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Chapter Six
Richard
Wow.I knew Joyelle was attractive, but tonight, she looked…beautiful. If this was an actual date, I’d be thinking about taking her back to her place and exploring her incredible curves all night long. But I never mix business with pleasure. Hopefully by the end of dinner, I’d know where she’d taken Tyler’s car and I’d have a timeline for the completion of repairs.
Now all I need to do is stop thinking about kissing those bare shoulders of hers.
Joyelle gave me a sweet smile as she approached the booth where I sat. “I’m so sorry to keep you waiting. Things ran longer than I had planned.”
“Work comes first.” Always.
“Unfortunately, that seems to have become my way of life,” she responded, sliding into the bench across from me.
I hated booths, but that was all the restaurant offered. Next time, I’ll pick the place. Since I wasn’t planning to have sex with her, there would be no point in seeing her again. But before we’d even ordered, I knew it wasn’t going to end here. Something about that intrigued me. Or maybe it was that she seemed to surprise me. Not easy to do.
“Things not going well at J’s Towing?” I asked.
“Totally the opposite. I’m busier than I ever have been. That’s a good thing, unless you have dinner plans,” she chuckled.
“You should’ve told me, and we could’ve rescheduled.” This wasn’t a boardroom, and she wasn’t one of my staff members. So why couldn’t I drop the business tone?
“Until I find someone I can trust to help me, I don’t see my schedule improving anytime soon. When my husband”
“You’re married?” I asked, half shocked. There were certain things I didn’t do, and dating a married woman was one of them.
Sucking in her breath, she added, “Ex-husband. Divorced a few years ago. He ran the company before the split.”
Husbands, ex-husbands, and boyfriends were topics I had no interest in hearing about. However, if it was my means to learning more about her, I’d suffer through it. For now at least.
“I take it your ex didn’t want the business?”
She shook her head. “J’s Towing was deep in debt. One thing about Jarrod is, he is one greedy bastard. Wants money, without doing what it takes to earn it. So he pleaded with the judge for the house, and ‘generously’ gave me the business and everything tied to it.”
“Why didn’t you just sell it if you didn’t want it?” I asked. I sure as hell wouldn’t keep anything tied to someone I despised. Her eyes got dark when she spoke of him, so it seemed deeply rooted.
Joyelle shrugged her tiny shoulders and said, “I was pretty angry at first, but my friend Lizzy gave me great advice.”
“What was that?”
“That the best revenge was to turn his failed business into a successful one,” she said, holding her head up high. “Which I have.”
Good advice.I may have resorted to the same tactics, just on a different level. I like her attitude and her drive. “I see now why you were working on a Sunday.”
“Yes. But if you hadn’t called me for a tow, I’d have wasted my time going all the way to Boston, only to come back empty-handed. That’s the problem with the repo business. People have gotten exceptionally good at hiding the vehicles they’re not able to pay for. What part don’t they get? They don’t own them until the last payment,” she stated.
“It’s hard to let go of something you love.” For me, I didn’t have such an object. I collected rare things, but if I lost any, I’d only find one to replace it.
She huffed. “They’re possessions. They’re only worth what someone is willing to pay for them.”
“Oh, so you’re one of those,” I stated.
She raised her brows and asked, “What does that mean?”
“Women who dream of meeting prince charming and happily-ever-after’s.”
Joyelle chuckled. “I did when I was nineteen. Jarrod showed me that fairytales are for children, and I’m a grown woman.”
Yes, you are.
