Page 44 of Suddenly Dating
“Because I want to go to that party, that’s why.” He shoved the door of the Green Bean open, holding it so that Lola could sail through.
“Why?”
“Because I need to meet Albert Cantrell in the worst possible way,” he said, striding a step ahead of her toward his truck. “He is the CEO of Horizons Enterprises, and they just landed that giant toll road contract with the three bridges that I want to build. Un-fucking-believable! How small is this planet, anyway?” He pointed his key fob at his truck to unlock it, then opened the passenger door and grandly gestured for her to enter.
He didn’t honestly think he could just gesture and she would hurry over and hop in his truck, did he?
“Get in,” he said, as if she were so dumb she didn’t know what all the waving was supposed to mean.
“No!”
He sighed impatiently. “We’re going to the grocery store, remember?”
“I’m not going to any grocery store.” She folded her arms.
Harry stared at her. He braced his arm against the door. “It will be okay,” he said gently. “We have some things we should probably discuss. And as long as you promise not to throw yourself at me, we ought to be just fine.”
Lola gaped. Her cheeks flamed. “Oh, I don’t think you have to worry about that, Buster,” she said. “Cold day in hell and all that.”
Harry smiled. “Baby, you would never make it to that cold day if I didn’t want you to. Come on, get in.”
What a presumptuous, self-satisfied, egotistical being! She lifted her chin and looked away, sniffing lightly. She glanced at Harry sidelong. He was smiling, all too sure of himself. Too bad he was half-crazy and half-jerk, because otherwise, she might be sort of interested to know what his moves were.
“How long are you going to stand there?” he asked.
“I’m not riding on the console.”
“I cleaned it out.”
“What about my bike? If I leave it here, it might be stolen.”
“Oh, right—East Beach is a hotbed of thieving and robbery,” he said. “Where is it?”
She pointed to the rack.
Harry squinted in that direction. “Key?”
Was she really going to do this? Had she not humiliated herself enough as it was? Not quite, apparently, because she very coolly retrieved her key and pressed it into his open palm. “Be careful with it. It’s an antique.”
She heard him mutter something under his breath as she climbed into his truck.
Thirteen
Harry tried not to lecture her, but he couldn’t help himself. “Of all the reckless things you could have done,” he said as he sped down the road to Black Springs. “Claiming to be Zach’s friend? All it would take was a question or two to figure out you don’t know him at all. You can’t talk about the house, Lola.”
“You think I don’t know that?” she shot back. She was sitting with her legs crossed, her arms folded tightly over her middle. “What I am supposed to say when someone asks where I’m living? Sara said they never used the lake house once things got bad between them and that no one was there but some caretaker. It never crossed my mind that Mallory would actuallyknowZach Miller. And by the way, you’re one to talk! Mallory knows everyone in town, so now everyone in town is going to know that Zach’s friend, who would beme,” she said, jabbing herself in the chest, “is shacking up in Zach’s house with some random dude.”
“How did I become a random dude?” Harry repeated, not liking the sound of that.
“Because that’s what you were before you opened your big fat mouth,” Lola said pertly. “What was all that business about draping your arm over the back of my seat?” she asked, and squirmed, as if she were trying to shake off his invisible arm.
As Harry didn’t know why exactly he’d gone down that road, he changed the subject. “How did you manage to meet Albert Cantrell’s daughter anyway?” he asked, still amazed by the coincidence.
“I didn’t know that she was Albert Cantrell’s daughter. Is it really that big of a deal?”
“Yes.Huge. You have no idea. Where did you meet her?”
“At the Green Bean. I went in there looking for Birta Hoffman, but there were no seats, and she offered me a seat at her table. We hit it off.”
