Page 101 of Something Tattered
I pretended to consider it. "Well, itispretty nice. And I hear itmighteven include a cell phone." I met Joel's gaze. "But that's not why I kept it."
"Yeah? So why did you?"
"Well, I guess, if I'm being honest, maybe I was hoping for an excuse to invite you over, and see if we could smooth things out."
His gaze softened. "Baby, you don't need an excuse."
His words soothed my soul. And yet, I wasn't quite sure I deserved them. I gave his empty campsite a worried glance. "But I ruined your vacation. Want me to help you set everything up again?"
"Nah," he said. "I've got the campsite for another week, and the tent takes like five minutes to set up. If I had to, I could do it blindfolded."
I bit my lip. "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure." He flashed me a grin. "And besides, we had a deal. Remember?"
Like I could forget.Before his brother showed up, we'd been planning to swap secrets – me about the estate, and him about the fights.
I smiled. "I remember."
"Good," he said, "because I plan to collect."
"Speaking of collecting things…" I cleared my throat. "There's something I've got to say."
"Yeah? What?"
"Thanks, seriously. For everything, especially for getting my car back. Last night, I should've looked, and I feel awful that I ruined the surprise."
He gave me a boyish grin. "So you were surprised, huh?"
I laughed. "You have no idea. And just so you know, I'll pay you back."
"For what?"
"The towing, the repair, whatever." I paused. "Which brings me to a question. Who was the tattooed guy who picked up the car? Was that your brother, Jake?"
"Unfortunately."
My fingers tensed. Things were going so well, and I hated to the rock the boat. But this sibling animosity couldn’t be healthy. I said, "I've seen some of his videos. Pretty crazy stuff."
Joel made a scoffing sound. "If you think he's crazy in those, you should see him in real life. The guy's a total tool."
The bitterness in his voice hurt to hear. No matter how messed up everything was, Joel was luckier than he realized.
I gave him a sympathetic look. "I know you keep saying that, but it was really nice of him to help."
"Nice?" Joel made a sound of derision. "He wasn't being nice. He was being a prick."
A tool. A prick. What next?
"Oh come on," I said. "That can't be true."
"Wanna bet? Last night, we're all at the storage place, and I turn my back for five minutes, and what does he do? He swipes the cap I ordered–"
"Wait. What cap?"
"The distributor cap. For your car."
"You had one? Likeonyou?"
