“Never mind.”
Uh, no. There was no way they were ignoring that. “Ashley.” He touched her hand resting on the console and suddenly tears threatened to fall from her gorgeous brown eyes. Shoot, he’d made her cry.
She shook her head and pulled her hand away, starting up the car and concentrating on watching her mirrors while she backed out.
“Is there a good way to be mysterious?” he asked.
***
Ashley received the good kind of mysterious on a daily basis, like the cute fern on her desk. She wasn’t ready to bring it home yet, even though her time at AutoBest was limited. Someone else must have noticed her watering the plants. Every little gift from her secret admirer was a good kind of mysterious, but that had nothing to do with Chase.
She’d only meant to warn him off. There he went, being charming like this morning hadn’t happened and they were good friends again. But it had happened. She was mad at him for being untrustworthy, for treating her like a coworker more than a friend. And he needed to know that before they could joke and tease again. Unfortunately, the tears had hijacked the situation.
She wouldn’t say anything else until she got her stupid tear ducts under control. She would not cry in front of him. Crying was only for Lina and Paige to see on rare occasions. Maybe a subject change would help. She took a deep breath. “Did they say if your car is ready?”
“It’s ready.”
“And how much is the damage?” she asked.
“More than I hoped.” He was watching her, and the knowledge wasn’t helping her feel normal again.
“So, the position with Mr. Davidson, is it a bump up in pay?” She waved a car into traffic, waiting for them to pull out before moving forward in the line of cars.
“I doubt it.”
“You didn’t ask?”
“He might have said. I was a little too stressed out to focus on much of what Mr. Davidson told me.”
“Why were you stressed?” She turned to meet his stare.
“Because you were unhappy, and I was the cause.”
The car suddenly felt smaller. She turned to look at the road, not wanting him to see how his words affected her.
“Tell me about my bad mysterious side.”
“Shut up, Chase.”
“No, really.” His playful grin had her fighting a blush. It was a side of him she loved but didn’t get to see very often at work. With Flynn being an idiot all the time, someone had to be serious.
“You keep things to yourself, that’s all. Like the fact that we’re all going to be fired. Or that I didn’t even know Beth’s name until yesterday.”
He shifted in his seat. “I do keep things to myself. Survival instinct, I guess. Before you, I never had a reason to change that.”
Before you. She would not read into it. He was referring to their friendship. That was all. But she could understand a survival instinct. It was the reason she was so skittish about the thought of dating again.
They were both quiet the rest of the ride. She let out a small sigh of relief when they reached the repair shop. That was enough deep talk for one conversation. If there was anything she’d learned from all her failed relationships, it was that men didn’t like to talk about the relationship. If you had to talk about it, there was obviously something wrong with it.
Chase went inside to collect his car keys and pay the bill. Ashley checked her phone and saw a message from her sister, Paige.
What’s going on? Lina called me.
You coming over tonight?
Yes. Shaun says he is formally protesting not getting an invite to girls’ night.
Ashley rolled her eyes. Like he wouldn’t hear about it all from Paige later anyway.
