Free Motor City Fae by Cindy Spencer Pape

she knew he was blushing. And grinning.
    “Jase, you dog.” They shared a wicked grin. “So how was he?”
    “Incredible.” Jase’s dark eyes took on a dreamy expression. “This could be the start of something serious. I’ve never talked so much on a date before in my life.”
    “Only talked?” It was hard to keep her voice light and teasing. Happy as she was for Jase, she couldn’t suppress a pang of jealousy.
    “Well, maybe a bit more. But we talked for hours.”
    Jase settled himself on a nearby lawn chair, leaning his elbows on his knees and his chin on his fists. “There’s something delicious about him, Meagan. Lots of lovely layers and intricacies. Open, yet mysterious.”
    “I’m glad. Just, Jase—be careful, okay?”
    He traced an X across his chest. “Promise.”
    “When are you seeing him again?”
    “Tonight. He’s playing at the club again, though this time without your friend Ric fronting the band. Which brings up the next subject. Judging by the gloomy expression, I’m assuming your date didn’t go too well. Are you okay?”
    “I’m fine.”
    “Try pulling the other one, sweetheart. I know fine and this isn’t it. He didn’t hurt you, did he?” Jase’s friendly expression hardened and suddenly he looked every inch of his six-foot muscular frame. When he wasn’t working with clay, he was usually working out on the equipment he’d set up in the lower part of the garage.
    Her friend’s big-brother protectiveness brought a smile. “No, you don’t need to go beat him up. He didn’t really do anything, it turned out he had ulterior motives.”
    “Explain.”
    She did. Collapsing back against the sun-warmed aluminum screen door, she spilled it all, the attraction, the house party and finding out he was some sort of investigator looking for an adopted child. The only parts she left out were Greg’s veiled hints about “sides,” and “bad things going down.”
    “So he must have known you’d be at the bar last night.”
    It sounded crazy when he said it out loud. “I don’t know how he could have,” she admitted. “Even I didn’t know I was going to be there till the last minute.”
    “You said he asked about your adoption?”
    “Not really. Greg did, actually, when he drove me home.”
    “You had a fight at this party and he had his friend drive you home. Then the friend asks if you were adopted. Have I got that right?”
    “Right,” she admitted. Somehow it sounded even crazier when he said it out loud.
    Jase continued. “But you blew him off? Why? I thought you were trying to find your biological parents?”
    She had been, on and off. Since the death of her adoptive mother a year earlier, she’d felt so adrift and alone that she’d started a search, though an admittedly half-hearted one.
    “Don’t you want whatever information he has?”
    She did, but it was hard to explain. “It’s just…” She looked away from Jase, fighting back tears she didn’t want him to see. “You know how you said that George could be the one, right? Up till about two hours ago, I was having those same thoughts about Ric. Then it turns out he was using my attraction to get close to me. It hurts.”
    His warm hand rubbed her shoulder in a soothing massage. “I know it does. But it also makes no sense. Seems like all he had to do if he wanted to find out about your adoption was ask. He could have done that at any time. Sounds like maybe you were messing with his head as much as he was messing with yours.”
    “Probably having a hard time deciding whether to do the job or get laid.” She tried and failed to keep the bitterness out of her voice.
    “Could be. Us guys are pretty stupid critters when the hormones get messed up with the thinking process.”
    “Don’t even think about defending the rat!”
    “You know better. I’d still be happy to go beat him up for hurting you, but I do think you should talk to him.” He held up a hand when she swirled to glare at him. “About