Page 84 of Driven Daddy

“Penn, I have my own car.”

“I’ll bring you back to it later.” I circled the car, and the car unlocked as I got close to it. The beauty of a high-end car with all the bells and whistles. I opened the door for her.

She gripped the top of the door. “Why were you here?”

“Truth?”

“Would be nice.”

I sighed. “I’ve been a cranky bastard since I left your place the other day.” I moved in closer until the tips of our boots touched. “I’ve been annoying the hell out of my brother all morning.”

“That I believe.” She glanced down at my mouth before she finally met my gaze. “You annoy the crap out of me.” Then she slipped inside the car.

“Feeling’s mutual, Duchess.” I shut the door and jogged around to my side.

She was looking around at the dials of my center console. “Fancy.” She hit one that made my seat move forward. “Oops.”

“Oops, my ass.” I hit the button again, which was set to my specifications.

She sat back in her seat and pulled on her seatbelt. “What’s with the dick mobile? I know firsthand that you don’t have a small…appendage.”

“Dick mobile and now you can’t say cock?” I turned over the car’s engine and smoothly pulled out into traffic.

Her smirk was in full effect.

“I don’t know. I always wanted a Jag. It’s ridiculously impractical living in the city, but I was young and dumb and had too much money versus sense.”

She looked over her shoulder at the virtually nonexistent backseat. “No room for carseats in this sweet ride.”

“There is no minivan in my future.”

“Same.” She reached for her phone and flicked it on. The good humor in her eyes slipped away as her fingers tightened around the simple black case.

I reached over and took her phone out of her hand and tossed it in the small ledge in my console. “So, tell me what happened.”

“It’s none of your business.”

“No, but I’m neutral. I don’t know anything about you or what’s going on with your business.”

“You didn’t search me on the internet?”

I shrugged. “I looked at your website. Solid. Hell of a lot of books, Rita. Almost all of them are with your co-writer. TheDate with Disasterbook fills your whole front page.”

She wrapped her arms around her middle. She didn’t want to share anything. I was beginning to figure out her tells. She either iced me out or held herself. And I hated it.

“Ex-co-writer,” she said quietly.

“Ah. I did wonder how you did that whole thing, truthfully. I couldn’t imagine sharing all the shit in my head with someone else and trying to make sense of it between two people.”

“You’d be surprised how easy it is when you understand one another. And we did. At least I thought we did.” She sighed. “Shevisited me for New Year’s. Jenelle, my ex-best friend and co-writer.”

“Hell.” I couldn’t imagine losing both. If something happened between me and Larsen, I was sure it would feel like I’d had an arm lopped off. “How long had you been working together?”

“My whole career.” She looked out the window toward the lake. “I’ve got a few books before we started writing together, but they were mostly under the radar. We hit the market at the right time, and with just the right kind of book, and we never looked back. Jenelle had more business acumen than I did, but I caught up quickly.”

“I have no doubt.” I stopped at the light, and she glanced over at me.

“I have all the doubt to spare.”

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