Reckless Radiance
Authors: Kate Roth
Reckless Radiance
Kate Roth
Second Edition
Written by Kate Roth
Copyright © 2014 by Kate Roth
www.katerothwrites.com
Cover design by Adam M. Roth
www.adamrothcg.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owner.
All rights reserved.
For
Kara
Table of Contents
Chapter One
With the harsh florescent lights of the bathroom shining down on her, Valerie sighed. She read the screen again and felt an ache behind her eyes.
Miss you kiddo, hope everything is ok.
As soon as her parents had learned to text the messages became a weekly occurrence. But she rarely replied. She didn’t know how.
Glancing in the mirror, she took notice of how the light made her skin look sickly and almost gray. Dark circles pulled at her hazel eyes and her normally sun-kissed, golden strands of hair were more a shade of gunmetal on this particular day. She stared at her reflection taking in the ghastly sight of her overtired face and asked herself—was it just the lights or had she really become the ghost of her former self?
Dead girl walking
, she thought. As she examined herself, her mind seemed to race and slow to a crawl all at once. Just as her thoughts turned condemnatory and she started to feel the stinging precursor of tears, someone began pounding on the door.
“Val, your tables are waitin’ on ya. Hurry it up!” Penny, her boss, hollered at her through the door.
Penny’s voice was gruff due to multiple decades of chain smoking—possibly even gargling shards of glass from the sound of it. She was a petite woman with gold and silver hair. Despite her gravelly tone and her sometimes stonewall expression, Valerie liked her. Valerie splashed some cold water on her face, patted it dry with a stiff, white paper towel and headed back out to work.
Swinging by the kitchen, she picked up the trays she needed to deliver. After handing out the slice of blackberry pie to table six and the two cups of coffee to table nine, she headed over to take orders from the tables that had been waiting rather impatiently for their waitress.
She scribbled down the first round of orders and apologized for the wait. She told them a slice of the pie-of-the-day would be on the house. As if she were on autopilot, she moved on to the next table and said nearly the exact same thing and was met with the same reaction—annoyance at first and then sheer joy at the surprise of free pie. Apparently the simple things in life were all the people of Somerset needed.
Two down one to go
, she thought.
With her tiny pad of paper flipped to a blank sheet, she glanced up to see the table she was headed for and the lone person sitting there. He was staring at her with a whisper of a smile on his face. His looks were striking. He was all broad shoulders and strong features, topped off with a head of blackish-brown wavy hair and a pair of steely blue eyes that were oddly familiar. Valerie felt her knees buckle for a moment as she approached the stranger.
Oh, stop it,
she chided herself with a curse in her mind.
She spouted off her usual greeting. “Hi there, my name’s Valerie. What can I get you?”
He smiled up at her for a second. The look was a beat longer than it should’ve been but Valerie didn’t mind having her eyes locked with his for the slow minute. He broke his gaze away from her and took another glance at the menu, stuck on the pie page.
“If you’re looking for a pie, I’d say the cherry’s best. Especially since Penny’s the one baking today,” she said trying to hide the slight country twang in her words.
He looked up at her again and she shamefully felt herself swimming in those deep blue pools he had for eyes.
Not drowning, just swimming.
“Then cherry it is. And black coffee please.”
A breath rushed out of her faster than she could think to stifle it. His voice took her by surprise. It was warm and lush, like no one she’d ever had the pleasure of listening to. Trying to keep her wits about her, she told herself he wasn’t special.
Aside from the man’s stunning good looks, that charming half smile, the faint scent of sandalwood, perfectly tailored clothes, smoldering eyes, and that voice—he was no better. If she felt something starting to stir inside of her it was just a spell. Some sleight of hand this mystery man had spun on her unknowingly.
“Valerie?” He said her name smooth as butter and she felt goose bumps tickling her skin.
“Yeah,” she breathed.
She shook her head and a smile settled on her face mostly out of embarrassment. She’d been standing there staring—thankfully not drooling—for longer than necessary.
“Sorry, Sir, I’ll go put your order in.”
Her hands were twitching as she made her way back to the kitchen to place the new orders. Before she had time to think on her irrational intrigue for the man at table twelve, a hand landed on her shoulder startling her.
“Who is
he
?” Paige asked spinning Valerie around. Her brown eyes were sparkling and wide. Valerie couldn’t help but giggle at her. Of course
she
would notice the best looking man in the room. Paige was Valerie’s closest friend in town. The two girls usually worked the same shift at the diner and spent the majority of their time outside of work together.
“He’s a customer, Paige,” Valerie replied, pouring the stranger’s cup of coffee, adding it to the already heavy tray.
“He’s staring at you,” Paige said, drawing her words out in a mocking song.
Valerie whipped her head around looking back at the man and indeed he was staring—smiling, too. Another sigh rolled out of her ruining her poker face. Paige laughed and pinched the skin of Valerie’s forearm before shooing her friend out to the floor to serve the waiting patrons. She moved quickly, almost in a rush. If she could’ve gotten away with it she might’ve thrown the food at the other tables not saying a single kind word to them before getting back over to
his
table as fast as humanly possible. But Valerie took her time, picked up checks and topped off coffee cups before finally heading his direction.
She set down the slice of cherry pie and the steaming mug of coffee in front of him. He was still staring at her with that faint grin pulling at his lips. She watched for a moment as he took the first sip of coffee, his eyes closing briefly.
“Let me know if I can get you anything else, Sir,” she said before turning on her heels.
“Do you have a break any time soon?” he asked.
Valerie halted, stunned by his question. Facing him once again, she let her reeling mind process what he had said. Struck by him and his spell, she stood dumbfounded. Why on earth would he want to know if she had a break?
She couldn’t deny he was handsome. She couldn’t deny his voice sent a little shiver down her spine. And she couldn’t deny that she’d recently been longing for someone … something … anything to make her feel good again. But she remembered who she was, what she’d already had and the fact that good things no longer happened to her and she shook her head.
“No, I don’t think so. I’ll bring you your check in a minute.” The words choked out of her.
He gave a soft, pained smile and nodded before sipping his coffee again. Valerie scurried to Paige who was staring with her jaw wide open from behind the counter. “What the hell? You shot him down? Do you
see
him? I’ll cover your tables,” Paige said loud enough for him to overhear. Valerie glanced at him and caught that same knowing grin. Paige was still waiting for Valerie to fold, her arms crossed over her chest and one eyebrow cocked in challenge.
“I can’t. I don’t even know that guy. W-what about Henry?” Valerie knew the minute she uttered his name Paige wouldn’t be happy.
“Are you kidding me? What about him? He’s an asshole, Valerie. And besides, I thought you were done with him. Especially after …” Paige’s words dissolved into a huff. Valerie didn’t need to hear it again.
Valerie told her to drop it and went back to checking on her tables, keeping busy and keeping her mind off the stranger. Eventually she had to drop off the bill to table twelve. She made her way over to him as she smoothed a hand over her hair. He looked up for a moment and their eyes locked for another achingly long moment. She hated that feeling stirring in her stomach. Or did she crave it?
“Here you are, Sir,” she said reaching out to hand him the check.
When he took it from her hand she felt his fingers brush hers and the tiniest bit of light formed where their skin touched.
“Oh,” she laughed. “I shocked you. That was weird. I didn’t feel it but I saw the spark.”
“I felt it,” he whispered.
Valerie’s ears were getting hot and a blush was creeping up her neck as she kept her eyes steady on him.
“I was too bold earlier. I apologize. You probably have a boyfriend,” he said as he starting thumbing through his wallet.
“Boyfriend may not be the right word. I’m just not sure it’d be a good idea,” she replied, absent-mindedly rubbing at her wrist. His eyes instantly followed her hand and she felt her heart sink. He had clearly seen the faint purple and green bruises around her left wrist. She noticed his jaw clench and a vein tremble at his temple for an instant.
“I see. Well, should you change your mind about it …” His voice trailed off as he stood, putting down a few bills to cover his meal and a generous tip.
He was incredibly tall, towering over her dressed in all black. He might’ve seemed intimidating to someone else but Valerie was oddly comforted by his presence. His hand glided toward her face slowly and she swallowed the lump building in her throat. With ginger fingertips he pulled on the pen tucked behind her ear and jotted something on the back of his receipt. Valerie stayed still as he slid the pen back behind her ear as though it had never been disturbed and handed her the slip of paper he’d just written on. When she took it their fingertips met once again and the same miniscule light flashed.
“Did it again,” she said in a breathy laugh.
She glanced down at his scribbling and read his name and phone number.
“Quite the spark,” he muttered.
Valerie was busy staring at the fluid cursive lines that spelled out his name—
Russell
—when he said it. By the time she lifted her eyes to meet his and possibly change her mind about taking that break, he was gone. The faint ringing of the bell above the door now swam around her head instead of his velvety voice.
Chapter Two
He tossed the flat key card on top of the compact refrigerator and slipped off his coat, throwing it on the queen sized bed. His head was starting to ache and he wondered if he had any aspirin left. Under the bright lights of the bathroom, he stared in the mirror at his face. She’d seen him. She had finally looked upon him.