by Shey Stahl
Lenny’s reaction is guarded, and I think maybe I’ve offended her. Until she laughs. Then I realize offending her is pretty much impossible to do. She’s just about to say something when Daniel interrupts her. “You baggin’ married women now?” he asks, walking toward me when he sees donuts. “Fuck off,” I grumble, turning around to my toolbox to hide my erection. “She had a nail in her tire.”
“Would you ever—” Daniel’s eyes go wide, and he can’t finish what he was about to say. He knows he said the wrong thing.
“Don’t fucking ask that.” I shove Daniel back against the welder near my toolbox and my eyes dart to Lenny’s for a reason unbeknownst to me. “She’s married.”
“You can’t be sticking your dipstick in customers,” my fucking sister points out, looking through the box of donuts.
“I never made a move on her.”
“Yeah… I know. I just like giving you shit.” She gives me a sarcastic nod and starts to walk away toward the office. As she’s just about to me, I turn and knock the donut out of her hand and onto the floor.
She smiles, and picks the donut up off the ground and takes a bite of it. “You’re an asshole.”
“Stop your fucking bitching,” Rawley says to Tyler as they both walk out of the parts room. “You’re starting to sound like my brother now and believe me, we only need one in this shop.”
When Rawley is outside looking for the car he needs to change the oil in, Colt smiles at Lenny, who’s watching all this with a smile. “How many times do you think ‘asshole’ is said in the shop on any given day?”
“Probably a lot,” Lenny replies, smiling at me now.
“I once counted.” Colt approaches my toolbox and takes a donut. “Red was called an asshole thirty-six times in an eight-hour period.”
“By who?” I ask, never looking up.
Colt chuckles. “Your sister…”
“Though it’s strangely accurate,”—Tyler walks by, reaching inside the box as well and side-eyeing Colt and his cup of bourbon—“we should be worried that you counted, not that it was said.”
“Honestly, I’m impressed your old ass can still count that high,” Lenny adds, smiling.
“I also counted how many times Daniel here scratches his balls during the day.” Colt leans back into his toolbox and takes a large bite of his donut. “You’re a dirty motherfucker, man, if you’re constantly scratching the shit out of your nuts.”
Rawley walks by and tosses a repair order on my toolbox. Slowly looking through the other twelve I have here for the morning, I don’t look up. “I can’t fucking find this car. Give me something else.”
“Just because you can’t find it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to be done. Go find it.”
“I said I can’t find it. I looked.” I can tell immediately Rawley isn’t letting up, his ink-covered arms crossing defiantly over his chest.
“Listen, you little fucker.” I turn around to face him, getting in his face. “I don’t have time for your bullshit this morning. Get your ass out there and find it.”
Rawley lets out a bitter laugh. “Make me.”
I’m going to. For sure. Just as I have his shirt fisted in my hands and him back against my toolbox, metal clattering as tools crash to the ground, Mom comes out of the office to separate us. “You two, I swear to God I’m going to call Hendrix up here to knock some sense into the both of you!”
“Oh, just let them fight,” Colt says, unable to keep the grin off his face. “I’m tired of their shit.”
“Stop fucking around.” I shove Rawley away from me and toss a pair of keys at him. “Car’s in your stall already, dumb shit.”
A few minutes later, I shake my head when Hendrix, my uncle, comes walking up the street, that slow walk he has where he limps. He was in a bad wreck when he was nineteen that left him with a broken hip. Since then, he’s never walked right.
He takes one look in the shop and smiles. “Who’s that?”
Figures my mom called him anyway. She’s always sending him lately when Rawley and I get in each other’s faces.
“You know damn well who that is old man,” I mumble, unbolting the power steering pump on a Chevy truck in my stall.
Uncle Hendrix leans into the car, his burly arms resting on the fender as he examines the engine. “Seems like trouble.”
He’s not talking about the engine by any means.
I don’t say anything because he’s right. She is trouble. Hot blonde wearing skin-tight jeans in a shop full of men, it’s trouble for sure.
“How’s everything else going?”
Of course he would ask that. I get the notion he wants to help out, but there’s not a lot he can do.
“It sucks right now,” I say, tightening the intake manifold onto the engine. I glance up at him from the corner of my eye. “How’s it going down there?”
He shrugs and runs his calloused paint-splattered hand over his jaw. “We’re not all that busy. You want Jude to come down and help you out?”
I think about that for all of two seconds. I know Jude, and I also know my cousin’s taste in women. He’d be all over Lenny, and that’s not an option.
“That’s okay. We can handle it. I’ve got Tyler and Lenny’s hanging in there.”
Hendrix looks over his shoulder and then back at me. “I can see you’re hiring for eye candy now.”
He’s teasing me, but I don’t like it and glare. “She knows what she’s doing.”
“That’s good.” He gives me this look, similar to the one he gave me when he caught me stealing spray paint from his shop when I was sixteen and told him I was painting emblems to match my car. I wasn’t. I was spray painting “Rachel Clayton can suck my dick” on the wall in the women’s bathroom in gym class. She actually did suck my dick, and twenty other guys in school, but that’s beside the point. I got caught stealing from my uncle and never got caught again.
He crosses his arms over his chest, watching me. “But I can’t help but wonder if you know what you’re doing?”
We stand there just staring at each other for a minute. Maybe he’s thinking about the spray painting incident. Maybe not. Either way, he’s waiting for an answer.
“Yeah. Everything is under control.” That’s bullshit. Nothing’s under control and my uncle senses it. He knows when I’m lying.
He laughs, stepping back. “Okay.” And then he walks toward the office to probably harass my sister a little. She’s the only girl in our family, aside from the mothers, and of course, Nova now.
Hendrix is in the office about ten minutes when Sheldon pulls up to the shop in his 1969 Plymouth GTX 426 Hemi I’ve been drooling over since I was eight. Here’s the thing about a small privately owned shop. People show up during the day just to bullshit. And while that’s fine as you want to build relationships and trust in the community, it sucks when you’re busy.
You can’t miss the throaty hum of the hemi as he stops it in front of the shop. For a car guy like myself, driving this car would be a dream come true, owning it would be fucking heaven.
“Reddington.” Sheldon greets me with his wide Ed McMann smile. Sheldon’s a salesman. Always has been and he’s got the demeanor to go along with it. Looking around the shop, he notices the row of cars. “Wow, you guys are staying busy, aren’t you?”
I lean back against the wall. “Yeah, pretty busy. We just hired a new mechanic so it’s coming around.”
Sheldon’s been around this shop as a customer for as long as I can remember. He knows my dad left me a legacy and the last thing I want him to see is that I’m failing.
He puts his hand on my shoulder. “You know your dad had faith in you. He knew you could handle it.” And then he nods outside. “Why don’t you take a little break? I brought your baby by. Wanna take her for a spin?”
He’s never asked me if I wanted to drive it before. “Why would you let me drive it now?”
“Why not? You can handle it, right?”
He’ll bring it by a fe
w times a year. Mostly to tease me. I tried to buy it from him not long after I got my license, and again when I turned twenty-one but he never sells it… and never lets me drive.
I stand up straight, smiling at him. “Seriously?”
Lenny approaches the car, along with Tyler and Rawley, all looking over her sleek black lines and flawless leather interior. I watch Lenny as Sheldon and I walk toward the car, her gaze faltering as I approach. She does that thing where she looks at me, and then the car, and then me again, unable to keep her stare focused.
Sheldon hands me the keys. “Go ahead.”
Tyler glares at me. “I totally fucking hate you right now.”
I’m about to offer him to come with me when Lenny’s eyes light up at the sound of the 426 with open headers rumbling. Our eyes catch in the window and I give a small nod to her to get in. I know I’ll be torturing myself, but I can’t help it when her eyes shine like that.
Lenny doesn’t move. Instead she stands there open mouthed and looks to Sheldon. “Can I go with him?”
He laughs, adjusting his hat. “Yeah, hon, go ahead,” Sheldon tells her, winking at me and watching Lenny slide into the passenger seat.
This is a horrible idea.
Lenny glances over at me buckling her seatbelt. “I know he said yes but are you sure I can come? I’ve always loved these cars.”
“Seriously, he won’t mind.” I eye Sheldon one last time. “I’ve always wanted to drive one of these with a hemi.”
“I’ve never seen one before, let alone been in one.” She breathes the words out slowly and it sends a jolt right to my dick. Mostly because of the way she says it. “It’s rumbling my chest!”
I swallow and say nothing, the throaty idle shaking the two of us in the seats.
“Who is that guy that he lets you just take his car out? I mean, hell….” She runs her hands over the black leather seats. “This thing has to be worth a hundred grand.”
Exactly why I can never afford it.
I struggle to remain focused at the thought of her running her hands over something else. “That’s Dan Sheldon but we call him Sheldon. He’s a long-time friend of my dad’s and I think he just likes to fuckin’ tease me with this car.” I eye Lenny’s legs and then toss her a smirk shifting into gear. “I’d hold on if I were you.”
Those are the last words either of us say as I ease out of the parking lot, careful on the gravel.
When we hit the pavement, the tires squeal as I take off around the corner and onto the main highway. It’s a good fucking thing I know the sheriff in town because going one twenty usually draws some attention.
Had I been pulled over, I would have drained my bank account for the ticket just to see the smile on Lenny’s face that afternoon, all smiles and laughing.
Or maybe it was when she grabs my arm as I spun the car around into a 360-degree turn, smoke billowing into the car from the tires against the pavement, and all the while, she laughs.
Maybe it’s the rumbling in my chest or the adrenaline in my veins, that makes me want to fucking kiss her so bad as we sit at a stop light in front of the shop and she’s cackling with excitement.
For a moment, in the middle of the day when I have so much else going on, I’m free from all my obligations and back to being sixteen when nothing else matter but speed and the girl next to me.
In front of the shop, I glance over at Lenny, my heart pounding with the adrenaline. “Enjoy yourself?”
Gasping, she sits there breathing heavy and smiles so wide it hurts my chest. “Can we go again?”
I clearly can’t help myself when I say, “Ready for round two already?”
She shifts in the seat, drawing my attention to her legs again. “Well, you know what they say about a mechanic, right?”
“No, what’s that?”
Leaning in, she whispers in my ear. “They’re who you come to when you need lubricated.”
I don’t I know what to make of that. Mostly because she stares at me wide eyed, waiting on my reaction and I want so baldy to kiss her.
When I don’t say anything, she pats my shoulder. “Thanks for the ride.”
I’ve met my fucking match, haven’t I? She actually managed to leave me speechless.
I REALLY DON’T know how I made it through the rest of that day.
Between Lenny wearing those jeans and that joy ride around Lebanon, I’m a walking hard-on. I’m so fucking tempted to call that stripper tonight and have her take care of some pent-up aggression. Tempted being the key word, but I won’t. Besides, with Nova in the house, the only relief I’m gonna have is me and my right hand.
At the end of the day I swing by Elle’s to grab Nova. After this morning, pickup goes nice and quick and as I’m starting the car, I can tell Nova has something on her mind. “What’s going on?”
“Don’t be mad, Daddy.”
“Why?” I stare at her in the mirror.
She blinks slowly, pretty blue eyes beginning to work me over. “Just stay calm.”
“Tell me what you did and I’ll decide which one it will be.”
“No.” She crosses her arms over her chest, her bottom lip out like she’s going to start crying. “Now I’m not telling you.”
“Nova,” I warn in my deepest dad voice, and she cracks.
“Gosh, fine. I told Kale to get off my dick. I don’t think it means what I thought it meant.”
I want to laugh. I really do because it’s just like the time she called another kid a stack of cock rings after hearing Rawley call Daniel that.
“Where did you hear that?”
“It was on Lenny’s shirt. Just tell me what it means already!”
“Not gonna happen and don’t say it again.” I refuse to tell her what it means because my thoughts can’t seem to leave Lenny and her getting on my dick. “Did Elle hear you?”
“Well, no, but I think he… I don’t know. I think he might tell his mommy on me.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because he said, I’m telling my mommy.”
I shake my head and turn back to drive away. We’re about a mile down the road when Nova starts in with her questions. It happens every night when I pick her up. She’s a talker.
“How was your day?” she asks, staring at the road at the passing cars and I think she’s counting them, one by one.
“It was okay.” Thankfully, she can’t tell by my tone that it wasn’t. The last thing I need to do is burden my child with the pressures of my life too.
“Was Lenny at the shop today?”
“Yes.” My eyes snap to hers in the rearview mirror, wondering where she’s going with this.
“So…” She’s dancing around something, and while I have an idea of what she’s going to say, it surprises me when she asks, “Do you like having Lenny at the shop?”
“I guess so.”
“I really liked Lenny.” Her eyes light up, and I want to smile too because it’s the first time she’s ever said she liked a woman. Other than her mother. “She seems like someone I could hang with.”
“Oh, really.” I turn the corner at the gas station and start thinking about what the hell I should make her for dinner. “Well, I’m sure she would really like to hang with you also.”
“Great! Set it up. We can all have a playdate.”
Now that’s the kind of playdate I can be on board with.
“Well, Lenny is really busy with work and all, but I’m sure we can work something out.” And maybe I can take her in my room and show her my piston.
“You should bring Lenny coffee in the morning. Uncle Colt says you’re being a prick to her.”
I turn around when we’re at the stop light. “Uncle Colt told you that?”
She shrugs, a hint of a smile playing at the corner of her mouth. “Is it true?”
“No, it’s not true.” I turn back around as the cars begin to move. “And he’s not your damn uncle.”
After work, I follow Tyler upstairs to his apartm
ent.
He smiles when I get out my one duffle bag from my Bronco. “That’s all you got?”
I shrug, looking at the small apartment above the office. “I travel light.”
“Or you left in a hurry.”
I change my voice into a lowness that sounds dramatic. “Well, there’s that.”
Tyler laughs at me as we enter through a door on the side of the office, and then up a set of carpeted steps and into an apartment. “I’m just renting this place from Mia, but it works out pretty good for me since it’s so close to the shop.” He laughs at his joke, and then motions around the place. “It’s not much, a one-bedroom, one-bath but it serves the purpose. You can have my room if you want. I can sleep on the couch.”
“No.” I place my bag on the couch. “I’d be happy with the floor or the couch.”
Nodding, he laughs, and then sits on the couch, and I do the same. You can certainly tell a man lives here. It’s fairly bare, aside from a black rug in the middle of the living room and a coffee table made from two truck tires and a piece of plywood on top of that. “Classy, Tyler.” I smile over at him and pat my hands on the black leather couch. “Do I need to put a sheet on the couch?”
He rolls his eyes. “Whatever. I’m a gentleman. I fuck ‘em in a bed.”
“Sure you are.” I shove his shoulder lightly, sending him rocking to the side with a grin. “Seriously though, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you helping me out.”
“You don’t have to keep thanking me. This is what family does.”
Breathing in slowly, I contemplate how foreign that is to me. “I really don’t know how that feels. I’ve never had family that cares.”
Tyler’s expression is pained, his brow pulling together. I stare at his blue eyes waiting to see what he might say. “I know you’ve had a hard time, and I hope it gets better for you. I’m sure work hasn’t been the way you thought it would go but hang in there. The guys like you.”
“Sure they do,” I snort.
“They do. Red just takes a little bit to get used to.” He turns his head toward the television and points the remote at it. “Since Lyric died, he hasn’t been himself. I think he always knew the shop would be his. I don’t think he expected it to happen this soon. He was basically just thrown into it a month ago.”