and meet people, huh?”
He was quiet as I drove for a few minutes.
Then he said, “No, I can’t head to the movies all that often. Every once in a while, depending on where I’m at, I can sneak into a theater, but definitely not here in L.A. In fact,” he added. “It’s part of why I’m moving soon. The paparazzi are just all over my house.”
A pang of sympathy slid through me.
“That has to be hard,” I said, “not being able to go where you want, when you want.”
He shrugged, much more cavalier than I would have been if my life had been limited in such a manner. “That’s the price you pay to be in movies,” he said. “I’m lucky that I’ve found the success that I have, considering the way the industry has changed in the last few years with streaming. A lot of that is due to Mags, though.” I caught another flash of his dimple. “She took me on when she didn’t have to, and I’ll be grateful to her forever.”
“Mags is a great person,” I agreed. “I’m glad she’s found a job that makes her happy.”
“And a man,” he pointed out.
I sniffed.
“You don’t agree?”
“Oh no,” I said. “Aaron is a good guy, and I’m thrilled they found their way back to each other.”
“Then what?”
“I learned a long time ago that you can never look at another person as your source for happiness,” I said, turning onto the on-ramp and navigating my way onto the freeway.
Quiet from his side of the car.
But then he nodded. “That’s the smartest thing I’ve heard in a long time.”
“Well, I’m so glad you think so.”
“Do you survive only on sarcasm and barbed retorts?”
“You forgot to include coffee and chocolate glazed donuts.”
He stared at me, and this time I couldn’t stop myself from glancing away from the road to meet his golden eyes. “Isn’t that a little cliché for a cop?”
Laughter bubbled out of me. “Probably.” A shrug. “But I like them anyway.”
That dimple flashed again. “I’ll remember that.”
“Why?” I asked suspiciously.
“Because I’ll need to pay you back for the ride.”
“Yeah, that’s not happening.”
He shifted in his seat, turning so the front of his body faced me. Not that I was looking. Nope. No way. I didn’t need to look to remember the man’s delicious chest, and I certainly didn’t need to look in order to see his sexy smile. “Why not?” he asked.
It took me a moment to deviate from my thoughts of smiles and yummy chests in order to process his question. “I didn’t give you a ride because I expected something in return.”
Silence.
For a long time.
“Why did you do it then?”
Good question.
Because part of me had wanted to spend more time with this man, part of me had craved to be in his presence, and because . . . well, a small part (and also the only part I could say out loud because the other two were just . . . okay, they were definitely pathetic considering who I was and who he was) of the reason I had helped him was because I was a decent person, he needed a ride, and he was Maggie’s friend.
Which I told him.
Which then resulted in more silence.
Silence that was so long and clawing so deeply at my insides that I found myself having to turn on the radio in order to relieve it.
I found a nice poppy station, full of sugar and cotton candy and catchy choruses, and listened as we drove toward his house. In mileage, it wasn’t far from Artie and Pierce’s, but in what I was learning about L.A., that didn’t necessarily mean that it wouldn’t take a long time.
Through stop-and-go traffic.
At eight o’clock at night.
“This is a little different from home,” he said, finally popping the seal on the conversation again and turning down the song.
I smacked his hand away. “It is a crime to turn down Lizzo.”
His brows rose. “Seriously?”
I didn’t even dignify that question with a reply. Instead, I just ignored him as the chorus went on, as the hair-tossing lyrics went on, as the anthem hit its peak, and then when it had slowed and blended into the next song, I turned off the radio, glanced at him expectantly.
“I was just saying that this traffic must be different from home.”
I nodded. “Not from the big cities I’ve lived in, but from Darlington, definitely. I think the big hoopla at the last city council meeting was that we were adding a tenth stoplight