He’d been glad as hell to be finished with Teas earlier, but the more words that came out of Arabella’s lips, the less he cared about parking in front of the man’s office now. “You’re not living in your car, are you?”
She looked genuinely shocked. “What on earth makes you ask that?”
He shrugged. He wasn’t about to tell her how often he’d had to choose between rent money and gas money. Rent was a roof over his head. Gas meant the means to get to his next gig. “No reason. Make your calls. It’s a nice evening. I’ll wait.”
“There’s no reason—”
“I’m not leaving until you leave, too, Arabella.”
She huffed out a breath. “You know, I think you’re as bad as my brothers.”
“I don’t look at you and think sister,” he said dryly. “Trust me on that one.”
Her gaze grazed against his then danced away. “My battery is dead,” she admitted abruptly. She waved her phone again. “But I’m going to call someone and take care of it.”
The level of his relief was almost laughable. “Someone’s already here.” He gestured. “Go wait on the sidewalk. I’ll pull around in front of you and give you a jump.”
She looked like she wanted to argue, but went over to the sidewalk and he moved the truck around until the vehicles were nose to nose. He turned off his engine and pulled out the jumper cables that were stored in a coil behind his seat. Five minutes later, her car was running and he returned the cables to their spot while she got behind the wheel of her car.
He dusted off his hands and looked through her window. “How far do you have to go?”
“I’m staying with Brady. Not even a couple miles from here.”
“But you didn’t call him for help with the battery?”
She looked resigned. “Do you have older brothers?”
He shook his head.
“Then you don’t know what it feels like to grow up with big brothers constantly thinking you can’t take care of yourself.”
Lack of personal experience didn’t mean he was incapable of understanding her feelings. “Can I see your phone?”
She narrowed her eyes at him, but passed the phone to him through the opened window.
He entered his number and handed the phone back. “If it doesn’t start in the morning, you can call me.” He knew what sort of hours Brady Fortune worked at the hotel. “We can get a new battery installed if it needs one and your brother never even needs to know.”
“You’d do that?” She pressed her chin against her arm that was hung over the door and peered up at him. “Why?”
“Told you.” He brushed his thumb lightly over her arm. Just a quick graze. One that satisfied his need for contact and one that gave him the added perk of seeing her eyes dilate for just a moment. “I hope you’ll stick around awhile.”
Her car engine was humming smoothly when he walked back to his truck and got inside.
She was watching him through the windshield, looking a little bemused, a little wary, and a whole lot of beautiful.
Then she smiled, shook her head a little, and put her car in gear.
He watched her drive away until she was out of sight.
Only then, wearing a smile of his own, did he pull out onto the road and finally head home.
And if there was a part of him that hoped her battery would be dead in the morning, he wasn’t going to apologize for it.
“Auntie Bella.” A small solid body bounced onto the foot of her bed. “You’re late for breakfast!”
Arabella peeled open her eyes and tried to avoid the slathering tongue of the small dog who’d followed Toby onto the bed. “Murphy, stop.” She squinted at her nephew. “Says who?”
“I do.” Brady spoke from the doorway. His hair was wet from the shower and he still had a towel around his neck above his robe. “You’ve been here a week. You know the drill. Routine is what keeps the masses sane here.”
“Routine for the boys,” Harper said, also from the hallway. She, too, had wet hair and a towel around her neck. “Morning, Arabella!” She peered around Brady. “Toby, come on. Leave your auntie alone. Murphy, get off the bed.” She snapped her fingers and the dog hopped down. He’d been a rescue and with a few exceptions was generally well behaved.
Arabella closed the notebook she’d fallen asleep writing in the night before and moved it to the nightstand before swinging her legs off the narrow mattress. “Yeah. Leave your auntie alone.” She reached over to tickle her nephew’s skinny ribs. He rolled with laughter, and unlike Murphy, made no attempt at all to get off the bed or to leave her alone.
She didn’t mind.
She scooped him up by the waist as she got out of bed and carried him like a sack of potatoes toward the door, being sure to lightly knock his swinging feet against a few objects along the way.
He laughed even harder and for some reason found it particularly hilarious to try to muffle that laughter.
Arabella stopped in front of her brother and his fiancée. She looked from their twin wet heads and towels. “Conserving water again? Very...ecologically minded of you.”
Harper snickered and padded along the hallway, disappearing behind the master bedroom door.
“Have to do something to offset the hour-long soaks you take,” Brady countered. He slanted his head, studying the boy slung sideways over the hip of her striped pajamas. “Might want to see a doctor about that human appendage you’ve developed out of your side.”
“Might have to,” she agreed, managing to work her fingertip against Toby’s ticklish ribs. “And once I find a real job, you won’t have to complain about my so-called hogging of the shower.” She bumped into her brother as she lopsidedly left the bedroom with the awkward, wriggling appendage.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Brady followed on her
