“Not a damn word,” I muttered.
From the corner of my eye, I saw him grin, and something inside my chest settled. Things between us were still all out of whack… but I could fix that.
Assuming I didn’t land us in a ditch.
I coughed. “So, Chet, I’m thinking maybe we should take you all the way to the, uh… Pleasure Emporium… after all. Make sure you get back to your Chrissea.”
“Whoa!” Chet sat forward again. “You’d do that?”
“There’s not a lot I wouldn’t do to give a couple of star-crossed lovers a second chance,” I said solemnly.
“Really?” Chet clasped a hand over his heart.
Jay’s head jerked toward me so fast, it must’ve been painful. His green eyes shone. “Really?” he asked softly.
“Really,” I answered them both.
* * *
A couple of hours later, we pulled into the parking lot of a carnival on steroids. Interconnected buildings formed a huge horseshoe festooned with lights, and music played so loudly I could hear it through the closed windows.
“Y’all can park right over there,” Chet advised, pointing to a spot between the entrance to the Hole Inn the Wall and the Dry Hump Reptile Habitat.
We unfolded ourselves from the car, and Chet offered to hand our luggage off to the baggage guy at the door for us before he went to find Chrissea.
“Least I can do,” he said. “After all y’all have done for me.”
Jay jammed his baseball hat on his head as we headed into the hotel, and now that I wasn’t distracted by driving or by Chet, my fingers literally ached to touch him.
“You sure you’re okay staying here tonight? It’s not really your scene.”
“Yeah, but it’s yours.” I shrugged.
His green eyes met mine, full of heat and unspoken truths, and I hip-checked him gently before looking away. I was barely hanging on to my control as it was, and if he didn’t stop looking at me like that, I was going to drop to my knees for him in the damn hotel lobby andreallygive the tabloids a story.
The lobby of the inn was built around a giant fountain that filled the air with the sound of rushing water and the smell of chlorine. It was packed with people passing through to the bar that was the next building on the right, or the reptile place to the left, but the clerk behind the desk waved us forward.
“Hey, um, we need…” I hesitated. One room or two? I looked at Jay, but Jay’s eyes were darting around the lobby like he was a lone gazelle surrounded by predators. “Two rooms,” I decided, handing over my credit card.
Just becauseIwas feeling some kind of way didn’t mean Jay was feeling it, too. And I was done making assumptions where he was concerned.
“Hey!” a voice called from behind us as I handed Jay one of the key cards.
Jay flinched, but it was just the guy from the door pulling a luggage cart with our bags and Jay’s guitar.
“If you give me your room number, I’ll bring your luggage up to you in just a minute,” he said.
Jay let out a relieved breath, and I gave the doorman our information.
“I know you think I’m crazy,” Jay said when I stepped back to him. “Somehow Chet had a whole conversation with meabout meand didn’t make the connection, and Shelly at breakfast didn’t either. But I swear, I get recognized all the time in New York and other places.”
I took a step closer and breathed in the sweet scent of him. “Maybe people see what they want to see. What they expect to see.”
I sure had.
“Or maybe your rock-hard abs just look different in magazines,” I teased.
Jay’s eyes kindled, and he licked his lips. “We need to talk.”
