My body shakes with laughter at her deadpan answer.
“And what else?”
“Sports car. Definitely sports car. You have thatI have a small dick and need to make myself feel better about it with horsepowersort of vibe.”
I grin. “While it’s oddly specific, I see what you mean. It’s the jock angle, right? Most jocks are like that.”
“What made you get a truck? It’s kind of…hot.”
“Well fucking well. Did you just call mehot, Denny?”
She shifts uncomfortably in her seat, rearranging herself until she’s sitting up straighter. She shoves another mouthful of ice cream in then says, “No.”
“Huh? I couldn’t hear you through all your manners over there.” I snatch the container of deliciousness out of her hands. “Give me that. I didn’t say you could eat in here anyway.”
She reaches for it, but I pull it from her grasp.
“It was going to melt, you dick. Give it back!”
“Nope.” I pull the plastic spoon from the pint and lick it clean, not letting myself think too long about the fact that this is probably as close to kissing her as I’ll ever get. “Mine now.”
Denny groans, and I almost wish I hadn’t stolen her ice cream because I’m definitely missing her moans.
She crosses her arms over her chest, her eyes falling to slits as she glares at me. “You cannot eat and drive.”
I toss a wink at her. “Watch me.”
“I hate you.”
“You keep saying that, but the fact that you’re in my truck proves differently.”
She pulls on the locked door handle, testing to see if she can jump out, I’m sure. I mean, wearegoing slow enough for her to survive.
“It’s called desperation, Shep.”
“Bullshit. You could have easily called a cab or an Uber. It’s called convenience.”
“I’m sorry, you want me to call a car atthishour? And get murdered? Wow, I knew you hated me, but I didn’t know you hated me that much.”
I never hated you, I want to say.
I don’t.
“You tried to murder me with a box of tampons earlier. Fair is fair.”
“Oh my god. You can live without an eye, Shep.”
“Not if you’re a famous baseball player.”
“Oh, famous, huh?” She laughs. “Someone’s getting a little big for their britches.”
“Youdidjust see my face on the cover of a magazine, right?”
“It was alocalgossip trash-zine, and it was your mug shot. Are youreallyproud of that?”
There are a lot of things in my life I’m not proud of—what I did to Denny being one of them—but the thing that really hit home for me? Almost losing everything I’ve worked so fucking hard for because I couldn’t handle my emotions like a goddamn pre-teen.
After I nearly lost my career over my unresolved issues, I vowed to turn my shit around and get it together before I mess up so bad I can’t charm my way out of it, turning over a new leaf and all that other sappylook at the new meshit.
