“And I don’t ever plan on leaving McLean. My family’s here. My roots are here. Besides all that, I like it. I like knowing every face in town—for good or bad. I like the pace, the quiet. I just…like my life. But now that I’ve met you, I’ll always know it won’t be complete.”
“Calvin…” Jo said.
“Hold on. Just give me one more second, and I’ll have said it all, okay?”
She nodded.
Lu drank coffee and threw me an intolerably smug look.
“One pretty speech isn’t going to fix anything,” I said.
“I know this was just a pit stop. Just one more job. But I want you to know, I’m going to remember you forever, Jo. Even if I never see you again.”
“Bingo,” Lu whispered so quietly, only I heard her.
“Not bingo,” I said. “Jo has her own mind to make up. Don’t you, Jo? Are you going to let this guy guilt you into something you might regret for the rest of your life?”
Lu scowled at me, and I gave her a wink. “All’s fair in love and truck names.”
“Let me get this straight,” Jo said. “You think I’ve got it all together, working a road job for a crappy computer repair company, and you think you’re falling behind being a business owner who is obviously a cornerstone of your town?”
“No, you’re not seeing what I was…”
“Hush,” Lu said. “Let her have her say. She listened to you.”
He nodded and nodded, and wisely kept his mouth shut.
“I think we’ve both been assuming some things.” Jo ran her fingers back across the shaved side of her head, then tugged on the earring at the top of her ear before clasping her hands together and resting her elbows on her knees so she could lean forward.
“Give me three questions.”
He nodded.
“Answer them honestly.”
Nod.
“One: Do you only like me because of the tats and piercings? Because I’m somethingyou’ve never seen before?”
Oh, the anger behind those words. I didn’t know all of the things that had happened in her past, but being an object to be scorned instead of a human being to be respected had to be one of them.
“No,” he said. “I like those things, but that’s notallyou are.”
“You better not be bullshitting me, Fisher.”
“I’m not.”
There was no doubting the honesty in his words.
“Well, I’ll be damned.” I moved over to where Lu sat and looked between the two people. “I gotta admit this isn’t going how I expected.”
Lu just waggled her eyebrows.
“Two.” Jo held up two fingers. “Do you have any idea how these people you callfamilyhate me?”
He lifted his head, asking for permission to speak.
“That wasn’t a rhetorical question, Fisher. I expect you to answer it.”
