Return of the Jerk (Sweet Life in Seattle, Book 2) (6 page)

“Your car needs a tune-up,” Road tells her when Blair gets back to her condo. “It’s running rough.”

Blair nods, surprised to see him back before her. Apparently, he was already done with his errands. “The Honda?”

“Yeah, the Honda.”

Blair heaped so much attention on Isadora that her poor Honda has turned into an unloved stepchild.

Road is sitting on the living room couch, pulling stuff from his leather backpack. There are packages and a couple of plastic shopping bags that have strange logos on them, and she realizes they’re foreign.

“What is all this stuff?” she asks.

“Gifts for people. Figured I’d give Tori what I got her today.”

“That was nice of you.” She watches his hands as they fold over the edges of a shopping bag, the hair on his knuckles golden-blond. He’s wearing a couple of braided leather bands on his wrist. His chin-length hair is cut into shaggy layers, parted in the center and tucked behind his ears. Road has what Blair always thinks of as ‘guy glamour.’ Without trying, he attracts attention.

“Got something for you, too, princess.”

She blinks in surprise. “You brought me a gift?”

“Saw it and couldn’t resist.”

He grabs one of the packages wrapped in plain, brown paper and hands it to her.

Blair is speechless. Road’s never given her a gift in his life. She takes it from him, and by the shape and weight it’s definitely a book. She tears the wrapper off, delighted by what she finds. A hardback of Anne Rice’s
Interview with the Vampire.

“It’s a first edition. I found it in a London bookstore.”

“Really?” Blair runs her hand over the gold dust jacket. When she opens the cover, it releases a musty old-book smell. She notices that it’s been signed by Anne Rice herself. “This is incredible. I love it,” she murmurs.

She and Tori used to obsess over Anne Rice’s books. Tori’s birthday was on Halloween, and every year they dressed up as Anne Rice vampires. One year, they asked Road to go out with them as Lestat. His plans had fallen through because he was fighting with his girlfriend—predictably, there was a lot of drama in Road’s relationships—and surprisingly, he agreed to go. With his height and long, blond hair, Road made a fantastic Lestat. They had a lot of fun dressing him up, too. He totally got into the part, quoting from the books and calling himself Wolf Killer.

“Tori would also love this,” she tells him.

“I know, but somehow I thought you would appreciate it more.”

Blair nods. Tori likes to read, but she wasn’t quite as book-obsessed as Blair. “Thank you. This is an amazing gift. I’m not even sure what to say.”

“‘Thank you’ is good enough.”

Their eyes meet, and Blair’s stomach takes a dip. She recognizes all the signs of falling into the abyss.

Road looks at her hair. “No scarf today, huh?”

“I don’t wear them to work.”

“What do you do for work again?”

Blair’s mouth opens in surprise.
Seriously?
He doesn’t even know what I do?
Surely someone would have at least mentioned the wedding cake she’s baking Kiki. Maybe not. But then she realizes he doesn’t care. He’s taken zero interest in her activities all these years. Nothing. In a perverse way, she’s glad for it, though, because it helps pull her out of the abyss and back to reality.

“I make wedding cakes.” She tries to hide her annoyed tone—after all, he did just give her a fantastic gift. “In fact, I’m making the cake for Kiki’s wedding. I can’t believe you didn’t know that.”

“Oh, yeah, I knew that.” There’s a grin tugging at his mouth. “Just forgot.”

She studies him. “What exactly do
you
do for a living?”

Road eyebrows rise. “You don’t know?”

“I have no idea.”

“Tori’s never told you?”

“It’s never come up.” She doesn’t want to tell Road how she asked Tori not to talk about him.

He grows quiet. “I do a little of this and a little of that.”

Blair watches him closely.
Is he hiding something?
“I hope it isn’t illegal.”

“Why would you think it was illegal?”

She points to his computer and phone. “You have a lot of nice things and you also have a lot of cash.” She’s still holding the book he gave her and knows a signed first edition of
Interview with the Vampire
couldn’t have been cheap. She motions toward his hands, which are clean and grease-free. “Obviously, you’re not a mechanic anymore.”

“Not exactly.”

“You can’t make a living doing ‘a little of this and a little of that.’ What do you do for real?”

He rubs his jaw. “It’s hard to put into words.”

“Try.”

He hesitates.

His evasiveness is starting to give her a bad feeling. “Please, tell me you aren’t smuggling drugs.”

Road’s eyes widen. He looks shocked. Suddenly, his phone starts playing Reggae music and he glances down at it. “Got to take this, babe.”

Grabbing the phone, he heads back outside onto her deck for privacy.

Her bad feeling gets worse.

Blair changes into a pair of shorts, a white blouse, and ties another multicolored scarf in her hair.

As she puts on a pair of turquoise Keds that match her scarf, she mulls over Road’s gift. For having never given her a gift before, he sure hit it out of the park with the first one. It was amazing and thoughtful.

But why did he get me a gift at all?

She checks her appearance in the full-length mirror in her bedroom.

I’m, like, the opposite of Skank Factor X.

She already knows Tori is going to give her grief over the Keds. She’s always telling her they look like mom shoes, but Blair likes them.

“I thought you said your cat wasn’t friendly?” Road asks as Blair walks back out into the living room. He’s sitting on the couch petting Mr. Maurice, who is draped across Road’s lap.

Blair goes over to them. Mr. Maurice is purring loudly. She watches in amazement as her cat rolls around, clearly smitten. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him. I think he’s in love with you.”

“You think so?” Road points his finger at Mr. Maurice, who tries to grab it. “Hey, pal. Don’t get any funny ideas.”

Blair laughs. She watches the top of Road’s blond head as he scratches Mr. Maurice’s chin.
At least I’m not in love with him anymore. Thank God.

“You look pretty, princess.” He glances up, quickly surveying her outfit.

“Thank you.” Her face grows warm. The curse of being a redhead is that she always blushes too easily. She turns away. “Are you ready to go?”

“Sure.”

On the elevator ride down to the parking garage, Road asks for Isadora’s keys.

“Don’t worry, I’ll drive,” Blair tells him.

“No, I’ll drive. Give me the keys.”

“They’re in my purse. I’ll get them out in a minute.”

“You’ll get them out right now.”

“What’s the rush?”

The elevator doors open into the garage and Road frowns. “Why do I get the sense you’re fucking with me?”

“I’m not.”

“I think you are. Now, hand me those keys.”

They’re still arguing as they make their way over to where Isadora is parked. When they get close to her, Road freezes.

“What the hell?” He turns toward Blair, his eyes wide with disbelief. “What did you do to my car?”

“What do you mean? Your car is in mint condition. She’s worth triple what she was before you left.”

“Babe.” Road is shaking his head. “She’s
green
.”

“Oh, that.”

“Yes,
that
! What the fuck did you do to her?”

Blair shrugs. “Well, I painted her green, obviously.”

“Isadora’s not supposed to be green. She’s supposed to be
red
.” His eyes flash to her hair. “Red, got it?”

Road walks around Isadora, inspecting her. He’s still shaking his head, running his hands over the body as if a great travesty has been committed. “Don’t fucking believe this,” she hears him muttering.

“I’ve been taking her to Brody and he helped me restore her,” Blair says.

“Yeah, I know. He told me.”

“He did?”

“Didn’t tell me she was green, though,” he grumbles. Road goes to the front of the car. “Pop the hood so I can take a look.”

Blair gets her keys out, opens the driver’s side door, and climbs inside to release the latch.

She sits and watches Road as he leans in on his forearms, examining Isadora’s engine. Her eyes trail down his long, jeans-clad legs and back to his ass.

Road has always had a fantastic ass, ever since she’s known him. It’s one of those asses that looks perfect in a pair of jeans or cargo pants or, best of all, naked. She tries to look away from that ass, but can’t.

I’m being held hostage.

She chuckles to herself. Eventually, the show is over, though. He stands up and moves over to the front of the car to close Isadora’s hood, wiping his hands on his pants. When he sees her through the front windshield, he motions for her to get out.

She shakes her head.

He comes over and opens the driver’s side door. “I’m driving, princess.”

Blair looks up at him. “I’m already sitting here, so I might as well drive.”

“Don’t think so. Now, get out of the car.”

She doesn’t move.

Road bends down, his large body close to hers. “What’s your problem?”

“I prefer to drive.”

“Is that right?” His voice is dangerously soft as he studies her. Just her face at first, but then his eyes slowly travel downward. It’s almost like he’s touching her.

Blair’s breath hitches.

His smoky scent drifts toward her, and it’s doing funny things to her insides. Her nipples tingle when his eyes linger on her breasts. They travel lower and when they encounter her bare legs, they stay there for a while. Eventually, they go back to her face, and Blair is surprised by what she sees in them.

Those golden-green eyes are heated. She’s seen that look in them once before and liked it.

Turns out, she still likes it.

Standing so close, framed by Isadora, Blair notices something else, too, something she can’t believe has never occurred to her before, and she’s thunderstruck.

That green she painted Isadora. The one she painstakingly picked out herself. The one that took her months to decide on.

It matches the color of Road’s eyes.

My God, what a fool I’ve been.

All this time, she thought she was over him. That she didn’t love him anymore. Only an idiot would love someone for so long who doesn’t love them back.

Apparently, I’m an idiot.

“What’s wrong, babe?” Road is looking at her with concern now.

“Don’t call me babe.”

“You look upset. Tell me why?”

She shakes her head and closes her eyes. “I can’t.”

“You really want to drive Isadora that bad?”

Blair nods. “Yes, I do.”

CAN’T BELIEVE I’M
letting a woman drive me around in my own damn car.

Nathan watches Blair behind the wheel. He gave in when he saw that bleak expression on her face, wondering what was really going on in her head. It felt like a kick in the chest, seeing her so forlorn.

He shifts position, trying to get comfortable. It’s awkward sitting in the passenger seat. He runs a hand over the red pony leather, admires the shiny new dash, and has to hand it to Blair and Brody. They did an incredible job with Isadora. The ride is really smooth—and Blair is right, she’s easily worth triple her value.