Without You: A Friends-to-Lovers Small Town Romance

by Jennifer Van Wyk

  “Did you just sniff me?” he asks, humor heavy in his tone.

  I stop in my tracks.

  Okay. So apparently I wasn’t discreet.

  How embarrassing.

  I shake my head fast.

  No.

  Nope, I didn’t.

  Side to side.

  Side to side.

  If I say it didn’t happen, it didn’t happen, right?

  “No?”

  “Right.”

  “Okay,” he says, trying not to laugh.

  I sigh, relenting. “Fine. I did. But you sniffed me first!” I exclaim, even though I’m lying through my teeth.

  “So, it was a mutual sniffing?” He surprises me by replying.

  I point at him and narrow my eyes. “You know, a gentleman would have just let it slide.”

  He grins.

  “All right. I’ll let you off the hook. Because I am a gentleman. Sometimes,” he adds with a chuckle.

  I roll my eyes. “Anyway,” I murmur. “Thanks, again, for the coffee and scone.”

  “My pleasure,” he says. “Maybe I’ll bump into you again soon?”

  “Yeah. Maybe.” Hopefully, I don’t add. I walk to my car that’s conveniently parked next to a pickup that is so obviously his. It’s enormous, shiny black everywhere. The windows. The wheels. The door handles. The paint. Though, there’s traces of mud near the back tires which for some reason makes it even better.

  “Yours?” I ask, even though I’ve already deduced it is.

  “How’d you guess?”

  “Uh, because it looks like you? All fancy without looking fancy,” I joke. I open my door and slide into the driver’s seat.

  “You have me pegged,” he calls, climbing up into his truck. “See ya soon, Katie girl.”

  Shaking my head, I shut my door and start my car, shift into reverse, and glance at Brody before backing out of my parking space.

  He’s looking at me.

  Watching with an expression that I don’t understand but all I can think about is that one day, I’d love to know each and every one of his expressions.

  Chapter Four

  Brody

  Well, that was a perfect way to start my day. Even with the interruption from my phone ringing because normally I’ve been at the shop for at least an hour so my guys were checking in, it was the best kind of surprise to walk into the coffee shop and see Katie standing there.

  She’s so damn pretty it makes me crazy. I knew I needed to be at the shop but I didn’t care at the time. I wanted to look at her and listen to her and share coffee and that weird triangle biscuit thing that I didn’t really like nearly as much as I let on but it was worth eating it to be in her presence.

  “’Bout fucking time!” Johnny shouts at me from under the hood of the car he’s working on. He doesn’t even raise his head, but he’s a grease monkey like me. He knows the sound of my pickup. “Sleep in, B?”

  “Yeah. You know me. Always sleeping late.”

  He stands up straight and wipes his hands on a rag that was draped over the open hood.

  He lifts a chin. “Then what?”

  “Had something to do. You my mother or something?” I flip him off and smirk as I walk into my office.

  He gives me a weird look which kind of makes sense because he and I know way too much about each other. I know more about his bowel movements and how often he jacks off than I should, that’s for damn sure.

  I’ve barely sat down when he barges in, leans against the doorway, and crosses his arms but doesn’t say a word. I look up and he raises an eyebrow.

  “You’re such a nosy asshole, you know that?”

  He shrugs. “And?”

  I drop my head back and look at the ceiling, spin my chair to face him, and shift my gaze to him. “Stopped for a coffee.”

  “And?” he repeats.

  “Saw Katie,” I say, grinning, picking up a pen and clicking it several times in a row.

  He goes from annoyed with his boss to happy for his best friend in an instant. “Oh, really?”

  Johnny shuts the door and has a seat across from me, rubbing his hands together like an excited teenage girl who just heard some juicy gossip. I don’t hide my eye roll.

  “Tell me everything.”

  “There’s nothing to tell.”

  “Bullshit,” he says, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “No lie. I ran into her at the coffee shop. We sat together and drank coffee and that’s it.”

  “Since when do you go to the coffee shop?” he asks, raising his eyebrow at me.

  “Since I saw her walk into the coffee shop and decided I desperately needed another cup of coffee this morning,” I reply honestly, raising my own eyebrow.

  He throws his head back laughing.

  “You going for it?”

  I shrug. “Not sure. She’s beautiful and I always liked her, but yeah, it would be a little weird, right?”

  “Weird how? Because of Hannah?”

  “She was a bridesmaid in Hannah’s wedding,” I remind him. “She was there the night that I stormed in and pulled a “Friends in Low Places” that no one will ever forget. Katie probably thinks I’m a piece of shit.”

  “Did she act like it this morning when you were drinking coffee for however long?”

  “Well, no,” I admit. “Actually, she said the only reason she was a bridesmaid was because Hannah needed more bodies up there with her. I got the feeling there isn’t a ton of friendship left between the two.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “You think Hannah’s gonna sit back and let it happen? She’ll shit all over our relationship.”

  “Now it’s a relationship, huh?” he teases. “Thought there was nothing to tell.”

  “Fuck me, but you’re such a gossip girl.”

  He shrugs, not caring. “I am what I am. I’m not ashamed of the fact that I want to see you happy.”

  Happy. Interesting.

  “I’m happy.”

  “Sure you are. But, what I mean is, happy for more reasons than just the fact that you kick ass at your job. Personal life, happy.”

  “I’m happy there, too,” I tell him. I’m not unhappy, though, I don’t go to sleep at night with a smile on my face because of how I spent my evening. He’s not wrong in that I kick ass at my job and that’s why I’m happy. Is it enough, though?

  “Is that enough?” he asks, reading my thoughts.

  “For now, yes. Let’s get to work, okay? Fill me in on the morning,” I say.

  “Conversation is tabled then, got it.” He continues on, telling me about the delivery that he was notified would be delayed — the reason he was calling me this morning — and goes on about the number and type of jobs we have lined up for the day. This is our typical, he knows the jobs on the schedule like the back of his hand and I trust that he assigns the appropriate person to do the work, and that includes assigning me to whatever needs to be done.

  I like knowing what’s going on. It’s important to me, and not just because I’m the one who signs everyone’s checks. This is the business I built and it may be shifting into something that I never expected, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about what got me here.

  I’ll never forget.

  It’s not who I am.

  “What day did they say the wheels would be here?”

  “Two days.”

  “Damn. Why the delay?”

  He scrubs a hand over his face and groans. “Some dipshit doesn’t know how to run a fork lift and ended up dropping the load, dented a bunch of the wheels or something like that. I honestly don’t know. I stopped listening because I was annoyed that it was going to put us back a couple days.”

  I chuckle. “It’ll be fine. We padded our timeline, remember? We have to because stuff like this happens,” I remind him.

  “Yeah. Still annoying. Now it’s a little less padded than it was before but I guess we’ve still got plenty of time.”

  I wave him off.
“What else?”

  He stands up and backs toward the door, opening it behind him. “Nada. Just work, work, work. You’re a slave driver.”

  I grin. “Better get to it then.”

  He shuts the door behind him, knowing that I can’t get any of the office work done otherwise. This is the only part of owning the company that I hate. I’d rather be getting my hands dirty than pushing papers but it’s an evil necessity.

  I work for about ten minutes before my mind wanders back to the blonde beauty I spent an hour with this morning. I can’t stop myself from reaching for my phone and going onto social media to do some research on her. I’m happily surprised to see that we’re still social media friends, though it says a lot about how often I scroll through the site since I couldn’t even remember my password, much less who I’m friends with.

  She doesn’t post often, but there are a few recent things, especially about moving back home. She’s also tagged in quite a few pictures, including some from Hannah’s bachelorette party and wedding. I wonder if Hannah realizes that one of her bridesmaids outshined her on her wedding day. I also wonder how, when I was dating Hannah, I somehow missed how breathtakingly beautiful Katie is. Though, I suppose, it would have made me quite the dick if I had.

  After about ten minutes, I set my phone down and sit back in my seat.

  I only spent an hour with Katie this morning but I already know I like her. She’s funny and kind and sweet and I really want to get to know her better. However, what I told Johnny this morning holds true. Hannah is just petty enough that she’ll flip out if I pursue anything with Katie. She’s territorial and, even though she’s married and has no claim to me, I’m afraid she wouldn’t be happy about it. And it’s not that I care what she thinks, but Katie might.

  My phone rings, startling the shit out of me and I almost throw the damn thing because I was so caught up simply staring at a picture of Katie.

  Once I have my heart in control, I answer, “Eric, hey. What’s up, man?”

  Eric is the country music video producer who first contacted me about getting vehicles ready to be in the videos after I worked on his own truck.

  “Not much, B. You ready for this?” he asks, meaning the influx of business he keeps saying will come my way once word gets out.

  “Of course.”

  “Good. Good. ‘Cause shit’s about to get real.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Got a few shipments coming your way. The first is three trucks. One will have two muscle cars. And the third is a Jeep.”

  My heart starts racing because I wasn’t expecting them so soon and the new shop that’s being built won’t be ready for a few more weeks. “Eric, I thought you were going to give me plenty of time before vehicles started arriving.”

  “This is me giving you a head’s up. You’ve got six weeks before they get there.”

  I breathe a sigh of relief because I know the new shop will be completed by then. When I signed the contract, my daddy sat down with me and told me to take a good hard look around my current shop, Benton’s Tire. It’s not a bad place, but it’s also a working shop. My guys do things like oil changes and tire rotations, regular maintenance on vehicles to keep them in top running order. What I’ll be doing to these vehicles will require a shop that’s set up for it. I met with Chad, because he’s a contractor, and he offered to get it up and going for me. I’m sure it helped that I’m paying him extra for the rush job.

  He understands exactly what I need in the new shop he’s building for me. Once it’s ready, I’ll work completely out of that shop rather than taking up space at Benton’s Tire. Johnny will run the day-to-day operations there and I’ll pop in when I’m needed.

  I’ll have to double check with Chad that the building will be done in time, but I’m not too worried. That will give us four weeks after he initially thought it’d be done to get it organized and set up. That’s more than enough.

  “Six weeks. That works. You gave me a heart attack, man. I was afraid they were coming in a few days.”

  “Ha! I’m not that much of a jerk. You got some time right now to go over the details?”

  “Yeah, I’ve got time.”

  For the next fifteen minutes, we discuss the specifics for each vehicle. Lucky for me, nothing he’s talking about is out of my wheel house. As he’s talking, I type everything into the computer program Chad set up for me. All products that I need to order link directly to my suppliers, even though most of what we put onto the vehicles is custom. It makes it easier to keep everything in order.

  “The Ram pickup is the first priority. Luke’s video is scheduled to shoot in March and we need it ready to go and delivered a few weeks early.” March? That’s six months from now. I don’t know what I was expecting, but having this much time to work on the vehicles definitely wasn’t it. I’m not an idiot, though. I won’t admit that to him. I’m sure at some point he’ll tell me I only have three weeks to work on a truck and right now I’m not about to kick the gift horse in the mouth, so to speak.

  “Got it. That works here.”

  He goes over the timeline for the rest of the vehicles and we hang up with a plan set in place.

  “Luke will be by in January to check progress.”

  I try to mask my excitement over him coming to check on his truck by simply saying, “Just keep me updated so I know when to expect him.”

  “Will do. How many are you able to work on at a time?”

  “Right now we’re planning on two at a time but if the jobs increase then we’ll hire more people on and bump it up to three or possibly four.”

  “That should work for now.”

  “For now?”

  He’s quiet for a second then, “Brody, you realize what this contract is going to do for your business, don’t you?”

  I have a good idea but have been afraid to dream of it. Hell, I couldn’t even dream of signing a contract like this one so anything beyond that is truly unthinkable for me. Luckily, he’s not waiting for my reply and he continues with, “Once word gets out, everyone is going to be calling you wanting you to work on their vehicles, too.”

  “Let’s just take it one project at a time, yeah?”

  He chuckles. “That’s fine but what I’m telling you now is prepare yourself. Prepare your guys. Make sure whatever building you’re putting up is going to be big enough.”

  “Eric, you realize who you’re talking to, right? The only thing I know how to do is work on cars and trucks.”

  “Which is the reason why your business is going to blow up bigger than you ever imagined.”

  “It already has,” I tell him.

  “I get that. But…” he sighs. “I want you ready.”

  “Ready?”

  “Prepared for what’s to come. It’s going to happen, Brody. It would have anyway once people discovered you on their own but with your name associated with these artists, people will notice and start calling. There’s nothing like star power to make a business sky rocket.”

  I’m a big enough man to admit he’s making me a little — actually a lot — nervous. I’m not looking for fame. Heck, I wasn’t even looking for fortune. I was perfectly happy just being me. “What if we leave the contract as it is?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I love what I do and I know it won’t change who I am, the money, I mean, but I’m not sure I’m ready for what you’re suggesting.”

  “Your business to explode?”

  “Right. I don’t need my name in lights, Eric. That’s not who I am and I’m not ready for my life to change.”

  “Well, ready for it or not, it’s gonna happen. You know this, though. What’s the big deal now? Don’t tell me you don’t think you can do the work.”

  “Shit, Eric. The work isn’t the issue. I don’t like attention, that’s all.”

  He blows out a breath and chuckles. I’m sure I sound like a complete idiot to him. He’s surrounded by people in the limelight, so I’m sure he can�
��t fathom a guy not wanting attention. “You’re something else, Redding. Look, if it’s going to be a problem tell me now so we can work around this. It’s not like you need to advertise your association with the projects and we can do our best to keep your name hidden as much as possible. But we give credit where credit’s due, and you deserve this credit, my man. You’re the best in the business and don’t even realize it, which is part of what makes you the best.”

  “Best in the business, huh?”

  “I said what I said.”

  Johnny pokes his head in. “Mikey needs… crap, sorry, boss. Didn’t know you were on the phone.”

  Into the phone I say, “Hang on a second, Eric.”

  “No problem.”

  “What’s up?”

  “That the producer?”

  “Yeah, we’re going over everything now. Give me five minutes, yeah?”

  “You got it.”

  He shuts the door behind him as he leaves and I get back to work.

  “Sorry about that.”

  “You’re working, I interrupted. It’s not a problem. We’re pretty well done anyway.”

  “So listen. I might freak out a tad a time or two and I apologize in advance for that but you’ve met me, I wear Levi’s and boots and not just when I’m working. I’m a common guy.”

  “You don’t say?” he teases. “Also, you’re far from common.”

  “Agree to disagree on that one?”

  He chuckles again and then goes on, “I get it. I do. But nothing is going to change for you unless you want it to. You want your life to stay private? It will.”

  “Easy as that, huh?”

  “It is.”

  For some reason I believe him. Something I will later learn was a mistake.

  Chapter Five

  Katie

  “You can’t be serious.”

  He shrugs his shoulders, not caring. “Sorry, Katie. It’s just not working out.”

  My jaw drops then snaps closed before opening again. “But… you’re my dad.”

  Daddy shrugs and looks away from me, fiddling with his beard. “That’s why I’m doing this.”

  “You can’t be serious,” I repeat. “What am I supposed to do?”