by Lara Norman
“How many miles are on your vehicle?”
“I don’t know exactly, but around twenty thousand or so.” She folded her arms to hide the fact that his presence caused her nipples to harden. The way he said her name caused her pussy to clench, but at least he couldn’t see the evidence of that. She was tempted to turn around and check the chair for a wet spot, but she refrained.
“Transmission flushes are recommended every thirty thou or so. You’re wasting your money getting it done early.” And that was something he couldn’t abide.
“But it’s my money to waste, isn’t it?” She raised an eyebrow in challenge.
“If that’s what you choose, then I can’t stop you. I just think you should be informed so that you know what you’re getting into.”
Alex bit her lip. Please get into me. “Just do it, Grant.”
He snorted and lowered his voice. “There are other ways to get in my pants. You must have money lying around if you’re going to insist on throwing it away on unnecessary car maintenance.”
“That’s none of your business.” Alex darted a glance at the guy behind the counter. He wasn’t watching, so she rested her hand briefly on Grant’s forearm. “You aren’t alone.”
He understood that she meant she’d hoped he would be. “I rarely am, at least at work.”
She sighed. “It’s not like you offered up your phone number. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“I don’t know, but this is the most unusual way to try to get a date that I’ve ever heard of.”
She smiled at that. “If I give you my number, will you call me, or will you run?”
“I’m not looking for a relationship.”
“So you said.” She sat back down. “Do the flush.”
“No.”
She looked up at him with a frown. “Excuse me?”
“I can’t take your money in good conscience. That’s not how we run this shop. Nobody is here to fleece you. Go home.”
When Alex stood again, she found that her legs were shaking. “Are you seriously telling me to fuck off?”
“Yes.” He watched her grab her purse and grabbed her arm just before she could storm past him. “I’ll get your number off the paperwork and call you sometime.”
She studied him for a long moment. She was having a hard time figuring him out. She only knew that her arm burned where he touched her and her heart raced at the promise in his eyes. Sometime was better than nothing at all, and it would save her money she really couldn’t afford to waste.
“Thank you.”
Grant couldn’t help watching her leave. There was the tiniest hint of butt cheek as she moved at a fast clip out to the parking lot.
Josh let out a low whistle. “You two seemed pretty intense over there.”
“I just hate to see her spend money foolishly because she doesn’t know cars.”
“You’re very chivalrous.”
Grant ignored Josh’s guffaws and went back to work.
Chapter 5
Grant didn’t call her. Alex wasn’t sure why she expected him to, but she was getting close to being desperate enough to sit around the house waiting. She was lucky she had the strength to avoid picking up the phone to check for a dial tone. To battle that need, she called her cousin, Carmela, and her friend, Hailey, to come over and hang out at the pool. Since they all worked at the high school, they had the summers off the same as Alex and often got together to while away the hours.
It looked like all the lounge chairs were full when they got down there, but they could be patient. They snagged a chair from a table to set their stuff on and sat on the pool deck with their feet dangling in the water.
“You always look like you have a tan,” Hailey complained to the other two.
“You always look like you’re suffering from an illness,” Carmela said. She had no filter. Whatever came into her brain was sure to come out of her mouth.
“Damn, Carmela.” Alex looked over at Hailey to see if she was offended. It didn’t appear that she was. Hailey had been Alex and Carmela’s friend for five years and it seemed that she’d grown used to Carmela’s biting wit.
“It’s been boring this summer,” Carmela said as though she hadn’t possibly insulted her friend.
“I’ve noticed that, too. I don’t know why.” Alex studied her fingernails to avoid meeting the gazes of her friends. She knew why she was restless but she wasn’t keen on admitting it.
“We need to plan some girl time or something. We need to go somewhere and have fun.” Hailey adjusted her bikini top over her modest breasts and smirked over at Alex. “Last year we went to the coast.”
Alex remembered the way the other two had hooked up with guys and left her as the odd woman out. “Let’s not do that again.”
“How ‘bout a spa?” Carmela suggested. She flicked her long brown hair over her shoulder. She and Alex had very similar features. When they were younger, they were often mistaken for sisters.
“That’s an excellent idea,” Hailey agreed.
Alex hummed as she thought it over. “Okay, but my budget isn’t huge. We can’t go to something five-star for a week.”
“Three-star for two days?” Hailey joked.
“Yeah, basically.”
“Even that would be a good time. It’s not really that we need to relax since, hello.” Carmela indicated the pool. “But getting out of Tuckahoe always lifts my spirits.”
“Surely, we can find what we want in Richmond?”
Neither of the other two answered Hailey because they noticed a few people leaving and jumped up to snag the empty chairs. They spent a few minutes spreading out their towels and getting situated. Carmela picked up her phone and started fiddling with it while Hailey picked up a paperback. Alex just closed her eyes and soaked up the feeling of the sun on her skin.
After lying around for an hour or so, the girls got in the pool, trying to avoid the handful of men that wanted to make advances. Alex lived in a big enough apartment complex that she rarely saw the same people twice. It didn’t take long for the women to grow aggravated enough to get out and call it a day. They went back to Alex’s apartment and cleaned up before making lunch.
“Can I use these leftovers for chicken salad?”
Alex looked over at Hailey as she stood in front of the fridge holding up a plastic storage container. “Sure. There might even be enough for all of us.”
Carmela held up a bag of chips. “And I brought these. They should go well together.”
They were mostly quiet as they worked together to get something on the table. When they were all seated with a plate, they picked up the subject of going away.
“So overnight at a spa-type resort?” Carmela said with her mouth full.
“Maybe not just overnight. It depends on how much it costs per night. I have some space on my credit card, but I don’t want to stretch it to the limit.” Alex crunched on a chip as she thought about it. She was reluctant to admit that Grant had saved her from spending her money foolishly, but that was exactly what he’d done. She couldn’t really spare the nearly three hundred dollars it would have cost her.
“Well,” Hailey began. She paused as she scrolled through her phone. “There are some stupidly expensive places, but there are some moderate ones, too.”
“What good are summers off if you can’t afford to do anything but stay at home? It’s like the perks of our job are overshadowed by the crappy pay.”
Hailey squinted at Alex. “Shut up. You love your job.”
“But I don’t love the income.”
“Yeah, okay, it would be nice to get a raise once in a while.” Hailey pointed a celery stick at Alex. “But you and I both knew what we were signing up for.”
Carmela cackled. She had no sympathy for anyone, not to mention her big mouth. “You two whine too much. Are we going or aren’t we?”
“Don’t act like you’re rolling in it, Romano. You’re the school secretary.”
“Okay, but at lea
st I don’t complain about my salary. I chose it and I make it work for me.”
Alex rolled her eyes. “Anyway. Spa or something else?”
“I say spa,” Hailey piped up.
“Sounds good to me,” Carmela said. “After all, I wouldn’t have suggested it if I didn’t want to go.”
“I guess we shouldn’t even bother to look at anything else, then.” Alex was busy worrying about what Grant would think of her going out of town. As though he would care. She refused to sit around and wait for him to get his act together, to jump as soon as he had time to fit in a booty call.
They discussed a few locations and threw out prices, but nothing struck them as the place. They called it a day when the afternoon drew to a close and the sky outside began to darken. Though they didn’t have to be at work the next morning, each of them had learned it was best to keep close to their school schedule. Otherwise, they ended up feeling worse and worse as the summer progressed, and it was harder to get back into the routine when school started back up.
Alex was tired of being alone in the evenings. She’d realized recently that she was ready to settle down. The single life had been fun for a time, but she was never one to be overtly crazy or to enjoy going home with a stranger. She liked to take things slow and steady; at least, she thought she did. There had never been a man to rev her up quite the way Grant did. She couldn’t even put her finger on it. He was so fucking hot that she wanted to mount him every time she thought about him. When they were in the same room, her entire body felt like it was on fire.
And he still didn’t call.
Alex flipped on the TV and settled in for some football. It was reruns, but she didn’t care one way or the other. The preseason wasn’t that far away, and she was looking forward to it. She’d grown up watching football from her father’s lap, whether it was college or NFL. In passing, she wondered if Grant liked sports and what teams he liked. She reminded herself she was trying not to think about him and worked to put him out of her mind.
Grant had no idea that Alex was obsessing over whether or not he would call her. Work was busier than usual because Floyd and Larry had both come down with the stomach flu, unfortunately. Grant was working open to close seven days a week. He focused on how good that first overtime paycheck was going to look, but he was exhausted and growing more and more irritable as he lost sleep.
“You done with the Sentra?” Josh asked him.
“Do I look like an octopus to you?” Grant snapped at him.
“Uh, no?” Josh frowned at his friend’s bad temper.
“Then no.”
“What the fuck, man.” Josh walked off to let Grant cool down. He was used to even-tempered Grant, not the guy he’d encountered with the attitude.
Unfortunately, Josh had a customer call a few hours later wanting the estimate on their Chrysler. He had to go back down into the pit to ask Grant about the progress on that vehicle.
“Grant.” He waited for Grant to finish up what he was doing and look over at him. “The owner of the PT Cruiser wants an estimate. Do you have that yet?”
“Josh, I’m a one-man show down here right now until the guys stop throwing up their guts. Can you assume that I’m not done with anything until I tell you specifically that I am?”
Josh crossed his arms and stared Grant down. “You need to get laid.”
Grant snorted and responded without thinking about it. “That didn’t help.”
“What?” Josh’s brows went into his hairline, and he followed Grant as he went to the shelf to get a fuel filter. “Who was this and how come you didn’t tell me?”
“Because you’re like Mrs. Nesbitt when you want to gossip. Go call your customers.” Grant tried to ignore Josh as he did his job.
“Seriously, you have a girlfriend and I don’t get to know her name?”
“I said I got laid, not that I had a girlfriend.” He walked back to the car he was working on.
Josh gasped and clutched his fist to his chest dramatically. “My little boy is growing up. He had sex.”
“God, shut the fuck up. I haven’t gotten any sleep since I started putting in so many hours.” He pointed at Josh. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stop harassing me. I’m overworked and sleepless.”
“I still say you need to get laid. Again, apparently.”
Josh was smart enough to scurry up the steps before Grant could deck him. If he’d had the time, he might have considered calling Alex for a romp. Since he spent what free time he had sleeping, he wasn’t inclined to call her up to waste any hours awake. What he really wanted was to get out of the city. As soon as things were back to normal at work, he was going to take a few days off and visit Reagan. He would even put up with the professor if it got him time away from the mundane. Yeah, Floyd and Larry were going to owe him big time by the time they got back.
He groaned as he heard another car pull in. Didn’t people know they were two men down and Josh didn’t know his ass from a carburetor? He groaned when he heard Josh talking to a guy about an oil change. On a day like that one, Grant had to stop what he was doing on long-term repairs to fit in the oil changes. They were promised to be fast or the customer got it for a discount. Needless to say, Grant was very quick with them.
Sure enough, Josh came back down with the paperwork for an oil change. One thing was for sure: Grant wasn’t going to have any time to himself for a while. It wouldn’t normally bother him, but an itch had settled between his shoulder blades that he couldn’t seem to scratch. Knowing the solution to the problem and wanting to call said solution were two different things. He was used to denying himself, and this time was no different.
Chapter 6
“Grant!”
Reagan held open the door to the two-bedroom apartment she and Hudson shared and let her brother in. She was pleasantly surprised when he called her the week before to tell her he wanted to come and visit. She figured it was his way of making an effort to get on board with her relationship, and she loved him for it.
“Hi, Ray. How are ya?”
Grant set his duffle bag in the foyer and looked around. Reagan told him a few months ago that everything used to be white, but it was clear she’d had a hand in changing that up. There were colorful prints on the walls and pillows on the white couch. There was a rug in the living room floor in bold colors. Yeah, he could see his sister in every corner of that place. He was happy to see that she had a say in the decorating.
“I’m great. Was the drive all right?”
“Oh, you know. Same old.” He pulled her in for a hug. “Your place is nice, baby girl.”
“Thanks.” She beamed at him, pleased that he noticed the effort she put in. “Hudson should be done with work in about half an hour. He promised to cook dinner for us. First, let me show you the guest room.”
Grant followed Reagan down the hall and was impressed with the homey feel of the room she showed him. There was a plush blanket at the foot of the bed, and the comforter was a deep shade of green. There was a throw rug in there as well, and pictures on the walls of rainforests. “I feel like you should be studying to be an interior designer, sweetheart.”
Reagan blushed. “Luna helped me. She has an eye for color.”
“I guess so. This is not the stark, barren whiteness you complained about before.” He ran his hand over the dark gray blanket.
“Nope.”
After Grant set his bag on the bed, they settled in the living room while they waited for Hudson. They had been nice enough to stock Grant’s favorite beer, so he felt more at home than he’d expected when Reagan brought him one.
“You’ve been working so damn much. Aren’t you exhausted?” Reagan asked him. She noticed he had dark circles under his eyes.
“I slept a lot before I drove here. Floyd came back on Thursday morning, so I slept all day Thursday.” Still, he felt more tired than usual since his internal clock woke him early every morning no matter the day of the week.
“Holy cra
p.”
“We’re talking seven to seven every day. I felt like a Mack truck had rolled over me when I had to get up in the mornings.” He was glad to get the paycheck soon, but not glad for the reason behind it.
“I’m happy you chose to come here to blow off steam.” She touched his knee. “Are you happy?”
He raised an eyebrow. “What brought that on?”
“I worry about you always being alone.” She pursed her lips.
“I know you think I’ll meet my soulmate now that you’re out of my hair, but that hasn’t happened. I even went out with the guys for the hell of it before this crap with work came about.” There was no way in hell he was going to tell her about Alex. “I’m making an effort.”