She paused when Duncan stopped next to her. He grinned down at her. “Go get him, tiger.”
She blinked in surprise but then turned back to her prey, marching up to him. He stood there, staring at her, his face impassive. Unreadable. She swallowed heavily. Now that she was here she wasn’t feeling quite as confident.
Well, she wasn’t going to let him intimidate her. She was going to say her piece then leave. Simple. Now or never. Because she was pretty certain she wouldn’t work up the courage to do this again.
She glared up at him, placing her hands on her hips. “You have got some nerve!”
“Hello to you too, Aspen. And how are you today?” he asked in that smooth as syrup voice.
“Don’t try to act like you don’t know why I’m here!”
“I can only guess you’ve decided to take me up on my offer to show you around. But it would be best if you came back later when the club is open and wore something a little more appropriate.” He ran his gaze over her.
Oh, the man was completely infuriating.
“You know full well I’m not here for a tour of your club. I’m here because you’re a presumptuous asshole who had my car fixed!” Okay, even she heard that ridiculous that sounded. But she was here now. She wasn’t backing down.
He raised both eyebrows. “And that makes you angry?”
“Of course, it does!”
“You’re angry at me because your car now works?”
She frowned. “Don’t play your word games with me.”
“I wasn’t aware I was. Aspen, how did you get to work today?”
“What?” Okay, now he’d thrown her.
“One of Matt’s guy’s drove your car out to you so you would get to work in time, but you’d already left. So how did you get to work?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Hmm, which means you don’t want to tell me. And the reason you don’t want to tell me is because you believe I will disapprove of your method, which I’m sure I will.”
“I don’t care if you disapprove or not.” She pointed her finger at his chest. “What I do is none of your business. Nor is how I do it. And it was not your place to get Matt to fix my car.”
“Do you or do you not need a working car?”
She saw the trap. And there was no way around it. She sighed. “You know I do.”
“Without that car you would be unable to get to work, yes? The same with your mother.”
“Yes.” She didn’t bother telling him she would have worked something else out. She’d been lucky today when she’d been picked up by that older couple, but hitchhiking around wasn’t her idea of fun.
“So then what is your real objection?”
“You didn’t ask me first.”
“I did ask if you’d like me to call Matt for you and you said you’d do it. Only when I called him, you hadn’t done so. I decided to take care of that task for you.”
“That wasn’t up to you.”
“Aspen, you needed the car to get to work. What if one of your boys got sick and needed to see the doctor? How did you plan on getting him there?”
Those words struck her. She hadn’t even thought about that. She should have. She often worried about the boys being stuck in the cottage with her mother without a means of transportation.
“I was also worried that without a car to get to and from work you’d do something stupid or dangerous like attempt to walk or hitch a ride. Which is why I told Matt the car needed to be ready by the time you had to go to work this morning.”