I try again, but this time the noise is slower, and then eventually, it stops cranking at all. I sink my head into my hands and groan, as all the breath from my lungs leaves in a whoosh.
Whyyy does it always have to be something?
I’m still in that position when a knock on my window startles me, and I look up to find Dom standing there, outside my driver’s side door.
When I hit the button to roll my window down and talk to him, nothing happens.Because, apparently, this isn’t already enough of a shit show.
On a sigh, I open my door and climb back out to stand in front of him.
“Won’t start?” he asks, and I cringe.
“I think it needs a battery.” Frankly, when I got my last oil change, I knew it was going to need a new battery soon, but I kind of ... sort of ... let that go for a bit, because money was tight.
“Why don’t you ride with me then?” he suggests. “I could jump you, but then you might get stuck downtown with no way to get home and a broken-down car.”
My mind tries to fixate on the wordsjump you, and I internally scold myself for being such a pervert.
“Um ...” I dig my teeth into my bottom lip. My guilt and embarrassment hover over me like a rain cloud. This guy has already spent the night outside my freaking house, his over-six-foot frame sleeping in a two-door Camaro. Pretty sure he’s already done enough. “Yeah, but if I ride with you, you still have to bring me home.”
Dom shrugs. “And?”
“And ... that would be incredibly inconvenient for you.”
I don’t know exactly where Dom lives, but I’ve spent enough time with him to know it’s somewhere near downtown Nashville. Basically, the opposite direction of my house from CMA headquarters.
“It’s no problem. I’ll drive you,” he says, gesturing me to follow his lead toward his car. I shake my head, trying my hardest to find a plan of action that doesn’t include Dom saving my ass two times in a row.
“It’s fine. I can—”
“Hannah,” he cuts me off, a smile cresting on his mouth. “There’s no way I’m leaving you here stranded. I’ll drive you.”
And then, he turns on his boots and heads toward his Camaro. Conversation done.
“Okay . . . uh . . . I guess I’ll get my stuff?”
“Sounds good!” he calls over his shoulder. “I’ll be in the car.”
I let out a deep exhale before leaning into my Civic to grab my lunch and purse, closing the door and locking it, and then heading back down the driveway once again. Over my shoulder, I steal a quick glance back at the house to find my mom and Lovie watching us from the window.
I can only imagine the scenarios my mom is cooking up in her head right now. Tony and Ziva, getting into a car together. Dom’s car might not be an obvious patrol car, but Sherry’s watched enoughNCISto understand that a black, unmarked Camaro with spotlights on both mirrors equals law enforcement.
Dom is holding the passenger door open for me when I reach his car. His smile is big and warm, and it makes me dig my teeth into my bottom lip so hard I might draw blood.
And when I climb inside his car, settling into the seat as the faint but addicting scent of his cologne surrounds me, one hell of an intrusive thought hits me square between the eyes.
What if it’s not nothing to him? What if I want it to be more than nothing to me?
I swallow hard, forcing myself to look out the window as a distraction, but my thoughts spiral anyway.
Sherry might not be the only one cooking up scenarios about me and Dom.
18
Dominic
10:15 a.m.
The van door slides open with a bang, and I climb inside, Dunn coffee in hand and the receipt for Hannah’s new car battery in my pocket. After I dropped her off here earlier, I headed to the nearest auto parts store to grab her one so she wouldn’t have to.
