“Okay, then, get your butt home. I’ll meet you there. Got a woman in need.”
“Oh, no. Not Angela.”
“Nope,” Alec James said, and ended the call.
It was hard to refrain from asking who Angela was, but Zona managed. Instead, she said, “I appreciate this.” Although she should have stuck with her original plan to call Triple A. She didn’t need to be riding around with Alec James. At night. Just the two of them cozied up in his truck. “You didn’t have to stop,” she added.
“It looked like you had some trouble.”
“Story of my life.”
“I can identify with that,” he said.
Alec James had trouble? Hewastrouble.
The silence felt awkward as they drove to his friend’s house, but Zona was having a hard time figuring out how to break it so she gave up trying.
They got to the house before his friend. It was a seventies-style rambler with Alpine trim along the roof that made the house look like it had gotten lost on its way to the mountains. Beyond the large gate at the end of the driveway, she saw a two-car garage.
Alec James shut off the motor and turned to Zona. “Thatex of yours have something to do with why you’re driving fools around at night?”
“You could say that. He lost all our money gambling, raided my daughter’s college savings.” Okay, this was too much sharing. A simple yes would have sufficed.
Alec James let out a low whistle. “Fun times.”
“I’m trying to fix the mess he made.”So don’t judge me.
As if she cared whether or not Alec James judged her.
He nodded, looking surprisingly empathetic. “That sucks. Sometimes all it takes is one messed-up person to turn your life upside down.”
“Try two.” Lovely. Now, she sounded like a bitter loser. Probably because she was.
“So, second time in the fire for you, huh?”
“What can I say? I’m a bad judge of character.”
“Yeah, maybe you are,” he agreed.
She scowled at him.
“What?” he said defensively. “You misjudged me.”
She cocked an eyebrow at him. “Did I?”Great idea, Zona, get the man angry.“Sorry.”
He frowned at her. “Okay, so what do you think I am? Not a murderer. We’ve cleared that up, right?”
“Not a murderer,” she agreed.
A truck pulled up behind them, and a short, stocky man with a shaved head got out and sauntered over to Alec James’s side of the cab. “I guess this is the patient,” he joked.
“It is,” Alec confirmed. “Zona, this is Jasper.”
“The car genius,” Jasper said, and grinned at Zona. Then to Alec James, “Let’s get this baby backed into the garage.” He opened the gate, pulled in his truck, and then opened the second garage. It didn’t take long for Jasper to guide Alec James as he backed Zona’s car into the driveway and then the garage.
“It might take me a couple of days to get this done,” Jaspersaid to Zona after she shared the car’s symptoms with him. “I hope you’re not in a hurry.”
“I can manage,” she said. It was a good thing her mom didn’t need her car.
