She grinned. “I can’t lie, I’m totally proud of that.”

They looked around at the other cars. Asa shook hands with people because it seemed like he knew everyone.

PJ gave her card to a few people and they headed over to the Twisted Steel booth, where Duke was surrounded by several women, all gazing adoringly at him.

“I don’t know how he does it,” Asa said. “Everywhere you go it’s this.”

PJ looked up to Asa and then back to Duke. “Are you kidding me? How can you not know? He’s gorgeous. Successful. Drives fast cars and motorcycles. He’s got a slow, panty-dropping drawl. What’s not to like?”

Asa frowned. “He’s not me, that’s what not to like.”

PJ patted his arm. “I like you best. Your drawls are different. But it’s impossible to ignore Duke’s attributes. Even if yours totally overshadow his.”

He appeared satisfied with that, and she wanted to kiss him for being so adorable but she resisted.

Once Duke saw Asa, he brought him over and they began talking about a rebuild of some sort. Duke’s admirers moved on once actual business started being discussed and PJ smirked.

It was fine to see women gawk at Asa. He was gawkworthy. But he was hers. So they could look their fill, but no touching. She remembered what he was like before they started seeing each other. He always had a passel of women rubbing up all over him, but as far as she could tell he never looked twice at anyone but her, so while sometimes she wanted to slap the mitts of the shop bunnies that came around, she’d had no reason to doubt his affections.

So she’d take the gawking because she had Asa, all of him, and they only got to look.

It was about an hour later when she finally caught sight of Shawn ambling her way.

He hugged her. “I just came from the other side of the hall, so I passed the cars on my way. You’re kickass.”

“Thank you.”

“Julie is right behind me. She and Mom got caught by one of Dad’s cronies.”

True to his claim, her sister, her mother, and Jay came toward them. Lenore hugged her, kissing both cheeks.

“Well done, darling.”

“She told everyone standing nearby that her daughter had painted the cars.” Julie hugged her next, followed by Jay.

“Seriously quality stuff.” Jay nodded, impressed. “I looked at their pricing sheets. You weren’t kidding about profit potential for Colman.”

“Not bad for a college dropout with a pierced face?”

He grinned, hugging her again. “I do miss arguing with you every day at work.” He leaned close to whisper to her. “We heard from the attorney. I’ll talk with you about it later, all right?”

She nodded and then looked back down the way they’d all come. “Did Dad get held up too?”

Her mother’s mouth flattened into a line and Julie sighed.

That’s when she knew he hadn’t come. She’d waited over two hours and he wasn’t going to show up.

She wanted it not to matter. Wished it didn’t hurt as bad as it did. Even after he’d said all that stuff to her, she wanted him to come see her work. Because she was his child, if for nothing else.

“He’s not here.”

Asa came up, pausing to kiss her mother and sister before putting a hand at the small of PJ’s back. “I see the Colmans are in the house. Nice to see you all. Did you get the chance to check out PJ’s work?”

His body language changed once he truly took note of her expression. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing. I’m done now. I’d like to go home.” She wanted to pull the covers up over her head.

Her mom took PJ’s hand. “He wasn’t feeling well. He wanted to come.”

PJ just looked at her mother. “Stop making excuses for him.”

Jay shook his head. “PJ’s right. But we’re here. That’s what matters.”

“It does matter, yes. I’m happy you’re all here. It means a lot to me. I’ll talk to you all later. Call me about that thing, Jay.”

Her mother hugged her. “He doesn’t know how to be sorry. Don’t give up on him.”

They said their good-byes and Asa led her away.

Chapter Twenty-six

Asa wasn’t sure if he should keep to the plan, but then he decided, fuck Howard Colman. PJ deserved a special dinner in her honor for this, and he’d be damned if he let that asshole hurt her any more that night.

“I’m really hungry. You want to get some dinner? Celebrate you, my wild rose?”

She smiled, but it was sad at the edges. “Sure. I’m hungry.”

He shoved all his annoyance down as far as he could. Her mother should have warned him about this so they could have prepared PJ for it rather than have her great night come crashing down around her ears because she got broadsided by it.

“You don’t have to deal with all this Eastlake traffic. We can get something closer to your house, you know.”

He rolled his eyes; even though she couldn’t see, she’d know. “You said just a few days ago that you’d been craving Serafina, and that’s where we’re going.”

“Okay then. Thank you,” she said, her voice a little less flat.

He parked and took her inside and that’s when she saw his mom and sister standing with her friends.

“Congratulations!”

PJ took in the scene with a smile on her face. “Aw, guys.”