Page 21 of No Interest in Love

“I get there by Friday, then yeah, I think I do.”

She hesitates, chewing on her nail and wincing every time I move an inch and hit her ankle. I put my hand on her leg to keep everything steady.

“Hmm,” she hums after a moment.

“What?”

“Just thinking…We both want to get you this role.”

“No shit.”

“And arguing obviously isn’t helping us out.”

I snort. “But that’s what we do.”

Her eyes drop to my fingers on her ankle, and I just now realize how deeply I’m pressing into her skin, massaging out the pain. Slowly I pull back so it doesn’t look like I’m freaking out about it. (I am.)

“Can we…put it on pause for this week?” she asks.

“The arguing?”

She nods. “Let’s help each other out instead. We do whatever it takes to get you to Alabama by Friday.”

“So you get promoted.”

Her lips tilt up and mischief glints in her eyes. “Andyouget laid.”

“You want to help me get laid?” I laugh and lower my tone when I notice another little kid walking by. Shay waits for him to get to the indoor slides before talking again.

“If that’s what’s motivating you,” she whispers, leaning in so I can hear her, “then fine by me. Might even speed things along.”

She’s damn right about that. “Okay…but I bet you can’t make it ten seconds without arguing with me.”

She opens her mouth, and I know a retort’s waiting on her tongue, so I point at it with a tilt of my head. She snaps her lips shut.

“This is gonna be entertaining,” I say through a grin. She gives me a dorky face and her hand smacks the tabletop, blindly searches for my phone while she keeps eye contact with me. When her fingers run over the screen, she finally breaks our staring contest and her shoulders slump hard.

“Hate to say it, but our clothes aren’t the only things that got soaked.”

“Great.” I take my useless phone from her and jam it into my carry-on. “What now?”

“You call a tow with the phone back there.” She points behind the Burger King counter. “Maybe they can give us a lift to the airport.”

“Why me?”

Her gaze drifts to my hand zipping up my carry-on. “I was hoping you had some more clothes I could borrow.”

9:16P.M.

“Um, Jace?”

“Yeah?”

“When you called the tow truck, did you tell them to wait for us?”

Shay looks pointedly between me and the empty side of road where the rental was parked.

“That may have slipped my mind.” Yeah, I admit it. I’m a dumb-ass. “But in my defense, I wasn’t the one standing pantsless under the hand dryer in the bathroom for a half hour.”

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