Page 4 of Titus

“Obviously. My bad. I just…we just…Hell,” she sighs then steps to me. “I’m Taarini, her loud friend. Nice to meet you.”

She holds her hand out for a shake and after shifting the jack to my right hand, I shake hers. “Nice to meet you.”

“And please don’t think I’m creepy. We are heading to the rodeo in Millers Pointe. I recognize you from the website. Bull riding, right?” she asks but because of how her eyes shift to Quinn, I think she knows I’m not no damn bull rider.

“Tie-down roping.”

“Oh that’s right. Roping.”

“Yeah. But let me get this tire done so y’all can get to the rodeo in time. Excuse me, Miss Quinn. I need to get your spare.”

Quinn steps back and I remove the tire from her trunk. “It’s this back one,” she says, pointing to her shredded passenger tire.

“Do you need something out of your ride before I jack it up?”

“Yeah, my phone.”

She rushes to the driver’s side and I walk to her tire. It’s fucked up but the rim looks straight. After placing the tire and jack on the ground, I kneel down and run my hand over the rim to confirm it’s not cracked or bent. When Quinn walks back over to me, holding her phone, I start changing her tire.

“Can I touch your horse?” she asks.

“Her name is Phoenix and she’s not a pet. I compete with her, Plus, she’s not friendly,” I explain. “You can touch me though.”

“Not cute,” she scoffs but when I look up, I see her smiling.She wants me.

When her friend hands her a drink out of her bag, I get back to the tire. As I’m jacking it up, I see Lab walking over to us. He’s holding a bag as full as Quinn’s homegirl. I see him pull out an apple, no doubt for Phoenix. Without even acknowledging the ladies, his rude ass pulls a Gatorade out of his bag, then holds it out to me. He tries his hardest not to bend too much because of his injury, so I reach up and grab the bottle.

“Thanks,” I tell him.

Quinn and her homegirl just stare at him and he keeps ignoring them. That’s his thing, especially when we are on the road. If he thinks the women are buckle bunnies, he shows them no attention, but he’s wrong this time, at least about Quinn. Babygirl clearly isn’t a buckle bunny. Her style, her ride, and even the subtle diamond bracelet on her wrist and the diamond hoops in her ears scream classy not trashy.

“I got Phoenix an apple too. I cleaned it,” he says before walking over to Phoenix.

“Your friend is rude,” Quinn says.

“Very,” her friend adds but I don’t miss how she’s hawking my cousin with her eyes.

“He’s just quiet and he’s my cousin, Lab. I need your wheel locks. Can you check back in your trunk?”

“Yeah,” Quinn answers.

When she steps back to the trunk, Lab walks back over. He stands next to Quinn’s friend.I can’t remember her name.I’m too focused on fine ass Quinn. She’s the only one I want to know everything about.

“Well, hey, Lab,” she says.

“What’s up, ma,” he replies cooly and I know he’s checking for her. He calls any female he has his sights on ma.

“Taarini but everyone calls me Rini.”

“You the one that did this?”

“No. This is Quinn’s BMW and her tire. But she didn’t do this either. We don’t know what happened.”

“Looks like y’all ran over something. That tire is fucked up.” He slightly kicks the lug wrench to get my attention. “Is the rim fucked up too?”

“No but I don’t know how though,” I admit. Quinn returns with the wheel locks and kneels down next to me. Her sweet scent fills my nose. She smells good as hell too. She hands me thepack of wheel locks. It clearly hasn’t been opened. “Is this new?” I ask, nodding toward her ride.

“Not really. I’ve had her for a year.”

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