Page 121 of Now and Forever

“I didn’t know Judith was your girlfriend.” Now both nod. “But I want you to know she just fixed my car all by herself.”

“All I did was change a fuse.”

Leonard smiles as he touches his finger to the frozen tip of his nose.

“You knew how to do something I didn’t, and that, young lady, surprised me.”

Tension. Eric doesn’t smile.

“How’s your mother?” the man asks.

“Fine.”

“And Flyn?”

“Perfect,” Eric answers dryly.

What’s going on? I’m missing something. After an awkward moment, they say goodbye. Leonard starts up his Mercedes, turns on the lights, and drives off. Eric, Susto, and I get in the car.

“What were you doing alone with Leonard?” he asks. The engine’s running but the car’s not moving.

“Nothing.”

“What do you mean ‘nothing’?”

“C’mon ... his car lights were out, and I changed a fuse. That’s all I did. Don’t get mad.”

“And why did you have to do it?”

I’m dumbstruck by the absurdity of the question. “Well, Eric ... because it happened that way. My father educated me for that sort of thing. By the way, how do you know him?”

Eric looks at me.

“That dumbass whose car you fixed is Leo, Hannah’s boyfriend when everything happened. He was the one who got rid of Flyn without a second thought.”

What?

That idiot is the one who didn’t want anything more to do with Flyn when Hannah died? If I’d known that, I never would have helped him.

Eric’s eyes spit fire. He’s very angry. Clearly frustrated by the memories this has dragged up, he slams his hands against the steering wheel.

“You seemed very comfortable with him.”

I don’t want to argue, and, trying to keep things calm, I say softly, “Listen, darling, I didn’t know who that man was. I was just being nice and—”

“Well, don’t be,” he says, cutting me off. “Someday you’ll realize that here, if you’re so nice to a man, he’ll think you’re flirting.”

That makes me smile.

“Are you jealous?”

Eric doesn’t answer. He just looks at me with those beautiful eyes that drive me crazy. “Should I be?”

I shake my head no while I turn on the car’s CD player, and I’m surprised to find Eric has been listening to my music. Eric protests. I grin as Luis Miguel sings.

Eric’s furrowed brow makes me sigh.

“Is your headache better?”

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