Jacked (Trent Brothers #1)(108)

“I didn’t do it, all right? I’ve been at my sister’s shop all day, right after you tossed me out, so quit accusing me. You’re the one with the psycho fans, not me. Probably one of them did it. I told you doing that show was a stupid f*cking idea but you never listened to me. You think some new girl is going to put up with that kind of bullshit? I mean, I know how to handle it but it’s not for everyone, especially when they see how dangerous your life is. How many nights I worried that you might get shot on the job. That’s hard for a woman to deal with. I still worry about you, baby.”

“I’m a doctor. I’ll fix him if he gets hurt,” Erin snapped. “And he’s not your baby anymore.”

I almost slammed on the brakes, hearing Erin speak her mind. I knew she had teeth but unlike Nikki, Erin was reserved.

“Oh, you think so, bitch? Let me tell you—”

“Enough!” I cut Nikki off. “Stay off my property. Do not come to my house anymore. I catch you sniffing around and I’ll have you arrested for trespassing. We clear?”

“Whatever, Adam,” Nikki snipped back. “It’s just a matter of time ’til you get tired of this one and come running back to me. You always do. You’ll never love—”

I killed the phone connection. Fucking delusional bitch.

Erin crossed her arms as though she was just getting started to let Nikki have it. I rested my hand on Erin’s thigh; the spark from feeling her budding possessiveness swelled in my chest and snuffed out all of Nikki’s bullshit. I could also clearly see that Nikki’s words were marinating around in Erin’s brain.

“What she said, it’s not going to happen.” I knew enough about how women think, and the crinkles around Erin’s eyes meant she needed reassurance. I glanced over at her, making sure she saw the truth in my words.

Erin’s little nod of assent wasn’t very convincing, well, to me at least it wasn’t. I took her hand in mine, giving it a squeeze, trying to keep her walls from slamming me out. I relaxed a bit more when her fingers tightened around mine.

“I’m starting to think your ex is not a very nice person.”

Understatement. I laughed. “She’s not.”

“She also seems to go from one emotional extreme to another. Is she… do you know if she’s on drugs?”

Erin’s astute perceptions amazed me. “She’s ah… she’s actually mildly bipolar. She’s supposed to take meds every day but, well, I’m not her keeper.” I looked over my shoulder for merging traffic.

“I heard you earlier this morning when you had your argument at your house. Is she doing illegal stuff?”

“Don’t know, and honestly? I don’t care.”

Erin cleared her throat. “Was she your first love?”

I wasn’t prepared for that but my answer came quickly and with absolute assurance. “No.”

It was hard to make Erin see my sincerity while driving in traffic. The truth was that even though I may have said those three little words to women in the past none of them brought out this side of me before. Just being in Erin’s powerful but unassuming presence made me want to be a better man, though my spinning thoughts were churning my jealousy. “You ever tell some guy that you love him?”

Erin’s fingers flexed but never released their hold. “Yes. Once.” She stared at our hands on her lap; a weak smile twitched her lips but the sadness there was as plain as day. “He didn’t say it back.”

Fuck. Guy must have been a total idiot and *.

She scratched a fingernail over her bottom lip and I could see she was trying to rally back to happier thoughts. “And you?”

If we weren’t doing sixty on a major roadway I would have pulled over and kissed the sadness right off that bottom lip. Then I’d kiss the top one just for good measure. “Nope, never told another dude that I loved him, unless we’re counting family, then I’m probably guilty of saying it a few times.”

Erin tugged my arm. “That’s not what I meant.”

At least I gave her a piece of her smile back. “I know.” I put my thoughts to getting us safely into the right lane to turn into the mall instead of her expectant retort. The tire store would be closing in thirty minutes. Her fingers clenched around mine again—a silent urging for me to get back to point—but there was no good way of answering that question.

No woman ever wants to hear that she might be the third or fourth recipient of “I love you” and I sure as hell wasn’t going to spoil it for her.

I couldn’t.

I wouldn’t.

I gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Past is the past. You being here should tell you how all that worked out. Let’s just leave it at that, okay?” I pulled her hand to my mouth when she nodded. The simple brush of her skin on my lips sent visions of a dozen beautiful possibilities with her, each one deserving my undivided exploration.

I cut across the vast mall parking lot to get to the tire store. We were running low on time and I needed to focus on the goal. Erin sifted through her purse and pulled out her wallet.

“Okay, good,” she muttered to herself.

I spotted the credit card in her hand. Did she really think that I wouldn’t take care of this? Her lack of faith in me was maddening. “Put it away.” I don’t know why her brows knit together, questioning me. I parked in a spot near the entrance. “You don’t need it.”