Another round of lyrical laughter spilled from her throat. "Oh my God, I thought Travis had made that term up. I never understood what he meant."
"Travis?" I asked in confusion.
"He works with Jackson. They hang out all the time, but Travis is… what's the expression… he likes the ladies?"
I smiled and said, "Oh, so he's horny."
Jolene laughed even harder. "Yeah, he is. He says Jackson does that… cock blocks him."
"How does he do that?" I asked. It was strange to be having a conversation about her ex and his friend, but she was so amused by the subject that I was happy to go along with it.
"Travis is kind of young and wild, so Jackson watches out for him when they go out. I guess sometimes Jackson takes Travis home to the ranch before Travis can find some girl to mess around with."
"Yep, sounds like Jackson is most definitely a cock blocker."
Jolene grew quiet, contemplative. She glanced at me and said, "He's just protective of the people he cares about."
"Sounds like a great guy, Joli." I realized my slip of the tongue when there was an extended silence between us again. When I looked over at Jolene, she was staring out the window.
"Jolene," I corrected. "Sorry."
She didn't respond to the apology, but I didn't miss the fact that she was tapping her fingers on her thigh and her eyes were practically glued to the window. When she finally did open her mouth to say something, it was only to tell me where to turn, and within a minute, I was pulling to a stop in front of a small two-story house in what looked like a quiet neighborhood. There was nothing particularly fancy about the house or any of the ones around it, but it looked homey and inviting. There were lights on in the lower level, but the second floor was dark. There was a small porch with a couple of rocking chairs, and an actual white picket fence surrounded the front of the property.
I turned the car off so the idle, and the annoying backfire, wouldn't wake up the entire neighborhood. Jolene sat stiffly in the front seat but remarkably, she didn't reach for the door handle right away. "Thank you for the ride," she said, her voice uneven and a little high. I couldn't imagine why me using a shortened version of her name would upset her so much. Maybe there was someone in her life who’d called her that and it meant something either bad or good to her.
"Jolene, I'm sorry if I upset you by calling you that name. I just—"
"I like it," she interjected, her voice so quiet I almost didn't hear it.
But I did, and her admission caught me off guard.
Her fingers were toying with the cuff of my leather jacket and it was all I could do not to reach my hand over and cover her fingers with mine. I didn't know how to respond, which was strange in itself because I usually always knew the right thing to say to a woman.
"I like when you call me that, but I shouldn't." Her eyes remained downcast. I could practically feel the confusion and insecurity wafting off her. Before I could stop myself, I was reaching out to tuck her hair behind her ear. It was nothing more than an excuse to touch her, but when she didn't pull away it felt like a massive victory.
"Nothing wrong with that," I murmured. I knew I shouldn't be encouraging the conversation, because I had just moments left with this woman, but the idea of her being bothered by liking the nickname I'd given her spoke volumes to me. As did the way she held herself. I knew what self-doubt could do to a person and it hurt my heart to know that Jolene suffered from the affliction. It made me doubt that her ex had been such a great guy. It bothered me even more to know that a guy like Ted had come along and probably fed off of that insecurity… assholes like him knew how to twist that kind of insecurity to get what they wanted.
She made a harsh little sobbing sound in her throat, but there were no tears to accompany the noise.
"I should go," she said a second later. "It's late and my babysitter—"
"Joli," I interrupted gently. I trailed my fingers down her cheek in the hopes that she'd look at me. I felt like the king of the world when she did. "Are you all right?" I asked.
The sorrow on her face was heartbreaking. "Just really ready for the clock to strike midnight, that's all."
Her comment didn't make sense at first, since it was just after one in the morning. But the more I thought about it, the more it came to me. Fairytales always had those moments where the clock struck midnight and the spell that turned a regular girl into a princess came to an end. But for some reason, it seemed like Jolene was looking forward to going back to being a regular girl. Though I doubted that Ted-the-asshat had done anything to make her feel like a princess.