She picked it up and turned it in her hands before setting it back on the table. “Look at you. Was it Jedd or Slater? I know they were both pissed off at seeing my number when I was trying to reach you.”
“Me. I don’t follow orders. You know that.” I winked and tapped the badge across my chest, raising a brow as she gave me one of those looks of hers.
“I find that kinda sexy, Mr. Tucker.”
“I know you do.” My smirk was growing as I reached over for my phone and slid it across the surface. Leaning over it so she couldn’t see what I was doing, I typed out another message to her then sat back and waited.
Her face lit up, her eyes flickering between the screen and me before they wandered to Janette. “Take me home? I believe we had a date on your bike planned at some point?”
I pulled my face back quickly, realizing something I hadn’t given any thought to before this very moment right here. “I’ve never taken you on a date,” I blurted out quietly. “Shit.”
“Slacker,” she said, grinning playfully. “But you should know by now that that doesn’t matter.”
“I’ve never takenanyoneon a date, Ayda.”
Curling into my side almost shyly, she looked up at me with a grin. “Do you want to?”
“I kinda do,” I answered, leaning a little closer to her to close the distance. “Something else that’s new. You free tomorrow night? If I haven’t managed to piss you off or annoy you again by then, I mean.”
“I would absolutely love to. I may even buy new clothes and all that good stuff.” She smiled up at me, her fingersplaying with the ends of her hair. “Maybe we can see how flexible I am over your bike at the end of it. Just to show how classy I am.”
“Now I’m wishing we’d said tonight. Good job I’m learning to be patient.” I reached up to her face, brushing away an invisible piece of hair just so I had a reason to touch her. “Tomorrow night. Eight o’clock. Clothes optional. Most of Babylon has seen your ass now anyway.”
For someone so small, she could hit hard, and the slap to my shoulder had me sliding away with a bark of a laugh as she buried her face in her hands and turned a perfect shade of red. There were few things in life I enjoyed more than Ayda’s blush. After the way I’d behaved the last few days, I was determined to see that right alongside an unfading smile tomorrow night. As well as a few more of my favorite things of hers.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Ayda
Ipulled up to the one parking spot left outside The Hut in the hugeDodge RamDrew had loaned me and turned to look at the only woman in the place who seemed to have moved on from all the drama of my initial appearance. Libby and I had become friends of sorts in the last couple of days, especially after the revelation of her and Tate’s budding romance.
After Drew and I arrived back from the diner the night before, I bumped into her and, taking a chance, asked her for some help.
I hadn’t been on a date in years. Even though Drew was mine, it didn’t mean that there wasn’t any pressure. I wanted to look nice for him. I wanted to make him smile the way he always managed to make me do. More than anything, I wanted to do him proud, which meant the absolute opposite of the crap I’d tried only days earlier.
Sitting in the truck with cut and fluffed hair, bags full of clothes and makeup, it almost felt superfluous. All those years I’d spent struggling and there I was being frivolous.
“Stop. I can see the buyer’s remorse written all over your face,” Libby said, unbuckling herself and turning in her seat. She’d been bored waiting for me to get my hair done and hada styling done by one of the people in the salon. Her hair was huge.
“He’s worth every penny,” I said confidently, putting both hands on the steering wheel. “It’s just habit. All those years worrying about where every cent went, it’s weird to not have to worry as much. I’m also really nervous.”
“You are? Why? You’re Drew’s old lady. You’ve got nothing to be worried about.”
Leaning farther forward, I dropped my elbows onto the leather and pushed my hands into my hair, before freezing and dropping them under my chin as I stared at the door of The Hut. It was so hard to put my nerves into words. Those women had more confidence in their baby fingers than I had in my entire being, and explaining that there were times I felt like I was playing house with a man that was completely out of my league was difficult. It wasn’t that I was buying into the shit that those other women were feeding me. I mostly ignored their comments, but my self-esteem could only take so much before the dents started to appear. It was just a little sooner than I’d expected. I’d always thought of myself as stronger than all that.
“What aren’t you saying?” Libby asked softly, grabbing the soda we both got at the drive thru. “Scrap that. Let me tell you a little secret the others would hate me for disclosing.”
“Don’t get yourself exiled on my behalf,” I said just as quietly, tilting my head to look at her as she waved her hand in dismissal.
“I don’t care, Ayda. They’d throw me under the bus in a heartbeat if it meant they would be upgraded to one of these guys’ old ladies. That’s exactly why they hate you. They’re so jealous they’re ready to spit their teeth out. In their eyes, youdidn’t have to work at getting Drew’s attention. You had it the minute he laid eyes on you.”
“And that’s my fault?”
“Jealousy doesn’t make people rational. You waltzed into The Hut and you not only bagged the most valuable asset, but you were accepted and every one of those men in there respected you. You just gotta lift your head up and ignore the shit that they throw your way. It’s all because they want to be you.”
As much as I appreciated her candor and her attempt to make me feel better, I wasn’t sure it was helping. Not with the bigger picture, anyway. It did make me feel better about the clothes Libby and I had picked out, though. One night of allowing myself to be a girly kind of girl wasn’t going to kill me.
“Thanks, Lib.”
