my hours are brutal, and when I’m not working, the press is brutal. Your turn.”
He shrugged a broad shoulder as he hit the left blinker and passed a slow-moving semi. “We have crazy hours in common. I’m at the mercy of my boss’s schedule. Most women don’t want to put up with that.” A faint nod accompanied his next words. “And it’s possible I can be a little closed off, which also tends to drive a stake into a relationship.”
Interesting that he recognized the problem. “If you know you’re closed off, why don’t you do something about it?”
He huffed, almost a laugh, but not quite as he eased into the right lane. “I guess old habits die hard. Besides—” she barely heard him and had to learn even farther forward, “—maybe I don’t know how to change.”
Her heart melted in a pool of empathy. What had happened to this brave man to make him so introverted? They were nearly polar opposites in that respect. “Did your past girlfriends try to change you?” She already knew the answer.
“I don’t know that they tried to change me. I think they wanted something I couldn’t give.”
She knew how that worked. She’d tried to get back into the dating pool after Lucas, and the first guy she’d taken seriously enough to let into her bed had dumped her because she hadn’t been adventurous enough in the sack. Not that she planned to reveal that bit about herself to Troy. “Sounds like you tend to keep things casual.” A giant fishing expedition on her part.
He knew it too, because his lips quirked up and turned his face from handsome to killer sexy. “In the past, yes. But life keeps throwing surprises my way and I’d be stupid to ignore a good thing when it’s in front of me.”
Not if, but when. So was he talking about her? Did she call his bluff or was it too early? Maybe it was time to sneak out of this conversation while she still had her dignity. “I thought I’d take a break from my script if you want to put a CD in. Sorry again about the quiet. But if music is on or television is playing, I can’t concentrate on the words in front of me.”
“It’s okay.” He reached into the console, pulled out a CD holder and handed it to her. “Here. Pick whatever you want. Hope there’s something you like.” He eased back into the right-hand lane.
She loved his hands. Large, capable, short, neat nails. Lucas had been a nail shredder, and finding bits of his fingernails under tables and by the bed had grossed her out.
Julie forced her gaze from Troy’s hands to his music collection. The newest Seger Hughes CD caught her attention, and she pulled out the disk and handed it forward. “I didn’t peg you as a Seger Hughes fan.”
Troy took the CD and eased it in the player. “His old songs were a little obnoxious, but I really like his new stuff. Much more my style.” So he didn’t like hard driving rock and roll, but he did like alternative rock with some mellow acoustic.
“Personally, I’m one of his diehard fans. He could sing my grocery list and I’d be like ‘woo-hoo, go Seger!’ I meant to pick this up when it came out, but I was working, then time just got by me and I forgot.” The lyrics to the smash hit “Ashley Here with Me” filled the car. “This is a great song.”
Troy nodded as he tapped his thumb on the steering wheel in time to the beat. The endless white line of the road seemed to stretch into forever.
“You know, I’ve met the Ashley he’s singing about in the song.”
“Yeah?” He glanced at her in the rearview mirror.
“Yeah. She was my stunt double’s roommate. She had a terrible accident during the production of Dangerous Race. She had a rough recovery, but she’s fine now. A few scars to show for it, but I’ve discovered that scars mean you’re a survivor.”
She caught his gaze in the mirror again before he concentrated on the road. “What about you? Any scars besides the one I caused?”
He scowled. “You didn’t cause any scars.”
“Fine.” She totally disagreed with him, but it wasn’t worth arguing over. “Whatever.” She looked at her hand. “I’ve got three perfect marks on my palm from when I was running through the house with a fork. I fell and the fork stuck into the soft spot under my