“No.”
“Morning person?”
“Not too early in the morning. Why?”
“Just curious.”
He didn’t pursue the line of conversation. I was happily bouncing along in my own thoughts when Slash pulled into a large parking lot of a Ford dealership.
“Am I helping you pick out a car?” I asked in surprise.
Slash parked. “We’re here to get you a new car.”
I blinked. “Huh? But I have a car.”
“A car that’s held together by the power of prayer,” he said with amusement.
“I can’t afford a new car.”
“But I can.”
He let that settle between us.
“Nope. Not happening. Thanks for playing. We can go home now.”
“Brooklyn, listen to me—”
“No,youlisten to me.” I glared at him. “I don’t need saving. I don’t need rescuing. I can do this on my own. You asked what level of involvement I was comfortable with—well, it’s not this. This is too much.”
He glared back. “It’s not just about you.”
“It’s not about you, either.”
“You’re right. This is about what’s best for the baby. Brooklyn, your car is a piece of shit. It’s unreliable. Don’t you get it? I want you to be safe. I want youbothto be safe.”
His hazel eyes were earnest.
My righteous anger diffused immediately. “But I can’t accept a brand-new car from you.”
“Then accept it on behalf of our baby.”
I glanced away from him to stare out at the parking lot full of shiny new cars that I was sure all had that amazing new car smell. I’d never had a car that was new enough to have that smell, and there was something enticing about it after a long series of hardships that had come steadily, one after the other.
“Just test drive a few,” he suggested. “Whatever you want. But I think you’d look good in the red Explorer.”
“Damn you,” I said with a small smile. “Red’s my favorite color.”
* * *
“I can’t believe you just bought me a fifty-thousand-dollar car,” I said in bemusement.
“Whatever mama wants, mama gets,” Slash said with a wry grin, leaning against the hood of my new car.
“Thank you,” I said quietly.
“You’re welcome.”
“I’ve never made a decision about anything this quickly,” I said. “I mean, it took me three months to bite the bullet on the espresso machine imported from Italy. But I got into the car and just…”