“If all else fails, you Google it,” I say. “Let me grab my phone and try to fix the issue. If we can’t, you can get it towed to a shop. There’s one right around the corner.”

She checks her watch as disappointment clouds her features. “Ugh, I’ll call a tow truck and ask Rex or Sierra to come get me.”

Tonight is one of her family dinners. If she calls one of her siblings, they’ll miss a portion of the dinner, having to drive here and then back.

I scratch my cheek. “If you need a ride, I’m not doing anything.”

“It’s over thirty minutes away.” She shakes her head. “I can’t ask you to do that.”

“I could use a good drive.”

I peer over at Cassidy after parking in her mother’s circular drive. “If you need a ride back, text me.”

“I can have someone drive me home.” She grips the door handle, slightly opening it, but stops, whipping around to face me. “Unless you want to come in and stay? I told them my car was on crack and a friend was giving me a ride. No one will mind.” She fidgets with her bracelet, as if she’s nervous I’ll say no … or that it’ll be weird because everything we are is so up in the air.

A friend.

For reasons unknown, my skin crawls at the term.

No, we’re more than friends.

She gave me so much shit all the times I said we were just friends, but now that we’re on the journey to change that, she’s holding back. Things get trickier when I notice Maliki’s black Camaro parked in front of us.

Does he know about Cassidy and me?

What he does know is my history, where I was months ago, and plenty of negative stories are circulating about me. Sure, he’s been cool with me at parties and the bar, but me possibly dating Cassidy is a different level of simple friendliness.

I have a record.

Automatically, that makes some assume I can’t be trusted.

Cassidy pouts her plump lower lip and steeples her hands in a begging motion. “Come on. Be my sidekick tonight, Robin.”

I chuckle.

Robin.

That term doesn’t make my skin crawl as much.

“Fine,” I theatrically groan as if she were asking me to cut a vein or some shit.

Cassidy grins. “You da best, Callahan.”

I cut my car’s engine and survey the two-story brick home. It’s the nicest in the neighborhood, but in my old life, it’d have been considered small.

My old world was full of superficial assholes.

“Is this where you lived, growing up?” I ask her.

She nods. “For as long as I can remember.”