Page 58 of Crossing the Brooklyn Briggs
I remind that voice that Brooklyn has been pining after this guy for who knows how long and I just spent my weekend building her up to this moment.
“That…” Brooklyn probably swallows, and I would bet money that she’s completely red right now. “That sounds good.”
Good. Not great, lovely, fun, awesome, or anything else that packs a little more punch thangood. Maybe her next lesson should be a revisit of how to stroke a man’s ego.
Next lesson. As if we’re going to keep hanging out and pretending there’s no attraction between us. I should really give Brooklyn the benefit of the doubt and let her handle things from here. She’s had enough boyfriends over the years that she can’t be completely clueless when it comes to dating. I’m hoping this lapse in flirting skills is only a side effect of her jerk of a boss, James, not standing up for her. Jerky James should really be paying for damages when it comes to this woman, even if he wasn’t directly involved with her losing her job.
Jury’s still out on that.
After another painfully long pause, Mark finally seals the deal. “Can I pick you up?”
I freeze right as my truck turns off completely, cutting me off from Brooklyn’s response. Scrambling, I dive into the backseat to grab my phone from my bag where I left it earlier. “What did she say?” I ask the silent cab.
My hand finally connects with my phone, and I lift it to my ear right as Brooklyn says, “Jordan? When did you call me?”
I have to fight to keep my breathlessness out of my voice. “You called me.”
“I did?”
So this wasn’t intentional. Suddenly I feel like I’ve just broken a level of trust, and I don’t like it. “Just now, yeah. Everything okay?”
“Everything’s good. Mark just asked me out.”
My voice cracks as I say, “That’s great.” It’s not great. It’s not evengood. I hate everything about the fact. “When’s the big date?”
“Tonight. Um.” She’s quiet for a second. “Could you come over before? I’m kind of freaking out.”
No!the little voice screams in my head.That is aterribleidea.
“Sure, Queens. I should be finished up around six.”
“Thank you.”
She shouldn’t be thanking me when tonight is most likely going to be torturous for me. There’s no saying how I might act, and that is very, very dangerous.
“I’m an idiot.”
Rick doesn’t look up from the sprinkler pipe he’s cutting even though I’ve stepped into his sunlight and thrown his work into shadow. “Took you this long to figure that out?”
I consider tackling him but think better of the idea when I remember what he did to me yesterday when he flipped me. “See if I come to you the next time I need advice,” I grumble.
“Why are you an idiot in this instance, Torres?”
“Brooklyn’s going out tonight.”
“That’s great!”
“Not with me.”
“Less great.”
“She’s going to dinner with her longtime crush, and I agreed to hang out with her until he shows up.”
Rick finally looks up, and the expression he’s giving me makes me feel like I just proposed that we change our company uniform to being completely in the buff to drum up more business. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I’m—”
“An idiot. Yes, I’m seeing the connection. Did you forget the part when I told you to either stop playing games or go all in?”
