Page 91 of Edge of Unbroken

He frowns, his gaze moving back to the car. “I’ve been meaning to move Ran’s car into the garage, or at least into the driveway and off the street, but I kept forgetting. I wanted to finally do it today, but then it didn’t start. Dead battery.”

“Oh no,” I say, peeking around Steve and under the hood of Ronan’s Mustang, like I have any idea what the hell I’m looking at. “Can’t you just give it a jump?”

“I tried, but that battery isdeaddead.” He runs his hand through his hair. It makes me smile because Ronan does the exact same thing, only he uses his left hand. “I had to get a new one and I just finished installing it when you decided to give me a freaking heart attack.”

“Sorry,” I giggle.

“I forgive you.” He nods his head toward the car. “Want to see if we can get this baby to start?”

I hesitate. I haven’t been in Ronan’s car since the night of my birthday five months ago when he dropped me off at home—before I asked him to stay with me and before I gave myself to him completely. The last time Ronan drove his car, he was still healthy and whole.

Steve moves past me and opens the passenger door for me. He raises his eyebrows, waiting for me to get into the car, so I oblige. The second I’m in the seat, my eyes fall shut as I inhale deeply. Ronan’s clean, masculine scent awakens my senses, and the ache of missing him is almost unbearable.

“What’s wrong?” Steve asks me when he slides into the driver’s seat and closes the door.

I shake my head. “Nothing. I just miss him.”

“I know. Me, too.” He puts the key in the ignition. “Fingers crossed,” he says and turns the key. Ronan’s car comes alive with a roar.

“Oh, thank god,” Steve says. “Good girl.” He caresses the steering wheel.

“Good girl?”

“Well, yeah,” he says with a grin. “I was so fucking scared she wouldn’t turn over. Ran would have killed me. You can’t tell him about this as it is, okay? He’ll be pissed if he finds out I let his car die. Want to take her for a ride? Make sure we move the fuel through the lines?”

“Sure.” I buckle up just as Steve puts the car in drive. “So, I didn’t realize cars had genders?” I giggle.

“Uh, duh!” Steve huffs.

I laugh aloud. “Oh, okay. And Ran’s car is a girl?”

“Obviously,” Steve says, patting the steering wheel again. “She’s kind of sensitive. Requires a lot of attention. Ask Ran!”

I scrunch my nose. “What are you trying to say? That girls need to be handled with care and require a lot of attention?” I ask with mock offense.

“I mean, Ran’s car has very specific requirements. Ran knows exactly how to drive her; I can never shift as smoothly as he does. And she needs to be tuned all the damn time. This car is much more finicky than mine,” he says, then looks at me. “That’s not a bad thing. I just mean this car has standards. And from my limited life experience, I can say girls have standards. And if they don’t, they should.” Steve shrugs.

“Got it.” I laugh again, then close my eyes, listening to the familiar sound of the engine, feeling the soft, conditioned leather of the seat with my fingertips, inhaling Ronan’s scent.

Steve takes us to the freeway, where he speeds up, merging lanes, weaving easily through the afternoon traffic, though his style of driving is different from Ronan’s, and I understand what he meant when he told me about his inability to shift gears as smoothly as Ronan. The car jerks the tiniest bit as he moves between higher and lower gears, whereas it’s almost undetectable when Ronan changes gears.

“I really need to make it a point to drive her more,” Steve says when he slows for traffic. “I can’t risk another dead battery before Ran gets home,” he adds, then turns to me. “Or maybe you should drive her,” he says with a smile.

“What? No way. I have no idea how to drive a stick shift.”

“Easy enough to learn,” he says, speeding back up. “I can teach you. I bet Ran would love that. His favorite girl in his favorite car. Nothing sexier.” He chuckles and wiggles his eyebrows at me.

“I don’t know…”

“Ran is going to come back to a whole new Cat. You’ll be a pro at skating, you’ll know how to drive a stick shift—what more could he want?” Steve says with a laugh.

“Me doing all these things naked, probably,” I say before I can stop myself.

Steve grins at me. “Oh yeah, that would definitely be a crowd-pleaser,” he laughs. “Although I’m not sure you two would get any skating or driving done if you just stood in front of him naked.”

“I don’t think so either.”

He glances at me briefly, a mischievous grin brightening his face. “So, I heard you got in a fight today.”

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