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His lips curved up into a smile as he took her hand. “You’re welcome. Glad to be of service.” He paused. “You know, that spare tire of yours has seen better days. I think all of the auto shops are closed at this time, so I’d really feel better if someone followed you home, to make sure you don’t get stuck with another flat, only this time on the side of the road.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Lainey tried to convince herself.
“Do you have a friend you could call who could come and follow you home?”
Lainey thought about Penny, but she knew she was at dinner with her parents.
“I’ll wait here until Triple A comes.”
“For over two hours?”
She bit her lip. “I’ll call an Uber.”
“Would you feel comfortable if I followed you home, so I could make sure that your spare tire doesn’t blow out?”
She shook her head. But at the same time, the Triple A guy would be a stranger, the Uber driver would be a stranger.
Crap on a cracker.
“Lainey, I’m not asking to come into your house. I just want to follow you to make sure the spare tire holds. How about this? You take a picture of my license plate and my driver’s license and text a picture of both of those to someone you trust. Tell them when you expect to be in your apartment, and should expect a call back. If they don’t hear back from you in a timely manner, they can send those pictures to the cops.”
For God’s sake, Janice had gone back to men’s apartments after meeting them that same night at a bar!
Lainey bit her lip.
“Okay. Let me grab my phone.”
“There’s really no need.” Lainey bit her lip and tried again, but stopped when she saw the frown on his face.
“Thank you, Lainey. I feel much better about this. Let me bring my car over, so you can take a picture of the license and send it to your friend.”
He took out his wallet and pulled out his Virginia driver’s license.
“You live in Virginia?”
“I did. I’m living here now. I got a job at Reduxler.”
“Oh.” Lainey took the picture.
“I’ll be right back. I’m driving a black Dodge Challenger.”
She watched as he hurried off.
Lainey nodded. “I’ll wait.” She sent Penny a quick text telling her what was going on. She immediately replied back and told her to be safe, and then asked if Matt was cute.
Lainey: I WILL and YES, he’s twice as hot as his driver’s license picture.
Penny: SWEET! Text me as soon as you get home! Don’t forget.
Lainey: I WON’T.
He was really nice. And not one of her dad’s toadies, or some fresh-faced kid. Even in college, all of the boys had seemed too young. Yeah, Matt was pushing all of her buttons.
9
Mateo laughed as he followed MacLaine Sinclair through the streets of Annapolis. He couldn’t be more surprised than if Godzilla had popped up and stepped out in front of him. Not only was Lainey all woman, she was about the prettiest Southern lady he had ever met. Mateo didn’t think he’d ever had a woman give him such shy admiring glances before.
He’d already loved her accent before meeting her in person, and having her words drip sunshine on him while he worked on changing her tire had been staggering. Even her clumsiness was cute.
