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She wasn’t going to cry. She was more worried about punching something—or someone. Namely, Hayes Powell.
“Let’s just go,” she said into his chest, though she was right where she wanted to be. She took a deep breath of his shirt, getting something clean and crisp, as well as a leathery scent she knew well.
“No,” he said firmly, and she liked that he could be strong when she felt weak. Sometimes that role reversed, and she liked being there for him too. “We’re staying. We’re not letting Hayes-Franking-Powell scare us away.”
Tam burst out laughing, utterly charmed when Blaine joined her. He stepped back and tucked her hair again, leaning down to look right into her eyes. “Okay, Tam? He’s the jerkface here.”
Tam giggled again and wiped her hand down her face, though she had not even come close to crying. “You’re too old to use words like jerkface.”
“Am I?” Blaine asked, looking toward the wall of windows that showed the car lot beyond them. “I don’t care. That’s what he is.”
Tam smiled up at him and took his face in both of her hands. He refocused on her, surprise and desire evident in his eyes. Tam could look at him look at her like that for hours, and a smile started way down deep in her stomach.
“I really liked how you used his middle name in there like a curse word,” she said, a laugh immediately following.
Blaine smiled too, the gesture spreading slowly across his face. “I have a few rare moments,” he said.
She wanted to tell him he had a few rare moments where hewasn’tsexy or handsome, perfect, or approachable. Before she could, Keith arrived, a smile as wide as the Mississippi on his face and a voice as loud as thunder.
“What can I help you find, Miss Lennox?” he boomed, and Tam looked at Blaine, almost ready to tell him that this guy was no better.
Blaine kept his smile in place, and that helped Tam retain hers too. “I need a new truck,” she said. “Used, because some of us aren’t billionaires.” She cut a look in Blaine’s direction, and he just shook his head, his grin slipping a little.
“We’re the largest used truck dealer within five hundred miles,” Keith said, his voice carrying all the way to the rafters. “I’m sure we’ll have somethin’ you want.” He started toward the doors they’d entered through. “Do you have a budget?”
“Yes, sir,” Tam said. She was not going to be embarrassed about her financial situation. “I’m looking for a payment under four hundred a month. I’m thinking that’s about twenty-five thousand?”
Keith nodded as he held the door for her. “We do in-house financing, so we can offer the lowest rates. Down payment?”
Tam stepped back out into the heat and humidity, glad for her lightweight dress. Blaine sure had liked it too, and a bushelful of happiness filled her soul. “I have the money from my accident,” she said. “My truck was totaled, and the insurance is giving me a little over five thousand dollars.”
“They gave you five grand for that thing?” Blaine asked.
Tam ignored him and followed Keith, her fingers slipping away from Blaine’s. He caught up to them quickly, looked at her, and apologized without having to say a single thing. Tam accepted the apology in half a breath and increased her pace to keep up with the tall cowboy-salesman who would be disappointed she wasn’t going to be buying tonight.
* * *
“I really thinkyou should go with that blue one,” Blaine said.
“The F-150?” Tam scooped up another bite of her salad, wishing Blaine had ordered an appetizer so she wasn’t the only one eating. She’d never cared about that before, but she did now. Her life had been split in half suddenly, and she was operating on a side of the line she’d never been on before.
“No, that one was navy,” he said. “The blue one.”
“I’mnotbuying an electric blue Velociraptor.” Tam put together a bite of lettuce, tomato, and bacon, swiped it through the ranch and the balsamic reduction, and offered it to Blaine.
He took her fork and ate the bite. “I’m telling you,” he said around the BLT bite. “That truck has your name written all over it.”
“I’m way too short for it,” she said.
“You wouldn’t even drive it,” he argued back. “You don’t even know if you’re too short for it.”
“It’s too big,” she said.
“It’s classified as a midsize truck.”
Tam loved the back and forth between her and Blaine. She could say anything to him, and he wouldn’t judge her. She’d been her worst self and her best self in front of him, and she found herself wanting to be better just to be with him.
“Since you told me all about your money situation,” she said. “I think it’s only fair I share with you.”
