A Date on Cloud Nine by Jenna McKnight Read Free Book Online

be the father-to-be?” Yum .
    “You talking to me?”
    “Um, I said, so, you drive a taxi now.” If he didn’t bite her head off this time, she’d find out if this was as much a surprise to him as it was to her.
    “Yeah.” He turned up the heater, which had to be solely for her, because he cracked his window and shrugged out of his jacket. “My uncle’s in Arizona for the winter, I lease it from him, we both make money.”
    “You’ve been back in St. Louis a while then?”
    He didn’t reply. She thought for a moment he was going to turn the preprogrammed message back on, but it remained blessedly silent, Thank you, God .
    Now there was a previously unconscious thought that suddenly took on new meaning. Given her recent experience, she’d make an effort to use the Lord’s name more judiciously in the future.
    “Should the meter be running?”
    “No, we just put ’em in for decoration.”
    Well, well. He even had the appropriate surly attitude that came from owning a successful business one day and being a driver-for-hire the next. Had Elizabeth really made that happen? And how? Lilly was dying to know—well, okay, maybe not dying —but he’d already walked away once when she’d asked. Maybe in a few days when he’d had time to recuperate.
    Back to the meter. “It seems high.” She felt a sharp pain in her arm—the second one since she’d been in the backseat—but she couldn’t find anything sharp there, either. “Maybe the explosion knocked it out of whack.”
    “Tell you what, I’ll have it checked. If I overcharge you today, I’ll send you a full refund.”
    “Really?”
    “Hey, it’s only money.”
    Uh-oh, money again .
    She’d been out of the hospital for what, five minutes tops, and she was already trying to save it instead of give it away. Seems there was going to be more to her current life lesson than writing a few hundred checks and getting pregnant within a month.
    “Sorry,” she whispered. “I’ll do better.”
    They drove through a neighborhood that was neglected, peeling, uncared for, a place to drive through to get to a good shopping area, into the city, or out to the county malls. Surely there were people here who needed money, but how did she go about finding out who, and since she wasn’t allowed to give more than necessary, how much?
    She was totally out of her league. She could sink the whole lot right here and not make a dent, and once it was gone, it was too late if John said she’d done it wrong. Good thing Elizabeth had sent Jake.
    “Want me to lock the doors?” he asked, making fleeting eye contact as he drove.
    “What?” The three tassels swinging from the mirror distracted her. Were they from his uncle’s childrens’ graduations, or were they his? Jake had at least two degrees that she knew of.
    “I noticed you looking around. Neighborhood’s notwhat you’re used to, I guess.” He engaged all the locks.
    “That’s an understatement.” If Elizabeth was responsible for putting him here to mentor her—Lilly wasn’t sure about that, but she was sure she’d better cover all bases—then it was time for him to be useful. She leaned forward and said, “Do you know this area?”
    “Yeah, sure.”
    “I don’t want to go home just yet.” She connected with his reflection, noting that it did nothing to diminish the sexy heat in his bedroom blues. “Are you okay to drive me around a while?”
    “Sure. Clayton? Ladue?”
    “Here. Downtown. The Projects. Do we have Projects?”
    “My, you want to do some serious slumming.”
    Within minutes, she realized she wouldn’t accomplish much without some narrative. “Talk to me like a tourist,” she said. “And not that darned recording.”
    He scratched his head, rubbed the side of his nose, and finally said, “Say, how ’bout them Rams?”
    He made her smile; that was good. On a day like today, that was very good. “Wait. Pull over.”
    “Here?” Buildings on both sides of the wide street were