The Promise (The 'Burg #5)(63)

To afford her that opportunity, I quickly said, “Nice to meet you,” aiming my smile her way. Then I gave her hand a squeeze, let it go, and looked up to Ben.

“Can we go up real quick so I can grab my laptop and some other shit?”

He was smiling down at me, his eyes warm and happy, his approval of how I’d handled that clear on his face, and his lips moved to say, “Anything you want, honey.”

I shot him a grin, then looked around the group. “We get this done, maybe we can all go to lunch.”

Manny grinned slowly at me. Sela stared at me and shifted closer to Manny.

Benny slid an arm around my shoulders and tucked me tight to his side, muttering, “Sounds like a plan.”

“Right, I’m hungry, let’s go,” I said, moving toward the building, wrapping an arm around Benny, and taking him with me.

I got two steps in before Manny rounded us at the back and stopped us by grabbing my hand.

I looked to him.

He spoke.

“I gotta say—”

“Don’t,” I whispered, curling my fingers tight around his. “Don’t. It’s over. Over for everybody. Just let it be over, Manny. Yeah?”

He held my gaze as his hand squeezed mine hard before he said, “Yeah, Frankie.”

I gave him another smile. He gave me one and let me go.

Benny moved me to the building.

I’d punched in the security code to open the door. We were in the lobby and he kept walking me to the elevators, but he did it dipping his head so he had my ear.

“You know you’re the shit, right?” he said there.

My chest warmed, my lips curled up, and I pulled my head back so he would lift his. When he did I caught his eyes. “Fuck yeah.”

He pulled me closer and did it laughing.

* * * * *

“Fuck it,” I muttered, leaning forward and putting my laptop on Benny’s coffee table.

I heaved myself out of his couch and moved through the house. Destination: garage, where Benny was working on my Z.

Obviously, we collected the Z. We also had a quick bite with Manny and Sela. Man, like his brother, didn’t waste the opportunity my quick forgiveness afforded him. He slid back into the Manny of old, teasing, giving me shit, making a lot of jokes, and generally acting like the annoying little brother you adored for reasons that made no sense, mostly because you adored him because he was annoying.

Sela thawed when she saw I wasn’t going to bust Manny’s chops, not even in a passive-aggressive way, and I was surprised to find she was sweet, kind of in the way Connie was sweet. Apparently, unlike his brother, Manny didn’t want a challenge. He wanted a woman to come there when she was told. Watching them together, I was glad he found what he wanted and a good one at that.

On my way to the garage, I ignored my jacket that I’d slung on the back of one of Benny’s kitchen table chairs. I was thinking I wouldn’t be out in the chill too long, thus I wouldn’t need one. So I walked out, down the stoop and the cement pathway, and I hit the garage. I opened the side door and heard the music, though I’d heard it before I even opened the door. Metallica’s “Wherever I May Roam.”

Another urge to smile hit me. There wasn’t a lot of music I didn’t like, but there was no denying I was a metal girl down to my soul. Ben was all about metal too. I knew this from high school. I’d liked it since then, and right at that moment, I liked the idea that if it happened for us, if this worked, there would probably not be a time when we’d fight about what was playing on the stereo.

I moved between his SUV and my Z, which was backed into the garage, and found him under the hood.

There were things a man could do that were normal things to him that he would have no idea would give a private happy flutter to girls like me.

Working under the hood of a car was one of them.

I controlled the flutter and called, “Hey.”

He lifted up from what he was doing and rested his forearms on the filthy blanket he had draped over the side of the car. His hands were greasy, he held some tool in one of them, he turned his eyes to me, and the flutter became harder to control.

“You need a jacket,” was his greeting.

“I’m not gonna be out here that long,” I shared.

“You need a jacket,” he repeated.

Suddenly, the flutter became a whole lot easier to control.

“Or I wasn’t gonna be out here that long. Since you obviously need to make a point Benny-style, I might be out here a year.”

His eyes smiled as his mouth muttered, “Benny-style.”

I amused him.

That made me happy and mildly ticked—a contradiction of emotions that I was finding Benny was skilled at evoking.

“I will point out you’re in a t-shirt,” I stated for reasons that were beyond me, since it was chilly and I didn’t need to start squabbling with Benny. That’d mean I’d be out there a lot longer than I expected, which would make him right about me needing a jacket.

“I’m a guy.”

At his words, I blinked, then stared, forgetting about getting to the point, mostly because he was annoying, and when he was, I had all the time in the world to squabble.

“A woman needs a jacket, but a guy is immune to cold?” I asked.

“No. My woman needs a jacket ’cause I don’t want her uncomfortable or to catch a cold. I don’t give a shit about other women. They can run around when it’s fifty degrees and do it na**d for all I care. But you need a jacket.”