77. Chapter 77
Three cars pinging on her phone could arrive in less than four minutes to take her to a bus station. She could be halfway to Ohio by morning, too far to change her mind or turn around. Freedom from this nightmare was one click away.
All she needed to do was confirm a driver.
She looked around for Jase. It couldn’t have taken him this long to pack his stuff and get out. The man didn’t even have a suitcase. If Declan decided to press charges, Jase might’ve been stuck in some windowless room inside the hotel until the police arrived.
Unless he was squeezing in a quickie with the concert blonde. Any minute they’d strut out the front doors under escort adjusting their clothes.
There were now only two drivers nearby for a quick getaway.
“Sundress!”
She looked up from her finger hovering over the confirmation button. Jase, in his unhurried, infuriating way, waved and walked toward her from the bar across the street with his duffel bag slung over his shoulder.
“Provisions!” he shouted, holding up a six-pack of beer. His smile was utterly clueless, as if Lindsey wasn’t pissed at him, the trip hadn’t just imploded, and the whole mess wasn’t his fault.
“Only you.”
“What?”
She pulled her suitcase to meet him at the back of the station wagon. “Only you could look happy without a place to sleep.”
“Who says I don’t have a place to sleep? Want a drink?”
“Why is it every time I see you in a hotel parking lot you’ve got a six-pack?”
“It’s called being prepared, babe,” he said, setting his duffel bag on the ground with the beer.
“Babe. Really?” She huffed. “Lose your girlfriend?”
“Who?”
She crossed her arms over her chest. In a regular T-shirt, there wasn’t any danger of her breasts popping out of her top.
“Oh, her,” he said. “She took off when I went chasing after another skirt. Turns out broads don’t like that very much.”
“Another skirt?”
“What?”
“And broads? Who even says that?”
He frowned. “My dad. Must’ve picked it up from him.”
“It’s a wonder you pick up any women with that mouth.”
He grinned and somehow managed not to retort with all the things his mouth was good at doing—some of which she was already aware. Instead, he asked, “Feel better? Or you want to keep busting my balls for fun?”
“I do feel a little better, actually, yes.”
“I suppose your boyfriend’s on his way back to merry old England?” he asked with an awful attempt at an English accent.
“You didn’t have to hit him.”
“We can agree to disagree. I didn’t care for the way he was handling you.”
Jase pulled a screwdriver from his back pocket and crouched by the rear fender to loosen the screws on Nadine’s license plate.
“Handling me? I can take care of myself.”
“Sure, then what’s your plan for tonight?”
“You mean since you got me kicked out of our hotel?”
“Since my defense of your honor was violent and necessary.”
“Since you used your fists to assert your dominance over a physically weaker man?”
“Since your latest puss boyfriend couldn’t take a hit.”
“Oh my God.”
“Okay, okay, fine. Since my actions resulted in our expulsion from the hotel. Happy?”
“Not really.”
He shook his head. “Christ, Sundress.”
Lindsey held up her phone. “I thought I’d try my luck with another bus station.”
He paused. “You’re that sore over that hit, huh?”
She hadn’t given Declan, or his swollen jaw, a second thought after the elevator doors closed.
“Not the hit,” she said.
“The broad—sorry, the woman then?”
“You can do whatever you want with whatever skirt you want.”
He rocked back on his heels. “You were a little pissed.”
“I thought you could do better.”
He grinned and kept jimmying the bolts. “Beggars can’t be choosers.”
“Yeah, well, I’m choosing to walk away before I do anything else I’ll regret.”
“You mean like me?”
“Of course not. I’m Graham’s ex-girlfriend, remember?” She added, her voice hitching to unnatural levels, “I just want a place to sleep tonight.”
“I’m working on it.”
“How? What are you even doing?”
With a good yank, the corner of the license plate separated from the fender, and a small silver key clattered to the ground. Jase picked it up and held it in front of his face.
“I knew it. The old bastard.”
“What?”
“It’s Dad’s trick. He taught us to hide a key behind the license plate in case we ever got locked out. It would’ve been a lot easier if the holes weren’t rusted to shit.”
Lindsey pursed her lips and opened the back passenger door.
“I’ve been leaving it unlocked,” she said. “I mean, what is there to steal?”
Jase stood on the opposite side of the car with the now unnecessary key. “Oh. Shit.”
“I didn’t know what you were doing, or I would’ve told you.”
“Whatever. Get in. Have a drink with me.”
“I can’t. I’m leaving.”
He appraised her, as if finally taking her exit seriously.
“Why now? We’re almost done. What changed?”
Besides everything?
She muttered, “I’m tired, Jase.”
“Tonight was a clusterfuck, I’ll give you that. There are only two maps left.”
“We don’t know for sure. What if at the end there’s another box of maps taking us another couple thousand miles back to Ohio? It can’t just end on the other side of the country. Who knows what else your dad has planned?”
“Stay. A couple more days. Please.”
“Why?”
Unlike Austin, no lost heirloom was going to fall out of the sky and change her mind. And unlike Austin, it wasn’t Graham’s fault she wanted to go.
“If you’re pissed, I get it. I’m an ass. I didn’t mean half of what I said at the concert.”
“Which half?”
“Okay, any of it. Except the stuff about hooking up with dickhead. That I meant.”
“You don’t have to take care of me.”
“I know. I’m not trying to.”
“Then what?”
He didn’t want to say. Jase ran a hand through his chin stubble, looking anywhere but at Lindsey.
“Give me a reason, Jase,” she pressed. Any reason. It doesn’t even have to be good.
He sighed and dropped his hand. “I don’t want you to leave.”
“Is that all?”
“What more do you want?”
She was shaking her head, looking anywhere but at Jase and the blonde’s pick lipstick smeared on his neck. There were still drivers on her phone screen.
“This isn’t about my dad or Graham, okay?” he said. “I want you to stay. For me.”
She narrowed her eyes through branches of black mascara. Her escort had given her enough time to change clothes, not remove the heavy makeup.
“Because we’re friends, right?” she asked, trying—failing—not to sound bitter.
“Is that—” he started. “Are friends a bad thing?”
Talking wasn’t what I had in mind.
Jase hadn’t made her pay for saying it yet. If she was smart or had an ounce of the self-preservation Jase insisted she did not possess, she’d select a driver and flee this scene before he brought it up.
Except the man on the other side of the car wasn’t a miserable flirt who wanted to punish her. It was a lone wolf with his proverbial hand extended and waiting for her to take it because he asked her to stay. For him.
And tonight it was enough.
“Fine,” she conceded. “Hand me one of those beers.”