those ‘eat right and exercise’ scams.
-Text from Piper to Jonah
Jonah
“You’re going to Facetime your dad so he can watch the bidding?” I asked the woman at my side.
“It’s his money,” she muttered. “I’m not spending that much on a car without his approval.”
I leaned back into my chair and watched as she pulled up her father’s name and called him.
Moments later, I could see his face on the screen.
“Your car is about to be up, Dad,” she stated, having to raise her voice slightly due to the din of noise that surrounded us. “I probably won’t be able to hear you well when the auction starts, so if you want me to bid, raise your hand. Okay?”
Her father’s face split into a grin, and he gave her a thumb up.
We’d been at the auction for an hour, and in that hour, I’d learned a lot about the woman at my side.
For instance, she loved American muscle cars. A lot. The older and shinier, the better.
“Bidding for the 1964 Chevy Nova will begin at fifty thousand,” the announcer started.
And then we were off.
Three minutes and sixteen seconds later, Sam had his Nova. For eighty-nine thousand dollars.
I winced.
That was a lot of fuckin’ money.
“You got it, Dad.” Piper was practically bouncing in her seat. “Are you happy?”
Sam nodded on the screen.
“Okay,” she said. “Well, I gotta go pay. Someone is already headed my way. I’ll call you when I’m done making arrangements.”
It wasn’t until intermission, and our thirty minutes to find something to eat fast, that I asked her what the big deal was about that particular car.
“It was in a movie called Bullitt,” she said, shrugging. “My dad apparently liked the movie and loved the car.”
Interesting.
“What’s your dream car?” I asked.
She shrugged. “A Chevelle, maybe? I love the Roadrunner and all, but it’s definitely not my favorite. One day I’ll have one. I’m going to paint it purple with those bass boat sparkles on it.”
Laughing at the thought of going up to a paint and body shop and asking for them to paint a vehicle ‘bass boat purple’ had me grinning like an idiot.
What else had me grinning like an idiot? The fact that I wanted to go up to a paint and body shop and ask them to paint the Chevelle I found her bass boat purple.
***
Piper
We arrived at the hotel hours later, exhausted, hungry, and on the verge of collapse.
Well, I was, anyway. Him? He didn’t even look tired.
He’d said he was tired, but he was still moving with a lethal grace that was all Jonah.
I’d been around many men in my life. All of them alpha males that were deadly and cautious.
But Jonah? There was just something about him that made me feel like he was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Waiting for something to happen no matter where we might be. A tenseness that never quite left him until we were in the enclosed shelter of wherever he considered ‘safe.’
And the entire day we’d been in a large crowd of people. His eyes had shifted here and there and everywhere. I didn’t think that he ever just…chilled.
He sighed when the cool air of our hotel room hit him in the face.
“God,” he groaned. “This is the place.”
Despite it being fairly early in the year, it was still hot as balls in Vegas. Hot as balls being over ninety-five degrees. Sure, it was eighty already back home, but we had our cool nights. The thing was, Vegas never got cool.
Not even remotely.
Jonah shrugged his soaked t-shirt off the moment the hotel room door closed behind us, then walked to the mini-fridge and pulled out a bottle of beer.
“Where did that come from?” I asked curiously.
“While you were in the shower this morning, I called down to the front desk and asked them if they could stock the fridge with beer. Being in the honeymoon suite and talking to the same chick that hooked us up earlier, she was happy to oblige,” he answered as he twisted the top off the bottle of beer effortlessly. “Want one?”
I grinned and shook my head. “No, thank you. I’m going to go take a shower. Plus, I prefer wine to beer, anyway.”
He winked. “I’ll call Wendy up and ask her if she can hook us up with some wine.”
“Wendy?” I chuckled as I sat down on the bed to untie my tennis shoes. “You’re on a first name basis with her?”
He watched me untie my shoes. “Yes, I am.