She gave her friend a sideways glance as she cautiously drove Jack’s car into the parking lot behind DreamMakers. “Are you sure you don’t want me to take you back to the apartment?”
“No, I’m okay. I don’t want to get you in trouble with Jack. I can’t believe he let you drive his car in the first place. But it was nice of you to come and pick me up.” Kendra sighed. “It’s crazy that I have to buy a whole new tire for my car! I thought it was just a regular old flat.”
“Hey, at least the tire didn’t blow out when you were on the freeway. I’m glad you’re okay.” Pepper shrugged. “Besides, it wasn’t that far out of my way, and you did me a solid by helping me finish setting up all the equipment in the media room at the hotel. You’ve got some moves. I appreciate it.”
“No prob.” Kendra played her fingers over the stick shift as they sat facing the back door of the DreamMakers office. She looked as if she had something on her mind, but she’d been like that for the last couple of days, and Pepper didn’t want to pry.
It was a different thing sharing an apartment. Surprisingly a lot different from living together in the dorm, and Pepper wasn’t sure when—or why—the bit of unease had worked into their relationship.
Rather than voice her cryptic thoughts, Kendra suddenly brightened, turning to face Pepper with a grin. “You wanna go out for dinner later? Maybe hit up a club?”
Pepper shook her head as the two women slid out of the car. “Jack’s out on recon tonight with Dean, and they said they were heading to the office when they were done. I’m just gonna hang out here until he gets back. You sure you’re okay cabbing it back to the mechanic and waiting for your tire?”
“Yeah, it’ll be fine. I can flirt with all the sexy grease monkeys until my car is ready.” Kendra grinned. “Trust me, I’ll have a lot more fun than you will here. You’ve got that meeting with the barracuda, right?”
“Don’t remind me.” Pepper made a gagging noise as she punched in the passcode to the back-door security keypad. “I swear that woman does things just to piss me off.”
“You took what she wanted. That would get anyone’s back up,” Kendra noted.
“Not my fault Jack’s got good taste,” Pepper said as she pushed through the door, glancing over her shoulder to smile at her friend. “You sure you don’t want to come in and wait for the cab here?”
“Naah, I want to grab a coffee from Starbucks first. I’ll call the taxi from there.”
Pepper leaned in to give her friend a side hug, then said goodbye and headed to the conference room to prepare the final things she needed for this last dreaded meeting with Charlene. When she realized she’d left the connection wires she needed in the backseat of Jack’s car, she sighed and rushed out to the lot to grab them.
She was just closing the car door when Charlene pulled into the parking space next to her, her tires damn near rolling over Pepper’s toes.
Pepper adjusted her smile to maximum “you’re a bitch, and we both know it, but I’m the bitch who got Jack” smile. “Well, hey, Charlene. So lovely to see you again.”
This time Charlene didn’t even pretend. She tossed off a dirty stare and led the way to the building. “I’ve got too much on my plate to make nice right now, little girl. Let’s get this done, because we both know we don’t want to be playing at being besties.”
Oh, so it was going to be that way, was it? Pepper could go for the jugular just as hard. “Not a problem with me. The customer is always right.”
Charlene paused before she went in the door. “Is Jack here?” she asked.
“No.”
The woman hesitated in the doorframe. “But his car is here. Did he go out on a job?”
“Of course not,” Pepper shared. “I drove it.”
The expression on Charlene’s face was a charming combination of admiration and disgust, with a touch of jealousy sprinkled on top like teeny blue, red, and pink candy confectionery. Pepper allowed a small moment of utter satisfaction to well up once more.
“She’s a lovely ride,” she said purposefully. “Handles the corners so well, don’t you think?”
Charlene pushed past her with a soft sniff. “I have somewhere to be in a short while. Let’s get this over with.”
Bazinga.
During their brief meeting, however, Pepper became aware of an entirely new emotion tangling around the thoughts of Jack and the trust that he’d put in her.
Not only the fact that he let her drive his car, but that he’d trusted her with a whole lot of other things. She wasn’t going to lie—the threesome with Dean had been freaking awesome, and something she had never imagined bossy, possessive Jack would ever do in a million years. But he had, for her. That was huge.