I scooped up the bag, wondering what was wrong with me. Who cared if some waitress had just eye-fucked Evan Bailey through the window? We were leaving and he’d probably never see her again. And even if he did, what did that have to do with me? I barely knew him.
I left some money on the table to cover the check—and a good tip for their trouble—and went outside.
Evan scowled at me as I walked toward his truck. There was a little bit of blood on his lower lip, but otherwise, he looked okay.
“How’s your face?” I asked.
He licked his lip but missed the spot. Without thinking about it, I reached up with my thumb and rubbed it away.
His body went completely still and for a second, all I could feel was the small space of skin on the pad of my thumb, pressing against the dip just beneath his lower lip.
He stepped back and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “What the fuck took you so long?”
I held up the bag. “I was getting our breakfast.”
“Ours?”
“Yes, I ordered you something. I figured you’d be hungry.”
He grumbled something incoherent and opened the driver’s side door.
I went around to the other side and got in. “Are you going to tell me what that was all about, or do I have to make up my own version?”
“That was Luke Haven. We don’t like each other.”
“Really? You acted like best friends.”
He glared at me.
“Come on. What happened?”
“His family and my family have hated each other for generations,” he said.
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope.”
“It’s like some kind of feud or something?”
“It probably doesn’t make much sense if you’re not from Tilikum. But yes, it’s a feud.”
“What started it?”
“No idea.”
“So you’re telling me you got in a fight in a diner hundreds of miles from home because your families have been feuding for generations and no one knows why?”
He was quiet for a moment. “No.”
“No? I’m so confused.”
“The feud is a thing, but we mostly just prank each other. My issues with Luke are… personal.”
“Why?”
“None of your goddamn business.”
“It’s because you guys are competitors, isn’t it? His shop restores cars and builds customs just like you. It’s a turf war.”
He didn’t answer.
“Or is there more to it? Is it about a girl or something?”
I chewed on the inside of my lip, immediately regretting the question. I really didn’t want to hear him say he hated Luke Haven because of a girl. Why? I had no idea. An unrequited love story from Evan’s past shouldn’t have mattered to me any more than the eye-fucking waitress.
“No, it’s not about a girl. Luke’s a salesman more than anything. He gets off on chasing down a deal. And he loves trying to screw me over. He plays dirty.”
“Do you play dirty too?”
He looked at me again and the fire in his gaze made my heart race and a very surprising sense of arousal bloom in my core. He turned back to the road without answering.
Wow, was the heat on in here?
It was time to change the subject. I pulled one of the to-go containers out of the bag. “Do you want your breakfast? I just got you a bunch of meat and toast so it would be easier to eat on the road.”
The glance he gave me this time was softer, his eyes flicking from my face down to the food. “Yeah, sure. Thanks.”
I smiled and passed the food over. “You’re welcome. And don’t worry about Luke Haven. This is why you have me.”
He grunted and I decided to pretend it wasn’t arousing.
It wasn’t easy.
Because everything he did, from the way he gripped the steering wheel to the way he’d stood up for me to Luke, was stupidly hot.
9
Evan
I opened and closed my hand a few times, feeling the dull ache leftover from hitting Luke yesterday. It fucking figured that he’d be hot on the trail of the same car as me. Ever since I’d opened my shop, he’d been there at every turn, ready to screw me over. We competed for clients. For parts. For deals. And now he thought the 1970 Pontiac GTO was his ticket into America’s Car Museum.
It wasn’t going to happen.
Although the fact that my success rested on a girl who wore too much black eyeliner and talked to her plants wasn’t doing much for my confidence.
And where the fuck was she?
I’d gotten up early to take Sasquatch out for some exercise, then picked up breakfast from a fast