I held tight to that anger now, despite her smelling so damn edible. “As you can see, I’m not having a heart attack. The battery died.” I jerked my chin toward my truck. “And then the pig.” I jerked my head in the other direction, toward the pipe. “No cell service.”
“You shouldn’t be out here without a charged battery jumper,” she said, which was true and also, quite frankly, really un-fucking-helpful. “It’s stupid.”
“I used mine this morning and didn’t have time to charge it.”
My sister had left the light on in her Subaru. Thank god it was me out here in the rain and not her. I had bought her a rechargeable battery jumper while I was in town today because she would be living with me for the foreseeable future. It was sitting behind the driver’s seat.
Also uncharged, of course.
She twirled her umbrella again and stared at me like she was waiting for something. What the hell did she want from me? Rain sluiced down my forehead and dripped into my eyes while she stood there, perfectly dry, twirling her goddamn umbrella like she had all the time in the world, and my truck?—
Oh, goddammit.
I had to ask this woman for a favor? No. Absolutely not. She was a fucking bitch, and I would rather die of pneumonia than give her the satisfaction.
But the dang pig.
And Amy was waiting for me. If I didn’t get home soon, she’d decide to come looking for me. I didn’t want her out in this storm. She was used to the flat fields of Oklahoma, not the twisting roads of the Rocky Mountains.
“I’d appreciate a jump, if it’s not too much trouble,” I pushed out through gritted teeth. “I’ve got cables in my truck.”
She stopped twirling that fucking umbrella and her pretty pink lips tilted in a smirk. “No trouble at all.”
I grabbed the cables from my truck while she turned her small SUV around so our engines were facing each other and cut the engine. I popped the hood and waved the cables at her through her windshield so she knew I was ready. Chloe nodded and reached across the passenger seat to the glove compartment, pulled out a notecard, read it over with a little nod of her head, put it away, then pulled it back out and looked over it again before putting it away and shutting the glove compartment.
I cocked my head questioningly as our eyes met through her windshield. She arched an eyebrow and popped the hood.
“Red is positive!” she hollered, her voice muffled behind the glass. “Positive to positive, negative to negative.”
“Yeah, I fucking know,” I muttered to myself. I clamped the cables from her battery to mine. “Turn on your car!” I shouted back.
I waited a couple minutes with her engine running before starting mine. It roared to life. Thank fuck. I kept the engine running while I darted back into the rain, unclamped the cables, and shut both our hoods.
I rapped on her window, and she rolled it down an inch. “Thanks for your help. I’m good from here. You can go.”
With a crisp nod, she rolled the window back up.
The engine needed to run a little bit longer to get the battery charge up, and that fucking pig was still in the goddamn pipe. I squatted down and saw him lying on his side, like he had simply accepted that this was his home now.
“All right, asshole,” I muttered as I lowered myself to the mud. “How about you help me help you this time, okay?”
He snorted. It sounded like a swear word.
“You don’t fit. Why do you keep trying?”
Chloe’s voice came from somewhere down by my feet. I pulled my head out of the pipe to glare at her. “Shouldn’t you be halfway home by now? Go on, now. Shoo.” I waved my hands at her like she was a mangy stray dog.
She looked at the hole with narrowed eyes, sizing it up, and then back to my face. “I could fit.”
“Really.” I dragged my gaze up her bare legs, over her tiny denim shorts, up to the white t-shirt that would for sure go see-through in the rain. “You’re going to crawl through the mud wearing that?”
She crooked a finger at me and that was all it took because I was some kind of masochist, apparently. I rolled to my feet and prowled toward her.
“Take off your shirt,” she said.
Did I ask for an explanation? No.
Did I politely suggest she go fuck herself? Also no.
