“Maybe you had some sort of caveman desire to light meat on fire. How should I know?”
“And it never occurred to you at the store or when we passed any of the three gas stations we drove by on the way here that you needed a tank?”
“That’s on you.”
“How is it on me?”
She casts a covert glance over at Sophie and Ryder. “You were distracting me.”
Ryder holds up his hands in surrender. “Okay, I don’t want to hear this.”
“I do!” Sophie exclaims.
“You are impossible.” I take Jessica by the upper arms and yank her to me. I was going to try to keep my hands off her in deference to Ryder, but that’s proving more difficult than I thought. I kiss her, hard and unyielding.
When I finally let her go, she rocks on her heels. “Go get a tank at the gas station, then you can have drinks.”
“Fine.” She turns away from me.
“Brat.” I smack her on the ass.
“Ouch!” She lets out a yelp and covers her backside.
Ryder scowls. “Was that necessary?”
“Yes.” My palm’s already itching to do it again, but I’m guessing he doesn’t want to hear that.
“And then you wonder why I think you have caveman tendencies.” Jessica grabs Sophie by the arm. “Come on, let’s go.”
The two women skip off, and I turn to Ryder, “You ready to get this done?”
He stares at me for a long, long time. “I never would have taken you for a fighter.”
“I’m not. Your sister…” I drag my hand through my hair. “She’s…challenging.”
He shakes his head. “After all your talk, I cannot fucking believe how into her you are.”
“Shut up.” I grab a wrench and get started.
Two hours later, I sit back down at the kitchen table where we’d finally eaten dinner. Jessica is sitting across from me. “Why is there a pink Post-it on the bathroom mirror questioning how many body parts you can cut off before someone bleeds out?”
A smile twitches at Jessica’s lips, and she points to her pretty blond sister. “That’s on her. You’ll get used to it.”
Hailey—who looks like she’s never had anything but sunshine and rainbows dancing around in her head—gives me a sheepish smile. “Occupational hazard.”
“What are you writing?” I ask, figuring I should get to know the woman who’s Jessica’s sister and clearly important to her.
Hailey shrugs, like she’s reluctant to discuss it.
“She only discusses a work in progress with her inner circle,” Jessica answers for her.
“Yeah,” Sophie says, downing the rest of her pink drink. “I only just made it into the club, so don’t think you can come in and level-jump the system.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I say, wondering where the panic is over the suggestion that I’m sticking around.
“Sorry, I’m superstitious,” Hailey says.
I shake my head. “No need to be sorry. You’ve got to respect the process, right?”
