Emmy sighed as she passed by me at the desk. “I want my very own Bennett,” she mumbled near my ear.
Avery waved to us as they headed out the door. But then she stopped and turned. “Hey, did you get the invite from Ella to Quinn’s birthday thing?”
There had been a couple of voice mails on my phone that I hadn’t exactly checked yet. I blamed it on my mopey mood. I shook my head. Ella was Avery’s friend and she dated Quinn, the catcher for the TSU baseball team. We all hung out sometimes and I went on that road trip with them last summer to the music festival.
“She’s rented some lanes at the bowling alley,” Avery said. “Beer and wings. Should be fun.”
“When?” I asked.
“The weekend after next,” she said. “Kai’s coming up for it.”
“I bet Rachel’s happy.”
Avery smiled. “Hopefully she can keep her hands off of Kai until after the party.”
“Wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t,” I said and Emmy agreed, with a knowing grin. Kai was like sex on a stick, with his long hair, beautiful face, and pierced parts.
“We’ll be there, right, Emmy?”
“Right,” she said.
As Avery and Bennett headed out the door, Emmy stood staring at me.
“What?”
“Out with it,” she said. “What happened this weekend with Nate?”
“He took me to see some covered and industrial bridges,” I said. “It was really cool and I got some great photos.”
When I moved behind her to look at the schedule, she latched onto my arm. “What about the flat tire?”
“Yeah that,” I said. “It was too late to find somewhere to get it fixed. Every place was closed. So . . . we had to stay overnight.”
“You’re kidding,” she said, her eyes wide. “Where the heck did you sleep?”
I couldn’t help wondering what in the hell Nate had told Bennett about our sleeping arrangements. Somehow I doubted he’d told him about staying in the same room or having sex with me. Bennett didn’t act strange in front of me and besides, what I knew from Nate, he wasn’t one to kiss and tell.
Emmy nudged me. “Earth to Jessie.”
I shook my head. I didn’t even know how Emmy and I had ended up being such close friends. Emmy was one of those bubbly girls who could’ve easily been a college cheerleader or a sorority pledge or something.
Seems the only thing that had brought us together was this shop. She didn’t exactly fit here and she knew it, but the guys had grown to love her. And so did I.
“We got a motel room, which sucked because not only did I have to pay for the service garage, I also had to pay to sleep somewhere.” Emmy knew how tight money was and that I didn’t take handouts from anybody very easily.
“Well crap,” she said. “Did you at least have fun?”
I couldn’t stop the smile that had formed on my lips.
“Shut up,” she said.
“What?”
She lowered her voice, which I so appreciated, because if there was any shop gossip, Dex, who was sitting only one room away, was on it. It was awkward enough being around him sometimes. “You and Nate?”
I sighed. “Kinda sorta.” No way was I going to share all the glorious details. They were still confusing to me.
Besides, I had some insane need to protect Nate and keep his insecurities private. “We drank at a place next to the motel to kill time. It was some country bar,” I said, smiling. “We had a blast. I got to know Nate better in the process.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I said, trying not to squirm at the memory of being so close to him. “Turns out he’s not so square, after all. Or even that shallow.”
Emmy just stared at me.
“In the morning, we got my tire fixed and before we left town, he took me to this old abandoned railroad bridge,” I said, the explanation not really doing it justice. “We climbed up the side of it and it was amazing. I got so many shots up there.”
“And?”
“And that’s it.”
Just then Oliver, the owner of Raw Ink, came from the back office. “Hey, Jess. Isn’t your shift over, Emmy?”
“Yep, I’m going,” she said, reaching for her bag beneath the counter. Oliver was a stickler about clocking in and out on time.
He wandered toward the other side of the room near Dex’s station where he was prepping his next client for a wrist tattoo.
“I’m not leaving until you tell me if anything happened between you guys,” Emmy whispered.
I knew Emmy would bug me for days on end if I didn’t tell her something. She was a good secret keeper, though, and I kind of felt like I needed to confide in someone.