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That was brutal.
“Who is it?” Jamie walked into view of the front door. Like Haley, she had on no make-up, but her unruly hair hung in wet curls over her shoulders as she towel-dried it, and she was wearing her usual uniform of a tank top and denim shorts.
Unlike Haley, she didn’t look at me like I needed to drop dead on the spot.
“Oh. Do I need to come back to work? You could have called—”
“No, no. The garage is closed. I just wanted to talk to you.” I did my best to ignore Haley’s death stare.
Charley held out the sundae tub. “I brought you ice-cream. Because you were sad.”
Jamie smiled, throwing the towel to the side. “Do you know what? Ice-cream is just what I wanted right now, Charley. Thank you so much.” She nudged Haley out of the way and bent down to take the ice-cream.
Charley beamed with delight at her.
Jamie kissed her cheek, then stood back up, holding the ice-cream. “What did you want?”
“Actually,” I said, glancing at a still-glaring Haley, “Do you mind if I come back? I’d prefer to talk to you in private.”
Charley sighed.
Jamie glanced at Haley, too. “No, that’s fine. I have to take Haley home, so… do you want to come back in half an hour?”
“Sure. I’ll see you then. C’mon, Charley. Aunt Greta was baking this morning.” I steered her away from the door before she could start something I wasn’t prepared to finish in front of Haley.
When we were in the car, Charley groaned. “You didn’t do it.”
I met her eyes in the rearview mirror. “I promise I will when I come back. Her friend doesn’t like me much.”
“She did look a bit mean,” she agreed. “Is she going home now?”
“Yeah, she is.” I reversed and turned to go down the long driveway. “That’s why I’m coming back.”
“Do you promise you’ll apologize?”
“Cross my heart, kid. Cross my heart.”
Chapter Eighteen – Jamie
“He’s a jerk.”
That was the third time Haley had said that in the last two minutes. “I know that,” I said, turning onto her street. “Believe me, I know better than anyone what he is, but he’s still my boss.”
“You screamed that you were going to quiet when you were laying into the punching bag.”
“It was therapeutic.” I pulled up outside her apartment. “I’m not really going to quit. If I quit, he wins.”
“Oh, Jesus. It was funny at first, but now?” Haley turned and looked at me. “Not anymore, James. This battle thing you’ve got going on is just weird. How can he prove you’re not good enough? What if he fires you anyway?”
“Haley…”
“That’s all the things you just screamed at his photo taped to a punching bag,” she said dryly. “You don’t want to work there. You’re there to prove a point.”
That was the thing.
A part of me did want to work there… even if he was a jerk, because I knew—knew—he was only like that with me. And only at work.
And that didn’t make him a bad person. After all, I’d seen the other side of him this past weekend at his aunt’s party. And that was nothing like the Dex I saw at work all the time.
We set each other off. Alone, he was gasoline and I was a lit match. Together, we were a raging inferno.
“I don’t know why you’re going to talk to him. I don’t think his apology will be up to much.”
I raised a brow. “He told you he was there to apologize?”
“God knows what for. He’s probably the kind of person who walks into a chair and blames it for being in the way.”
“That’s no different to apologizing to one.”
“Of course it is. For one, you’re taking the blame.”
“Whatever. I have to get back. Should I call you later, or am I just going to make you angry?”
“Probably the latter one. If my curiosity gets the better of me, I’ll text you.”
I smirked. “You mean when it does.”
She flipped me the bird over her shoulder and got out of the car. I watched her walk into her house, then pulled away from the curb.
My mind whirred at a million miles an hour. He was going to apologize? For the obvious, or for a whole lot more?
He wasn’t the only one who had to apologize. Even though I hadn’t done anything wrong, my temper had definitely reached a point of almost no return. If Charley hadn’t been there, I might have lost it entirely.
And, really, was it my business if he’d been talking about me? If Charley hadn’t have mentioned it, I’d never have known. Some things weren’t worth knowing about, and that was one of them.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to know what he’d said. Of course I did. I human, and I was curious.
I got home a few minutes later—perks of a small town—and waited in my car for a couple of minutes. What had I been thinking when I asked him to come here? I didn’t want him in my house. That was way too personal.
