Kess glanced at me in the rearview mirror.
“I can see that,” he said, still holding my gaze. “Rowdy and I should put our heads together and maybe check with some of our friends about an apprentice situation.”
Jaxon waved off that suggestion. “Mom would never be able to get me out there. She says her car is basically held together with duct tape and a prayer at this point.”
Kess laughed. “That doesn’t bode well. Especially if you don’t know which God is answering the prayer.”
That cracked Jaxon up, and I sat back, listening as the conversation veered all over the place: cars, school, even woodworking. We stopped at a drive-through and got a big bucket of fried chicken and salad for Jaxon and his mom.
When we reached the trailer, Kess, who’d likely never seen a living situation like this up close, exited the truck and neutralized his face.
He clamped his hand on Jaxon’s shoulder. “Thank you for sharing what you did this afternoon. And for telling me the things that you enjoy.”
Jaxon shifted uncomfortably. “It was nothing.”
But it wasn’t, and Kess and I knew it.
Sadie pulled up next to us, her Justy an homage to rust and Bondo. She brightened when she saw her son and quickly jumped out of her car to give him a hug. Kess’s mind was spinning behind those intelligent eyes, taking in all the details, likely already starting to fix things in his head.
I’d have to warn him to not make it a habit, though for these two I might let him.
Sadie was happy to see us but clearly exhausted, and the fried chicken wasn’t getting any hotter, so we left them to it and I retook the driver’s seat.
We barely hit the highway when Kess turned to me. I braced for whatever he had to say.
“Do you like Southern food?” he asked.
I blinked and looked over at him.
“The road, Rowdy,” he said, pointing ahead of us.
I refocused and steered back into my lane. “Uh, yeah?”
“Excellent. Let’s go to Fixe since we’ll be passing downtown.”
“I’ve never heard of that place.”
“No worries, I’ll show you how to get there.”
I don’t know why my brain immediately went to the bedroom, but it did. I wouldn’t mind Kess showing me how to get there.
God, I was ridiculous.
We drove in silence to downtown, where he directed me to the parking garage behind the restaurant. We got out of the truck and I took a moment to take my hair down, using the window as a mirror to shake out the tangles.
Kess appeared behind me in the reflection, and I froze.
Slowly—and nervous as hell—I turned to face him. I didn’t know what to think of his stern expression, nor could I manage anything witty given my earlier confession, so I put my hands on my hips and added as much sass as I could muster.
“Yes?” I asked, then cursed under my breath because it’d come out all soft and needy.
His hands went to my face, warm and sure, and the flint in his eyes softened. I sucked in a breath, shocked by the wattage of his gaze.
“You have such pretty hair,” he murmured, his eyes following the mussed waves from my roots to the ends that brushed my shoulders.
Removing my hands from my hips, I grabbed his wrists. I didn’t know why I’d done that, save for the fact that I had to hold on to something, and I couldn’t think of anything more solid than Kess.
“Rowdy?”
