Lead (Stage Dive, #3)(61)

His mouth opened.

“Non-negotiable. You just asked how you can make it up to me and I’m telling you how. I’m driving the Barracuda and you’re riding shotgun. You don’t make comments about my driving and you act happy.”

He gave me a snotty look. “Fine. But just to get ice cream.”

“Absolutely, Jimmy.”

# # #

“You think you’re clever, don’t you?”

I smiled and huddled in against his side, using him as a buffer against the wind. His big hard body had to be useful for something. It was so damn cold, my teeth were chattering. “Who me?”

He raised a brow and licked at his waffle cone, topped with pistachio icy goodness. I didn’t stare at his tongue. My gaze just so happened to wander in its general direction is all, not the least bit my fault.

“Isn’t the salty ocean air bracing, Jimmy?”

“Yours is melting.”

“Oh.” I dealt with the triple caramel delight before it could drip off my fingers. “Mm, yum. Best ice cream ever. Didn’t I tell you they had the best ice cream here?”

“Yes you did. Many, many times on the hour and a half drive out here.”

“Hey, I could have taken us to Seattle.” I shrugged down deeper into my coat. “Be thankful. I let you off easy.”

“Right.”

“You’re having fun, aren’t you?”

He gave me a look of much judgment.

“Admit it.”

The faintest of smiles passed over his lips.

“Can we sit in the car already, I’m freezing?”

“No. You’re not dripping ice cream in my car, Lena. That’s all leather upholstery, a classic automobile, have some respect.”

“I can’t believe you care more about a thing than you do for my comfort.” My cell buzzed silently in my pocket. “Three missed calls.”

Jimmy leaned over, getting in my space. Pity I liked having him there so much. “You meant to be doing something with Dean tonight?”

“I forgot.” I flicked through the voice to text messages. “Crap.”

“He seems a bit pissed in the last one.”

“Says the guy who kicked in my bedroom door.” I texted Dean back a brief apology.

“Don’t think he’ll be pleased. That didn’t sound very sorry.”

“Yeah, well, you confused the hell out of that situation with your carrying on earlier. And it could have occurred to Dean that I might be just a little upset after that scene with you.”

He stared out at the black expanse of the ocean. Waves crashed on the shore. “Said I’m sorry.”

“Saying your sorry isn’t an immediate fix all, Jimmy. Actions have repercussions, you of all people should know that.”

A pause. “You haven’t asked about Liv.”

My whole body tightened, I’d been trying damn hard not to think about Liv. Actually asking about her seemed plain suicidal. “Should I have? I guess I figured that was none of my business.”

“I took her to a hotel and we talked for a while. I called just to check in with you.” He wandered a few steps over to the trashbin, dumped his ice cream cone. The broad expanse of his back in the black woolen jacket a sharper shadow against the rest of the view.

“You did?” I asked, surprised.

“Yeah. You didn’t answer.”

“No, I was asleep.”

He turned around, the wind blowing his hair in his face. With a hand he held it back. “I started worrying you’d gone. That you’d quit me and left like you were going to.”

“I wouldn’t do that without talking to you first.”

“I wasn’t sure.” He avoided my eyes. “After the way I treated you, thought you might have just taken off.”

“That’s what got you so worked up?”

He sucked in his cheeks, nodded. All of a sudden, the ice cream lost its flavor for me too. I likewise chucked the rest of mine, licking my sticky fingers clean. Jimmy watched all the while, face wiped of expression. This conversation was a minefield. All I could do was to tell the truth, do my best by us both.

“I was jealous,” I admitted, putting it all out there. “That’s why I wanted to talk to you, to ask you not to leave with her. I just wasn’t quite ready.”

“Yeah, I know.”

I nodded, put my hands in my pockets and waited. And then I waited some more.

Nothing.

I held in my groan, but only just. “Jimmy, now’s your turn to admit that you were jealous when you saw me holding Dean’s hand. Relationships are kind of a give-and-take thing, you know?”

He snorted. And then he scoffed. Then he kind of turned in a circle, his mouth wrinkling like he’d tasted something foul. I half expected him to bolt and run given all of the avoidance tactics previously displayed.

“Anytime you’re ready,” I said.

“I …”

“Yes?”

He winced. “I guess, I didn’t think about what it’d be like if you really liked one of them.”

“Even though that was the entire point to my dating other men? To like one of them more than I like you.”

A shrug.

“You over it now?” I asked.