Dirty Thoughts - Megan Erickson Page 0,4
had to have seen it. She walked behind him. “Cal, I—”
He stopped and turned. “Do you need a ride?”
“What?”
“Do you need a ride . . . home, or wherever you’re going?”
She shook her head. “I’m going to walk across the street to Delilah’s store. She’ll take me home.”
His gaze flitted to the shop across the street and then back to Jenna. He nodded. “All right, then.”
She tried again. “Cal—”
“You picking it up or your brother?”
The muscle shift in his jaw was the only indication that he was bothered by this. “I’m sorry, I should have told you . . . ”
He shook his head. “You don’t owe it to me to tell me anything. You asked me to fix a car—”
“Yeah, but you and Dylan don’t like each other—”
That muscle in his jaw ticked again. “Sure, we don’t like each other, but what? You think I’m going to lose my temper and bash his car in?”
Uh-oh. “No, I—”
He shook his head, and when he spoke again, his voice was softer. “You didn’t have to keep it a secret it was his car. I’m not eighteen anymore. I got more control than I used to.”
She felt like a heel. And a jerk. She wasn’t the same person she was at eighteen, so she shouldn’t have treated Cal like he was the hothead he’d been then. “Cal, I’m so sorry. I—”
He waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it, Sunshine.”
That name—it sent a spark right through her like a live wire. She hadn’t heard that nickname in so long, she’d almost forgotten about it, but her body sure hadn’t. It hadn’t forgotten the way Cal could use that one word to turn her into putty.
He seemed as surprised as she did. His eyes widened a fraction before he shut down. “Anyway”—his voice was lower now—“we close tomorrow at six. Appreciate it if you’d pick it up before that.” He jingled the keys and shot her one more measuring look, and then he disappeared into the garage office, leaving her standing outside the door, her mind broiling in confusion.
She should have known Cal Payton could still knock her off her feet.
Chapter Two
DELILAH’S DRAWERS SAT across the street from Payton and Sons in a small strip mall that held a Subway, a Dollar Store, and a popular Mexican restaurant.
Jenna’s friend Delilah had opened up Delilah’s Drawers, a clothing consignment shop, shortly after they’d graduated from high school. Delilah had liked alliteration and thought it was a cute play on words—as if people were looking into her dresser drawers for used clothing. She’d already signed paperwork and made promotional material with the name before someone told her they thought the name referred to Delilah’s underwear.
But Delilah, being Delilah, held her chin up and kept the name. No one even mentioned it anymore, since she’d been in business for close to ten years. It wasn’t like Tory got many visitors.
Delilah had a steady stream of clientele. There was another consignment shop in the area that had been there since Jenna was a kid that carried children’s clothing. So Delilah cornered the market on higher-end women’s clothing, shoes, and accessories.
The bell over the door rang as Jenna stepped into the shop.
“Be there in a minute!” a voice called from the back room.
“Take your time!” Jenna called back and walked to the front counter to gawk at her favorite part of Delilah’s shop—the jewelry. Jenna had a weakness for large earrings, and after that whole situation with Cal at the shop, she could use some retail therapy.
She’d been naive to think that seeing Cal again would be no big deal. It’d been so long since they’d been together, so long since they’d even seen each other. It was a shock to her system that he could still cause a wave of arousal to crash over her body. All those old feelings weren’t dead and buried. They’d just been lying dormant. And now she’d gone and offended him because she’d wanted to avoid an awkward situation. Good call there, Jenna. That situation hadn’t been awkward at all.
She sighed and fingered a set of gold chandelier earrings with fake jade accents. They’d go perfectly with that cream-colored top she’d just ordered . . .
“Hey, you.”
Jenna smiled at her friend. Delilah was a five-foot-nothing beauty, whose parents had adopted her from China when she was a baby. Jenna wasn’t tall by any means, but Delilah made her feel like a linebacker. Today, Delilah wore a sleeveless navy jersey dress with gladiator sandals