“You didn’t mind them last night when you were kneeling on them.”
“Ten seconds.” Her face flamed and she felt grateful he couldn’t see her. “It took you ten seconds to make a crude joke about last night. Don’t strain yourself trying to be original.”
“That’s what you want me for tonight, though, isn’t it?” He snorted. “My ability to offend your people. I’m just getting warmed up.”
Hayden frowned, once again confused by the tinge of hurt in his voice. She shook her head, certain she must be imagining it. “Are you working? Can I come drop it off at the precinct?”
“I’m not at the precinct,” he said quickly. “It’s my day off.”
She held on to her patience when he didn’t elaborate. “Okay. Are you home?” She checked her watch. “I can drive out to Queens. There shouldn’t be much traffic this time of day.”
“There is always traffic in this city.” Brent scoffed. “Do you even know where Queens is? When’s the last time you left Manhattan?”
No way would she tell him that she regularly left the borough to do work with her youth charity. She wouldn’t do anything intentional to alter his horrible perception of her. It would imply that she cared what he thought, which she certainly did not. “Yes, I know where Queens is, you idiot. What’s the address?” Hayden’s brow wrinkled when she heard a loud, metal clang in the background and two men yelling.
“I’m, uh…” He cleared his throat. “Look, I’m helping out a friend today at his garage in Woodside.”
“What do you mean? Like fixing cars and stuff?”
“Yeah, like fixing cars and stuff,” he mocked. “And if you drive out here, I’ll be more than happy to service you, baby.”
As he laughed, she stomped toward her desk and grabbed a pen and paper. “Just give me the damn address before I change my mind.”
After a short hesitation, he rattled off the address, then paused uncomfortably. “Listen, when you get here, call me. I’ll come out to meet you. If you think my manners suck, you won’t believe the things these guys will say if you walk in here.”
She ignored the ridiculous flutter in her belly. “Why, Brent, I believe you just paid me some sort of awkward compliment.”
“Not how I meant it. They’d probably whistle at just about anything on two legs.”
“You are an enormous dick.”
“Correction. I have an enormous—”
She hung up.
…
Brent checked his phone again, wondering what the hell was taking Hayden so long to get there. More than likely, she was tooling around this less-than-stellar neighborhood in her Mercedes without a care in the world. He still couldn’t believe he’d given her the address to the garage. No one knew about his second job. Not even Daniel and Matt. She hadn’t given him much of a choice, however, and now he’d have to deal with her condescension on top of everything else.
He rolled out from under a Cadillac and glanced toward the entrance. No luxury car in sight. He pushed to his feet and made for the bathroom, intending to clean some of the grease off before she showed. No reason to hand her any more insult material than she already had. When he flipped on the overhead light, he looked in the mirror and shook his head. She would have a field day seeing him like this, in stained coveralls and an ancient, backward Mets hat. He flipped on the water, watching as it filled the sink, but cut it off just as quickly.
Fuck this. He wasn’t going to clean himself up for her. Putting on a fancy suit for tonight was one thing. After all, it would be worth it to see Hayden’s reaction when he didn’t require a lobster bib to keep it clean. But right now, he refused to hide the fact that he worked for a living. Had no reason to be ashamed of the fact that he got his hands dirty to support himself, his family.
His brother, Jordan, had just extended his tour overseas. The army only partially covered Brent’s sister-in-law’s expenses. They needed the extra money to keep both Brent’s and Laurie’s houses running while his brother was gone. His sister, Lucy, had a tuition payment coming due next week that his paycheck from the NYPD wouldn’t completely cover. Then the mortgage. The list went on.
Brent heard a series of catcalls through the thin wooden door and cursed. She couldn’t listen to him this one damn time, could she? He yanked open the door and stormed into the garage, the look on his face instantly silencing every vile thing being tossed in Hayden’s direction. One by one, each mechanic promptly went back to work. They were smarter than he’d given them credit for. Finally, he turned to find Hayden standing at the entrance, her gaze fixed on him, mouth parted in a silent O.