“No,” I interrupted. “Absolutely fucking not.”
He sighed. “Addison,” he corrected. “I need you to fill me in on everything you know, and it would help me a great deal if you could do that whileIdrive.”
“It’s my car.”
“I can speed.”
I crossed my arms. “Legally, you can’t speed.”
“But if I happen to speed, I can get out of it,” he said, a smug smile on his face.
He had a point. Damn it! I wrinkled my nose and slammed my keys into his palm. “Fine,” I snapped and gathered the file I had with copies of the missing jewelry.
“I’ll book your rooms, Addie,” Dylan offered.
“Thanks, bud.” Aftershoving my phone into my purse, I followed Jake out of the room and into the car. I couldn’t believe I was going to be stuck in an enclosed space with him for the next hour or so. Gah!
* * *
We’d been on the roadfor about twenty minutes when Jake asked, “Are you hungry?”
“Nope.”
It had only taken about five minutes to brief him on the case, and I’d been quiet ever since, getting my messageacross loud and clear with a choice-of-song battle. He’d find something he liked and I’d change it. He’d let my choice play, then look for something else. I’d change it again. Even if I liked the song, I’d push skip track on the MP3 player, just because I could.
Jake flipped through again, but when I reached to change it he grabbed my hand. I pulled away, his touch like a shock to me, but heheld firm.
“I know what you’re doing,” he said.
“Good for you.” I tugged on my hand again. “Can I have my hand back, please?”
“No. I like holding your hand, baby. And we need to talk.”
“Goddammit, Jake, stop calling me baby,” I ground out and tried to yank my hand away again. “And let go of my hand. You don’t need to touch me to talk.”
“I miss you, Addie.”
“Sucks for you.”
“Can we getto the part where you forgive me?”
I glared at him, trying to pull away again. “You haven’t even apologized!”
He sighed and released my hand, pulling my car off the highway and onto a gravel side road. “What are you doing?”
“We are going to talk.” Parking the car, he faced me, reaching out to take my hand again.
I crossed my arms before he could take hold, however. “The pawn shops better notbe closed by the time you’re done talking.”
He smiled, my stomach flipped, and I felt my breath become shallow. “I love you, Addison. I wish I could go back and change the fact I was an asshole, but I can’t. All I can ask is that you forgive me, and promise I’ll never allow my fear of you being hurt cloud my judgment again...at least in the sense of ending what we have.”
“We don’t have anythingto end,” I pointed out.
“You moved on with that Wyatt guy?” he asked, his expression guarded.
“Ohmigod, Jake, it’s been less than a week.No,I have not moved on with Wyatt. But that doesn’t mean I’m willing to start back up with you.” This was a lie. I wanted him back so bad, my spleen felt like it might explode.
“That’s fair,” he said.
