“No problem.”He shifted the elephant, stuffing it under one arm, then snagged her hand.
He was moving quickly, dodging and weaving through the throngs of people like a Heisman candidate, and she had to scramble to keep up.“Slow down.”
“Sorry.”His pace immediately eased.“I figured it was an emergency.”
“Not exactly,” she hedged.
“So, I don’t need to risk an arrest for reckless driving on the way home?”
They were almost at the exit.“Maybe just a speeding ticket.”
“Got it.”
The walk across the packed parking lot seemed interminable, but within ten minutes she was buckling her seatbelt and pulling out her phone again.
She started to text Gwen, then decided to call instead.
“Hey,” Gwen answered.
“You at work?”
“I did the lunch shift, just got off.Where are you?”
“Sandusky.”
“What the hell are you doing there?”
“It’s a long story.”Bailey braced a hand on the door as Nash took the turn out of the parking lot at speed.“I’m on my way back now.”
“It’s what, an hour and a half drive?”
Bailey glanced at the speedometer and did some quick math.“More like an hour.”
Nash hit the freeway onramp and put his foot to the floor.“I can get that down to forty-five minutes.”
“Was that Nash?You’re in Sandusky with Nash?”
“Long story,” Bailey repeated.“It’s not life or death, Nash.You can keep it under eighty.”
He eased his foot off the accelerator, then set the cruise control at seventy-eight.
“If this is about the gang bang, I don’t want to know about it,” Gwen was saying.
“Not everything is about sex, Gwen.”
Gwen snorted.“Right.Listen, I have a date tonight—”
“Speaking of sex.”
“Ha ha.I’m not meeting him until seven, but I’m going to cancel.”
Bailey glanced at the clock on the dash.It was quarter to four.“Hold off on that.If we haven’t heard back from Chloe by the time I get back into town, I’ll have Nash drop me at your place.We can figure things out from there.”
“That’ll work.Tag me when you hit town.”
“Will do.Later.”Bailey disconnected the call, checked the group chat—nothing new—then leaned back against the headrest with a sigh.
“Everything okay?”