The Bust

by Jamie Bennett

  “You must care about my dad,” he said, and laughed a little. “If so, you’re one of the few.”

  “I guess I do, in a way,” I said, after considering for a moment. “People get to be part of your life whether you want them to be or not. Roy and I get along pretty well. Mostly he just yells at people and calls them names—well, he does that to me, too, but I wouldn’t say that our relationship is acridicious. Not at all.”

  “Not…what? You mean acrimonious?”

  “I think that’s what I said.” But maybe not. “Anyway, I wouldn’t say that we’re friends, but he doesn’t actively go after me with a bat, and I’m not stealing from him, so we’re ok.”

  “Sounds warm and fuzzy.” Dexter sipped from a glass on the bar, and shrugged when he saw me looking at it. “Yes, day drinking, but only because I’m practicing my skills with the tap,” he explained. “I sucked at pouring last night when you weren’t here.” He took another sip and made a face before dumping it out. “God, that’s terrible beer. Roy didn’t yell or get acrimonious with me either, but it was still a long night, long and boring. You must have enjoyed the time off. From what he says, you’re here until closing, every shift.”

  “That’s true. He’s had a hard time hiring someone else, but I like to keep busy and I like the money, so I don’t mind it. And I did have a really fun night,” I agreed. “The soup wasn’t great, but the company was.”

  “Soup?” He seemed confused. “Who was the company? Were you out with a boyfriend?”

  “No, he’s not my boyfriend. I don’t think he’s really boyfriend material and I’m not looking for someone. Not now, anyway, not around here.” I rubbed my knuckle, since it had started to ache again. I’d thought back through the week to remember if I’d hurt myself somehow, hit it against a table or knocked it on the floor when Emma and I argued about her leash. No, I hadn’t. “I probably won’t be in Michigan for too much longer.”

  Dexter looked surprised. “That’s too bad for my dad. He doesn’t say it straight out, but he thinks you’re a good employee.”

  “Does he?” It made me smile and wave at Roy, who rolled his eyes and motioned in a circle at his temple to show what he thought of me. “I am.”

  He laughed. “Good for you. So, if you’re not going to be here for too much longer, and I’m not going to be either—”

  “Wait, you’re leaving too? Does your dad know?”

  “Sure. I have a job to get back to, friends, a life downstate. I took some time off between projects but I can’t stay here for the rest of my life. But since you won’t be around forever, and I’ll be taking off soon, maybe we could go out together and have some fun. You’re not looking for anything serious and neither am I.” He smiled at me again.

  Not around forever, that was what he’d said, and he was right. None of us would be. I considered for a half a second and then nodded at Dexter. “Yeah, ok. Let’s do that.” And we made some plans.

  “You’re not going to be able to pick me up for much longer,” I said as I settled into Kayden’s car at the end of the night. Roy and Dexter roared past but only Dexter waved back at me. “You’ll have to wake up early for practice and get a good night’s sleep. That’s what athletes need.”

  “Oh, do they? Tell me more about athletes,” Kayden offered, so I proceeded to as we left the parking lot.

  “Well, you’re not drinking anymore or using drugs, so that’s great. But you’ll also need to improve your diet—not just toast anymore. Have you ever thought of protein shakes? The packaged ones are expensive, but I bet we could figure out how to make our own. Or my soup…”

  “I’m fine. No more soup,” he told me quickly. “You’re right about me picking you up, though, because practice is going to start early in the mornings. That’s why I was thinking that I’d teach you to drive.”

  “Really?” I stared at him in the darkness. “You’d let me learn on this this car?”

  We passed by the gas station at the edge of town and its lights showed me his face. He looked like he was going to puke over my question. “Yes, I’d let you learn on my Bentley,” he answered, but he didn’t sound too sure about that. “You’d practice with this and then you could get a car of your own and drive yourself.” He paused. “But there’s a lot of bad weather here. And it’s really dark, isn’t it? There’s hardly anyone on the road at this time of night.”

  “Morning,” I corrected.

  “I just realized how dangerous it might be.” He paused again. “But if something happened, like you got into an accident, you could still call me.”

  I could still call him, I repeated in my mind. Kayden would come. “I probably won’t have an accident because I’ll be very, very careful. Especially with this car. I definitely won’t hit anything with this car.”

  He made a noise that sounded like a groan. “It isn’t the perfect vehicle to learn on.”

  “Oh, I know! I looked up how much it cost on the bar office computer and I screamed. Roy thought another rat ran across my feet. Have you reconsidered selling it?”

  “No. No, I won’t sell my car.”

  He sounded very determined. “Ok, then it looks like I’ll be learning to drive on a Bentley! Thank you, Kayden. I really appreciate you teaching me. It’s a big step.” It meant that, if I purchased my own car, I’d be able to drive myself right out of Michigan.

  But yes, first I’d have to learn. The next morning, I read up about driving on my phone, the pedals and the gears and mirror adjustment, but I still didn’t feel entirely ready for my first lesson. The internet wasn’t a warm, comfortable way to learn, but I had a good idea of what would help me more.

  The library was closed on Sundays but the bookstore down the street from the tavern opened at noon, so I took the dreaded bus from the recycling center to stop, after stop, after stop, until it let me off near the corner. I went past the law office, the fudge shop that was closed until summer, and the yarn store where maybe my Great-aunt Maude had bought the numerous balls that I kept unearthing in her boxes. So much yarn.

  I’d been nervous enough about the upcoming driving lesson that I’d let myself go past the limit I’d set and I read two of her love letters this morning instead of one. I was up to Halloween, and Ronnie described a crazy party he’d gone to after dressing up as a mummy and wrapping himself in bandages. He’d had a great time, but Maude’s answer had been witish. Wishingful, I meant. “I’d thought about going to a party, too,” she’d responded to him. “I know that some of the gals went with fraternity men from the college, but I wouldn’t step out with anyone else but you! And Dad didn’t feel so well, and you know…” I wasn’t clear about what was wrong with her father, but I understood her feelings about not wanting to go to some stupid Halloween party over being with him.

  The bell above the door rang as I rushed out of the cold and into the bookstore. I stuffed my mittens and hat into my pockets and wandered among the shelves, looking at the titles. I didn’t know most of them, since my experience was mostly limited to romance, and the romance section in this place didn’t include anything I hadn’t already read. Someone needed to up their game in that department.

  “May I help you?”

  I turned to the red-haired woman and remembered her from making the terrible coffee that I’d had here with Kayden. “Yes, please,” I answered. “I’m looking for a book about driving.”

  “Like, a manual?” She shook her head slightly. “We don’t have a lot of how-to. But if you look on-line…”

  “I mean, more like a book about a woman learning to drive. I’ve learned a lot from books, from other people living through things, and I thought maybe it would help calm me down to read about someone who was successful behind the wheel. I’m very nervous about it, mostly because I’ll be driving a Bentley and also taking lessons from someone who I think hasn’t been a good teacher before. I mean,” I repeated, “I don’t think he’s ever put himself in the position where someone is going to learn from him.”


  “Huh. Ok,” she said, so I went on.

  “I also think he’s the kind of person who expects himself to do everything right on the first try, and maybe he’ll want me to do that, too, which isn’t going to happen. I didn’t tell him that I have tried to drive before and it really, really didn’t work. Like, I was kind of banned from drivers’ ed. That bad.”

  The woman nodded. “I see. You’ll be learning from a perfectionist—”

  “I don’t think I’m describing him correctly. He’s not a perfectionist, for example, his apartment is fairly dirty although it is very orderly and neat. I mean that he has high standards for himself that I don’t think he has ever met. He’s always let himself down.”

  “And you want a book that will help you with this situation.” She pushed a spirally red curl behind her ear. “I’m not sure if I have anything that will help you.”

  “I’ve found that it’s better in a book. Do you know what I mean?” I asked her, but she still looked confuddled. “I always thought that I wanted to fall into the adventures I used to read about, like getting run over by a carriage, waylaid by highwaymen, kidnapped by aliens, those kinds of things. Even meeting a hot elf in the woods! But when I set out on my own, I realized that it’s much better to experience things by reading about them, instead of experiencing them for real. Like lions…so much better in a book than in person. Have you ever smelled one up close?”

  Her eyes got huge. “Lions? And you think that you were kidnapped by aliens?”

  “No, probably not. Someone did try to shove me into a van but I’m pretty sure he was human, and anyway, my dog bit him and we ran. But do you see what I mean? I’d rather have read about it than have it actually happen to me. I was so excited to head out into this cool life of adventure, but mostly it’s been really hard and a lot has been scary, and nothing ever wraps up neatly in the end. That’s why I’m looking for a book about learning to drive.”

  “Ok. Yes, I guess I understand.” She had taken some steps away from me when she asked about alien kidnappers, but now she nodded and walked toward me again. “Books are very comforting. I love to read and I always have one with me. I got my husband really into it, too. He’s a huge Jane Austen fan now.”

  “I never read anything by her.”

  The woman froze. “Are you serious? I almost named my son ‘Fitzwilliam’ after Mr. Darcy. But my husband objected a lot,” she told me. “You really should read that one. Here.” She pulled a paperback off the shelf and handed it to me.

  I didn’t take it. “I’m sure there’s no driving in this, unless there are some carriage incidents like the one I talked about, and I can only afford—”

  “My treat,” she told me. “I get to give books away because it’s my family’s bookstore. I’m Hallie Holliday.”

  “Kylie Martell. You’re so lucky to own this place!”

  She nodded. “It’s a lot of work, but we all pitch in. Let’s look for a driving book. Probably there’s more in Modern Fiction.” We walked away from Classics to search some other shelves, and as we looked, I tried to convince her to expand her romance section. It was pitifully poor, which I didn’t say.

  “It’s not very plenteous,” I told her instead, and I must have said it right because she didn’t bat an auburn eyelash at me.

  “We’ll have think about it. My husband and I make the decisions together…no, not that one.” She took a book called Christine from my hands and replaced it on the shelf, even though it did have a picture of a car on the cover.

  I tried to pick only one from the stack she made on the counter, but Hallie Holliday put all the books into a bag and charged me ten bucks, which couldn’t have been right. “No, you take them,” she told me when I protested. “And come back and tell me how the driving lesson went and how you felt about Jane Austen. If you like romance novels as much as it sounds, you’re going to love this one.” She took out a volume and hugged it.

  “Thank you. I will come back.” It had been fun to talk to her, very fun. “I work just down the street at Roy’s so I’m in town all the time.” But as much as I was here, I didn’t actually know anyone.

  “Roy’s?” Her auburn eyebrows went up. “I was in there, but only once.”

  “It isn’t really your crowd,” I agreed. She wasn’t wearing any leather at all and she didn’t have even the faintest odor of smoke about her, either.

  “No, not my crowd, but we had fun anyway.” She hesitated. “I think I’m a little older than you, so is it ok if I give you some advice? Not about driving, but about what you said earlier, about experiencing things.”

  “Um, sure.”

  “The kidnapping thing you mentioned sounds absolutely terrifying, but a lot in life really is better experienced personally. Like this,” she said, and pulled out the Jane Austen book again. “I didn’t realize it for a long time, but friendship and love are much better than what the books say. It’s better to feel them, not just read about them.”

  “Like maybe my Sir Aubrey really is out there,” I told her. Maybe he was, although I hadn’t been looking around for him. Then I realized her knowledge gap. “You probably haven’t read about him in The Knight’s Broken Lady. Sir Aubrey is pretty much the ideal of a man in every way.”

  “No, I haven’t read that one. But my own personal Mr. Darcy has size sixteen feet and was an offensive lineman for the Woodsmen.” She grinned. “I met him when I threw a rock at him by mistake.”

  It was an interesting idea, but one I wasn’t sure about pursuing. The last time I’d hit someone with a rock, it certainly hadn’t ended up with me marrying him. “It’s too bad that I’m leaving town soon,” I mentioned. “I haven’t met too many people here and I really liked talking to you.”

  “You’re leaving? That is too bad. But it sounds like you did make a good friend in that guy who’s going to teach you to drive. I can’t think of something I’d like to do less, so he must really like you.”

  “You’re right. We are good friends,” I answered. I smiled back at her and picked up my bag. I had some reading to do before my lesson with Kayden.

  Chapter 9

  Kylie

  “Stop!” Kayden smashed his foot into the floor on the passenger side, where there were a few invisible pedals he’d been trying to use since I got behind the wheel. It really didn’t make any difference in how the car moved, but he kept on pushing there.

  I pushed also on the real brake pedal, and the car halted. A little suddenly. “Ok, what do you want to do next? Should I practice parking?” I asked him.

  He rolled down the window and freezing wind whistled into the car. “One second.”

  I looked closely at his face. “Kayden, are you going to be sick?”

  He put his hand over his eyes and breathed in the frozen December air. “No. Not anymore.”

  “I’m sorry. I really tried to do what you said.” It was hard to make this car move as smoothly as Kayden seemed to be able to do it. Mostly it jerked around, in and out of turns, faster and slower. It didn’t help that I was so nervous, I felt a little sick myself. What if I hurt the one thing he had left that was worth any money, this big car? What if I hit something? Or someone, like I’d done the first time I’d tried to learn to drive in San Francisco? He could even be sued over that, and what would he do then? “You don’t have anything left. You’re practically homeless!” I said out loud.

  “Excuse me?” He put his hand down to stare at me.

  “Sorry, I was just thinking that you don’t have anything left and you’re practically homeless. I didn’t mean to say it to you, though.” I straightened my shoulders. I had to learn, and this was an amazing opportunity. “What do you think about parking? I could try to pull in between where the plow made those two huge snowbanks.”

  He shook his head. “No, we’re done for the day, hop out. Wait! Is the car in park? Ok, now turn it off, and get out.” We switched spots and he adjusted the driver’s seat, the little motor in it pushing it back and back so that hi
s long legs fit. I hadn’t been able to reach the pedals when I’d gotten in this morning, and when I’d asked him how tall he actually was, he’d told me six foot five. I was past the point of losing my breath when I looked at him due to his extreme handsomeness, but almost six and a half feet of gorgeous man was still a lot to take in, especially since he looked so different now. He was so much healthier than when I’d first met him, when he’d seemed sick and lost. Sad.

  “Are you happier?” I asked him now. “It seems like it shows in your face.”

  “I’m not much happier since you just announced that I have nothing left and am going to be homeless. I’m hungry. Do you have anything to eat at your house?”

  “The usual,” I told him, and that meant that mostly I had the special food for Emma in the fridge and not much for us humans. “We can stop and pick up groceries.” He nodded and turned the car without jerking it, which was a valuable skill that I hadn’t appreciated enough until trying it myself. “About you being homeless—I was thinking about that. They are going to kick you out soon, and it seems like the obvious solution is that you move into Great-aunt Maude’s house.”

  “Your house?” I saw him blink. “You mean, live with you?”

  “Live with me and Em,” I corrected. “You could have the big bedroom, even.”

  “The big bedroom…that’s where you said that she died and rot—”

  “We’ll get a new mattress,” I broke in before he could finish, because the thought made my stomach feel like he’d looked when I was driving. “And when you start getting paid by the Junior Woodsmen, which I hope will be soon and a lot, you can give me rent.”

  “It’s not going to be a lot.”

  “I think our definitions of what that means are very different,” I said. “It will work out perfectly, because when we’re gone, you can have the house to yourself.”

  “Gone?” He turned to look at me. “Where are you going?”

  “It’s getting to be the time for me and Emma to move on. We never stay too long in one place, and we’re almost done with Michigan. I think somewhere warmer again would be good.” Because maybe it was just the cold that was making my joints ache, many of them now, and not something else.