Skid Row Kings Complete Series

by Winter Travers

  I hobbled down the hallway, finally able to get around a little better, and knocked on her door. “Yo, Lee. You know what you want for dinner?”

  “Whatever you want,” she yelled. “Just let me know when Nos leaves.”

  “He’s gone.” Why the hell was she hiding in her room because Nos was here? “Are you coming out?”

  “Um, yeah,” she muffled.

  “Lee, what in the hell is going on?”

  “Nothing. Just give me a second, Kurt.”

  “I want to know wha—” Leelee flung the door open and was standing there in just a tank top and lime green underwear.

  My gaze dropped to her legs, and I couldn’t rip my eyes off her. I swear to Christ, she had legs for days. I couldn’t tell you how many times I had pictured those legs wrapped around me while I plunged into her body. Leelee snapped her fingers and my eyes regretfully moved to her face. Her arms were folded across her chest, and she was glaring at me. “I’ve had a shit day, Kurt. You think you can give me five minutes to myself before I have to start waiting on you?” She stepped back and slammed the door in my face.

  “What the fuck?” I whispered. I raised my hand to pound on her door and demand she tell me what in the hell was going on but stopped before my fist hit the door. She thought she waited on me? Where in the hell was that coming from?

  I headed back to the kitchen and leaned against the counter. I didn’t want to be here as a burden to Leelee. I had been trying to pull my weight as much as possible, but I still wasn’t up to one hundred percent.

  Making dinner was something I should be able to handle myself. She was working eight to ten hours at the garage every day and making dinner wasn’t that hard.

  I checked over the fridge, trying to figure out what I could make that wouldn’t taste like shit. “Think, Kurt. What the hell can you make that won’t kill Lee?”

  I grabbed the eggs, milk, and a pound of bacon from the freezer. You couldn’t go wrong with breakfast for dinner. My culinary skills only extended to the microwave and grill, but I could also make a mean breakfast.

  “I’m sorry.”

  I glanced over my shoulder and saw Leelee leaning against the wall; her arms crossed over her chest. I could still see her amazing legs, but she at least had shorts on now. I turned back to the cabinet and reached up to grab a bowl. “No need to be sorry.”

  “Yeah, there is. I shouldn’t have taken my shitty day out on you.”

  I shrugged and started cracking eggs into the bowl. “You wanna tell me why your day was shitty?”

  Leelee walked to the fridge and pulled out a Corona. “Men are assholes. That about sums up my crappy day pretty well.”

  I chuckled and shook my head. “Luke in a shitty mood today?”

  “Nah. He wasn’t even there for half of the day. Every other guy I came into contact with today though was an ass. When is the time going to come when a fucking guy is okay with a chick changing his oil?” Leelee took a long drink of her beer and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “They act like I should be in the kitchen making a pie or some shit.”

  “You know you’re one of the best mechanics in the city, Lee. Why the hell are you letting these asshats get to you?”

  “Because those asshats are threatening to take their business away from Luke if I work on their car.”

  “What? How in the hell do you know that?”

  Leelee set down her beer and glided over to see what I was making. “Because they told me on the phone today. They wanted to request that only Luke, Mitch, and Kurt work on their cars. I told them they obviously didn’t get the memo that you were out and they were stuck with me.”

  “You tell Luke? You know he isn’t going to put up with that shit.”

  “Yeah, but I’m pretty sure he’s not going to put up with losing half of his customers because of me. It looks like I’m going to have to find a new job before Luke cans me.”

  I set the pan on the stove and shook my head. “He’s not going to can you, Lee.”

  “Yeah, he is.”

  “Luke isn’t going to get rid of the best mechanic he has because a couple of guys don’t like chicks. Brush it off and prove ‘em wrong.”

  “That’s so easy to say when you have everyone in your corner. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to deal with assholes, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.”

  I sprayed the pan and then dumped the eggs in.

  “Aren’t you going to cook the bacon first?” she asked.

  “Fuck. Yeah, I probably should.” I turned off the stove and moved the pan off the heat.

  “Here, I got it. You work on the eggs, and I’ve got the bacon.” Leelee pulled another pan from the cabinet and set it on the stove. “You want toast with it, too?”

  “Yeah, but I can get it. You don’t need to make the bacon, either.” Leelee was taking over making dinner when my plan was to make dinner for her.

  “Um, I can help. You don’t need to make me dinner.”

  “Lee, I don’t need you waiting on me. I can get around and take care of myself more now. You don’t need to worry.”

  “Kurt, I didn’t mean what I said before. I was just taking out my frustration on you. You’re a man and an easy target.” She laughed, pulled open the package of bacon, and laid four pieces in the pan. “You’re doing more than I thought you would be able to do.”

  “I’m trying. Nos was over helping me figure out what my next move is. I need to get moving more.” I pulled the eggs back onto the burner. “He’s helping me line things up.”

  “Oh, like a job?”

  “I guess you could call it that.”

  She nodded but didn’t ask anymore.

  “When does Jay get back?” I asked, as I grabbed the bread and popped a couple of slices into the toaster.

  “Wednesday.”

  “He knows I’m here?”

  Leelee grabbed a couple of paper towels, spread them on a plate then laid the cooked bacon on it. “Yeah. I told him I was helping you out.”

  “He okay with me being here?”

  “He doesn’t really have a choice. Besides, school starts soon. He’ll barely be home between classes and football.” Leelee laid out four more pieces of bacon in the pan then wrapped up the rest of the bacon and put it back in the fridge.

  “I’ll take the couch when he comes back. I don’t want to put him out in his own home.”

  “You won’t have to do that if you don’t want to. Jay is young. He can handle sleeping on the couch.”

  “We’ll see.” I stirred the eggs, thankful I hadn’t burned the hell out of them.

  “I’m gonna grab another beer; you want one?” Leelee opened the fridge and pulled out two beers.

  “I probably shouldn’t with all of the pain pills I’ve been taking.”

  “More for me to drink.” Leelee set the one beer down and popped the top on the other. I grabbed two plates down from the cabinet and loaded them full of eggs and bacon. Leelee grabbed the toast out of the toaster and slathered them with butter.

  “You tell Luke about what happened?” I grabbed two forks out of the drawer and handed one to Leelee.

  “No. He doesn’t need to know.”

  “I think you should tell him.”

  “Well, it’s a good thing you don’t work there anymore because I don’t have to listen to you when it comes to work shit.”

  I shook my head and picked up my plate. Leelee handed me a piece of toast, and we headed into the living room. Leelee sat on one end of the couch, and I sat on the other. This had been our routine for the past two weeks. Leelee came home from work, she made dinner, we sat in the living room watching TV until about ten and then we would both go to bed. It was boring, but I didn’t mind it. I liked hanging out with Leelee. Before the whole CPS situation and getting married, Leelee and I used to hang out quite a bit. Normally, it was after a race or when we would run into each other at the bar, but we at least hung out.

  I had missed her the past y
ear when we were both at each other’s necks, neither of us knowing what the other was thinking.

  “What do you want to watch? I don’t know if there is a new Fast and Loud on tonight.”

  “There isn’t. I checked the TV guide earlier. It looks like it’s a movie night.” I shoveled a mound of eggs into my mouth and chased it down with a bite of bacon.

  “I have like ten movies, and I’ve seen them all five times.”

  “You can do what Luke, Mitch, and I always do. Pop in one of the Fast and the Furious movies. Those never get old.”

  “I heard Frankie complain about you guys always watching those movies. I guess she wasn’t over-exaggerating.”

  “Nah,” I mumbled. “They’re classics, and every time we watched them, Frankie was sitting right next to me on that couch.” I finished off my eggs and bacon and set my plate on the coffee table. “You want one of our ice creams?” I asked, as I stood and headed into the kitchen.

  “Um, maybe in a little bit.” Leelee followed me into the kitchen and dropped her plate into the sink. “Leave the dishes. I can do them before I go to work in the morning.”

  “You know I’m not going to argue with you on that one, Lee.” I set my plate on top of hers and headed back to the living room. Our dinner only managed to last five minutes tops because we both ate so fast. “I’m picking a movie,” I hollered. “You have all of them, right?”

  “Yeah. They are under the TV. I think Jay might have worn out the first two, though.”

  “Oh yeah? He still into cars?” I blindly grabbed one of the DVDs and pulled out the third movie in the series.

  “Yeah. He’s always bugging me to teach him, as he likes to say, everything.”

  “Smart kid.”

  “Not really.” Leelee walked back into the living room and flopped down on the couch. “I’m not someone to look up to. I barely finished high school and everything I know, I learned watching other guys work on cars.”

  “I’ve always said I’d rather be street-smart than book-smart.” I popped the disc into the player, turned off the lights, and sat down next to Lee, who now had her legs propped up on the couch. Her leg was bent at the knee, trying not to touch my leg. I grabbed her foot, stretching her leg out and rested it on my lap.

  “What are you doing?” she protested as she tried to move her foot out of my hand.

  “You had a shit day, Lee. Just watch the movies and don’t worry about what I’m doing.” I lightly kneaded her foot and watched the opening scene.

  “This is crazy. I don’t know why you are doing this.” Her whole body was tense, and I could feel it all the way down to the tips of her toes.

  “Lee. For once in your life, could you just keep your mouth shut and let me do what I want to do?”

  Leelee scoffed and tried snatching her foot out of my grasp again. Thankfully, her feet were dainty, and they were easy to hold on to. “Rude,” she mumbled under her breath as she turned her head back to the screen. “I feel like you’re sucking up for something you did.”

  “There isn’t much these days that I do, that you don’t know about. If I needed to suck up for something, you would know about it. Although, I do need to make it up to you for letting me stay here for so long.”

  “Well, your name is technically on the lease. I’m just the tenant that lives here.”

  I shook my head. “That’s shit, Lee. You know that this is your place. My name being on the lease means nothing.”

  Leelee relaxed further into the couch and kicked up her other foot and put it in my lap. “Keep telling yourself that. One day, I’ll have something that is just mine. I could always open my own shop, but then I wouldn’t have any customers because no one would come seeing that I’m a woman.”

  I nodded and filed away what she said so flippantly. “Maybe someday, Lee.”

  She rested her head on the armrest of the couch, and I pulled the blanket she had draped over the back of the couch and laid it over her legs and half over my lap. “That is a dream that I don’t see becoming a reality anytime soon.”

  “You never know, Lee. When you least expect shit, it fucking happens.”

  She closed her eyes and a small smile spread across her lips. “You mean how you didn’t expect me to fall asleep, but here I am, ready to start sawing logs and we’re not even ten minutes into all the Vin Diesel goodness.”

  “You mean his badassery, right?”

  “Badassery?” she asked, laughing.

  “Yeah, Lee. You can’t sit there and say that Vin is not the most badass guy ever. The way he drove that Challenger at the end of the first movie should be considered a highlight in all of cinematography.”

  “Crazy, Kurt. You're out of your mind.” She burrowed under the blanket and hummed as my hand continued to rub her foot. I wished my arm wasn’t busted so I could rub both of her feet at the same time, but that wasn’t an option to me right now. “I’m going to fall asleep,” she said around a yawn.

  “Go for it, Lee. I can watch this by myself.”

  She hummed low and turned her head to look at the screen. “Oh darn. This is the one that doesn’t have Vin in it except for the very end when he shows up in Japan to race that other guy.”

  “It’s still fucking good, Lee. Go to sleep, so I can watch the movie in peace and not have you interrupting the movie every ten seconds.”

  Her eyes fluttered shut, but a smirk played on her lips. “Be thankful my day was so hectic.”

  I switched feet and started rubbing the other one. Her body relaxed, and I knew she had finally fallen asleep. I laid her feet in my lap, and my eyes watched the TV, but I didn’t really see what was going on.

  I didn’t know how I had ended up here—Leelee and I watching a movie and her sweet body touching mine—but here I was. Finally, able to get the girl who hadn’t left my mind the last year next to me, and she wasn’t running away.

  I just hoped it would stay that way.

  *******

  Chapter 15

  Leelee

  “Are you coming to the race tonight?”

  I was leaned into the engine bay of a suped-up Camaro when Violet asked the question I had been trying to avoid. “Um, I’m not sure.”

  “What is there not to be sure about? You need to come. Scar and I are clueless when it comes to cars. You being there helps to make us look better.”

  “You don’t need me to look good,” I mumbled, as I tighten the oil cap.

  “Yes, we do. Everyone knows that I’m clueless about cars and it’s ridiculous that Luke is dating me.” Violet leaned against the fender and sighed. “I feel like an idiot at the races.”

  “Number one,” I said as I slammed the hood shut. “Luke could care less about the fact that you know nothing about cars. He knew from day one that you didn’t know a dipstick from a banana and he was okay with it.”

  “This is true,” she muttered.

  “Number two,” I held up two fingers in her face, “don’t give a fuck about what anyone thinks at that race.”

  “Easier said than done. Ginny has been at the last two races, and I’ve wanted to scratch her eyes out anytime I saw her.”

  “Then, do it. Bitch needs to be put in her place.” I wiped my hands on the rag in my back pocket and tossed it on the workbench.

  “Luke isn’t fond of the idea of me getting into a fist fight with Ginny.”

  “It’d be more of a cat fight with you two. Lots of scratching and hair pulling. I bet you could get people to pay to see that.” I laughed knowing what kind of assholes hung out at the races.

  Violet rolled her eyes. “Still, not something Luke would like me to do. But that is beside the point. You need to come to the race. If not to make me look better, than just to be there so I have someone to talk to.”

  “I really don’t think Kurt wants to go to the race, Vi. Luke and him still aren’t talking.”

  “Then, don’t bring him. Or, kidnap him and bring him along. I don’t care what you do as long as you’re
there.” Violet pointed her finger at me. “Make it happen, Lee, otherwise I’m calling in reinforcements.”

  “Luke?”

  “No, Levi. No one can say no to that kid.” Violet headed out of the shop and closed the door behind her.

  I rested a hip against the Camaro and closed my eyes. Dammit, I really did want to go to the race, but I also wanted to stay home and spend some more time with Kurt before Jay came home. I only had four more nights alone with Kurt.

  I had no idea what was going on with Kurt and me, but we had called a truce of some sorts, and I had no interest in breaking the ceasefire. Kurt being nice, cooking dinner, and just hanging out with me was better than the Kurt who hated to see me and scowled every time he did.

  Even if I decided to go to the race, there was no guarantee Kurt would come along. It wasn’t that I couldn’t leave him alone, it was I didn’t want to leave him alone. I repeat, Kurt was nice to me, and I didn’t want to mess it up.

  I glanced at the clock over the door and pulled my phone out of my pocket. It was going on five o’clock, and I figured I would give Kurt a heads up about the race. If he didn’t want to go, then I wasn’t going to go, either. I would just have to lock my door and not let anyone in if we stayed home. Violet’s threat of sending Levi after me was a good one and I knew I wouldn’t be able to say no to him.

  What are you doing? I was too chicken to call him and ask. Text messaging was the easy way to go.

  Just got back to the house. I was with Nos all day.

  I still had no idea what Kurt was doing with Nos. Wanna go out tonight? Yes, I was crossing my fingers hoping Kurt wouldn’t ask what I wanted to do and just get in the car with me. A girl could dream, right?

  What did you want to do?

  Damn. I thought we could grab a bite to eat and then head over to the race. Violet wants us to come tonight. I mentioned Violet, hoping that would guilt him into going. I was not above laying a guilt trip on the man.

  Really?

  Uh oh. That wasn’t the answer I was hoping for. You don’t need to talk to Luke or Mitch at all.