43. Chapter 43
“You could’ve met that lawyer anywhere.”
Jason kissed the dampness on her temple. Lying on his jacket on the floor, wearing the sweat they worked up and not much else, he stared at the water stains on the ceiling in the flashes of lightning.
“If it wasn’t here, you’d still hate me and you’d be stuck here alone.”
“I do still hate you,” she said. He smiled at the lie. “Where do you live, Jason?”
Rain battered the windows. Normally he hated this part. Pillow talk and all that. Women were always swimmy with hope for the future after an orgasm. Normally, he’d just say whatever they wanted to hear, and make his getaway.
If he wanted to get away even faster, he told the truth.
“Nowhere,” he said, which was between the two. “If I had to pick, I’d say Troutman, North Carolina, where my ma lives. She’s the only real family I’ve got.”
For a few beats it was just thunder and rain and the relaxed sound of their breathing. Then, because he was curious, Jason asked, “You ever been anywhere?”
“Florida, once, and all the states in between here and there. My dad took us on a road trip in a giant station wagon when we were kids. We hated it at the time. Looking back I wish we had appreciated it more.”
“We?”
“Me and my brother.”
“He around?”
Jason could do without another protective brother on his ass.
If she caught the edge in his voice, she didn’t let on. “He’s a ghost. Moved out west years ago. I almost never hear from him.”
“How’d you end up in Springfield? You from here?”
“No, Dayton. I haven’t been there in years.”
“How come?”
“It was too hard after I lost my parents.”
“Shit.”
Lightning lit up the diner, followed by a quick whip of thunder. She was holding her breath as if she wanted to say more. An old, familiar instinct protecting him from getting too close warned Jason to shut it down.
For once, he didn’t feel like listening.
“How?” he asked.
“A car accident took them both at once.”
“Theresa, I’m—”
“Don’t apologize. It’s all anyone does.”
He squeezed her arm and kissed her temple again, an unfamiliar instinct to find something right in her life taking over. “Why Springfield, of all places?”
“It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever done—leaving Dayton without a plan.” She curled her fingers in his chest hair. “I packed up my stuff, started driving, and didn’t make it farther than Columbus.”
“Why not?”
“It’s different for a woman, I think,” she said, studying the ceiling. “You can take off on your bike and go wherever you want. A woman has to watch out for…”
“Men?”
She propped herself up on an elbow to look him in the eye. “Exactly.”
He drew her face in for a kiss. Their mouths fit just right. It didn’t always happen this way. Sex had started on the edge of the table, then moved to the sticky tile floor just so he could kiss her while he was inside her.
Pulling back, she sighed. “That’s what I found, anyway. Lately I’ve been thinking about going back home. Making a fresh start in a place I know. I don’t think I’ve lived a day for myself since I decided to leave.”
He frowned. “Why not?”
“I get distracted by tight jeans and leather jackets.”
Jason skimmed his fingers on the bare skin of her shoulder. “Here I thought I was special.”
She laid her head on his chest and admitted, “I followed a man here.”
“The Trans Am?”
“No,” she said, laughing. “A Corvette, cherry red, and some jerk named Wyatt. Out of the two, Stu was the good one.”
“Stu?”
“The Trans Am.”
“Why are we lying here naked talking about other men?”
“You asked,” she said.
“You need to stay away from car guys,” Jason said.
“I heard motorcycle guys aren’t any better.”
“You sure about that?”
He ran his hand down the side of her body and hitched her thigh across his lap.
“No.” She grinned. “Actually, they’re worse.”
She climbed on top of him and straddled his hips. He groaned as his shoulders dug into the tile.
“You sure I can’t convince you to come with me across the parking lot? It’d be a lot more comfortable.”
“You can lay me down in every booth in this place before I set foot in that motel.”
“Then maybe I will,” he said.
They were kissing when the lights and machines ticked back on. Jason swore and shielded his eyes from the sudden brightness.
Theresa climbed off him, muttering, “It’s about time.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’ve got to check the coolers and see if there’s any food we can save.”
Jason, less spry than the woman already on her feet and stuffing herself into her bra, groaned at the muscles creaking in his back as he hauled his bruised bones off the floor. What he wouldn’t give for a cold shower and a real bed.
“Get dressed,” she urged him, buttoning her uniform.
He rubbed a kink out of his shoulder and said, “Hold on a second, honey.”
“You’re going to help me with the coolers,” she said.
“I am?”
“You are.” She fluffed her damp, auburn curls and smiled. “Then I’m going to take you home.”