Page 46 of Crazy Thing

“Get…in…the car.”

Her eyes go narrower and she simmers. “You’re a jerk.”

“So I’ve heard. Now, get in.”

She lowers into the seat with a huff. I shut her door, my smirk morphing into a full-blown grin as I stroll around to the driver’s side.

I shouldn’t be gloating. Especially in a confined spacewith an angry Ziggy. She’ll probably throttle me and end up running us off the road.

But I can’t help myself. Because having her here with me feels like a lottery jackpot win.

The truth is, I’ve fucking missed her. I’ve been miserable since she left my office on Thursday evening. Having to work on Friday without the sight of her pretty pink head fluttering around the office all day? It put me in the worst mood.

The last thing I wanted to do was go to my brothers’ birthday party today. Yet the minute I walked in and saw Ziggy in her colorful bikini top and her flowy mermaid skirt, I felt…better.

Well at least until I saw that asshole hockey player trying to hit on her. That’s when I knew I needed an excuse to get her all to myself. So I made up a story about work.

Goddamn, Darius. That’s some toxic shit.

I slip behind the wheel and shut the door, only to discover that Ziggy’s distinct sweet, earthy scent has already filled my vehicle. And—oh boy—here comes my hard-on.

Ziggy is frowning and tapping away on her phone. “What are you doing?” I blurt out, struggling to keep my eyes on the road instead of peeking at her screen.

When her eyes shoot over to mine, she holds her phone to her chest, hiding her screen from me. “Jeez—do you ever mind your business?” she grinds out. “Where are you taking me anyway?”

Crap. Again, I didn’t exactly have a plan beyond getting Ziggy away from Raines. Now, my dumb lie is about to come back and bite me in the ass.

I say the first thing that comes to my mind. “We’re going to Nolan’s bar.”

“Nolan’s bar?” she echoes, confused.

I keep going along with it. “I have a contractor working on renovations over there, and I’m going to need you to prepare an inventory of additional changes I want him to make.”

Ziggy’s glare intensifies. Her nostrils flare. “And this couldn’t wait until Monday?”

“We’ll have a full day at the office on Monday. We won’t have the time to deal with this.”

She growls out loud. Then she’s typing away on her device again.

This time when I peek at her phone, I notice a text message dialogue box and Daphne’s name at the top of the screen.

Ziggy doesn’t bother concealing the screen from me. “For your information, I’m just letting my sister know where I’ll be hiding your body if you try any funny shit with me tonight.”

I chuckle, pulling into The North Node’s back parking lot. “Fair enough. No funny shit. I promise.”

Grabbing a yellow writing pad from my glove box, I hand it to Ziggy. Then she follows me through the back entrance to the bar, grumbling the whole time.

It takes us all of five minutes to make note of the repairs I want to bring to the contractor’s attention. To be honest, most of these are items I’ve already discussed with him. I need to make sure Ziggy doesn’t find that out, though.

She stands in the middle of the empty dance floor, notepad in her hand and annoyance on her face while she looks around. “Are we done? Can I leave now?”

Fuck. I don’t want her to go. I’m desperate to be close to her. Even if she’s pissed at me.

“Wait. One last thing.”

She sighs heavily like I’m burdening her. I ignore herbad attitude, heading for the stairs leading to the upper level.

With a rough nudge of my shoulder, I shove open the stiff terrace door. “Make a note to get this door fixed,” I mumble to Ziggy as I step outside.

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