Page 10 of Nailed

I turned it up. “Love this one.”

“Me too!” said Sam from the back.

“I want the weather,” Jamie grumbled as Sam started whistling along.

“We could use a little music for the ride, though, don’t you think?”

Jamie shot me a glare.

I grinned.

Jamie left the radio on. I suspected it was to try to drown out Sam’s friendly chatter. Either way, by the time we reached the highway, I finally started relaxing. He’d just thrown me back there, that was all. Jamie being gentle and kind for a split second didn’t mean he cared about me. I definitely didn’t care about him.

I leaned up against the window, as far away from him as I could get, and focused on thinking about what was ahead of us. I reminded myself I was excited about this conference. Besides meeting the heads of a few organizations doing some great work I’d love to be a part of, I was also going to be recruiting for Heartbreaker Trades, which I was on the founding board for. We were a growing collective of women in male-dominated industries, and we were just getting started. Right now, we were offering support, camaraderie, and resources like connections to legal firms and job opportunities at women-friendly companies. But Winona and I had big plans for the next arm of the collective: education. Our long-term vision was to open online learning, and eventually, a trades college specifically for women. Several, over the next few years.

Until then, we were hoping to encourage more women to apply for teaching jobs at trade schools to build experience, which was what my talk was going to touch on.

On the radio, the music had ended, and after the weather—clear for the next couple of days with a storm rolling across the East Coast Sunday night—it was apparently time for an entertainment news segment.

Actress Hollie Berry has apparently been fired from her network after engaging in some risqué behavior in Vegas.

I liked Hollie Berry—she always starred in the most saccharine movies and TV shows, but whenever I’d heard her in interviews, I could tell she had more depth than people gave her credit for. Now, as her voice streamed through the speakers, I grinned.

If women want to take control of their sexuality, I say go for it! Why do men like you get to decide what’s okay? I didn’t dry hump anyone in Vegas, but if I had, that would be my choice.

Jamie reached for the dial. “No!” I said, clapping a hand over his before thinking better of it.

Jamie’s eyes darted to mine. The feel of his skin against my palm momentarily distracted me—as did the heat traveling up my arm.

Jamie pulled his hand away.

My heart fluttered against my ribs. “I want to hear this,” I said, turning it up.

If this puts me on the naughty list, then so be it. I’ll take all the coal. Hell, I’ll proudly claim my coal!

But that was the end of the clip—the radio switched over to “The Christmas Song.”

“Damn,” Sam said. “She’s really going all in.”

“Good for her,” I said, wishing I’d heard the whole thing. Wishing more that Jamie hadn’t tried to turn it off so I wouldn’t have accidentally held his hand. I hazarded a glance at him now, my heart still thumping. But his giant hands were back on the steering wheel, his eyes trained hard on the road. He was uncomfortable; that much was obvious. But was it because of Hollie’s words on the radio? Or me touching him?

“Sam,” Jamie barked. “Tell us about the business in Central America.”

Sam, bless him, eagerly complied.

I sat back, telling myself even though my skin still burned where we’d touched, that nothing had happened between Jamie and I just now. Again.

* * *

The next few hours passed more quickly than I would have thought. Sam and I chatted a bit about Christmas plans. He and Cora were spending it with their parents, who lived in Greenville, the next town over from Quince Valley.

“What about you?”

I stretched, arching my back and yawning. “I’m staying home. Too much to do.” Like packing up for a new job, if all went well.

“What about your family?” Sam asked.

“My sister and her girls are going to Florida to see my mom.”

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