“This is statistically unlikely. It’s not like I park under a tree,” he said.
Esme’s lips wanted to smirk, and she kept them straight with effort. “The birds are telling you to park in the garage. There’s room in there. Just move the motorcycle to the side.”
Then she bit the inside of her lip. Things had gotten so easy between them she’d forgotten this was a sore topic. Her stomach tensed as she watched him, not knowing how he’d react. Would he get angry like the day she’d gone to 99 Ranch?
After a brief pause, he said, “I don’t like parking in the garage.”
“Why?”
He blinked, and his face creased in thought. “Why?”
“What is the reason?” she asked, because it didn’t make any sense to her.
“Because the motorcycle’s in there,” he said in a clipped voice before he went to open the passenger door for her.
Esme got into the car and watched as he shut her door, walked around to the other side, and lowered himself into his seat. He started the car and pulled onto the street like the conversation was finished. But it wasn’t.
“If you don’t like the motorcycle, why do you—”
“I didn’t say I don’t like it,” he said.
She exhaled a tight breath, even more confused now. “Then why—”
He glanced at her for a quick second before he returned his attention to the road, shifted gears, and sped past a convertible. “That’s just how I like things. It’s like you and . . . Why do you roll socks that way?”
She looked down and spun the sparkly bracelet on her wrist. “You kept ignoring me. I did it to make you think of me.”
“So you don’t roll yours that way?”
“No,” she said with a laugh.
He tilted his head to the side. “It worked.”
She grinned. “I know.”
Even though he didn’t turn to look at her, his lips curved as he continued driving, and a comfortable silence followed. She watched the office buildings as they passed by, awed by their shiny exteriors and manicured lawns.
“That one is mine.” Kh?i pointed at a building that had blue glass walls and large white letters on the top that read DMSoft.
She sat up straighter in her seat and inspected it with interest. “Which floor has your office?”
“The top. I share it with others.”
“Like a boss,” she said with a teasing smile, imagining him crammed in a tiny closet while the important people had all the windows.
He aimed a funny smile at her. “Something like that.”
“Lots of the Phils are bosses. One thought I was his employee,” she said for lack of anything better to say.
An unusual stillness settled over Kh?i before he asked, “Did you hear back from the last two?”
“One of them.”
“It was a no?”
She pressed her lips together and nodded. “Do I look like a Schumacher?”
He considered her pensively before focusing on the road again. “Possibly.”