Page 20 of One Bad Idea
I stomped down the front steps and stalked across the front lawn. I stopped within spitting distance and glared up at him. "Hey!" I repeated. "That's not your truck."
Ignoring me, he said into his phone. "Sorry, not gonna happen."
I made a what-the-hell gesture with my hands and moved closer. "You heard me, right?"
Ignoringthistoo, he focused all of his attention on whatever the caller was saying. And then, he frowned. "Yeah, but you're not dealing withher." An edge crept into his voice. "You're dealing withme."
I stifled a sudden shiver. Even when I'd destroyed his sandwich, he'd never sounded – or looked – quite so ominous.
But I wasn't going to let that stop me. I squared my shoulders and hissed, "We need to talk."
In response, he turned away, facing the truck instead of me.
That’s when I spotted it – my own cell phone, tucked into the back pocket of his tattered jeans.
My mouth fell open.What an ass.
And no, I wasn't talking about his backside, which admittedly, was pretty darn nice.
I gave a small shake of my head.What on Earth was wrong with me?
Shrugging off the distraction, I focused on the phone.
Probably, I should've been happy to see it, but all I felt was irritation. For all I knew, he'd been planning to keep the thing, if only to make me crazy.
The guy had obvious boundary issues. Already, he'd helped himself to the truckandmy phone.What next? My panties?
As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I felt an embarrassing rush of heat flash across my face and then, even worse, settle southward. The topic of my panties was so far removed from the situation at-hand that it didn't even make sense.
Plus, the panties in question weren't even my own. They were borrowed, which made the whole idea doubly ridiculous.
Into the phone, he was saying, "Go ahead. Call if you want. But I'm still the one you'll be dealing with."
I cleared my throat. "Hey! Remember me?"
When he didn't even flinch, I sidled up beside him, making myself impossible to ignore.
And yet, the ignoring continued.
I cleared my throat again. "Well?"
Finally, he pulled the phone away from his ear and studied the display. Speaking more to himself than to me, he said, "Guess he hung up."
I gave a snort of derision. "Yeah, I can see why."
Finally, he gave me a smidgen of his attention. "Meaning?"
I glared up at him. "I'm just saying, you weren't very nice."
"Good," he said. "I wasn't trying to be."
Yeah, whatever.
I crossed my arms. "Speaking of which, what are you doing?"
He gave me a look. "Aside from being hassled?"
I almost laughed in his face. "You'rebeing hassled? Oh, please." I pointed toward the open passenger's side door. "You broke into my truck."
