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“Th-that’s the best repair and restoration shop in the state,” she says, sounding shocked.
I chuckle. “More like best on the East Coast, but I’m good with being the city's best.”
“I can’t afford your prices.”
Her breathing has picked up and I can tell she’s starting to panic. Considering the condition of her car and where she lives it didn’t take much to figure out that money is tight. Even with great tips a waitress doesn’t earn much, I’m sure. I hate that she’s in this position. My only consolation is that she won’t be for long if I have anything to say about it.
“Take a deep breath, babygirl. I told you I’d take care of your car and that’s exactly what I’m doing.”
“But—”
“No buts. Your car needs a lot of work just to get running again and that doesn’t even cover the many safety issues.”
“What am I going to do?” she says more to herself than me. She sounds so defeated that my heart cracks. She takes a deep breath and clears her throat. “Can we set up some kind of payment plan?”
I want to tell her there’s no way in hell I’m taking a penny of her money, but I have a feeling that won’t go over well. Especially since she’s completely ignored me telling her I’m taking care of it more than once. She obviously doesn’t like feeling like a charity case even though that’s the furthest thing from what she is to me.
“Yeah. We can do that,” I agree even though I don’t intend to charge her anything. She doesn’t need to know that yet. I need to make her mine first.
She breathes a sigh of relief. “Thank you so much, Jude. How long will it take to fix?”
“It’ll be a couple weeks. Parts aren’t always easy to find for classics.”
She goes quiet again, probably trying to figure out how she will get around until her car is fixed. Good thing I already have a solution. I’m going to become her personal chauffeur. Anywhere she needs to go, I will be there to take her.
“Do you work tonight?” I ask.
“Yeah…”
“What time?”
“I need to be there at six.”
“Okay. I’ll be at your place at five-thirty.”
“Why?”
“To take you to work.”
“You don’t need to do that…”
“Do you have someone that can take you?” I ask, confident that she doesn’t. She’s not the kind of person to bother someone by asking for help.
“I’ll just take the bus.”
“Absolutely not. I’m driving you and that’s final. It’s too cold to be riding the bus, not to mention it’s not safe.”
“Hundreds of people take the bus every day.”
“And you won’t be one of them. I’ll see you at five-thirty,” I say before quickly hanging up. I don’t want to give her the opportunity to argue. Especially since she won’t win.
I make a quick stop before heading home to shower and do some work in my home office while time ticks slower than molasses in the Arctic. I’m practically crawling out of my skin by the time I leave to get her. The drive across town takes too damn long too. I hate that she’s so far away from me. If something happened it would take me too long to get to her.
I need her closer.
Like in my bed safely wrapped up in my arms.
There’s a group of guys standing outside Winter’s apartment building. They look like a bunch of thugs. Their presence does nothing to make me feel better about her living here. They stare me down while I walk past like they are trying to intimidate me. I take the time to look at each of the men, letting them know I could give a fuck less about them with a single hard look.
