Right. Of course he’s only doing it out of his own self-interest, not to help a fellow human being. I give him a curt nod, and we ride the rest of the way to my car in silence, broken only when I give him directions.
After an eternity, we pull up next to my battered Subaru. Eager to put this catastrophe of a day behind me, I busy myself with gathering my belongings—laptop bag, purse, shoes. I’m about to get out of the car when I realize I’m still wearing Donovan’s sweatshirt.
“Let me give you back your hoodie.” I set my stuff on the floorboards and start to wrestle it over my head.
“No need. It’s got your cat on the front, right? So you’ve got borrowing rights. Just bring it with you the next time you come in to Smashbox.”
Did Donovan Frost just make a joke? “Oh…okay. If you’re sure.”
“It’s no problem.”
Awkward silence falls between us again.
“So…bye, I guess,” I tell him. “Thanks for the ride. Sorry about the crash. And the social media debacle. I’ll see you in the office tomorrow. With, um, your sweatshirt.”
I’m about to open the door and flee when he clears his throat. “Are you going to be okay? Do you have anyone you can call? Because I can wait for AAA with you, if you’re not comfortable here on the side of the road.”
It’s a thoughtful offer, with no obvious upside for him, and so unexpected, it catches me off-guard. “Don’t you need to get back to work?”
“I make my own hours,” he says, shrugging. “As long as the job gets done, Ethan doesn’t give a shit. So, if you need someone…”
“What about your deadline?”
He cocks his head. “My what?”
“Yourdeadline.You know, the one you told me you had, earlier. The reason you said you didn’t want to drive me to my car.”
Donovan doesn’t say anything for one beat, two. His hands clench on the wheel, like the question pisses him off—because honestly, what doesn’t? But just when I think he’s ignoring me completely, he turns, looks straight at me, and says, “Some things are more important than deadlines, Rune.”
This is only the second time he’s used my name. The first time, it purely pissed me off. But this time, delivered in that sincere baritone, with his drowning-deep blue eyes fixed on mine?—
Yeah, it’s enough to make a lesser woman drop her panties, but that’s not what gets me.
Donovan’s looking at me…as if he actually cares.
For a moment, I let myself believe it’s true. That the Ice Man façade is just an act, that he stood up for me with Cooper because he gave a crap that I was knocked unconscious, not just to get in a dig at the brother he hates.
Itwouldbe nice not to have to do everything on my own for once. To have someone to talk to, someone to drive me home if my car needs to be towed. And I could do worse than having that someone be a guy who’s seriously not hard on the eyes. Yeah, his anal-retentive nature’s annoying, but maybe there’s a flipside. What would it be like to have all of that attention to detail focused on my body? On making me feel good?
“Rune?” Donovan prompts me. “Are you spacing out again?”
I open my mouth to break my golden rule:Thou shalt not depend on anyone other than yourself, unless you abso-freaking-lutely cannot help it.And that’s when Jenny drives by, in the beat-up Jeep she uses to transport animals in need.
“Donovan? Rune?” She slows and pulls up right next to us, rolling down her window. “Are you all right? I heard you were in quite the fender-bender. And God, look at your Prius.”
There’s a reason Jenny’s won every beauty pageant in a five-county radius. She’s beautiful—all glowy dark skin and willowy limbs and perfectly styled locs. She’s nice, too. She’s always been that way, ever since kindergarten, when she told Connor Lawson toplease quit bullying Rune, and then invited me to sit at her lunch table with the popular girls. Used to defending myself, I didn’t wait to see if her admonition would be effective. Instead, I stood up and cracked Connor over the head with my tray so hard he got a concussion. Forget sitting at Jenny’s table; I spent every lunch hour after that one in the principal’s office.
The point is, IlikeJenny. And it’s clear to me that, for reasons unknown, she likes Donovan too. She waved at him from inside the yoga studio. She’s pulled over to check on him now. And Donovan himself issmilingat her—a genuine, open grin that I’ve never seen on his face in our short acquaintance. Not even when he was laughing about me tackling Cooper.
“We’re fine, Jen,” he says, his voice surprisingly warm. “I’ll still be there tonight. Just have some things to finish up at the office first.”
I look down at myself, wearing the sweatshirt with Valentine’s face on the front. The one he said came from an animal shelter fundraiser. And suddenly everything makes sense.
He’s dating Jenny. Of course he is; she’s a smart beauty queen with a huge heart. What she sees inhim,beyond his holy-hotness-Batman exterior, is a mystery. Maybe his color-coded sex spreadsheets are just that damn good.
I was an idiot to think he’d ever be into me.
“Rune, you’re okay, too?” Jenny shades her eyes, peering further into the car. “Poor you. First that incident this morning. Then the puddle. And then the wreck. Maybe you need to go get a hex removed, or something.”
