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He glared at me but he fished in his pocket for his keys. “You’ll detail my car too. That’s a vintage number right there. I don’t want your dog funk stinking up the joint.”
I let Bogie jump in the back seat and then I looked inside the front, feeling like I had woken up on another planet. The inside of Bad Mood Banner’s car was all red crushed velvet, complete with a set of dice hanging from the rearview mirror. “Jesus.”
“Yeah, I know. She’s a beauty. Wipe your feet off. And don’t just throw yourself down like I’ve seen you do. Ease into her.”
“Don’t say ease into her. And don’t talk to me about your car right now. I need to think about what I’m going to say.” It wasn’t like I’d ever stopped a wedding before. I needed to think about the logistics.
“Is this the wedding with your ex?” When I swung my head around to stare at him, Banner just started the car and shrugged. “I talk to people. I know things.”
I didn’t doubt that he also eavesdropped a lot too. “Yeah, it’s that wedding. I didn’t even know it was still happening or I would’ve talked to my cousin weeks ago. My idiot ex told me they called the wedding off.”
“He’s been sending you lots of expensive flowers too. Delivery from Merna’s. Can you believe that? There’s having money and then there’s just being plain stupid.”
I came to understand something very quickly. Banner drove like every road was an interstate. We went from parked to what felt like sixty miles per hour with one stomp of his foot. He also needed better glasses.
I gripped the oh shit strap and reached back to hold on to Bogie’s collar with my other hand. “Um…do you need new glasses?”
“Why do people keep asking me that?”
I nearly climbed across the car when he swung super close to another car. “You ran over a small family of birds back there.”
“I did not.” He veered around a curve and smiled up at the dice as they swung back and forth. “Aren’t they great?”
“Yep! They’re great!” I screamed when he blew through a red light and another car had to swerve to miss us.
“What are you screaming for? Jeez! You’ll give an old man a heart attack!”
I might’ve been crying, but I couldn’t tell because my face had gone numb sometime between the birds and the red light. “You almost killed us back there!”
“You’re so dramatic!” He jumped the curb in front of St. Vincents and parked on the lawn in front of the church. “I got you here, didn’t I?”
I sat back in my seat and took a few deep breaths. My heart was pounding and I couldn’t be sure I hadn’t peed a little. It was either pee or panicked sweat I was feeling.
“Did you hear anything I said earlier? Or were you too busy screaming?” He turned the car off and then removed the front of his stereo. When he saw me looking, he nodded toward the church. “I don’t know this crowd. This stereo would be a great find for somebody searching for things to steal.”
Something must’ve snapped in my brain during the ride, because I just started laughing. I laughed so hard that I cried and when I saw Banner starting to laugh too, I just lost it even more. By the time we’d gathered ourselves, a few men were gathering on the top steps of the church, pointing at the car.
“I’d better go kill this wedding, I guess.” I smiled at Banner and then leaned over to press a kiss to his cheek. “Thank you for the ride. Even if you did almost kill me.”
His cheeks turned pink and he grumbled and fiddled with his keys. “Didn’t kill you, though.”
I was halfway out of the car when he shouted at me. Sticking my head back in, I raised my eyebrows. “Okay, don’t get that attached to me. I’m in love with someone else.”
Both of our eyes went wide at the same time. I’d said it. I’d said it out loud to another person and it had been easy! I was so excited that I did a full-body wiggle and a fist pump.
“I think almost dying at the hands of your driving fixed me!” I wanted to try again to be sure. “I’m in love with someone. Three someones, actually.”
“It’s about time! That’s not what you need to hear right now, though. That ex of yours has been sending you big bouquets of flowers, every day.”
I shook my head. “What? No. I haven’t gotten any flowers.”
His smile was mischievous. “No, you haven’t. Someone’s been making sure that you don’t get any of them.”
I thought back to seeing Sam talking to Merna in the street and gasped. “That sneaky little shit!”
“What? Did you want the flowers?”
I snorted. “Hell no. If he’s been stealing the flowers, it’s because he hasn’t given up on me. He’s still jealous and pissy. I had no idea!”
