Page 37 of Run Away With Me

‘Almost certainly.’

‘Ah, well. She’s a pretty girl. So are you, for what it’s worth.’

‘Now you’re being a creep.’ I barely kept the laughter out of my voice.

‘Nah. Just stating a fact.’

‘Creepy,’ I muttered, and sipped my Sprite to hide my smile. Mikey still noticed, though.

‘Hey, I’m an engaged man,’ he started, then stopped to pull his phone out of his pocket. It lit up with a picture of a beautiful woman with dark, curly hair and freckles, holding a tiny dog. The dog was licking the end of her nose, and she was laughing.

‘Congratulations,’ I said. ‘She’s very pretty.’

‘I agree.’ Mikey finished his soda and burped loudly.‘Gotta get back to work.’ He hopped down off the workbench. ‘Shoot your shot, Jenna.’

That was easy for him to say. He was a decent-looking straight guy who could shoot his shot at a pretty straight girl. My situation wasn’t quite so straightforward.

Ha. Pun intended.

I slid to the floor and picked up my can before wandering over to where Brooke and Luca were arguing loudly. And flirting loudly. I didn’t know you could flirt while arguing, but they were doing a very good job of it.

‘What’s up?’

They both stopped mid-sentence and whipped around to look at me. I sipped my Sprite.

‘Luca is insulting my car,’ Brooke said, putting her hands back on her hips.

I was starting to learn that was Brooke’s argument mode.

‘I’m justsaying,’ he started. ‘If you wanted to build for speed, you should’ve taken out the –’

‘Did you find the thing?’ I asked, before Luca could build up a full head of steam.

‘Not yet,’ Brooke said.

She clicked on a flashlight and started scanning the underside of the car again.

‘Did you check the engine?’ They both looked at me. I shrugged. ‘It could be in the engine.’

Luca raised his eyebrows. ‘If you told me what you were looking for, I could help.’

‘Itoldyou,’ Brooke said. ‘I won’t know what I’m looking for until I find it.’

He huffed at her. ‘All right. Step back.’

We moved out of the way of the lift and Luca brought the car back down. Before he could step in, Brooke popped the hood and surveyed the engine.

Luca whistled between his teeth. ‘Good work.’

How he could tell from just looking at it, I had no idea. I did get the feeling Brooke was enjoying showing off her car, though. I couldn’t blame her for that.

‘There,’ she said, and reached for a small black box, about the size of a credit card.

It took one hard yank to get it off, and Brooke held it up to the light to get a better look at it.

‘Motherfuckers,’ she murmured.

‘A tracker?’ Luca asked.

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