Plain Jayne Read Online Free

see she was shaking her head at him, but as he steered the truck into the exit lane, he caught the glimpse of a smile.
    “Didn’t you tell me you had a girlfriend?”
    Damn it. He’d been seeing Lisa for a couple months now, and even though he didn’t consider it anything serious, he knew Lisa did. He’d have to at least let her know what was going on.
    Jayne clicked her tongue. “I’ll take your silence as a yes.”
    “So?”
    “Oh my God, Nick, do you rent out that space in your head? No woman is going to be happy about her boyfriend inviting another woman to live with him.”
    “It’ll be fine.” It was more of a hope than a lie. “So unless you’ve got someone who’s going to kick my ass for even suggesting this …”
    He waited for her to answer, but when she didn’t, he laughed.
    “I’ll take your silence as a no. Any other excuses?”
    “I’m thinking.”
    “Think fast, because we’re almost there.”
    “This is crazy.”
    “No. Driving back and forth to Vancouver every day is crazy; this is nothing.” At the stop sign, he glanced over and watched her chew her bottom lip. “I’m not saying you should move in permanently, just stay until we get your place fixed up. And trust me, my place is a hell of a lot better than a hotel room we both know will never be clean enough, no matter how much you clean it yourself.”
    The second her nose wrinkled, he knew he had her.
    “How did you survive the hotel rooms on the trip out, anyway?” he asked.
    Her mouth twitched a little before she finally smiled. “I bought a sleeping bag.”
    “And how many tubs of Lysol wipes did you go through?”
    “Only two.” After a second, she sighed and lifted her left shoulder. “And a half.”
    Two and a half tubs of wipes. He could have pulled the I-told-you-so card, but didn’t. Instead, he just drove on, waiting for her to realize he’d won.
    “And what if your girlfriend freaks out?”
    “Her name’s Lisa, and she won’t.” At least he hoped she wouldn’t.
    “You don’t know that,” Jayne cried, fisting her hands against her knees. “What makes you think Linda’s going to feel any different than Abby did? I don’t want to screw this up for you.”
    “It’s Lisa.” Nick sighed quietly. “And no one’s going to screw anything up, Jayne. If she can’t handle you and me, that’s her problem.”
    “No, Nick, it usually ends up being my problem.” Jayne huffed so hard it was surprising she had any breath left to keep talking. “It’s not exactly normal that we’re … like this … andyou can’t blame people for thinking the worst.”
    “What worst? If my best friend was a guy, there’d be no problem with him staying at my place, so I don’t get why it’s a problem to have you stay there.”
    “The problem,” she ground out, “is that I’m not a guy. In case you hadn’t noticed, you idiot, I’m a girl.”
    It was all Nick could do not to laugh out loud. They may have been best friends all these years, but he was still a guy.
He noticed
.
    Admitting it, though, would only prove her point.
    He wheeled the truck into the long driveway and threw it in park. “I’m telling you, Lisa won’t care. And if she does, that’s between her and me, it’s got nothing to do with you.”
    “Yeah, right. Until she goes crying to your mother and I end up on the top of the Debra Scott hit list again.”
    “Not gonna happen. Besides”—he pushed the button on his visor and the garage door jerked then started rolling up—“there’s someone else who wants you to stay.”
    A second later, his old basset hound came wobbling out from under the door, his tail swinging, his ears flapping along beside him.
    “Duke!” Jayne was out of the truck before Nick pulled the key out of the ignition. Cooing and laughing, she dropped to the driveway, arms outstretched.
    Nick climbed out of the truck and laughed as he walked over to where Duke had already climbed onto Jayne’s lap and was busy