thought I could talk any of the cheerleaders into that...” A wicked smile tinged his voice when he added, “I may or may not have persuaded the captain of the cheerleading squad into a one-on-one game of strip poker the summer after graduation. How about you, troublemaker? Any strip poker games in your past?”
“Yes, but...”
“But?”
“I’m not very good.” By nature, she was an expressive, forthright person. The ability to bluff eluded her.
“Maybe you just need practice.” That wicked tone was far more potent this time because he wasn’t talking about hypothetical cheerleaders from his adolescence. He was talking about her.
In that moment she might actually have worked up the nerve to ask if he was volunteering to coach, but an ominous groan sounded. The elevator creaked as if it could no longer hold their weight suspended. Then the lights blinked on, momentarily disorienting her, and back out again.
“Seems like the power’s trying to come ba-aaah.” Her last word turned into more of a yelp as the elevator dropped. It only lasted a moment; they might not have cleared a full floor, but it was a far different experience than the normal, controlled descent. When this is over, I am strictly a staircase girl.
Jack scooted closer to her, stopping when his hand encountered her calf. He gave her a reassuring squeeze. Not counting hugs from her dad, the last few times a man had touched her she’d reflexively flinched away. At the moment she didn’t mind the contact. Maybe because she was preoccupied by the prospect of plunging to her death.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Um. Sure.” And the award for least convincing goes to...
“What about shoplifting?” he blurted, clearly trying to distract her from any elevator-plummeting anxiety. “Ever steal anything during your misspent youth?”
“A
