99. Chapter 99
He didn’t usually give a shit about his clothes.
Which explained why all the shirts in his bag reeked of sweat or worse, and why Jase hustled to a nearby store—the kind of place he would’ve balked at under normal circumstances, but desperate times—and bought the only button-down on the rack without flowers on it, and headed to the pier.
He caught a glimpse of himself in the store window as he left and didn’t think he looked half-bad. Except…
I look like a man about to go on a date.
Taking a woman to the boardwalk carnival in a button-down shirt couldn’t be called anything else.
He wouldn’t have carved out time to listen to teenagers scream on old roller coasters and dodge carnies begging for a buck, if Lindsey hadn’t seen the blinking lights on the way to the hotel and insisted they go.
He found it very difficult telling her no.
When she walked up, unaware he was watching her from beside a cotton candy stand, he understood why. There was something sexy and unassuming about a woman who could look totally untouched by the miles after spending all day on a bike.
“Lindsey,” he called out and waved.
She looked surprised though not particularly happy to see him. Maybe she hated the new shirt.
Who was he kidding? Lindsey hadn’t been right since Chloe’s lipstick.
“You’re here,” she said.
“Where else would I be?”
“I didn’t know. You just took off.”
“Well, you should thank me. I went shopping. I haven’t washed my clothes in weeks.”
She picked at the thin, white sleeve of his button-down.
“You just bought this?”
“Yeah, it’s the best I could do. Hope it’s up to your standards for the evening.”
She popped out her hip and smiled. “You could do worse.”
“You look…” His gaze trailed down the slinky green number that cut off above the knee and would probably slip off her shoulder the way the rest of her dresses did. “Hot. Where’ve you been hiding this?”
“I bought it this morning when we stopped. It was a surprise.”
“You know I’m just picturing you out of it, right?”
He expected her chest to dip or her mouth to fall open. Usually it didn’t take more than the tamest dirty talk to get a reaction from her. Tonight she walked past him, toying with her purse strap as if she was deciding how to tell him he was sleeping alone.
Jase followed her down the midway, through offers on both sides for the pretty lady to win oversized stuffed animals, the grinding of metal on rails, exaggerated screams, and the sweet smell of fried dough.
“I’m starving,” she said.
“The hotel has room service.”
“No, I want something here.”
Things had definitely cooled off after Chums. To hell if he was going to let a little cherry red come between them. Jase took a deep breath and forced the dreaded question that was almost never worth the trouble of asking.
“Something wrong?”
He expected the usual fine and the ensuing tug-of-war for the truth. It nearly knocked him out of his boots when she looked at him and immediately said, “Yes.”
Fine would’ve been better. “Okay. Shoot.”
Her head dropped back, as if she hadn’t been rehearsing his ass-chewing for the past three hours.
“I’m not…” she said slowly, eyes lost above the Scrambler. “I don’t think I’m the kind of woman you’re used to being with.”
“No shit.”
“What I mean is…”
“Just ask me about the girl.”
She stopped in front of a game stall with giant penguins hanging from it. “What about the girl?”
“It’s not what you think. I mean, I guess it kind of is. It’s complicated.”
How many times was he going to say that today?
“It usually is.” She started walking again. A carnie in stained overalls beckoned her to a booth as they passed. “I know we’re not—”
“We’re not what?”
“I know this isn’t—”
“Just a buck, honey,” the carnie persisted. “Your man’s got a buck for ya, doesn’t he?”
“Fuck off, dude.” Jase pulled Lindsey down a row of food trucks.
“You can do whatever you want, Jase,” she exclaimed. “I just didn’t expect it today.”
“It wasn’t how it looked.”
She huffed out an angry laugh. “You are the worst liar. This is just like Havasu.”
“This is nothing like Havasu.”
“You’re right. I can see you have a…a thing here.”
“I don’t have a thing.”
“Yes, you do. I get it. I see why your dad wanted you to come.”
“What?”
“He delivered Graham to Helen’s doorstep.”
It took a beat to process what she meant. “Whoa, back up. This is not the same thing. He didn’t deliver me to any doorstep.”
“You should’ve told me about her. I wouldn’t have, you know”—she gestured wildly with her hands—“slept with you if I knew you were already involved with someone else.”
“I’m not involved.” He didn’t even know what to make of the word. “And my dad didn’t send me here for her. At all.”
“There are no coincidences on this trip.”
“I’ve known Chloe for a couple of years. We run into each other from time to time.”
“Run into each other.” She rolled her eyes. “Naked?”
“It’s nothing serious, Lindsey,” he insisted.
“I think she’d disagree.”
“Doesn’t matter, it’s the truth.”
“Jase,” she said, planting her feet in front of a gyro vendor. “I don’t want the guy I slept with this morning making out with someone else this afternoon.”
This must’ve been that thing called self-respect he’d heard about and so seldom encountered.
“I’m sorry,” he said, turning the words over in his mouth. “The last time I saw her was the night Dad…” He paused. “I wasn’t in a good place, and I didn’t leave things very well. She was a friend.”
Lindsey scoffed and would’ve walked away if Jase hadn’t taken her hand.
“She was. We were friends, and yes, we slept together. Okay? Not today. Nothing happened today. I know it didn’t look good. I was trying to square things up with her, and she kissed me. That’s it. Then I told her I was here with you.”
She looked like she wanted to believe him. While she decided Jase’s fate—not just tonight, he suddenly realized, his entire financial future—Poison filled the silence with the too-cheerful “Unskinny Bop.”
“I thought you went to see her tonight,” Lindsey admitted finally.
He pulled her within inches of his body. “I’ve had nothing else on my mind, except this.”
She held his arms, keeping him from stepping closer. “You’re not an easy man, Jase.”
“But I am.”
“Not that kind of easy.”
“What are we even doing at a carnival?” he asked, reaching down her waist to the rounded curve of her ass. “If it were up to me this dress never would’ve made it off the hanger.”
Her eyes darkened as if she was finally thinking about sex.
“It’s totally unfair, the effect you have on women.”
“Yeah, well, took long enough to work on you.” Jase interlaced their fingers. “Now let me buy you a goddamn corn dog so we can get the hell out of here.”