Bring Me Back
Page 1
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
BRING ME BACK
First edition. March 6, 2019.
Copyright © 2019 Jessie Gussman.
Written by Jessie Gussman.
Table of Contents
Copyright Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Riley Coleman’s phone buzzed. She kept her hands folded in her lap and didn’t move.
“That terminal is sitting at the confluence of the turnpike, I80, and I99, right in the middle of central Pennsylvania. We’re perfectly positioned to be everywhere and go anywhere.” Her dad’s booming voice filled the corner office of Coleman Trucking and Repair, Inc., in Spruce Mountain, Maine.
Her phone stopped buzzing. Riley didn’t twitch.
“It should be our top performing shop. It should be number one in the country. We have state-of-the-art computer systems and mechanics from the top schools anywhere.” His face brightened like the red of her mother’s old countertops. “But it’s not. It’s the worst-performing diesel garage we own. The bottom in just about every measurable area.”
Their company had a trucking division and a repair division with a fleet of two hundred trucks and ten repair terminals scattered over the country. The location they were currently at was the original one.
Her dad stood up, tall, as always, with a slightly larger waistline than when Riley had last seen him at Christmastime. “It’s not just because you’re my daughter. It’s because you’ve made this shop, in Nowheretown, Maine, the best-performing shop in the country. The job in Pennsylvania is yours by rights.”
Riley rose as well. Only his old office desk, ponderous and glowering, stood between them. “I can do the job.” Her voice sounded capable and bold. A direct contrast to the timorous skittering of her heart.
“Bold as brass. That’s what you’ve always been.” Her dad smiled, a pleased I’m-proud-of-my-daughter smile. The kind she lived for.
She gave him a cool, confident smile in return. The smile she’d perfected over the years of demanding confrontations when her father insisted on and expected almost superhuman effort from her. But everything she’d worked for was almost within reach: make the shop in Pennsylvania successful, get the corner office, see her dad’s approval.
“I need you down in Brickley Springs in three weeks, tops.”
“I’ll be there,” she said, her confident tone covering her chaotic thoughts. Less than twenty-one days to wrap things up at the shop in Maine, move out of her apartment, and find somewhere to live. No problem, Dad.
He nodded, pacing behind his desk. His boots made a soft clomp on the tile floor. Outside the large windows, the late Maine spring was just turning the grass at the edge of the big truck parking area a happy shade of green. A direct contrast to the dark paneling and neutral colors of what used to be his office. Until ten years ago when he expanded his company and moved with his family to Pennsylvania.
Riley had grown up in Maine and had only left for college. She’d worked in the company all her life, working her way through college at the shop in Pennsylvania before coming back to Maine six years ago. She’d become the manager four years ago.
The same time Ben Baxter had been made shop foreman.
Riley’s control slipped, and she pulled both lips between her teeth before she forced the tension out of her body and smoothed the features of her face. She wasn’t going to think about Ben Baxter.
Except, if she wanted the shop in Pennsylvania to be successful, she didn’t have a choice. Not only would she have to think about him, she’d have to convince him to move to Brickley Springs.
~~~
Ben Baxter set the last injector carefully on the plyboard and sawhorse makeshift table. He pulled the blue rag out of the back of his pocket and started wiping his hands, looking around at the almost deserted shop.
“Hey, boss. I’m leaving.” Fred Tomlin, his gray hair sticking out from under his ball cap in wispy strands, stopped beside the gutted Peterbilt Ben had been working on.
“Thanks for staying and giving me a hand with that core.” Ben shoved the rag back in his pocket.
“You still have a meeting with the fancy lady?” Fred asked with a smirk.
Riley Coleman wasn’t hated around the shop. She was a fair manager and nice to look at, but with her business suits and perfectly shiny hair and nails, she would never be on their level. Which made her an outsider. Ben never bothered defending her. Not after what she’d done to him.
“Yep.” Ben wiped the last of his wrenches off and set it back neatly in the drawer with the rest of the set. “She should be here any minute.”
Fred paused in the act of raising his hat and rubbing his mostly bald head. “She’s coming here?” he asked incredulously, hooking a finger in the pocket of his jeans. Most shops had a uniform policy. Ben had done away with it first thing when he’d become foreman. That wasn’t the only change he made, but by the time the higher-ups realized what was going on, they couldn’t argue with his improved output numbers. Riley couldn’t argue. This wasn’t their first meeting.
“Said she was.” Ben carefully wiped off his three-quarter-inch socket.
This was their first meeting, however, in the shop. Every other time he’d been called on the carpet, he’d had to stand like a bad little schoolboy hanging his head in front of the principal’s office. Never again. His sisters had graduated from high school and had several years of additional training under their belts. He could finally afford to take the risk he’d always wanted to take.
Fred’s eyes swept over him, taking in the grease on his t-shirt, arms, and face. It mixed with the blood he’d wiped there when his forearm had clipped a jagged piece of metal after cutting off a stubborn bolt.
“Ain’t you gonna clean up at all?”
“Nope.” He gave Fred a grin. “Won’t hurt the woman to see what a working man looks like.”
Fred returned his grin and shrugged before turning. “See ya tomorrow.”
“Flip the lights out for bays one and two before you go.”
Fred didn’t answer, just hit the switches on the way out the door.
Maybe he should have cleaned up, at least washed his hands and arms. But with his sisters raised, he had a hard time caring about impressing the snotty daughter of the owner of one of the biggest trucking and repair companies in the country.
Riley could come to him. He didn’t give a flip, because he was quitting.
Chapter 2
Riley’s heels clicked on the pavement. She carried her purse, not because she needed it, but because it helped to keep her hands still if she were holding something. Over the years, she’d adopted many tricks for looking like a polished professional. Her natural personality was anything but. She’d just learned how to do what needed to be done.
The shop wasn’t far from the smaller building that housed the offices for the Maine branch of Coleman Trucking, and it took less than a minute to walk there. Still, she was grateful for her jacket. At least Pennsylvania didn’t cling to winter like red on blood the way Maine di
d. It took hardy people to live up here.
An older man carrying a lunch bucket pushed the man door open.
“Oh.” Riley stumbled back. “Excuse me.”
“No. Excuse me, ma’am.” The man tipped his ball cap and walked through, holding the door so Riley could enter.
“Thanks.”
It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the dimmer interior. There were three bays. This shop was so good, it was where the company sent their rebuilds if at all possible. It looked like there were two current ones.
Finally she saw movement over by the far truck. A white t-shirt stood out against the gloom. She took a deep breath, pulled from her years of dealing with her dad, and started over. Her future hinged on the outcome of this meeting. She wasn’t exactly Ben Baxter’s favorite person. Although she’d come a long way from that disastrous day years ago, he didn’t know. She’d never gone back and tried to make it right. Once it was done, there was no point in dredging up past hurts.
When she’d come back from college and started working at the shop, she’d looked for a way to try. But he never acted like he cared, and she didn’t want to rock the boat. He was the best mechanic their company had. He was the reason the shop performed so well. Of course, Riley was good at her job, but she knew most of the credit belonged to Ben. If she had approached him and it hadn’t gone well, he might have quit.
They both pretended nothing ever happened. The little bit that they saw each other, they treated the other with professional respect.
She didn’t want him to quit. She didn’t want their company to lose their most valuable employee. Sure. But there was another reason, a bigger reason, she never said anything.
It would have been too dangerous to her traitorous heart.
After all the time that had gone by without explanation or apology, she couldn’t expect him to believe the best of her now.
The click of her heels echoed in the cavernous interior. Firm and purposeful. Just like she wanted.
The white shirt moved. Ben’s face came into focus. As always, something hot and sweet burst in her chest when she looked at him. Ruthlessly she shoved it down. She’d ruined any chance of a relationship. Brutally and on purpose. Now she had to live with her choice.
“Hello, Ben.”
Without responding, he wiped his hands, shoved the rag in his pocket, and crossed his arms.
She squeezed her purse and tried for a friendly smile. She really needed this man.
“Thanks so much for meeting me.” She wouldn’t mention that she’d asked for him to come to her, and while he hadn’t refused, he’d said that he’d be working late to pull a motor out. Did she want the truck fixed or did she want him in her office?
His chin might have lifted a fraction.
So, no pleasantries. Of course not. She’d get right down to business.
“What you’ve done in this shop over the last four years has been beyond amazing.” He was an amazing foreman. But he wouldn’t have been successful if she hadn’t given him the reins to do what he needed to do. One of which was doing actual work himself. That was a huge red flag to HR, but Riley had made it work because Ben had been right—the guys under him worked better if he was working too. He filled the position of shop foreman and head mechanic. He’d trained several men over the last few years to his level. Then the bigger shops had stolen them.
He didn’t respond. Not even an eyebrow movement. He wouldn’t have any trouble talking to her dad.
She jumped back in. “The biggest shop we have—the one in Pennsylvania, just outside of Brickley Springs—is also our worst-performing one. I know you can turn it around. I’m here to offer you the position of shop foreman.”
“Wouldn’t work.”
She ignored him. “I’m going, too. Together we can implement the arrangement we have here. It’s a bigger shop. We’ll have some more red tape to cut through...”
“No.”
“I know we...”
“Hate each other’s guts?” he offered helpfully.
The first ever hint that they had history. She wouldn’t allow the clenching of her heart to distract her from her purpose.
She lifted her chin. “Had a misunderstanding and don’t get on well.”
“You call that a misunderstanding?” He snorted and leaned back against the corner of his massive toolbox.
She pulled her lips out from between her teeth, ignoring him. It wasn’t a misunderstanding at all. She’d been brutal. Because she had to. “We make a great team. You know this terminal is the best in the company. I want us to go to Pennsylvania and make that one even better.”
“I disagree,” he said, with a slight mocking tone in his voice.
She ignored the tone along with the implication that they didn’t make a great team. “That’s fine. We don’t have to agree on everything.”
A few beats of silence thumped between them.
“It will be a major salary increase, of course.” Money would do it every time. Ben wasn’t any different than any other single dad, although technically he wasn’t a dad. She’d met his sisters, of course. Spruce Mountain, Maine, wasn’t the smallest town in the world, but because of the freedom she’d given Ben to work and manage as he saw fit, his twin sisters were around the shop. Less now that they were older. Nice girls.
“Not interested.” His arms came down, and he straightened like the conversation was over.
Riley’s heart quaked. She needed Ben.
“It will be triple your current salary.”
Ben smiled, his white teeth flashing, contrasting against his tanned skin. “Not interested.”
She had to hide the quaking in her heart. There was no way she could do what needed to be done without Ben. Obviously she was going to have to find another way to talk him into it. She couldn’t admit defeat. “I’ll give you a few days to think about it.”
Before he could turn that down, too, she spun and hurried away.
“Hey, watch...”
Ben’s warning faded out as Riley cut around the truck too close and hit the corner of the fender. It didn’t hurt at first, but that stretching feeling when skin separates made bile back up in her throat. Warmth seeped down her lower leg.
Rustling behind her, a muted ripping sound like paper towels being torn, then Ben was beside her, kneeling.
Blood ran down her leg, and he dabbed it with the clean towel in his hand. All the feelings that she’d fought and ignored for the past years ripped open, and she jerked back.
“It’s fine.” Her voice quivered, and she didn’t even care. She just had to get away from him. She backed up and turned as he stood slowly, the towel held in a hand fisted with white knuckles. Catching just a glimpse of resignation on his face, she headed toward the door, her heels clipping double time.
She didn’t stop until she was out in the fading sunlight, the door slamming behind her. The cold air hit her leg, and she felt every centimeter where the blood had seeped down. It wasn’t so bad that it would need stitches. She’d seen enough injuries to know it hadn’t cut deep enough. The thing that really needed to be stitched back together was her pride. Seeing him was bad enough. She couldn’t stand for him to touch her. She’d end up on her knees begging him to take her back.
She straightened. No, she wouldn’t. High school was a long time ago. They’d both changed into different people. They didn’t know each other anymore. She was still moved by the memories, not by the actual man.
Two heads bobbed across the parking lot toward her, and she shoved the pinching pain in her leg aside.
Eve and Eden. Ben’s sisters. Riley knew them well and also knew that Ben would do anything for them. Something had happened to their parents—Riley was sketchy on the details—and Ben had raised them.
“Hey, girls.” Riley stopped and offered a friendly smile. Ben might have a grizzly bear personality, but his sisters were sweet.
“Miss Riley,” Eden, the blond twin, said. “Did you get transferred to the shop?”
Riley gave a carefree laugh, shoving the last of her lingering troubles aside. “I think we all know I’d be helpless in there.”
“And your family owns a trucking company.” Eden shook her head then laughed, too. “I’d be helpless in there as well, even though Ben runs the place.”
Eve was the twin who took after her brother. Eve fixed trucks. Eden painted them.
“Did Ben get in trouble?” Eve asked with a frown.
“No.” Riley tucked a stray hair behind her ear. It was getting chilly out now that the sun had sunk behind the mountain. “I had a proposition for him.”
“Yes! I knew it! I always knew you two were meant for each other!” Eve did a little hop then high-fived her twin.
“Not that kind of proposition.” Riley laughed at the twins’ exuberance. “You’re trying to push your brother off?”
“All he’s ever done is take care of us. He needs a life.”
“Maybe he’s happy here.” Yeah, the guy was gorgeous, and she felt a definite attraction, but she wouldn’t wish his grumpy, miserable personality on any woman. At least that’s what she told herself.
Wait. What was she saying? She cleared her throat. “Or maybe he’d like a change of scenery. There’s a job opening in Pennsylvania, and I offered it to him.”
“Did he jump on it?” Eden asked eagerly.
“He turned it down.”
“Why?” Eden asked, shoving her hands in her back pockets.
Riley lifted a shoulder and adjusted her purse, thinking about Ben’s flat refusal. “He didn’t say.”
The twins shared a look which made hope blossom in Riley’s heart. Then it sank.
Eve’s lip pulled back. “I think you’re right. Ben’s happy here in Maine.”
Eden nodded in agreement, with a similar look. “Yeah. He isn’t the kind of guy who likes to pull up roots and travel around.”
Riley didn’t want to cause strife in their family. They’d already had it hard enough. But she really needed Ben. “That’s too bad. It was a great opportunity.”
“More money?” Eve asked with a lifted brow.