Turbocharged

by Jessie Gussman

  “Yeah. Clint.” She took a deep breath, facing him. “Trouble is, they’re pretty close to the truth.”

  “What?”

  “He’s telling everyone that with Dad in the hospital with Karen, the business is failing and I won’t make payroll this week.” She straightened her shoulders, lifting her brows. “I can make payroll just fine. But it’s because I put the money I was saving for a turbo into the payroll account. I got a little behind in the paperwork and invoice loads. So, I don’t have anything coming in. I mean, I’ve got the paperwork caught up now, but it’ll be two weeks until the money catches up. But I’ve got payroll covered, so it’s a total lie. Just one that could almost be true.” She tilted her head back and looked at the ceiling. “I need to call a drivers’ meeting and get home. I think I can get this worked out.”

  The waiting room door opened and Eldridge shuffled in. His shoulders stooped, red lines veined in his eyes.

  Nate couldn’t keep from comparing him with the confident man he’d first seen weeks ago before Karen went to Pittsburgh.

  Eldridge’s brows raised when he looked at Nate who held Gary while Kaitlyn, obviously agitated, stood in the middle of the room clutching her phone. His eyes sharpened. “What’s up, kiddo?”

  “Nothing.”

  His unibrow, as spry as ever, raised. “Don’t lie to me, girl.”

  Kaitlyn looked away.

  Eldridge crossed his arms over his chest. Although he still looked tired and worn, The Boss was now in the room.

  “Clint told everyone that I wasn’t going to pay them, and some of the guys are quitting. I’ve already sent a group text to everyone announcing an emergency meeting at the garage at 6:00 PM. I’m sorry to leave you,” her voice softened. “But I’ve got to get on this.”

  “I would be disappointed if you did anything else. There’s nothing you can do here, but there’s everything to lose at home.” Eldridge’s mouth flattened as he looked down at Gary. “I would have liked to spend more time with the boys…Bobby won’t let go of Karen.” He sighed, and his shoulders drooped even more. “I really appreciate what you’ve done with them; I know it’s not been easy. I’d be losing the business and the boys if it weren’t for you, Kaitlyn.”

  Kaitlyn’s brows had shot up, but she seemed embarrassed by her dad’s words.

  Nate’s heart melted for her.

  “Let me help you get Bobby going. Then I can make a couple of phone calls that might help.” He waited while Nate finished burping Gary and put him in the car seat. “I wanted to talk more about how the trucks were doing. I’ve been neglecting everything.”

  “It’s OK, Dad. I’ve got it. And Nate’s been helping, too.”

  He gave Nate an assessing glance. “With the boys?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And the trucks,” Kaitlyn added.

  Eldridge narrowed his eyes. “Appreciate it.” He opened the door. “Bobby’ll have a really hard time with this, I’m afraid. But there’s no way he can stay.”

  “Once we get him out of here, I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

  That was probably true, but Nate still figured it would be a long night. He followed them out the door, hoping he was wrong.

  14

  Bobby screamed the whole way home. Two solid hours. By the time they pulled into the shop, he was hoarse.

  Kaitlyn’s heart felt as if it were bleeding. Her chest hurt.

  Thankfully, Gary hadn’t seemed to mind and had fallen asleep halfway home.

  Nate had exchanged several weary glances with her, but he bore the ear-splitting noise with grace.

  Kaitlyn had hoped to bounce her ideas for the drivers’ meeting off Nate, but with Bobby’s cries, not only was it impossible to talk, but she hadn’t been able to think about what she wanted to say either.

  Now, as she stood in the garage looking at eleven of their fourteen drivers, she felt as though she’d presented her case rather well. That, and her dad had managed to get a hold of his banker, Richard, a personal friend. Richard interrupted his Sunday afternoon and actually drove out to the garage to assure the drivers that there was plenty of money in their accounts and more coming in every day. That was huge, Kaitlyn had to admit.

  “To sum up, we want you to stay. The company is solvent and will continue to be so. Of course, if you still want to leave, I can’t force you to stay. But I would appreciate a two-week notice. That seems fair.” Kaitlyn stopped talking and looked each man in the eyes.

  Driving jobs were plentiful, and turnover was always high. Hopefully, most of the men would decide to stay. “If you still want to leave with no notice, please turn in your fuel cards before you go. Otherwise, come see me, and I’ll give you load numbers for tomorrow.”

  There. Nothing else she could do.

  “Hey, Kaitlyn.” Jamie, completely bald and with one front tooth missing, stood before her. “Sorry I jumped the gun like I done. I shoulda known Clint wouldn’t have no idea what he’s talking about.”

  “It’s OK, Jamie. You want a paycheck like every other working man. There’s nothing wrong with that.” Kaitlyn shook the hand he offered. “Maybe next time you can check any rumors out with us first, though, OK?”

  He gave an embarrassed grin. “Yeah. Should’ve did it today.”

  Kaitlyn smiled reassuringly. “You’re not the only one.” She looked behind him.

  Five of the other eight drivers stood shuffling their feet, waiting to talk to her. One guy hadn’t shown at the drivers’ meeting, and one man had slapped his fuel card down on the work bench before stalking out. Could she really get away with only two guys quitting? Hope stirred in her chest as she finished chatting with Jamie.

  The next driver, Blake, shuffled up to her.

  In the corner of the garage, Nate sat holding a sleeping Bobby. Gary lay in the stroller beside him. Nate hadn’t said anything, and because of Bobby, hadn’t been able to mingle with the drivers, although a couple of the guys walk over to talk to him.

  The look on his face was admiring, and his expression showed confidence in her. It had bolstered her just knowing that someone had her back and was completely there for her. That gave her the courage to face the employees and the rumors.

  He smiled at her now as she caught his gaze, and her heart warmed. Remembering her determination of the night before to be more girly, she almost rolled her eyes. She hadn’t been the slightest bit ‘girly’ today. On the heels of that thought, came another. She should ask Nate out on a date. She could spend the time beforehand on her clothes and hair—and maybe even makeup.

  Kaitlyn turned her mind back to the drivers standing in front of her. Hopefully, this catastrophe had been averted, and she would be ready to put her hand to the next one.

  ~*~

  Several hours later, the drivers had gone, and Bobby had woken up. He was mostly back to his old self while they put together a light supper. Now, he jumped across the garage drain, making a buzzing noise and flapping his arms. The hoarseness of his voice was the only indication that he’d cried for two solid hours.

  Nate wasn’t looking forward to bedtime.

  Kaitlyn came around the side of the truck, wrench in hand. She looked up to where he was sitting in the cab with the dash torn apart, looking for a loose or broken wire that was causing the short in the mirror turn signal. “Hey. Find it yet?”

  “No. It’s probably worn right where it comes through the fire wall.”

  She laughed. “The hardest place to get to.”

  “That’s the way it is.” He laughed, even as he noticed the endearing streak of grease on her face and the wild strands of hair that had fallen out of her pony tail. There was no pretense in her, and he loved that.

  “I wanted to thank you for your support today.”

  Bobby buzzed by, still jumping and flapping his arms.

  “I didn’t do anything.”

  Kaitlyn’s fingers picked at the rubber lining on the door. “You were there. It’s all I needed.”

  “
Well,” Nate said. “I held Bobby. That was probably a big help.”

  Kaitlyn laughed, but it was a little sad. “Yeah. Tonight’ll be hard, I think. I wondered if it was a bad idea to even take them today.”

  “No. If she doesn’t make it…” Nate hated to even suggest the idea, but it was a distinct possibility. “He’ll at least remember that he visited her.”

  “You never saw her.”

  “No. You all needed that time. Then we left in a rush.”

  “She looked horrible.” Pain and a little fear darkened Kaitlyn’s expression as she looked at him. “And so weak. I can’t imagine how anyone could live through that.”

  “We can’t change God’s will, but we can pray for her.”

  Kaitlyn looked away as soon as he mentioned God. He understood someone not thinking they were good enough for God, but now probably wasn’t the time to talk to her about it.

  “When are Tank and Eve coming back?” If she was nervous about facing them it didn’t show on her face.

  “He said he’d be gone about a month.” That meant he had two more weeks with an excuse to hang out with Kaitlyn.

  Bobby ran by. He wasn’t buzzing anymore, but making a low rumble instead.

  “What will I do when you leave?”

  “Hey.” Nate leaned down and touched Kaitlyn’s chin, bringing her gaze to meet his. “I won’t leave you if you need me.” He didn’t want to leave at all.

  She searched his eyes. “I want to prove myself. I want to do this on my own. The trucks and the company, I could. But adding the boys, too? I’m not sure I can.”

  “Children were meant to be a two-person job.” All sorts of thoughts tumbled through his head. As they sorted themselves out, he realized that raising children with Kaitlyn was actually something he thought he would like to do. Permanently. The thought shook him. Kaitlyn was not for him. But he was falling for her anyway.

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t have gotten much done at all if I hadn’t had you. And I don’t think I’ve thanked you.”

  Nate grinned and raised a brow. “I’m not sure you had a choice. I kind of camped out here since someone decided to use the non-existent back entrance in Tank’s garage.”

  She grimaced. “Ouch. Can’t we let those past sins stay buried?”

  “Yours and mine?” Nate asked with a smirk, but half-serious.

  “You have sins?” Kaitlyn’s head whipped around.

  “You thought I was perfect.” Nate didn’t want to have a serious conversation. Not now. Not when he’d just thought of himself and Kaitlyn as parents. Together.

  “Well, not perfect, exactly. But, you know, not like most of the guys around here who are drinking and carousing and fighting on the weekends.” She tilted her head to the side.

  He thought of his plans for next Saturday night. No drinking, minimal carousing, maybe, but fighting? Most definitely. Speaking of…he’d only gotten two hours of workout time in today before they’d left for Pittsburgh. He really should get home and do more, but he didn’t want to leave. Kaitlyn was staring at him. He hadn’t given her the reaction to her words she had been expecting. Belatedly he grinned. “We’ve established the fact that I drink. Milk.”

  Her eyes narrowed before she smiled back. “That’s right. And you have been in a bar in the last week, so you kind of carouse now, too.”

  “Yep.” Why did he bring that topic up? He nonchalantly changing the subject. “If we get this truck wired back up, maybe we can put the ECM in your pulling truck and see how it runs. You’ve got a pull on Friday, right?”

  “This Friday, then the championship pull is next Saturday at Dog Hollow.”

  “Dog Hollow? What a name.” Nate turned back to the dash, reaching under the pulled-out panel to feel for the bundle of wires.

  “There’s car racing there all summer long. I used to do that a good bit until Kyle…” Her voice trailed off.

  Nate could see her racing cars easily, and he’d love to talk about it, but this was the first time she’d mentioned Kyle. He had a hunch about something. “Why is Clint out to get you? He spread those rumors about you and Tank. I thought he had issues with Tank, something to do with his job and hating his boss, and you just got sucked into it. But this deal with the rumors about not being able to pay the drivers…”

  Bobby lost his balance after a particularly long leap. He stumbled, his arms swinging like a windmill. As he went down, he grabbed the closest thing in reach—the baby stroller—to try to stop his fall. He hit the cement floor and immediately started screaming. The baby stroller tipped, balanced precariously on two wheels for half-a second, then fell the rest of the way over. Gary, wrapped in a blanket, bounced out onto Bobby’s back. His cries, higher, shriller, joined Bobby’s.

  Kaitlyn ran to the pile-up.

  Nate jumped from the truck and raced behind.

  She scooped Gary up.

  Nate grabbed Bobby, who immediately wrapped his arms around Nate’s neck and placed his open screaming mouth in direct contact with Nate’s ear. Nate was pretty sure he’d suffer permanent hearing loss. Running his hands over Bobby as a precaution, Nate decided he was OK, just scared. His mom said that when she heard a crash, she always listened for the crying. It was when there wasn’t any crying that it was time to be scared. Made sense to him.

  He met Kaitlyn’s gaze and jerked his head toward the house. She nodded. It was time for bed anyway. Might as well get all the crying done in one session, because there wasn’t too much chance that Bobby wouldn’t be crying for his mother tonight.

  Flipping the garage lights off, but leaving the door open, they walked to the house side-by-side. Nate carried Bobby, who still sobbed, and pushed the stroller while Kaitlyn carried Gary, whose crying had pretty much stopped.

  “We probably look like an old married couple to anyone driving by,” Kaitlyn said.

  Was that a bad thing? From her expression, he was thinking not. But she didn’t know what he was doing on Saturday. That would almost assuredly change her mind about wanting to co-parent with him. Of course, it was his last fight. Ever. She wouldn’t need to know, except as something he did in the past, right? He looked down at her. “Bother you?”

  “No.” She gave him a small smile and a challenging look.

  “Me either.” That grin spread over her face before she looked away.

  His smile got bigger, too, loving the comfortableness of Kaitlyn walking beside him, each of them holding a boy, smiling at each other.

  “What are you smiling at?” Bobby asked.

  He shrugged his shoulders but knew Bobby wouldn’t be satisfied with that. “It’s been a hard day, but I spent it with people I care about, and that makes it good. I’m happy.”

  “Will my mom be here for bedtime tonight?” Bobby’s face was puppy-dog long.

  Nate felt a twist of guilt that he was smiling and happy while this little boy was missing his mother.

  “No.” Before Bobby could react, Nate kept on talking. “How would you feel about an ice cream cone?”

  Kaitlyn, who had her hand on the door, ready to walk into the house, jerked around.

  He could read her expression: Ice cream before bed?

  He hoped she could read his face. Better than two solid hours of screaming before he falls asleep.

  She must have agreed with his silent statement. “If you’ll feed Gary, I’ll dunk Bobby in the tub quick, then we could take the four-wheelers across the field. One of the trails comes out right behind the Triple Dip.”

  Bobby lit up like a Christmas tree. “Really? Yes!” He bounced up and down in Nate’s arms. “I ride with Nate! Me and Nate’ll go fast!” He started making motor noises.

  Smiling, Kaitlyn rolled her eyes.

  “Better than crying.” Nate said as he set Bobby down.

  “Amen!” Kaitlyn handed Gary to Nate.

  His hand brushed her arm, and their eyes met. Nate wanted to step closer. To lean down and whisper in her ear. Maybe ask her if this felt as right to her as it d
id to him. He stepped back. Of course it wasn’t right. Because of the fatal, inherited flaw in his personality, he could never have something like this with a woman like Kaitlyn. Problem was, he couldn’t imagine any other woman beside him.

  A confused look skimmed across her face before she took Bobby’s hand and looked down. “Come on, Bud. Let’s get cleaned up quick so we can get that ice cream!” She looked back at Nate. “Dad rigged up some straps for Gary’s car seat to ride on the back of the four-wheeler, so once he’s fed and changed and everything, you can put him in that.”

  “Sounds good.”

  ~*~

  Nate carried a sleeping Bobby up to his bed. The ice cream hadn’t seemed to harm him any, and he’d fallen asleep on the way home. Kaitlyn followed with Gary, who was also asleep. She could only hope they’d stay that way.

  They settled the boys in their beds without turning on the light, although the glow from their nightlight allowed her to see the rugged outline of Nate’s face as he turned from tucking Bobby in.

  “Swing for a while?”

  Nate hesitated, and she wondered if he had somewhere else to go, or more specifically, someone else he wanted to spend time with. After all, he’d been hanging out at their place an awful lot. Almost non-stop.

  “Love to,” he whispered back.

  That didn’t sound as though he had another girl, but maybe he just knew she needed someone tonight after the day they’d had. Still, she didn’t like wondering, and it wasn’t like her to let these questions go unanswered. She would get answers. Tonight.

  He allowed her to go out first, and she walked quietly down the stairs, stopping in the kitchen. “Would you like a drink?”

  “Nah. Thanks, anyway.”

  She walked out the door with Nate following. His heat radiated toward her, and she caught the scent of spice and male. A comforting scent. Nate’s scent. One she loved.

  The porch springs creaked as they sat down together, not touching, and they rocked slowly back.

  “Don’t you have a girl you should be spending time with?” Her thoughts tumbled out in words before she could think to open a conversation with a little more finesse.