Page 33 of Love Me Not

“On my keych…” Man, he was annoying. Closing my mouth, I leaned on the car, arms crossed and in a full pout while he arranged for Larry to come open my door.

The girls all had keys to my apartment, but Megan was on her honeymoon, Becca was likely home with the baby, Donna mentioned an evening outdoor photo shoot this week—probably today with my luck—and Josie was at a hockey game with Miles and his employees from Hullaballoo.

Even if they weren’t all busy with their own lives, asking any of them to come bail me out when there was another option already here would be really lame. Trey’s call to the landlord was short and to the point, giving him the address and a description of my car. Seconds later, the cell was back in his pocket.

“He’s on his way.”

Feeling the chill in the air, I said, “How long?”

Trey set the bag of books he was still holding on the roof of my car. “Do you have bricks in here?”

“Books. How long?”

“I caught him finishing a job in Sewickley so maybe twenty minutes depending on how traffic looks on 79.”

We were getting close to rush hour and that highway was notorious for slowdowns. Especially with the construction going on right now. Though, when were Pittsburgh interstates not under construction?

“Meaning probably a half hour.” With a sigh, I shrugged. “Might as well grade papers while I wait.”

“I’ll pull my truck over and we can sit inside until he gets here.”

That wasn’t necessary. “You don’t need to wait with me.”

“I’m not leaving you out here alone.”

What horror did he think would befall me? “This parking lot is perfectly safe.”

He shook his head. “My mother will never forgive me if I leave.”

“Then we won’t tell her.” What mom didn’t know and all that.

“She’ll know.”

“How?”

Without answering, he looked up. So then I looked up to see a pigeon flying low over our heads. “Your mother is a pigeon?”

“You’re so cute,” he said. Words no one had ever uttered to or about me. “Mom passed away a couple years ago. I like to think she’s up there watching over me. I better bring the truck over before we get rained on.”

Rain in Pittsburgh was nearly always a given, outside of maybe a month during the summer. We weren’t quite Seattle or London, but somewhere in between. Literally and meteorologically.

I was still too stunned by the cute comment to do anything other than watch him cross three rows over to a silver pickup truck. As he drove down the aisle and turned my way, my brain finally came back online and the only thought in my head was I am not cute.

Refusing to get into the truck did enter my mind, but then a cold wind blew through and I climbed inside real quick. Trey had the heat going and within minutes, my toes were nice and toasty.

I expected—even almost preferred—an awkward silence to prevail, but Coach Collins turned out to be quite the chatterbox.

“Have you always lived in Pittsburgh?” he asked.

“Except for four years at Penn State, yes.”

“Do you want to live someplace else?”

Did I? The thought never occurred to me. “This is where my friends and family are. Where else would I go?”

He tapped the steering wheel and gave me the kind of look one gave a precocious preschooler. “Anywhere.”

“You mean hypothetically? Like one of those if money was no object scenarios?”