“Of course,” he said in a mocking tone. But she didn’t care. It felt good to hold the familiar rectangle device in her hand.
“So, I can’t help but notice you don’t have any pictures of a significant other on here.” Like the woman who’d practically claimed his lap at Kate’s birthday party. Something that had irked her at the time since at the flower shop just twenty minutes earlier, he’d been definitely throwing off a vibe that told her he was interested. “Don’t you have a girlfriend? What about that woman at the party? Becca, was it? How come she’s not here with you?” She was actually relieved to turn the conversation in a direction other than her own life.
“Becca’s probably at home, I imagine. We’re not seeing each other anymore.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “No big deal. Things have gotten a little busy at work, and I wasn’t able to give her what she was looking for. She understood.”
Right. Sure she did. From the possessive looks the cute brunette had been giving him that night, Payton would beg to differ. She snorted.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cruz asked.
Up ahead, a toll station came into view and she leaned forward to count out some pesos from the console where they’d dumped the money Cruz had the forethought to get at the airport.
“Nothing. You’re just a typical man. Too wrapped up in your business life to realize what’s going on around you.” Like her father. And, coincidentally enough, like Brad—at least these past few months. Although to be fair, Brad had likely been less busy with business details as he had claimed and more busy with sowing his oats.
Whatever.
She handed Cruz some cash. “I doubt that Becca saw your relationship as casually as you do.”
“You saw her for all of about ten minutes. How would you know?” He handed the guy the money for the toll.
“Please. She was practically picking out the china pattern for the bridal registry. You might have been casual but in her mind you were branded as hers. You really are oblivious.”
“I’ll pretend you didn’t say that,” he said and pulled forward, picking up speed again.
Ouch. Okay. Good point. She couldn’t really preach to anyone else’s obliviousness when she hadn’t seen what was happening right in front of her face.
“Hey, I’m sorry, Payton. That was unnecessary and mean.”
She glanced over at him, catching his eyes softened in apology. “You had a point, though. It’s the whole pot calling the kettle black, isn’t it? Bu
t maybe I’ll just rest my eyes for a little while. I’m suddenly pretty wiped out.”
“Yeah. I understand.”
She sank back farther in the seat, closing her eyes.
Maybe attempting conversation hadn’t been such a good idea.
Cruz cricked his neck and flipped through the radio for something new. A glance at his passenger told him she was either sound asleep or pretending to be to avoid further conversation. Either way, she wasn’t likely to brook much argument on his musical choice.
He’d been mulling over the bit of her conversation he’d overheard for the past half hour. The fact that Brad Eastman had been caught in a sordid position didn’t surprise him in the least. But Payton’s surprise had.
Brad was a player. No matter how gorgeous Payton was, men like Brad liked the conquest, the score of something new and different. Cruz had thought people in Payton’s position just overlooked those kinds of things. Something, if Payton were to be believed, her mother had done in the course of her own marriage.
He had to give Payton points for spunk. Her mother sounded like a shrew—since he pretty much caught the entire conversation thanks to the high decibel rate the woman had been yelling at through the phone—and it couldn’t have been easy for Payton to stand up to her like she did.
He smiled again as he remembered Payton chucking her pink cell phone out the window, grinning in satisfaction when it was creamed by a truck. She certainly surprised him. Surprises were something he tried to avoid. He preferred order and predictability in his life, which was probably why he and Payton couldn’t stand each other.
Although to be truthful, she wasn’t turning out to be as big of a pain in the ass as he anticipated. Well, the night was early. Could only be a matter of time.
The roads over the past hour had gone from flat and boring to more mountainous and curvy, so he’d had to be more alert to the traffic around him, sometimes crawling, sometimes whizzing by. Up ahead the bright lights of the city of Monterrey greeted them.
“It’s beautiful.”
Her voice broke the silence and caught him unaware. He jerked the wheel to the left and almost into the car passing them, who lit off their horn in a warning that brought a shrill scream from Payton.