“Fine,” I said. “Let’s go for a drive in the Barracuda to my favorite ice cream parlor.”
He shrugged. “Sure.”
“But.” My pointy finger of doom hovered in front of his face. “I’m driving.”
His mouth opened.
“Non-negotiable. You just asked how you can make it up to me and I’m telling you how. I’m driving the Barracuda and you’re riding shotgun. You don’t make comments about my driving and you act happy.”
He gave me a snotty look. “Fine. But just to get ice cream.”
“Absolutely, Jimmy.”
# # #
“You think you’re clever, don’t you?”
I smiled and huddled in against his side, using him as a buffer against the wind. His big hard body had to be useful for something. It was so damn cold, my teeth were chattering. “Who me?”
He raised a brow and licked at his waffle cone, topped with pistachio icy goodness. I didn’t stare at his tongue. My gaze just so happened to wander in its general direction is all, not the least bit my fault.
“Isn’t the salty ocean air bracing, Jimmy?”
“Yours is melting.”
“Oh.” I dealt with the triple caramel delight before it could drip off my fingers. “Mm, yum. Best ice cream ever. Didn’t I tell you they had the best ice cream here?”
“Yes you did. Many, many times on the hour and a half drive out here.”
“Hey, I could have taken us to Seattle.” I shrugged down deeper into my coat. “Be thankful. I let you off easy.”
“Right.”
“You’re having fun, aren’t you?”
He gave me a look of much judgment.
“Admit it.”
The faintest of smiles passed over his lips.
“Can we sit in the car already, I’m freezing?”
“No. You’re not dripping ice cream in my car, Lena. That’s all leather upholstery, a classic automobile, have some respect.”
“I can’t believe you care more about a thing than you do for my comfort.” My cell buzzed silently in my pocket. “Three missed calls.”
Jimmy leaned over, getting in my space. Pity I liked having him there so much. “You meant to be doing something with Dean tonight?”
“I forgot.” I flicked through the voice to text messages. “Crap.”
“He seems a bit pissed in the last one.”
“Says the guy who kicked in my bedroom door.” I texted Dean back a brief apology.
“Don’t think he’ll be pleased. That didn’t sound very sorry.”
“Yeah, well, you confused the hell out of that situation with your carrying on earlier. And it could have occurred to Dean that I might be just a little upset after that scene with you.”
He stared out at the black expanse of the ocean. Waves crashed on the shore. “Said I’m sorry.”
“Saying your sorry isn’t an immediate fix all, Jimmy. Actions have repercussions, you of all people should know that.”
A pause. “You haven’t asked about Liv.”
My whole body tightened, I’d been trying damn hard not to think about Liv. Actually asking about her seemed plain suicidal. “Should I have? I guess I figured that was none of my business.”
“I took her to a hotel and we talked for a while. I called just to check in with you.” He wandered a few steps over to the trashbin, dumped his ice cream cone. The broad expanse of his back in the black woolen jacket a sharper shadow against the rest of the view.
“You did?” I asked, surprised.
“Yeah. You didn’t answer.”
“No, I was asleep.”
He turned around, the wind blowing his hair in his face. With a hand he held it back. “I started worrying you’d gone. That you’d quit me and left like you were going to.”
“I wouldn’t do that without talking to you first.”
“I wasn’t sure.” He avoided my eyes. “After the way I treated you, thought you might have just taken off.”
“That’s what got you so worked up?”
He sucked in his cheeks, nodded. All of a sudden, the ice cream lost its flavor for me too. I likewise chucked the rest of mine, licking my sticky fingers clean. Jimmy watched all the while, face wiped of expression. This conversation was a minefield. All I could do was to tell the truth, do my best by us both.
“I was jealous,” I admitted, putting it all out there. “That’s why I wanted to talk to you, to ask you not to leave with her. I just wasn’t quite ready.”
“Yeah, I know.”
I nodded, put my hands in my pockets and waited. And then I waited some more.
Nothing.
I held in my groan, but only just. “Jimmy, now’s your turn to admit that you were jealous when you saw me holding Dean’s hand. Relationships are kind of a give-and-take thing, you know?”
He snorted. And then he scoffed. Then he kind of turned in a circle, his mouth wrinkling like he’d tasted something foul. I half expected him to bolt and run given all of the avoidance tactics previously displayed.
“Anytime you’re ready,” I said.
“I …”
“Yes?”
He winced. “I guess, I didn’t think about what it’d be like if you really liked one of them.”
“Even though that was the entire point to my dating other men? To like one of them more than I like you.”
A shrug.
“You over it now?” I asked.
“Yeah.” He chuckled. “’Course, its fine. Won’t happen again.”
Oh, the dubiousness, it filled me right up. But I couldn’t make him admit to caring about me more than he liked. I couldn’t make him do shit. “All right, one more go. I did enjoy going out with Dean and I was looking forward to seeing him again.”
“Okay. Good.”
“On one condition.”
He gave me a wary look. “What?”
“You meet Tom.”
The regal chin rose to unforeseen heights. “That replacement guy? No. Fuck no. We talked about this, you have to commit, Lena.”
“This was always meant to be temporary gig. Given how much we push each other’s buttons, I think it might be wise to have a backup plan in case I can’t continue.” I squared my shoulders, standing tall.
“I don’t think we should do that.”
“Jimmy—”
“If you just tried, Lena.”
And this was about the point where realization struck home, tough love was tough on everyone involved. Sometimes, however, you just had to. “Jimmy, I’m not asking you. I’m telling you. You’re going to talk to the man.”
The surprise in his eyes, I wish I’d taken a picture. His jaw moved, face tensing. “Fuck, all right.”
I held his car keys out to him, moonlight glinting off them. “Do you want to drive us home?”
He snatched them out of my hand. Something told me it was going to be a long and painful journey.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The next evening, Jimmy’s attitude had not improved. His resistance to the very tall thin and polite Tom Moorecomb read plain as day in his body language. Should he turn any further in his seat, his back would be to the poor man completely.
“Tom was involved in couples counseling, Jimmy. Isn’t that interesting?” I said, jaw aching from clenching so much. A tension headache was slowly but steadily brewing behind my eyes. “Jimmy?”
The jerk didn’t even look up from his phone. It was like trying to deal with a toddler, a very cranky one. Sadly, he’d seated himself opposite the room from me, out of kicking range. I’d hate to have to smack him in the head with a pillow in front of Tom. Perhaps it could be left as my final die-hard option.
“Jimmy?”
He looked up at me from beneath his dark fringe. “What?”
The doorbell rang. Fortunate for him really.
“Let me just get that while you two talk.” I gave the ignorant jerk a meaningful look.
He just blinked.
Before I could reach the door, Mal and Ben barreled on in.
“Lena, helloooo.” Mal shook my hand so energetically I feared my shoulder would dislocate. “Looking foxy and strict in your business suit. I would totally take orders from you if my heart and soul were not spoken for.”
“Thanks.” I’d bought the navy suit in an attempt to make the right impression on Tom. Jimmy had just given my new outfit a weird look and told me double breasted didn’t suit a girl with such assets. I’d been nervously fussing with the buttons on the jacket ever since.
“We in the living room?” asked Ben, already making his way into said location.
“Wait, we’re—”
“Hi.” David, Ev, and Anne followed close behind. Ev and Anne were dolled up, the first in jeans and a slinky top, the second in a smokin’ hot green knit dress. Their awesome style however did not answer any of the questions pouring into my head.
“Hey,” said Ev, kissing my cheek while David gave me the rockstar chin tip.
“I’m really looking forward to tonight,” said Anne.
“Great.” I smiled.
She stopped and studied me. “Shit, you have no idea what’s going on, do you? Ev.”
“What’s up?” Ev about turned on her cool boots.
“Lena doesn’t know anything about this.”
Her face fell. “What?”
“Nope.”