Page 141 of Drive
She blinked a slow blink, soaking up the words. “I love you,Jacques.”
“I’ll call you tonight. But do me afavor?”
“What?” sheasked.
“Just shoot me a text when you gethome.”
He could probably see her grin all way from California. “Iwill.”
“Bye,babe.”
“Bye,Jacques.”
Rainey hung up and gave herself a minute. She needed to absorb the triumph of the drive and drink in Jacques’s soul-stirring words, his commitment to be there for her, even from two thousand milesaway.
When she left the Cooper, she was still smiling, and the sight she found in the jewelry store only made her smilegrow.
A golden-haired little boy — he couldn’t have been more than three years old — sat on one of the display cases. Next to him, with his arm draped over his shoulder was a tall man whom Rainey assumed was the boy’s father. Even though their backs were to her, they made an adorablepicture.
“What do you think, Oscar?” the man asked, peering down into the glass case. “Which one would Mama likebest?”
The boy jabbed a chubby finger against the glass. “Datone!”
From the distance across the store, Rainey thought the boy pointed to a selection of engagement rings, but she couldn’t besure.
“Which one?” This came from the young store clerk on the other side of the case. She was smiling, obviously charmed by the little boy. The clerk looked up at Rainey as she took the key fob from around her neck. “Someone will be right withyou.”
At the clerk’s greeting, both the boy and the man turned in her direction, and Rainey’s breath caught. Gray Blakewood, the famous Louisiana crime writer, was standing across from her in the jewelry store. His sixth novel had come out in March, and Rainey had finished it in twodays.
Gray Blakewood gave her a friendly smile before turning back to the clerk who was placing a small velvet display case of — she could now clearly see — engagementrings.
Rainey kept her distance. Even though she was more than a little star-struck, she knew what it was like to have a stranger barge in on a personal moment. Years from now, Mr. Blakewood and the little boy would look back on the day they’d chosen an engagement ring together — obviously for someone they both loved very much — and that memory didn’t need to includeher.
She stood back and waited until an older gentleman stepped into the showroom from the back offices and addressedher.
“May I help you,miss?”
Rainey strode forward to greet him, keeping her voice low so that she wouldn’t intrude on the ring-selection process the little boy had overtaken. “Yes, I was hoping you could engrave a wedding band — preferably today,” she hedged. “The wedding isSaturday.”
The man fished a pair of glasses out of his front pocket. “That shouldn’t be a problem,” he told her with a grin. “Anything in the name of love,right?”
“Right,” she said, grinningback.
Chapter 30
Ten daysof Los Angeles was more thanenough.
This thought occurred to Jacques as he and the rest of Heroine were crawling through traffic on their way to Santa Monica to film their third — and last — video of the trip. Yes, the weather in Southern California was perfection. And it had been cool to see Hollywood. They’d gone to the Hollywood Bowl one night after filming and seen Belle and Sebastian and Spoon. JAG had arranged for the four of them to have a box in the Pool Circle just off the stage, which had been prettyamazing.
They’d stayed at The Grafton on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, and Jacques had to admit that the concert-themed wall mural in his room probably did give him the ego stroke the record company hadintended.
But the pace of the last week-and-a-half had been brutal. And the director JAG was using was the worst kind ofdouche.
And Jacques missedRainey.
He’d felt a twinge of homesickness as they’d merged onto the interstate headed to the Santa Monica Pier, and he’d spotted the marker for I-10. It was strange to think that if he got on the road in the opposite direction and just drove straight, he’d be home in about twenty-fourhours.
Jacques was lost in this fantasy when his cell rang. Hoping it was Rainey, he fished the device out of his pocket as he rode with the rest of the band in the back of a hired car. To his disappointment, the caller wasn’t Rainey, just a number he didn’t know, and he was about to decline the call when he saw the wordsBowling Green, KYunder thedigits.
