Page 51 of Cain

Which was why I was thinking about sending him that coffee emoji after I did another few gigs.

Once I was finished getting dressed, I grabbed my bag, then spent a minute peeking through my blinds and peephole, making sure no one was around.

But there was no one.

I really did seem to be blowing the whole thing out of proportion. When the sisters came back from apple picking and I went to collect the small bunch they promised me even though I’d objected (half-heartedly, because, well, fresh apples), I would call them off their mission to watch my room.

It was overkill.

I didn’t notice anything wrong until I was right at the side of my car and saw one side looked lower.

“Dammit,” I grumbled when I walked around to find the driver’s side front wheel was flat. Not “I probably need air” flat. Flat as a flat could be.

One major “selling point” for my piece-of-crap car had been that it had a spare under the trunk carpet.

Which would be great.

If I had a jack.

And knew how to change a tire.

I glanced at the building, knowing the place was full of men. But I also didn’t want to give any of them a reason to get the wrong idea about me.

An idea formed, and I reached for my phone before I could talk myself out of it.

We’d had an agreement about a coffee emoji.

I figured a tire one worked just as well. With the coffee emoji after it.

I barely had to wait two minutes before my phone was ringing.

“Hey,” I answered.

“Hey, babe. What’s with the tire?”

“Well, I’d like to get that coffee with you. But I appear to have a flat tire and no jack. So it’s a request for a jack, I guess. I didn’t know who else to ask.”

“Yeah, I’ve got a jack. Do you have a tire?”

“There’s a spare in the trunk.”

“Alright. You in a hurry?”

“I literally have nowhere I can be right now.”

“Give me half an hour and shoot me your address.”

“Thank—”

“Don’t,” he cut me off. “You don’t need to thank me. Shoot me the address.”

With that, he ended the call. And I found myself smiling down at my phone as I typed up the address to the motel.

With nothing else to do, I found myself frantically straightening up my car as I waited, becoming hyper-aware of the discarded wrappers, various receipts, and collection of reusable bags tossed haphazardly across the backseat.

By the time I heard an SUV pulling into the lot, it was as neat as I could make it, considering it came with ribbed fabric and an abundance of built-in stains.

“I didn’t know you had an SUV,” I said as Cain jumped out, looking hotter than he had any right to be in his usual jeans, a black tee, and his leather cut.