Page 98 of Spark
“No.” I shake my head. “He’s just a good guy. I’m the asshole.”
“Okay. Well…sorry is usually a pretty good place to start if you’ve fucked up. There’s no guarantee that he’ll forgive you, but if he does actually love you and doesn’t just want to fuck you, then I’m fairly sure he will.”
“He won’t answer my calls.”
“So go and find him.”
“His house is halfway up the mountain. I don’t have a car, and there’s no buses that run that way.”
“I can drive you,” Leo says.
“What? Really?”
“Sure. I’m invested now, and I don’t have any more clients until tonight, so I can drive you to him. Plus, we’re friends now, and this is what you do for your friends.”
“We’re friends?” I question.
“Oh, fuck yeah, we are,” she says, smiling widely, her blood-red lipstick making her look equal parts terrifying and excited. “Leonora O’Gallagher, but don’t ever call me that,” she warns with a grin.
“Verity Sanders.”
“Come on then, let’s go get you your man,” Leo says excitedly, swinging her legs and sliding off the desk.
I stare up at her, then nod and follow her toward the door.
“I’m heading out for a bit. You’ll have to cope if there’s a walk-in,” Leo shouts to no one in particular.
“Okay,” someone calls back.
“Let’s go,” she says, taking my hand and towing me outside and toward a flashy-looking red Mustang convertible. “Get in,” she orders, sliding into the driver’s seat and staring at me expectantly until I climb into the other side.
The moment my seat belt is fastened, she starts the engine and guns the car away from the curb, speeding through town and toward the road that leads up the mountain.
“I’m assuming he lives up near the Barnetts’ place?”
“On the ranch next door,” I confirm, glad that she has some idea how to get there, because I’ve never really paid attention to where we were going when Warrick was driving.
We make it to the mountain in record time, because Leo drives like a maniac, singing along loudly to the radio and throwing her car around the tightly bending road like she’s a race car driver.
My fingers are white from holding onto the seat and the door, and I feel a little sick, but Leo seems completely oblivious as she turns to me. “Okay, so where am I going? That’s the turn-off for the Barnetts’,” she says as we zoom past.
“It’s the next turn on the right,” I tell her.
Gravel rips up behind us as she swings her car to the right and speeds past the sign for the Williams Ranch.
“Left here,” I say, seconds before she drifts to the left and into Jumpers Row, barely missing a car parked outside James and Buck’s house.
“Oh, this is cute,” she says. “Which house?”
I point to Warrick’s home, and she slams on her brakes, skidding to a stop outside.
“Give me your cell,” she demands.
I hand it over, and she quickly types in her number, then saves it underbestiein my contacts. Calling herself from my cell, she just as quickly saves my number in her phone before she hands mine back to me. “Okay, go get your man. I’ll wait fifteen minutes, then leave. If you need me to come and pick you up, just give me a call.”
“Why are you helping me?” I blurt.
“I’m new to town, and we’ve bonded over your trauma. I’m now your ride-or-die bestie,” she says with a grin.
