Rock Hard

Chapter 23

Staring at the innocuous cadet-blue bungalow, Jessica sat in her mother’s driveway filled with dread. She couldn’t do this. Could not stay in that house. Sure, her mother was a pain in the ass and made her crazy with the constant harping, but her stepfather, Ed… Just thinking about him made her skin crawl.

A five-hour drive, mostly through the Mojave Desert, had done a lot to put things into perspective. It was astonishing how much better her brain worked when a certain man wasn’t stirring her emotions like a blender on liquefy. She felt kind of bad for going off on Sed just because he’d reacted badly to the press. In the same situation, she wasn’t sure what she would have said. She definitely wouldn’t have claimed to be his fiancée. More likely, she’d have gotten physically violent. In his stupid, macho way, Sed had been trying to make things better. He hadn’t succeeded. Not by a long shot. But it had been his intention. Sometimes that was more important than the outcome. Wasn’t it? She didn’t know.

Jessica pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and stared at it for a good ten minutes before dialing Sed’s number.

“Jessica?” Sed answered breathlessly.

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

Silence for a long minute.

“Did you need something?” he asked finally.

She glanced up at her mother’s house and then at the dashboard. “A place to stay,” she said in a mousy squeak.

Another long silence. “Do you want to stay with me?”

She nodded, her chest tight. Why did she feel like crying?

“Jessica?”

She realized he hadn’t heard the marbles rattling around in her head when she’d nodded. “Yes. If you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind.”

“I’m sorry I went off on you in Vegas. I know you were just trying to fix things.”

“Sometimes I say some pretty stupid shit.”

“Sometimes?” She laughed. It felt good. She didn’t understand why it bothered her so much to fight with him. She didn’t like the idea that she had started to care about him again in such a short time. Or maybe she’d never stopped caring. She didn’t know. She just wanted to be with him. Even if that meant she had to swallow her pride, call him, and ask for a place to stay. Stupid, Jessica. So stupid.

“Do you know where I live? Or do you want me to pick you up?”

“Give me your address. I’ll find it.”

While she was writing his address on a receipt she’d found in her purse, the front door opened and Ed stepped out on the porch. His bulbous eyes brightened when he noticed her sitting in the driveway. She lodged the phone between the side of her head and her shoulder, put the car in reverse, and headed back to Sed. The lesser of two evils, she told herself, which in no way explained the buoyancy in her heart.