an ideal situation for teenagers who liked to sleep as long as possible.
“A jump start should get us going. I can call…” Dammit. She was so rattled she’d forgotten the guy’s name, despite the fact that he’d been fixing Big Red since all the way back when she was a kid and the car was driven by her parents. “The mechanic.”
“It’s almost ten o’clock.”
Audrey bit down on her lip. It would be rude to call a family home and drag someone out of bed when she had a perfectly good option in front of her.
“But I need my car first thing tomorrow. I’ve got work early and school drop-off.”
“We could borrow Mrs. March’s car?” Deanna suggested. “It sits there in her driveway all day long, and she’s always offering to drive us to school.”
The older woman who lived next door didn’t have much, but her heart was made of solid gold. And she did always offer to drive the Miller family around, probably because she didn’t have any family of her own and they always took her Christmas cookies and stopped in to check on her.
“Let me help,” Ronan said. There was that crinkled, lopsided, gorgeous smile again. “I promise it’s no trouble.”
“You got a cape tucked into the back of your sweater or something?” she asked softly.
Ronan chuckled. “Nah, it’s totally self-serving. I was taking a shortcut back to campus and saw you guys waiting here, so I wanted to say thanks for keeping me company earlier. It’s not easy moving to a small town and being the new guy. So will you let me help you?”
Audrey’s eyes flicked to Deanna, who made a show of yawning so obviously that her ploy to get her big sister and Ronan in the same car was entirely transparent. “Sure. That would be great. Thank you.”
“Give me five minutes, and I’ll bring the car around. It’s getting cool out, and there’s no need for you to walk in the cold.”
Audrey watched Ronan walk away, feeling giddy and sick all at once. When was her body going to get the memo that nothing would ever happen between them? That a man like him was nothing more than a fantasy to stop her lady parts from shriveling up and dying?
That, like every other man who’d walked into her life, he would discard her at some point—whether it was the hunky Canadian who’d left her behind or the man who called himself her father and acted like anything but—and Ronan was no different. He’d made it clear that Kissing Creek was a stepping-stone on his way to the top.
And Audrey wasn’t foolish enough to let herself be a figure in anyone’s rearview mirror.
Chapter Nine
One man became a millionaire by selling fake dog testicles made out of silicone.
Ronan pulled his car into the parking lot shared by the baseball, swimming, and gym facilities, half expecting Audrey not to be there. But her beat-up red car sat there, the lone occupant of the otherwise mostly empty space, with two figures inside. He wasn’t sure why it had taken so much convincing for her to accept his lift, although he guessed that even in small towns women were reluctant to get into cars with men they didn’t know.
But he and Audrey weren’t strangers.
Maybe it’s because you can’t stop looking at her and she thinks you’re a creepy old man.
Okay, firstly, eight years’ age difference didn’t exactly make him an old man compared to her. And secondly, he’d heard the intake of breath when he’d slid closer to her on the bleachers. He’d felt the shift in her energy, the way she looked at him when she thought no one was watching. He knew how to read people. And while Ronan might not be the best person in a relationship, he was aware enough to know when someone was attracted to him.
Why are you doing this to yourself? You know it can’t go anywhere.
Maybe that’s why she appealed to him. There was a strange and intriguing dichotomy with Audrey, in that she was both dangerous and safe. Dangerous, because being with her would at best tarnish his image and at worst ruin his career. But that was exactly what made her safe—the risk was too great, so he was forced to keep his distance.
He pulled up beside Audrey’s car, and the two women joined him, Audrey sliding into the front seat and Deanna in the back. Deanna was tapping away at a phone, which he recognized as Audrey’s because