Backseat Driver (Wilkins Brothers Book 3)

Chapter 9

JASPER

“Where are you?” My phone rang and I picked it up, Gruff didn’t even bother saying hello, not that he usually does.

“Hi to you too, oldest brother of mine. What can I do for you on this pleasant day?”

“Drop the shit, Jas, it was all hands on deck to help Landry move into the apartment today. Are you going to lie your ass off and say you forgot?”

Forget? No, I didn’t forget at all. In fact, I’ve been counting down until this day because it means that every single day the woman who will not talk to me after I professed my love is going to be living in the same building where I work. She’ll be just feet away from me at any moment of the day and the chances of me seeing her are super high. How the fuck did things get so messed up with her?

Oh, right, you had the most amazing sex of your life with her, and then you kicked her out of your hotel room like she was just another hook-up. Then, she decided to move on without you and she decided to start dating and found a guy to date, so you picked a bunch of fights with him and when the two of them finally broke up, she was pregnant and all alone. Yeah, that’s not messy at all. Good job, Jasper.

“I didn’t forget, I just woke up with a headache today.” It was a lame excuse and based on the groan coming from the other end of the phone, Gruff didn’t believe it for one second. 

“How long are you planning on keeping this up?”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about, brother. Listen, I think I’m going to throw up so I’m going to go. Talk to you later.” I didn’t wait for him to reply, I just hung up the phone and tossed it to the side of the couch, ignoring the text message that came in right after I hung up the phone.

I didn’t know who I was angrier with right now. I guess there were many places to point fingers. I don’t think I could ever forgive myself for that night with her. Not that I regret sleeping with her, because I don’t, but the two of us haven’t been the same since. That night I realized all the feelings I had for her and it scared me shitless. After pushing her away, she ran into the arms of another man and he got to have her in a way that no other man had, with child. I was angry at him for that. That didn’t even begin to explain how pissed off I was at him for breaking up with her. Sure, maybe he wasn’t ready to have a baby, but how the fuck did he think he could just walk away and leave her with all of the consequences of their behavior?

Finally, I was mad at Landry. I didn’t want to be, it was the last thing I wanted, but I had told her how I felt and the response from her was crickets. I didn’t expect her to tell me that she loved me too and I’m pretty sure I scared the shit out of her, but I just wanted something from her. I missed her like something crazy. I didn’t even need her to reciprocate my feelings, I just wanted friendship back, I wanted Landry back.

After wasting pretty much the entire day, I decided that it was probably safe to head over to the garage to get a bit of work done. I had a car I was working on replacing the fender for and I promised them I would have it done by Monday. I didn’t get it back until Friday from painting and I hated going overtime on projects. I parked in the back of the shop and just opened the back door instead of the garage bay doors. The first thing I did was look up at the windows on the second story, but I didn’t see any lights on. It was only eight and I couldn’t imagine Landry would be asleep already, so maybe she didn’t stay the night.

I almost had the entire fender on and secured when the lights to the front office turned on. Through the window, I could see the top of Landry’s head. She was stopped in the office space, which was strange. I wiped my hands clean and made my way into the office. I startled her a bit when I opened the door, but the very first thing I noticed was that she was crying.