Ick.
A knocking noise made her startle. She opened her eyes and screamed, cringing away in fear. Her stomach clenched, nausea rising. The door opened.
Oh, God. Oh, God. He’s found me. He’s here.
“Lacey? Honey, it’s me. It’s Clay. It’s all right. It’s just me.”
The beating of her heart almost drowned out the deep, masculine voice. He crouched down, and a familiar face filled her vision, concern crossing his handsome face. But even though her brain recognized him, her body still reacted, fear holding her paralyzed.
“Lacey? Say something, sweetheart. Come on, breathe for me. Just breathe. In then out. That’s it. In then out.”
She managed one breath then another. Finally, she thought she had herself under enough control to be able to speak. “Clay?”
“Yep. That’s me.”
“W-what are you doing here?” She tried to slow her breathing. To act like she hadn’t just completely freaked out because one of her cousins had knocked on her car window.
He frowned slightly. “I’m headed to your dad’s place, honey. For lunch. You remember?”
“Of course, I remember.” She bit her lip, hearing how defensive she sounded. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” He studied her thoughtfully. “What you doing pulled over here?”
She smiled at him, hoping she looked better than she felt. “I thought the car was pulling to the right. I was going to get out and check the tires.”
“That so?”
He wasn’t buying it. Damn it.
“I’ll take a look for you.”
“Thanks.”
Clay and his four brothers had all been wild growing up. Risk-takers. If it didn’t involve a few beers and a brawl, then it wasn’t a good Saturday night. But no matter how crazy they were, family always came first. And nobody messed with the Andrews boys. All she had to do was call, and they’d come running. When she’d broken down one night on a back road, she’d known better than to call her father, who was likely deep into a bottle of bourbon. Instead, she’d called Tyler, Clay’s youngest brother. He’d raced over to help her straight away.
Without bothering to get dressed.
Now, she loved her cousins, but she didn’t need to see that much of them. Apparently, he’d just charmed some girl into his bed when she’d called. But he hadn’t been upset with her for interrupting his fun. He’d scolded her for driving around alone at night instead of calling one of them to pick her up. Then he’d changed her tire and followed her home.
“Looks good, honey.” Clay came back and crouched by the open driver’s door. “Why don’t you leave it here and we’ll call the rental company and get it towed? You can come with me.”
It was right on the tip of her tongue to say yes. It would be so much easier if someone else was driving. She licked her dry lips. But was she seriously going to get her rental car towed when there was nothing wrong with it?
“Come on, Lace. You know I’m not going to let you drive now.” Clay reached over and undid her seatbelt, taking charge, as usual.
Each of her cousins was bossier and more dominant than the next, although Travis was definitely the worst. As the oldest, he thought it was his right to order everyone around. And most people did exactly as he said because he was scary as fuck.
But Clay was more easy-going. She looked up at him. “I’m okay, Clay. I probably just imagined it. Maybe it was a gust of wind or something.”
Yep, because it’s windy as hell today. Good one, Lacey.
Clay looked around, as though searching for this imaginary wind. She felt a blush rise up her cheeks. “Clay, please. I need my car.” In case I have to make a quick getaway. Today was not going to be easy.
“Haven’t met her yet, have you?” he asked with sympathy.
“No. What does it say about our relationship that my dad eloped without telling me, with a woman I haven’t even met?”
Clay gave her a look.