They were all men, except for a fair-skinned, fiery redhead standing off to the side in killer rhinestone sunglasses. Her bright red lipstick matched her fire-engine red capris, which matched her curly hair piled high on her head. I immediately wanted to be her friend.
She leaned on one of the cars, wearing a bored expression, but I could see she was also sizing up her opponents. When one of the guys looked over and asked her what she’d do with the money, she stared at him like he was an idiot. “Give it back to the fundraiser.” A silent duh rang through the air.
Her answer was met with silence. I liked her. “Who is she? She live here?”
“I think she’s just visiting. Name’s Vera.”
I pursed my lips. “Watch her. I want her.” The unspoken words if we save the shop, if I can hire new people hung between us.
Rosa gave me a salute. I put my fingers in my mouth and whistled, effectively silencing everyone in a twenty-foot radius. “Hey everyone!” I shouted. “We’re going to get under these cars and get dirty! Rosa will have you draw a number and that’s your corresponding car. When she blows the whistle”—I pointed to Rosa who held up a little plastic whistle—“we begin.”
Everyone drew numbers and found their corresponding car. I got a Honda Civic, a car I could change the oil on with my eyes closed. Luke and Rosa stood together like lifeguards assigned to a toddler swimming class. With her eyes narrowed, Rosa watched us while going over the rules.
“If you take off your safety gear, you’re disqualified,” she shouted. “If you ask for help from a friend, you’re disqualified. If you sabotage another contestant, you’re disqualified. When you finish, stand up and raise both hands in the air. We will mark the time and keep the clock going until everyone finishes. Your car will be inspected before a winner is declared!”
She raised the whistle and we all braced ourselves. “On your mark! Get set!” She blew the whistle and I dove in.
A crowd had gathered and started cheering. Cameras were flashing, and fan favorites were getting shout-outs. But I was good at tuning out noise. I had been doing oil changes since I was ten. It was my meditation.
Usually they took me under ten minutes. Today, I was on fire. As the shouting grew louder and louder, I turned my head to the side to catch the words. Is she going to beat Edie? I didn’t know who’d said it, but I knew I had to burn rubber.
Desperation and determination took over, and I swear I changed that oil faster than any other time in my life. As soon as I finished, I threw both hands in the air only a few seconds before Vera. I bent, doubled over at my waist, and put my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. Holy shit that was close.
Chieka approached to check out Vera’s car. She gave me a thumbs-up while looking suitably impressed.
With a smile, I walked over and extended my hand. “Vera? I’m Edie.”
She nodded and took my hand, shaking with a firm grip. “Vera Eastman. It’s a pleasure, truly.”
“Tell me you live in town and need a job,” I begged.
She smirked. “I’m just visiting. I kind of have a gig going right now, but maybe I’ll come by the shop soon.”
“You do an oil change almost as fast as me. What else can you do?”
She winked at me. “Everything.”
Whoa. That wink. Not gonna lie, I had a stomach flutter at that. I definitely was developing a bit of a girl crush. Rosa blew the whistle calling time and I blinked, shaking my head. I walked over to Rosa, Chieka following behind.
Chieka pinched my upper arm. “Is it possible to be straight and be in love with a woman?”
“Girl, I think that I’m a little in love with her too,” I muttered.
Rosa glanced up. “With Vera? I already checked. Not single.” The three of us all exchanged sad looks. “Anyway, she’s probably straight. They always are.”
I squeezed her shoulder. “Your woman is out there, chica. Be patient.”
Luke cleared his throat. “Is this what you women talk about in the shop?”
Rosa shrugged. “Sometimes it’s about a car. Or a puppy.”
“Or that lemon pie from the bakery,” Chieka added.
“We’re equal opportunity gushers,” I finished.
He just shook his head and wrapped his arms around my shoulders, kissing my cheek. “Proud of you.”
I leaned back into him. “Thanks!”
The clearing of a throat had us both turning to see Will standing there, hands on his hips. He was in black dress pants and a white button-down shirt, his “war” uniform. My stomach rolled, and anger filled me.
His eyes were glued to Luke’s arms. “From one brother to another?” he sneered. If it had been anyone else saying it, I would have thought it was jealousy.
“From daughter to mother?” I countered.
He shook his head. “Can I talk to you?”
“Isn’t that what you’re doing?”
“Privately, Edith.”
“I’m busy right now.” I gestured around the fundraiser. “And I don’t want to see you.”
“Talk to me and I’ll bid on a silent auction item.”
I stared at him for a long moment. “You’ll bid fifty dollars over the highest bid.”
He rolled his yes. “Fine.”
I pulled away from Luke, giving him a soft kiss before gesturing to Will. “Two minutes. Talk fast.”
Luke held my hand as I walked away, breaking away only when he was forced to let go. I followed Will around to the front of the shop where there were more parked cars than people. I saw my rooster pecking at the corner of one of the bay doors, glad he was staying out of the way. “What do you want?” I asked, stopping by the shop’s front door.
He ran his hands through his hair and paced a tight circle. It was his patented uncomfortable pose, the one he did when he didn’t want to deal with something. “Cynthia wants you at our wedding,” he blurted out.
I stared at him for a long moment. “There is no way in hell I’m going to your wedding.” He took a step toward me and I took a step back, both my hands up. “We’re done here.”
“Please, just listen.”
“Why?!”
He threw his hands up in the air and let them fall. “This is why we broke up! You never listened.”
“No, we broke up because you started fucking my mother while we were planning our wedding. Or were you just planning hers the whole time?”
He cringed. “I loved you, but she—”
“Don’t you dare,” I warned.
He ran his hands through his hair again, one of his rolled-up shirtsleeves starting to droop down his forearm. “I never slept with you after...”
A wave of relief and nausea washed over me. “Thank God,” I whispered, hand clutching my stomach. “Now please, get the fuck out of my life.”
I turned to walk away. “Just listen to me!” he shouted, grabbing my shoulders from behind. I tensed.
“Let go of me.”
He didn’t. “You can go back to trying to replace me with my brother in one goddamn minute—”
And I was done. Really done. Years of pent-up anger and resentment collided, and I raised my elbow, then shoved it right into his throat. He let go of me then, gagging, gripping his neck.
I looked up and found Luke running toward me. The moment I was within his reach, he wrapped his arms around me. The safe feeling, the feeling I was home, reminded me I wasn’t just substituting Luke for Will. Luke was supposed to be my match. I knew it in my bones.
“You okay?” he asked, kissing the top of my head while leading me away.
I nodded, even though I wasn’t really. “He said he didn’t touch me after sleeping with my mom, so that’s a relief.”
Luke’s jaw clenched, but he forced out a “Small miracles.”
He held me tight against him as we walked around the fundraiser, greeting people and directing them toward the area where the auction would begin in fifteen minutes. The noise, the people, the anxiety was almost
too much, but Luke’s arms were like a blanket on a cold day.
As the crowd swelled, I leaned into him. “Come on, we need to go see if we can oil Jack down to rake in the money.”
Luke laughed as we walked toward the makeshift staging area. “I think I might even bid on him.” I poked him in the side and he kissed my head, lingering by my ear. “I think you’re amazing,” he whispered.
A thrill went down my spine. “Yeah?”
He nipped at my ear. “Yeah.”
Stay, my brain shouted. If I’m so amazing, stay!
I swallowed hard, keeping the words inside as Tamicka picked up the microphone and introduced the firefighters. I didn’t shout “stay” while Luke yelled out encouragingly, trying to get people to bid higher. I didn’t whisper “stay” in his ear when he picked me up and spun me around when Jack got a three-thousand-dollar bid from Vera, who winked at me as she walked up to pay.
“I think I’m more than a little in love with her,” I admitted.
Luke chuckled and kissed me hard.
I didn’t get on my knees and beg him to stay, even when he kissed me softly as the crowd dispersed and Tamicka went inside to count the cash. I should have.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Edie’s Tip #10: If you spin out, don’t freak. Steer into the turn until you can straighten out. Then pull to the side of the road and have a good panic. Who doesn’t love a good panic?
While Luke, Jack, and Uncle Morris cleaned up, Chieka, Rosa, and I hovered over Tamicka as she finished totaling up the change dropped in the donation cups around the event. She hit a few buttons on the computer, then took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes.
My stomach dropped.
Rosa and Chieka crowded in, each grabbing one of my hands. “T-Money?” My voice cracked, and I cleared my throat. “Tell us.”
“We did awesome.” The large but hovered just over her head. “But we didn’t make it.”
I was heartbroken. Rosa and Chieka’s grips tightened. I swallowed down my dread before I spoke the words that cut like knives. “I’m selling the Camaro for twenty-five thousand.” I had no choice but to accept the offer on the Camaro waiting in my email.
Their gasps filled the space between us. Tamicka shook her head. “Girl, Luke fixed that car up for you, not for you to sell.”
“If I don’t save the shop, I have no place to put it anyway. Add that into the total. What do we have?”
She jotted down the numbers and leaned back in her chair. “With the classes, paycheck adjustments, bake sale, car wash, your personal donation, and the Camaro...we still need seventy-five thousand dollars.”
White-hot heartbreak spread from the center of my chest to my limbs.
“Ask him if he’ll take what we have now. We’ll get the rest soon. Somehow.”
I shook my head, remembering his story, remembering the pain in his eyes. “I can’t ask that of him,” I whispered. “If I sell the house, my share of the profit should be enough to save the shop.”
Chieka sat on the edge of the desk, hand to heart. “Am I having an out-of-body experience? Are you crazy? You can’t sell your house.”
I shrugged. “It’s just a house.” What a load of bullshit that was. I didn’t know if I said it for her benefit or my own.
“We still have time,” Tamicka stated. “Until his fine ass is in that truck and driving away, we have time. Let’s go home and rest tonight. Tomorrow we’ll try again. Okay?”
We all nodded.
Rosa sighed. “I’m going to go take videos of Sergeant Cornflakes.”
Chieka gave me a quick hug, kissed my cheek, then left without a word.
My phone buzzed, and I cringed when the text popped up.
Luke: Did we do it?!
I closed my eyes. I loved Luke. My beautiful, grieving man who was just trying to do right by his friend’s widow. “I’ll call the realtor in the morning,” I told Tamicka.
Before she could argue with me, I grabbed my small purse from the top desk drawer and walked out of the shop. I texted Luke back.
Me: We are super close!!
It wasn’t necessarily a lie. My phone buzzed, and Luke had sent me a dozen exclamation marks. I shoved it back into my pocket and looked up at my home, lit by my porch light. Like my grandparents, I had always assumed I would live in this house until I died.
I tried to memorize the way it looked in twilight, the feeling of peace that settled over me whenever I walked up the path. My Camaro sat in the driveway around the side of the house and I walked over to her to say goodbye.
Tears threatened, but I shoved them down. It’s only stuff. You can’t bring Grandpa back with a car. Grandma isn’t inside baking your favorite pie. If only logic worked on emotions. I climbed into the driver’s seat and closed the door. My hands ran over the steering wheel. “I’m sorry I can’t keep you,” I whispered to her.
I startled when the passenger side door opened and Luke slid in. “Why am I not surprised that you’re celebrating with your car?”
I forced a smile. “Because you know me too well.” I was thankful for the dark because I was a terrible actress. If he had seen me in full light, I wouldn’t have been able to pull it off.
“This feels a bit like my first night back in town,” he teased. “And I still really want you to lean over and kiss me.”
My head snapped to look at him. “You wanted me to kiss you then?”
He reached up and trailed his fingers down my jaw. “Yeah.” I swallowed hard and he leaned forward so our lips were only inches apart. “One moment, you were talking about being cake-blocked. Then next thing I knew...” His eyes met mine and held, and he waited for me to take control.
Taking my cue, I leaned in and pressed my lips to his.
This time, he did respond. His hand buried in my hair, holding my mouth against his. He parted his lips, his tongue brushing against my bottom lip before he deepened the kiss. The air was charged around us, my skin burning bright in the dark.
Somehow I got on his side of the car without smashing my head on anything, although if I were an inch taller, I’d hit the roof. My knees barely fit on either side of his hips. But we kissed and kissed and kissed, the drag of his stubble burning the skin around my lips. I didn’t care, I needed more of him. Please never forget this, I begged my brain.
He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me hard against his erection. I groaned, breaking our kiss, my head tipping back. His mouth took over caressing my neck, nibbling across my collarbone, and I slowly melted into him.
He tugged at my shirt and I took it off, tossing it onto the driver’s seat. He pulled the cups of my bra to the side and took my pebbled nipple into his mouth, sucking hard. An electrical shock went from my breast to between my legs, and I ground harder against him.
By the time he kissed his way to my other nipple, sweat was misting out of my skin. My feelings were threatening to spell out every time I took a breath. I love you, stay, I love you, stay, I love you, my brain wanted to shout. Instead, I ran my fingers all over him.
Everything was supercharged in this small, enclosed space surrounded by darkness. Maybe it was because I knew I was losing him, was losing this car, losing this place. Maybe it was because this was what I’d wanted to happen the first night I kissed him. Maybe it was because I was tired of fighting against my feelings.
I bent my face down to his neck and whispered into his salt-tanged skin, “I need you.”
He groaned and reached down to unbutton his jeans, then stopped. “Shit.” He dropped his hands and leaned back in the seat. “We used my wallet condom last night and I totally forgot to put a new one in.”
I rotated my hips, dragged his length against my center, making us both temporarily forget everything but the places where we touched. Luke groaned my name. “We need to get inside.”
I stopped him with a kiss. Reaching my arm out to find my purse, I dumped the entire thing out onto the empty seat and pulled out a condom. “Make love to me
in this car.”
My heart beat hard against my ribs. This would be a memory between us, one that I would carry with me until I was an old lady. I knew when he left, he was taking my heart with him. I selfishly wanted him to think of this moment for the rest of his life too.
I lifted up and unbuttoned my shorts, pushing them and my underwear down with some mild contorting. His breath was shaky as he undid his jeans and shoved them and his boxers down to his mid-thighs. Ripping open the foil wrapper with my teeth, I pulled out the latex and pinched the tip before slowly rolling it down his shaft.
By the time I had finished, he looked like he had endured something. “Turn around,” he growled, putting his hands on my hips and helping me maneuver in the small space.
Once my back was to him, he pulled me hard against his chest. He kissed the spot where my neck and shoulder met as he gripped his erection and slid it back and forth against my clit, making sparks of pleasure dance along my skin. The anticipation of having him, of feeling him inside of me, was making an invisible band of need tighten around my lungs.
“Luke,” I whispered, twisting my head back so I could kiss his mouth.
“Reeses.” He smiled against my lips. Then he shifted our bodies, placed himself at my entrance, and slowly eased in.
The feeling of him in this position, in this car, nearly in public was intoxicating. It was the thrill of driving a motorcycle after a lifetime of walking, times ten. He moved us in a slow and steady rhythm, burying his forehead against me. “Edith,” he whispered. “Edith, Edith, Edith.”
The way he said my name was reverent as he deepened his strokes. His hands were iron bars wrapped around me, holding me to him. My head was bent backward, resting against his as each movement tightened something inside of me unlike any other time before. This feeling was bigger, more important, more devastating.
Stay, my mind shouted. Stay, stay, stay. His hand moved down my body to my clit and he began rubbing as he moved inside of me and I was lost. I would’ve done anything he asked. Jump, tap dance, fly. Anything.
I opened my mouth, words pushing out without my permission. “Luke, I love you.” I tensed as the words registered.
Headlights, Dipsticks, & My Ex's Brother Page 17