Deciding he was just obtuse and not intentionally rude, I said, “My battery died. Apparently, I left the overhead light on all day.”
Vann stepped back and glanced across the parking lot toward his bicycle shop, Cycle Life. “Bummer.”
Letting out a trembling breath, I looked down at my hands and shrugged. “It’s fine. I’ll get Wyatt or Benny to jump me.”
“Are they still here?” he asked, nodding toward Lilou.
“Yeah, we just closed down.” That comment sparked a thought and I found myself planting one leg on the pavement and leaning further outside so I could get a look at him. “What are you doing here? I didn’t think your shop kept evening hours.”
His brows furrowed at my observation. “Uh, I don’t usually. I forgot my laptop earlier.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I couldn’t sleep,” he added, filling in the obvious blanks in his story. “So, I thought I would work. But then my computer was here… Anyway, once I’d come all the way here, I decided to do some things in the shop.”
I glanced down at his outfit as I disentangled myself from the curved bucket seat and stood. He had on a gray hoodie over a plain white V-neck t-shirt and gray and white plaid pajama pants. He looked like a Gap ad.
His pajamas fit his preppy style in every way. It was strange to seem him like this though. Flip-flops on his feet, his long toes peeking out beneath tattered hems. Admittedly, I didn’t know him that well, but I’d seen him enough times that I knew this wasn’t a side of him that many people knew—unkempt, undressed, unpolished.
It made me feel… intrusive. Like I’d walked in on a private moment. But he was the one that had come out to check on me.
“Gotcha,” I murmured. “Anyway, uh, thanks for checking on me.”
His eyes drifted over my wide-leg black pants and tight black tee. I brushed hair out of my face, nervous beneath his perusal. I couldn’t imagine why though. This was what I wore to work every day—unless the wide leg trousers were replaced with velvety leggings. What I was wearing made sense—unlike Mr. Bananas in pajamas over there.
“I could jump you,” he blurted, as if he hadn’t meant to. “I mean, if that’s all you need.”
I blinked at him, taking in his stubbled jaw and his perfectly arched cheekbones. A Gap ad would be lucky to get this guy. He had all of Vera’s beauty but the masculine version of it. “Um, how?”
It was his turn to be confused. “What do you mean?”
“How will you jump me?”
He looked back at his shop and I got the distinct impression he wished he was back there—away from me. “With my car?” His offer sounded like a question. He turned back to face me, punching me in the gut with the judgment burning his gray eyes. “Unless this thing isn’t like normal cars? Maybe you need a spaceship to jump it? Moon juice or something.”
“Moon juice?” I hid a smile behind my palm. “Uh, sure. No spaceship required. I’d be grateful for a jump.” I rested my hand against my throat and willed him to ignore the dirty joke hanging in the air between us.
Maybe I’d been hanging out with Kaya too much, but I expected him to shout, “That’s what she said!” at the top of his lungs.
“Uh, okay. Sure. Let me just go…” he nodded his head toward the parking lot across the street, apparently too mature for easy humor. “I’ll be right back.”
“O-okay.”
I watched him cross the street without using the crosswalk. At this time of night there wasn’t anyone around, so he just jogged right through the middle of downtown. It was a strange feeling observing a person break the law who I distinctly got the feeling never broke the law.
The side door of Lilou opened and shut and Benny and Wyatt walked into the parking lot, laughing and cracking jokes about Wyatt being Benny’s boss. They noticed me immediately, but I explained that Vann planned to jump me.
“I bet he did,” Benny teased.
There it was. Maybe it wasn’t Kaya. Maybe it was working in a kitchen—we were all perverted deviants.
Purposefully ignoring his full meaning, I ran a hand over the top of Veronica and said, “Who could blame him? A chance to get down and dirty with this beauty doesn’t come around very often.”
Benny laughed while Wyatt texted Kaya, telling her he wanted to wait for my car to get going. “Yeah, yeah, moneybags. We get it. You have a cool car.”
I glanced at Benny’s souped-up Nissan and wrinkled my nose. “Psht. You’re one to talk.”
He stuck his tongue out at me, then moved out of the way so Vann could pull his Jeep next to mine. The three of us gaped at him as he jumped down from the cab.
“What?” he asked, noticing our open mouths.
“Nothing,” Wyatt answered quickly. “I guess I just thought you drove something like a Prius.”
