Hot For You (8 page)

“You’re not going to be homeless in New Orleans, Mama,” Faith said with a sigh. “I’ll wire you some money, and you can—”

“But there’s nothing close to the hotel, and I don’t have my car. It’s still in my garage at home,” Pressie cut in, sounding increasingly hysterical. “And it’s already dark out and this isn’t a good part of town, Faith. There are drug dealers out there, and all these sad little girls selling themselves on the street. Gary said we should stay here because we’d get more vacation for our money, but I was scared, even with him here. Now I’m all alone and I don’t have a dime for a cab or even any supper, and I don’t know how I’m going to—”

“All right, Mama.” Faith cursed beneath her breath, lowering her voice as Mick emerged from the restaurant. “Text me the address of the hotel and your room number. I’ll call you in a pizza delivery and be there to pick you up by tomorrow morning.”

“Oh, thank you, baby,” Pressie said, sounding significantly more relaxed now that she’d gotten the answer she obviously wanted. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome,” Faith said. “See you soon.”

She hung up with a weary sigh. It looked like she was going to be making an all night drive to New Orleans—just what she needed after working seventy-two hours straight with only a few five hour naps throw in.

“What’s up?” Mick asked, holding out her wallet, which she’d abandoned on the table in her haste to get some privacy for her call.

“It’s my mom.” Faith took the wallet, shoving her phone back inside as the text with the address to the hotel came through. “I’ve got to go pick her up in New Orleans by tomorrow morning.”

Mick’s eyebrows lifted. “Faith, that’s like a nine hour drive.”

“I know, but she’s afraid to leave the hotel so I can’t wire her money for the bus, so…” She shrugged, trying not to let her embarrassment show. “Sorry I ruined the night.”

“You didn’t ruin anything.” Mick put a hand on her back, rubbing the spot in between her shoulders in a way that was unexpectedly soothing. “But I don’t think you should drive all that way by yourself, especially after working three days straight. Why don’t I come with you? Help you drive?”

Faith glanced up at him in surprise. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I know,” he said with a smile. “But I don’t have work until Monday, either, and I don’t like the idea of you driving all that way alone in the dark.”

“Really, I’m fine, Mick,” Faith said as she started down the sidewalk. “I’m used to driving alone.”

“Oh, come on,” he said, falling in beside her. “It’ll be fun. We’ll stop at the Quikstop on the way out of town, stock up on candy, and ride the sugar high south.”

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, torn. She wasn’t sure leaning on Mick was a good idea, but she
was
a little worn down, and Jamison and Jake would probably appreciate a break from being her go-to-guys for Mama-related problems. On occasions when she felt compelled to call in reinforcements to bail her mama out, the Hansen brothers never made her feel guilty, but Jake was probably enjoying a night off with Naomi, and Jamison was at work so…

“All right,” she said, feeling lighter as soon as the words were out of her mouth.

“Good.” Mick put an arm around her shoulders as they crossed the street. “I’m glad. I’m not ready to say good-bye yet.”

“Me either,” Faith said, the words out of her mouth before she could think better of them. But Mick didn’t seem troubled by what she’d said; he only smiled down at her and hugged her closer to his side.

So far they were both doing a crappy job of keeping things casual, but who cared when his arm felt so good around her shoulders.

Chapter Six

Mick couldn’t decide if he was having the best—or simply the craziest—date of his life, but he knew this was a night he’d never forget.

By the time he and Faith reached the Alabama state line, they’d eaten all of their candy stash and moved on to nursing extra
-l
arge coffees to stay awake. By the time they saw the sign announcing they were fifty miles from Mobile, they were so exhausted they had to pull over and chase each other around the truck in the cold night air to catch their second wind. And by the time they crossed into Mississippi, they had resorted to blasting nineteen eighties power ballads and singing along at the top of their lungs, having decided the only way not to fall asleep at the wheel was to make sure silence never fell in the truck cab.

“Wow, Miller,” Mick said, reaching over to turn down the radio after a rousing rendition of
Don’t Stop Believin’.
“You couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket with two hands.”

“What a jerk you are,” Faith said, with an outraged laugh. “And I was just going to tell you what a nice voice you had.”

“I do have a nice voice.” Mick chuckled when Faith’s arm shot across the bench seat to punch his shoulder. “What can I say, I’m a classic Irish tenor.”

“You’re an arrogant son of a gun is what you are.” Faith shook her head in mock disgust. “Is there anything you
aren’t
good at, Mr. Fabulous?”

Mick took a moment, humming under his breath as he thought. “I can’t cook to save my life, sometimes I steal milk from my sisters’ fridge and lie about it, and I’m not great at tennis.”

“I’ve never played,” Faith said. “I’m not into sports where girls are supposed to wear short skirts.”

“That’s a shame,” Mick said, meeting Faith’s glare with a grin. “What? I can’t help it. I think you’d look great in a tennis skirt.”

“And you’d look great in a kilt, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to wear one.”

Mick shrugged. “Why not?”

“Seriously?” Faith asked with a snort. “You’d
really
put on a kilt?”

“If you had a thing for guys in skirts…” Mick’s grin stretched wider as Faith laughed. He loved her laugh. It made his chest feel as warm as the first sip of Maddie’s salted-caramel hot chocolate.

“So, yeah,” he continued. “I’d wear a kilt, as long as you didn’t want me to shave my legs, too. I’d probably hack myself to pieces.”

Faith shook her head. “You’re a strange one, Whitehouse.”

“I am, I guess.”

“Good thing I like strange.”

“I like you, too,” he said, reaching out to give her thigh a light squeeze.

At first, Faith stiffened in response, but then her muscles relaxed and her thighs parted the slightest bit, enough to make Mick’s heart skip a beat and things low in his body begin to ache.

God, he wanted to touch her, to touch her everywhere, to pull over to the side of the abandoned highway and let his hand slide down the front of her jeans and wake them both up with something a whole lot more fun than singing along with the radio.

“Mick?” Faith asked after a moment, a hitch in her voice that made him think she felt it too, the energy pulsing between them, filling the truck cab with enough electricity to set off sparks.

“Yeah?” His fingers curled, pressing into her skin as thoughts of Faith’s legs wrapped around his waist danced through his mind, and his jeans began to get decidedly uncomfortable.

“I’m—”

Before she could finish, Mick’s phone honked and his butt began to vibrate.

“Is that your ring tone?” Faith laughed as Mick dug into his back pocket. “What is that? A goose?”

“Yeah, it’s Maddie’s ring tone,” Mick said, pulling out the phone. “It’s an old family joke, tell you in a sec.” He answered the call. “Hey, Maddie, what’s—”

“Where are you?” Maddie asked, her anxiety clear in her pinched tone. “I got to the bakery five minutes ago and the door to your apartment was wide open, and your truck was out front, but I couldn’t find you anywhere. I thought you’d been kidnapped!”

“I haven’t been kidnapped,” Mick said, rolling his eyes. “I probably forgot to lock the door when I ran up to grab my toothbrush and stuff. It won’t stay closed unless you lock it with the key.”

“Then you should fix it,” Maddie said, her voice still thin and half an octave higher than usual. “You’re a handyman for God’s sakes. You almost gave me a heart attack thinking something horrible had happened.”

“I’m sorry. Thanks for calling to make sure I’m still alive.” Mick knew better than to tell Maddie not to worry about him. Worrying was part of Maddie’s genetic code. “I’ll fix it as soon as I get home.”

“And when will that be?” Maddie asked. “And why do you sound so wide awake at four in the morning?”

Mick filled her in on the situation as Faith took the exit to stay on the I-10 West leading down to New Orleans.

“What’s the plan after you get there?” Maddie asked, the clanking of pots and pans in the background signaling that she was starting a batch of something while they talked.

Maddie opened the bakery four out of six days a week, arriving at four in the morning and staying until Naomi relieved her sometime between ten and noon. In four hours she somehow managed to make enough bread, cookies, and cakes to replenish Icing’s shelves for an entire day. Maddie said it was simply a matter of being organized, but Mick suspected there was black magic involved. He couldn’t make a single batch of edible cookies in four hours, let alone a few dozen.

“We’re going to pick up Faith’s mom, and head back home,” Mick said, meeting Faith’s eyes, and mirroring her shrug. They hadn’t discussed the plan in depth, but obviously they were both on the same page.

“Oh, no, you’re not,” Maddie said. “You can’t drive that many hours all in a row. You’re going to have to get some sleep first.”

“Maddie, it’s fine,” Mick said. “We’ll figure it out. Maybe her mom can help drive while we sleep or—”

“No way,” Maddie cut in as Faith gave an exaggerated shake of her head that made it clear having her mom drive would be taking their life into their own hands. “I’m going to book you a hotel room.”

Mick sighed. “Maddie, please, we don’t want to spend a day sleeping off a road trip in New Orleans.”

“Especially not with my mom in the same room,” Faith whispered, with a shudder. “She’ll drive us both insane by supper time.”

“And Faith isn’t up for quality time with her mom right now,” Mick added, hurrying on when Maddie tried to argue. “Faith and I are both responsible adults. Remember, we had this discussion. So trust me. We’ll pull over and rest if we need to. It’s going to be fine.”

Maddie sighed. “I’m calling Naomi.”

“Don’t call Naomi,” Mick said, rolling his eyes. “She’s still asleep and—”

“I’ll call you right back,” Maddie said, ignoring him.

The line went dead.

“Great,” Mick muttered, tossing the phone into the cup holder.

“So she’s calling Naomi.” Faith hummed beneath her breath. “That means Jake will find out, too, and he’s a huge hairy stickler for safe driving. I mean, for obvious reasons, but still…he’s going to give me shit if we don’t stop to rest.”

Mick nodded. “Back when they were in high school, Maddie and Naomi had a friend fall asleep at the wheel after a study date. She flipped her car and almost died. It made them both take the driving-while-tired thing pretty seriously.”

Faith sighed. “What do you think? Should we get a room?”

“We could get two rooms,” Mick suggested. “Your mom could have one, and you and I could share the other. Platonically, of course,” he hurried to add. “Just so you can rest, you know…if you don’t think you’d be able to sleep with your mom around.”

Mick knew he wouldn’t be able to rest with Faith lying in a bed next to him, but at least she and her mom might be able to get refreshed for the ride home. He could get three rooms, he supposed, but it seemed a little ridiculous to spend that much money on beds they wouldn’t even be using overnight.

Faith ran a hand through her hair. “Oh man, I don’t know. That’s going to be so expensive, and I’m already feeling broke after Christmas.”

“Then let me cover it,” Mick said. “Like I said, I just finished a big kitchen remodel job and they—”

“No.” Faith shook her head. “A fancy steak dinner was too much for a casual date, let alone two hotel rooms. It’s nice of you to offer, but I can’t accept that. If we get bullied into getting a room, I’m paying for it.”

Mick cursed himself for opening his dumb mouth. All his talk about not wanting a serious relationship had accomplished was to make things awkward, while doing nothing to weaken the pull he felt whenever he and Faith were together. “Listen, I seriously don’t mind. I’ve got the money to spare and I—”

“What did you mean on the phone just now?” Faith asked, scowling at the darkened highway stretching out before them. “About you and Maddie having had a talk about you and me both being adults?”

Mick sighed. “You don’t miss a thing, do you?”

“Nope.” Faith glanced at him, a vulnerable look in her eyes that made him want to rewind their relationship and start over. “So, what did that mean?”

“Maddie and Naomi were…worried,” Mick said, wishing he were a better liar. But he wasn’t, and Faith deserved the truth. “They didn’t want me to hurt you.”

Faith nodded, but the frown returned to her face. “That’s nice of them, but I don’t need anyone to protect me. Not from you, or anyone else.”

“I know that,” Mick said, hating the hurt in her tone. “That’s what I told them.”

Faith sniffed. “But at the same time, I think they had a point. Because this is dumb. I never should have gone out with you tonight. I knew better.”

“What do you mean?” Mick asked, surprised at how much her words stung. “I thought we were having a good time.”

“We are having a good time,” Faith said. “A great time. But one minute you’re putting your arm around me, and the next you’re saying we’re friends, and I don’t know what the hell is going on. But I do know that this isn’t anywhere on my list of things I want in a guy, or a relationship. I’m not into hot and cold, or head games, and I… Well, I think it’s best if we end this before it gets started.”

“Wait a second,” Mick said. “I’m not into head games, either, I just—”

His phone honked again, making Mick curse beneath his breath.

“Hold on,” he said, answering the phone with a terse, “Hi, Maddie.”

“Okay, we’ve got things all sorted out,” Maddie chirped in an upbeat voice, oblivious to the fact that Mick was in the process of getting dumped. “Jake had Faith’s mom’s information, so he jumped online and booked her a flight back to Atlanta. It leaves at nine a.m. So you two can drop her at the airport, and then head to your hotel. The rooms are already booked and paid for. I’ll text you the address and confirmation number as soon as we hang up. And Jake is going to pick Faith’s mom up in Atlanta this afternoon and bring her home, so you don’t have to worry about that.”