Page 3 of Brock
“Deal,” she says. “Tomorrow you take me.”
“To the bluff,” I croak.
She smiles. “All the way.”
3
Layla
It’s pitch back when I arrive at the diner. I sit in my car sipping from my thermos of freshly made coffee. Wondering why the heck I’m awake so frigging early when I could be curled up in bed.
The time on the clock reads 04:48. I arrived early because I wanted to impress Brock. But now I’m wishing I’d set my alarm a little later.
I was up half the night worrying about my job.
When I told my boss we weren’t going to be able to use Bellamy’s Bluff, he freaked out. I didn’t realize how invested he was in using this location.
“I don’t care what you have to do,” he said. “Just do it.”
“But what if I can’t?” I’d tried to explain to him how Brock was the owner and how he wasn’t interested. “Some people can’t be bought off.”
“Everyone has a price, Layla. All you have to do is find it. That’s your job isn’t it?”
“I guess so.”
“Good,” he snarled. “Because if you don’t get it, don’t bother coming back. I’ll find someone else. Someone who can give me results.”
With that, he’d hung up. Leaving me alone and restless in my bed. Worrying about how I’m going to get Brock to sign on to something he clearly has no interest in. And worrying about how, if I don’t manage to get Brock on board, I won’t have a job. And that means I won’t have any money coming in. And how I probably shouldn’t have spent so much money on shoes last month. And how I definitely shouldn’t have charged it to my credit card. And then I started adding up all the debt I’m in and before I knew it it was four o’clock in the morning and my eyes hurt from all the crying and my alarm was going off and I’d barely been able to catch a moment’s sleep.
FML.
I’m just about to close my eyes and try and take a quick power nap when the headlights from Brock’s truck sweep across the small, dark parking lot.
I can only see his shadow as he gets out of the car, but even that’s sexy.
I’ve been worrying about my work so much, I’d completely forgotten how breathtakingly handsome Brock is.
He taps on my window. I press the button and it slides down.
“You ready?”
“It’s still dark.”
He chuckles. “That’s the whole point. Unless you want to watch a sunrise after the sun’s already risen?”
“I haven’t even finished my coffee.”
“Look, if you don’t wanna go, that’s fine. I have plenty of stuff needs doing.”
“No,” I say. “I’m sorry. I’m just not much of a morning person.”
I open my car door and step down onto the gravel.
I thought we were going to hike to the Bluff, but it turns out there’s a small dirt track, and I get in Brock’s truck and he drives almost all the way there.
I should probably be trying to convince him to let us use the bluff for our movie, but instead, I lean my head back against the seat and close my eyes. I feel safe when I’m with Brock. Even though I barely know him.
“You come here often?” I ask, my voice full of sleep. My eyes still closed. My hand on my lap and just a few inches from his, gripping the shifter.
