Page 195 of One Bad Idea
He gave me a mischievous grin. "So, you wanna pack? Isthatwhat you're telling me?"
"No." I hesitated. "Well, yeah, maybe that, too, but…"
With a look that was all innocence, he said, "But what?"
"Oh, you know what," I laughed. With that, I reached for his hand and began tugging him toward the truck.
Behind me, he was saying, "You're pretty strong for someone so small."
Now, I couldn’t stop laughing. "Oh stop it. If I weren't dragging you, you'd be dragging me."
"Got that right."
Giddy with love and laughter, I rushed us toward the truck. But when we reached the passenger's side, my laughter faded. "Oh, no." I pointed through the window. "The keys, I left them in the ignition."
It shouldn’t've been surprising. This morning, I'd been so distracted, it was a wonder that I'd made it into the office at all.
From behind me, Jaden said, "So?"
I turned around to face him. "So, how are we gonna leave?"
He eyed me with obvious amusement. "Is that a serious question?"
"Oh. Right." I glanced around. "So, where'd you park?"
"Nowhere," he said. "I had Hank drop me off."
Hank was his regular driver – the one who ferried the brothers to the airport whenever they weren't driving themselves, which granted, wasn't very often. I said, "So….should we call him now?"
"Screw that." Jaden left my side and vaulted himself into the truck bed.
I asked, "What are you doing?"
Already, he was reaching toward the rear window, or, as he'd called it, the slider.
Now, I couldn’t help but cringe. "Sorry, it's locked." And it was. Ever since that first day, I'd been excessively careful. In truth, I never used the slider at all, for fear of accidently leaving it open.
But Jaden was grinning. "We'll see."
From the sidelines, I watched in amazement as he slid open the rear window and began climbing, head-first, into the vehicle. My mouth fell open.What the heck?
Ihadlocked it, hadn't I?
I couldn’t help but stare as he tumbled into the passenger area and then reached out to unlock the passenger's side door. He pushed the door open and said, "And just so you know, I'm driving."
I was too stunned to move. "Wait, it wasn't locked?"
"Not anymore."
"So….you had a key?"
He grinned. "Get in, and I'll tell you."
I was too giddy to argue. With a laugh, I climbed into the truck and shut the door behind me as Jaden settled himself into the driver's seat.
As he fired up the engine, I said, "So…? What'd you do? I mean, it didn't even have some sort of secret key, did it?"
He gave a low scoff. "Keys are for pussies."
