When she had her next appointment, he would make sure she got the kind of glasses that changed in the sunlight. The sun in Texas was far too bright to go without UV protection.
He set his eyes back on the road. What was he thinking? She wasn’t his to take care of anymore, and that hurt like hell. He’d fucked up, and he knew from previous experience that she wouldn’t forgive him. A man really only had one shot with most people. When he screwed up, he was out.
“Bridget, I’m not hiding anything. God, has anyone ever told you you’re a little like a bulldog? Fine.” There was a little pause and then Serena sighed. “No. That didn’t work out.”
Serena jumped a little and held the phone away from her ear. Bridget was shouting, her anger clearly expressed. No satellite could possibly filter the rage that was coming through Serena’s little cell.
Well, he had a fan in Bridget, at least.
“Serena, sweetie? You can put the phone back to your ear. It’s Chris. I’ve taken Bridget’s phone. She’s going to scream somewhere privately now.”
Serena put the phone back, and the conversation seemed to take a much more civil tone.
Jake turned in his seat. “Why are you doing this?”
Bridget wasn’t the only bulldog in the world. “What? Driving? Well, Jacob, when a person wants to get someplace, he has a few options.”
“Shut that shit down, man. Why are you acting like a closed-off asshole?”
Because he wasn’t going to grovel at her feet. It wouldn’t work. “Do you mind having this conversation in private?”
Jake shook his head. “We are in private. It’s just you and me and Serena.”
“Without Serena.” There was no more Adam and Jake and Serena.
“Buddy, she doesn’t seem to have any problem with talking in front of us. I’m just playing by her rules.”
Sure enough, Serena was sniffling into her phone. “It just didn’t work out. Fine. Okay. I did. Well, both of them. No. We didn’t get to that part. They decided they didn’t want me.”
“Bullshit, Serena, and that’s twenty for lying.” Jake narrowed his eyes, attempting to Dom her from the front seat.
She looked up at him. “You can’t spank me anymore.”
“Watch me.”
She went back to her phone call, though a little quieter now. “See, he’s brutal. No. Yes. I didn’t say I didn’t like it, but I don’t now because he’s an asshole. Can’t we just talk about this at lunch?”
“There’s no lunch, Serena,” Jake said. “We’re going home.”
“She has lunch with Bridget and Chris once a week. This was the only day they could do it this week. I coordinated their schedules. I made the reservation myself,” Adam pointed out. He already knew her habits. He loved to be involved in the ins and outs of her daily life. He had no interest in being one of those boyfriends who went his own way ninety percent of the time and just came to his lover for a little sex. He wanted to be important to her. Hell, he wanted to be indispensable.
A fat lot of good that had done him.
“I always have lunch with my friends. It’s the only time I get out.” Serena had her hand over the phone, and there was a lost look on her face.
Adam understood. It was her routine. She found comfort it in. The rest of her life was a chaotic mess, and she wanted to be with the only two people in the world who hadn’t let her down. It was just a couple of hours, and she would be safe.
Jake held his line, but Adam had known he would. “No. You’re going to cancel everything. Including that signing.”
“I can’t cancel the signing.”
“She can’t cancel the signing. We have everything in place.” Adam had worked his ass off to make sure that signing happened.
She frowned, that gloriously plump bottom lip quivering just a little. “But if I cancel the signing, then the terrorist wins.”
He wanted to laugh. She was so damn funny.
Jake didn’t seem to find it amusing. “And if I don’t make you cancel it, then I let the terrorist gut you with a really big knife.”
God, Adam wanted to keep her safe, but he was kind of on Serena’s side on this one. What were they doing here if she couldn’t even make a single appearance to promote her own work? “Aren’t we supposed to be protecting her so she can go on with her daily life?”
Serena leapt right on that. She pointed to Adam. “What he said.” She put the phone back to her ear. “Sorry, babe, we’re trying to figure out if the reasonable asshole is going to win or if the guy with a two-by-four shoved straight up his ass will prevail. Yes, that’s Jake.”