Watch Me Fall (Ross Siblings, #5)(4)
“How’d you get into that?”
She cleared her throat and rubbed her palms on her jeans while he wondered what about his question made her nervous. “The guy who owns it, Brian? I’ve known him for…God, so many years. He kind of got me into it because I was always into art. Then he got me the job at Darwin’s old shop, you remember that place? And when he struck out on his own, he took me with him.” She shrugged. “Dermamania put Darwin’s out of business. That was never the intent. But here I am, still with it.” She lapsed into silence for a moment. “Do you have any tattoos?”
Jared chuckled. “No. No inclination either.”
“To each his own.” She sighed at her shattered cell phone, then tossed it to the side. “And I suppose you don’t smoke either.”
“No.”
“Damn. I could really use one. I left my purse in Max’s frigging car.”
“If it’s any consolation, I would’ve asked you not to smoke in my truck anyway. Sorry.”
“Oh. Right.”
He shrugged. “My little girls are in here a lot, you understand.”
“Can I use your phone?” she asked, nearly cutting off his explanation. “I need to call off the dogs. I probably have a posse searching for me after the last text I sent my friend.”
Jared plucked it from his shirt pocket and passed it over, then sat in dumbstruck awe as the strangest one-half of a conversation he’d ever heard played out.
“Jan… Yeah, I’m okay. I got a ride from someone, and I’m on his phone… Hell if I f*cking know, or care… I made him let me out of the car… You. Did. Not… No, you did not! Oh my God. Oh, my f*cking… I’m gonna cut your ass tomorrow, you realize that, right?… You told him?… No, they should leave it alone… Am I not humiliated enough for you already, you have to do this to me?… Jesus. Just let everyone know to stand the hell down. Bye.”
As she hung up, she dropped her arm in her lap and the back of her blonde head met the seat. She banged it there a few more times with a groan of anguish. He caught himself stealing glances at her shadowed profile as the road allowed. Following the graceful curve of her forehead, down to the straight little nose, and finally the subtle pout of her lips. Sweet and classic, but with an edge.
“Everything okay?” he asked cautiously.
“Can you keep driving? Can we just, like, keep going forever so I never have to face anyone again in my life? Start completely over, no past, no labels, no mistakes to haunt us?”
No Macy Rodgers’s ex. Snickering, Jared adjusted the bill of his cap and gave her another sideways glance. It was a silly thought, of course, but he might as well humor her. “Well, you’d have to face me.”
“Sure, but you aren’t privy to most of my f*ckups. Just this one.”
“We all have f*ckups.”
“Mine are just more colossal than most, I suppose. At least to me they are. Where would we end up if we kept driving, anyway?”
“If we kept going this way, we’d eventually hit I-35, and that would take us damn near to Canada. My ex-wife has family up in Minnesota, and we’ve driven it before.” He shook his head. “Worst trip ever.”
“The North Pole wouldn’t be far enough. Start with Mars.”
“Aw, it can’t be all that bad.”
“It could be worse, Jared, but it could damn sure be better too.”
Wasn’t that the damn truth. His agreement with her statement, though, was almost immediately forgotten given the casual way she dropped his name in the middle. For whatever insane, logic-defying reason, the only thing he could think of was hearing her say it in his ear. Over and over.
Wiping a hand down his face, he shifted in his seat as his fly tightened uncomfortably. What the hell was wrong with him? Picking up damsels in distress and then imagining… Shit. Had he been so long without a woman that he was turning into a creep?
Starla certainly was no damsel, though, and he had the feeling any distress she found herself in was of her own making. He could relate. Still, it wasn’t gonna happen. The last time he drowned his loneliness and miseries in a woman, he ended up married to her and raising twin girls. Not that he had any regrets; Ashley and Mia were his world. And Shelly, their mom, had been sweet and loving, a good wife any way you looked at it.
But no Macy.
And until he could bar thoughts like that from entering his mind, he had no business breaking his self-imposed celibacy. None whatsoever. It wasn’t fair to whomever he was with to constantly compare her to someone else, and he couldn’t stop. Just…couldn’t stop.
“Turn right up here,” Starla said quietly. She’d settled considerably after her outburst, seeming small and crumpled, as if she simply didn’t have anything left.
And a disturbing thought occurred to him. “Hey. This guy you were with tonight. He isn’t going to come back around and hassle you, is he?”
Her face tilted minutely toward him, briefly catching a streetlight as he made the turn she’d indicated. “I don’t think so. He was going to a party and was already well on his way to being drunk. He’s probably all the way by now.”
Jared’s brow furrowed. She wasn’t sure, and he liked that about as much as he liked the idea of a drunk idiot careening down his road. “All the more reason that he might do something stupid.”