"Seems like you’re loving every minute of it," Tanner said with a wry grin.
"You’re not wrong," Mach replied.
Mach had zero idea what would come out of Darla’s mouth at any given moment. For someone who preached predictability, she was actually a wild card deep down. He enjoyed that it kept him on his toes. He didn’t want Darla to stop egging him on and making him crazy. Because when she got going, the energy between them was nothing he’d experienced off the stage. A buzz that made him want to keep playing her games for no other reason than they made him feel things he’d forgotten how to feel.
Made him consider playing new, dangerous games, the kind with feelings and shit. He did not appreciate how she elicited his desire with only a tiny dash of her sass. But he didn’tnotlike it, either.
They pulled into the parking lot, and he already had eyes on her. He parked his truck beside Darla’s car, hopped down, and went right to her.
"Hey," she said, holding up a bag of peanut M&Ms. "I got hungry. Want some?"
"Thanks." He reached into the bag, grabbed a candy, and popped it in his mouth. He held her gaze with his own in a way that felt like he was daring her to say something. Do something.
But even he didn’t know what that dare was or what it meant.
He swore, though, that Darla did. That something flashed in her recognition, and she knew what he wanted even if he didn’t.
And because she knew he wanted a rumble? A dash of defiance fell over her features.
Oblivious—or ignoring—the silent standoff between Mach and Darla, Tanner unloaded their floor jack.
"You’re ready to try something new, huh?" Mach asked, ready to lock it in so she wouldn’t have time to change her mind. "Shake it up at Dillard’s?"
She stood taller. "Yes. You are meeting the new and ready-to-roll-with-it Darla."
"Then, uh, you’re ready to take me up on my proposition?" He knelt down and went to work with the tire iron. "Head to California with me early and make some waves?"
He glanced up to her, but she had her bottom lip pulled between her teeth. "I…" She sighed. "I want…"
He loosened one lug nut, then another.
"You’re great at that," she said instead of answering the question.
Tanner grabbed the handle of the jack and gave it a push. The car slowly rose, the weight shifting off of the bad tire.
Darla tossed a candy in her mouth with a crunch. The candy should not have been cute. If anyone had asked him the day before if he’d be cool with someone eating candy in his ear while he changed a tire, he’d tell them to fuck off.
No, he was a normal person who didn’t enjoy people crunching in his ear while he worked. And yet… he turned his head, so he got a front-row seat to Darla’s tongue flicking to the edge of her lips.
"Used to be a mechanic," Mach said, wishing it was his tongue there.
"No way. Seriously?" she asked.
"Yeah way. Seriously," he confirmed.
Darla squinted her eyes and gave a sly smirk. "You’re telling me you can do more than just change my tire? Like, I’m talking, you change your own oil, too?" She laughed and added, "Is there anything you can’t do?"
He chuckled and pulled the flat tire off the car, turning it and pointing at the screw lodged in the tread. "That’s your problem."
"That’s a little screw to cause such a big issue," she said. "Amazing, isn’t it? How the littlest things have the biggest consequences?"
"Or the biggest rewards," he countered with a wink, since the conversation wasn’t really about the screw anymore at all.
"Be glad it’s not higher up the sidewall." He grunted as he hefted the tire into the back of his truck bed. "Then you’d need a whole new tire."
"Don’t I need a new tire?" She looked at him like his elevator wasn’t quite reaching the top floor.
"Nah, the tire’s still in good shape. Looks like there isn’t any other damage so I should be able to fix it up, and it’ll be good to go."
