Startled, she yelped in surprise, placing a hand on her chest. “Jesus, Kaz! I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Is it yours or not?”
She got up. “It’s mine. Do you need me to park it elsewhere?”
“Yeah, the scrap yard.” I stopped directly in front of her.
Her eyes narrowed, the surprise quickly replaced with annoyance. “Leave my car alone. We’ve been through a lot together.”
A laugh nearly bubbled out of my throat. Was she for real? “You’re actually attached to that thing?”
“So what if I am?” She crossed her arms, pushing her chest up in the process.
Of course, I looked. Of course, she noticed.
“Hey, I’m up here,” she said, snapping her fingers in my face. “Now if you’re done judging Audrey—”
“Audrey?” I choked out. “Younamedit?”
Molly let out an exasperated sigh. “What’s your issue?”
That was a great question. Why the hell did I storm in here outraged about her car? I rocked back on my heels and considered it for a moment. Something about the thought of her trying to wield that piece of trash during LA rush hour just didn’t sit right with me.
“You could get hurt if that thing breaks down in the middle of the street.”
For a moment, she just stared at me. And then something suspicious appeared in her expression. “Are you worried about me?”
I cleared my throat. “You’re a menace to other drivers.”
“And you’re a menace to society in general,” she shot back. “Don’t see me complaining about it.”
My laugh startled her again. Her eyes widened as she took me in, and then a small chuckle spilled past her lips too. She grazed her teeth over her bottom lip, looking entirely too sexy in the process, and shook her head slightly. “Are we done with whatever this is? Can we go downstairs?”
I ran a hand over my face, wiping off the remnants of my smile. She was distracting, and a bit infuriating, but I didn’t want her to fucking die on her way to work. “Molly, seriously. I don’t consider myself a very safety-conscious person, but that car has got to go. Just fucking think about it, okay?”
She didn’t like me telling her what to do, but she didn’t argue this time. “Fine, I’ll think about it.”
I was skeptical. “If not for me, do it for your parents. I’m sure they’d be horrified about you driving that.”
“My parents are dead.”
Wait, what?Well, now I felt like a dick. “I didn’t know. Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” she said calmly, reaching down to shut her laptop. “It happened a long time ago.”
Mason never said anything about it to me. He wasn’t one to gossip about other people, but in this case, I wish he had. I looked at Molly, really looked at her, and felt some of my old assumptions crumble. In college, I never thought she’d experienced real hardship based on how she carried herself, but I’d been wrong.
When I didn’t say anything, she looked back to me and let out a breath. “Don’t be weird about it, okay? Let’s just get to work.” She was trying to hide it, but I could see something vulnerable in her expression.
Suddenly, I wanted to peel back the layers and find out more about this girl. “We’re having a party on Friday. Do you want to come?”
Her brows scrunched together. “Um. I don’t know,” she said, moving in the direction of the basement.
I followed close behind her. “You’ve got other plans?”
“Probably. I’ll have to check my calendar.”
I should have dropped it. After all, we’d promised to be civil. But civil was soboring. I was itching to provoke her.
