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"Wait, what?" I yelped. How could he possibly know I was…
"You're Vin's daughter, right? Vincent Shah? He's one of our mechanics."
"Oh." I frowned at him, wondering if I could play this whole disaster off as an effort to reconnect with my father. Not theother, more stalkery thing. "Um, yeah. My dad was the one who gave me a ride to urgent care."
"Is this about him?"
I closed my eyes and rubbed the bridge of my nose, not wanting to lie. I was a terrible liar. "When did you recognize me?"
"When they emailed me your photo and name. I figured you deserved to try to connect with Vin again."
I wasn't sure how to respond. My father was an asshole, and I'd learned a long time ago not to imagine he might care. I was not here chasing him. I hadn't even known Vin Shah was working at Malloy Customs until he'd stepped out of the back door as I was sneezing out pollen. Clearing my throat, I shook away the dark thoughts about my estranged father.
His watch buzzed, and he frowned down at it. "We'd better go in. You on board with the plan? We had a fantastic date and you're wowed by our motorcycle builds. I'll do all the talking."
"Um. Sure?" I didn't know what else to say, so I followed him, shoving my hands into the pockets of my jeans and hoping like hell the radio hosts didn't expect me to talk much.
"I know being on the radio makes you nervous, so just let me take the lead," Jay said, taking my hand.
I cringed. "Ah, so I take it you heard my pre-date interview?"
"Yep," he said, laughing. "Don't worry, you were charming."
"Charmingly awkward," I corrected. "It was an unmitigated disaster. Maybe I should have opted to have you with me for the pre-date interview, too." But I hadn't, because I'd only cared about seeing Gunnar.
"I thought you were adorable!" With that, he opened the door and led me inside.
Though he'd admitted he had his own agenda for joining the radio stunt, Jay had been kind to me. I almost wished Jay had been the one who'd rushed me to urgent care. As grateful as I was for Vin's help, that had been the most fatherly thing he'd ever done. It left me unsettled. I wasn't in Hazy Cove for Vin Shah. Hell, I never wanted to see the sperm donor again.
Trying to calm the turmoil of my thoughts, I followed a cheerful Jay into the recording studio.
The morning show DJs, Delilah and James, were seated at their desks inside the sound studio, and the producer waved for us to sit down on a small, rock-hard sofa, tapping his watch and pointing at the glowing "on air" sign to signal for us to wait. My knees bounced as I looked around nervously, taking in the studio.
Finally, the "on air" sign blinked off, and Delilah came out to gesture for us to join them in the studio, and we followed her quietly inside. We were handed headsets and shoved into the stiff office chairs they had for guests.
"Mira and Jay, welcome back!" James said, leaning back in his chair and sipping his coffee. "Hope your date went well…"
I started to talk, but Delilah shook her head, stopping me. "We're back on air in 60 seconds, get settled and save the juicy gossip for the interview!" I snapped my mouth shut and waited, eying Jay, who smiled.
"Okay folks," James' voice boomed over the headsets. "How about that song? Now we have some special guests joining us this morning for our Valentine's Day bachelor contest. This morning we have Jay and Mira!"
"Welcome back to our show!" Delilah exclaimed as she turned towards us. My throat closed up, and I tried to remember how to talk. "We're eager to hear the juicy details of how the date went."
"Thank you for having us," Jay replied smoothly.
"So tell us, Jay," James jumped in eagerly. "What made your date with Mira special?"
Jay grinned confidently. "We had an amazing time. I set the scene for a romantic date—"
As Jay took the reins, I zoned out, thinking about everything that had gone wrong with the date, with my life, with my plans. Nothing worked out like it was supposed to.
"Sounds like you two had quite the afternoon, didn't you, Mira?" Delilah asked, snapping me out of my reverie. Shit, what the hell had Jay said? We hadn't had quite the afternoon! I'd run away.
"Definitely," I agreed, blushing.
"Ooh, I can tell from your expression that something juicy happened," Delilah said, leaning in. "Come on, dish for us! We want to know!"
"Uh, well…" I stammered, trying to find an appropriate response. "I never kiss and tell."
