Then he swung his open-mouthed stare to Ty.
“Buddy, you’re married?” He looked at me then back at Ty and spoke again before Ty could answer. “To a hot chick?”
“Not gonna marry butt ugly, Stan,” Ty muttered and I pressed my lips together as I moved around the back of the Viper toward them.
“All right, to a super hot chick,” Stan slightly amended.
“Yeah,” Ty replied as I made it to his side and his arm slid around my shoulders, pulling me into him. “Lucked out.”
Lucked out.
Yeah. I’d take a quick stop to hell to keep this. I’d even stay for a cup of coffee.
“You could score but, holy f**k, she’s like a white Jennifer Lopez,” Stan observed.
“I think I look like Jessica Alba,” I joked because I did not.
He looked me up and down and then nodded. “I see it but that ass, all Lopez.”
“Stan, you mind not talkin’ about my wife’s ass to my wife or, say, at all?” Ty asked in a way that Stan could only give him one answer.
And he did, on a mutter, “Yeah, Ty, sorry.”
Then Ty asked, “Here to see what kinda deal you can swing me on a Cruiser.”
That was when I went still.
A Cruiser? As in, a Land Cruiser? What was he doing? We were going to the garden center to buy plants not drop tens of thousands of dollars on an SUV.
“You know I’ll take care of you, Ty.”
“Yeah, I do. That’s why I’m here. Get the keys to one, dark gray or black. Upgrade.”
“All over it,” Stan said on another maniacal grin then he ran to the building.
I curled into Ty.
“Uh, honey lumpkins,” I called, his head tipped down to look at me and when it did, his mouth was twitching again. “Looking into purchasing an SUV is not exactly a quick stop.”
“Okay, not-so-quick stop,” he revised very belatedly.
“Right, so, can I ask why you’re looking into purchasing an SUV at all?”
I asked this and his forehead wrinkled. He was perplexed. It seemed not to occur to him that he already had a car. I also had a car. He had a job as a mechanic, had sworn off poker games and he had a score to settle. I wasn’t sure how an expensive SUV fit into all of that.
“Lex, we’re in Colorado.”
“Mm-hmm,” I agreed unnecessarily.
“It snows here.”
Oh. That’s how it fit in.
He went on, “You don’t drive the Snake in snow. You drive a Cruiser in snow. Part of the reason I sat that game in Vegas was to set myself up when I got home. I’m settin’ myself up.”
“Right,” I whispered.
“I had a Cruiser before, had to sell it to finance my defense.”