Wright with Benefits

Not that we’d been on the best of terms since I’d moved to Lubbock. But this felt like a tipping point. She hadn’t even been able to hold back her eye roll in there. Usually, she was still cheery, bubbly Annie.

Not tonight.

I left the truck rumbling and stepped out onto the pavement. “Everything all right?”

She looked manic, and fuck if it didn’t draw me to her more. I remembered the first time I’d seen her in the coffee bar in Daisy Dukes. All wild passion and aggression. Her bright green eyes full of mirth and her body promising seduction. I still saw that Annie when I looked at her sometimes, but she reserved that person for others. Not me. Not anymore.

“I left…my fucking…lights on.”

“Oh fuck,” I said as she darted for the front seat.

I rushed after her, hoping that she hadn’t been here long enough to do any kind of damage. She fumbled with the key a few times before getting it into the slot. Then she pushed it forward with a look of desperate hope on her face.

The engine clicked a few times. It seemed as desperate as Annie to get going, but it never turned over. Just kept trying to force the battery to do its job and failing.

She beat her hands against the steering wheel. A scream erupted out of her chest. I winced at the pure rage seething from her in the car. It was almost something that I shouldn’t witness. I’d seen Annie angry, of course, but not like this.

I backed away slowly, giving her a minute alone. I would have gone in search of jumper cables, but I knew that I didn’t have them. I’d been driving a Tesla before this. I’d finally caved in the last two weeks and bought the truck. Before moving to Lubbock, I never would have considered getting a huge truck, but I already loved it. My friends back home wouldn’t even recognize me.

Annie finally got out of her car and came around the side of my truck, looking defeated.

“I don’t have cables in the truck. It’s new,” I said right off the bat.

Her face deflated further. “Of course. Right. I don’t have any either.”

“We could ask Sophia,” I offered.

She tilted her head to the sky overhead. Anyone else this frustrated might have been close to tears but not Annie. Annie looked like she might murder the entire world for doing this to her.

“That would be great. Do you think you could ask her?”

“Sure. Do you want to wait in the truck? It’s warm at least.”

I didn’t bother mentioning that she probably should be wearing pants and shoes when it was supposed to drop into the teens tonight. She looked miserable enough.

“I guess I have no other choice,” she said and then stepped past me to get into the passenger side.

I shook my head. She must have been having some night to actually accept that offer.

When I headed back to the boutique, the front door was still unlocked. Sophia sat, slumped behind the front desk on her phone. She looked up when the bell jingled.

“Hey,” I said with my same winning smile. “You don’t have jumper cables in here somewhere, do you?”

Sophia’s hope died before my eyes. Two girls in one night. Man, I was on a roll.

“I don’t,” she said.

“Ah. Annie’s car died. I guess she left her lights on, and she needs a jump. Anywhere close that would have them?”

She shrugged unhelpfully. “I have no idea. I don’t think so.”

Yeah. She was pissed.

“All right. Sorry about all of this,” I said, gesturing around us. “We’ll definitely have to reschedule. My schedule is pretty tight, but I’m sure we can figure something out.”

Sophia looked down and then back up, as if steeling herself for what came next. “Maybe we could do this over dinner…and drinks.”

Ah. Well, fuck.

“Maybe,” I said with that same smile. “Just, uh, text me.”

Then I pushed back out into the cold, unforgiving January weather, back to the girl who didn’t seem to give two shits about me. I probably should have been interested in the cute wine owner, but instead, I couldn’t ignore Annie. Even when she wanted to jump down my throat.

I walked back to the passenger side to find Annie rubbing her long, lean legs. She was trying to get warmth back into them, but fuck, those legs.

I needed to get my shit together. I rapped on the door. She jerked up and met my gaze through the window.

“No luck?” she asked when I opened the door.

“No,” I confirmed. “She didn’t have anything.”

She dropped back against the seat and sighed. “I’m not surprised.” She ground her teeth together. “I guess I could call someone to come help.”

“What about the wine?”

“Fuck.”

She wasn’t going to like my idea, but I pushed forward anyway. “How about you just ride with me to take the wine to whatever ranch your party is at? Someone there probably has cables. Then we can come back and jump your car. I know it’s not ideal, but it’s better than waiting in the cold for someone to show up.”