CHAPTER NINE

 

SQUEAK-UAH! WHAT a drizzly Monday. Myah drummed a beat with the occasional swipe of the wipers and thought of the odd lilt she’d heard in Keir’s sleepy voice.

He’d offered a drive. What if she’d said yes? How romantic.

“Listen to yourself.” She turned into the lot and glided under the rising security arm. Romance. She hadn’t been familiar with the word for nearly three years. Wouldn’t know it if it slapped her on the head and yelled, “You’re it!”

She needed a godly man, and Keir had been mighty quick to turn down her invitation to attend a service. Not even a moment’s hesitation. Then he wanted to take her out afterward? Hardly a healthy attraction.

Gnawing her lip, she edged into a parking space. She hadn’t been able to catch her breath since that conversation. Keir was intriguing, courteous, cute, but so what?

And he sang!

She growled at her slide down the infatuation slope. “Saved and sanctified,” she reminded. “Not sweet, cuddly and… Phfff.” She cranked the handbrake and marched inside. The chaos upstairs matched her warring brain. She spotted Amy among the crowd in the front aisle. “What’s going on?”

“Computers are down. IT is on it, but we hope they’ll send us home early.”

If they sent people home, she wouldn’t be here for four o’clock. Saved and sanctified, My.

Amy folded her arms and grinned. “All right, spill. What happened between you and Kid Gorgeous? Did he show up on Friday?”

Not a modest bone in that girl’s body. Myah plowed through the pack of curious gawkers.

“Did you kiss him like I told you?”

Really, not one modest brain cell.

In her cubicle, Myah dumped her bag and wheeled around to hiss at her intruder. “A little discretion, Amy.”

“Wh-a-t? ”

“The way you talk. He’s a great guy who doesn’t need you sullying his good intentions.”

“His good intensions are what I’m after,” she teased. “He’s a great guy now, is he?” She gasped, her whole frame doing an excited body spasm. “You did kiss him.”

“Did not. Hush up.” Myah flapped her hands to keep her quiet. No use saying he didn’t show up Friday night. “He’s a lot deeper than a guy who tinkers around with cars on the side.”

“Worried about his reputation? I bet he’s not.”

Her sister had accused her of projecting her fears to others. How could she not? Tongues had wagged when she became pregnant. Greg distanced himself. Convincing Amy to walk the straight and narrow after the younger woman witnessed her slide down the wrong side of the hill had to come while fighting all the things people had to say.

“Myah, the techs have brains and a few certifications, so tinkering with cars isn’t what’s bothering you. You must have had a naughty conversation to find out how good his intensions really are. Tell me, tell me.”

Despite no shared drive, she fired up her computer. There had to be a local file to fiddle with. “I’m not talking about him with you. Leave it alone.”

“Why? You want him?”

Myah rolled her eyes and shook her head at the relentless pursuit.

Amy stalked out of the cubicle while Myah collapsed into her seat. Amy would be back to corner her later, sniff out details. Myah sighed. An emotional sieve that woman was.

 

 

“HAYLAN, we’re out back.” Keir kicked open the back door and stepped outside with two dogs and an eager child.

“Yeah,” Haylan called from the garage’s office.

Tethered to a leash, both Ca de Bous lunged ahead and received a firm command to stay. Keir waited until they sat on their haunches before he lead them past the car graveyard to the tiny field behind the family’s business.

Jolie was still smaller than her brother. The two runts that fought to survive. Keir grinned.

“Keep up with me, Neely,” he called.

She must have been inspecting an insect, she rose from behind an old station wagon to skip ahead and hold tentatively to one of the leashes. The pup brother and sister were only six weeks old, but too powerful for her to control on her own. She’d inherited the Treasure dark hair, but had her mother’s fair face and delicate ways. Keir combed a hand through her hair as she squinted up at him against the sun.

“Can I tell them to go?” she asked.

House-training and weaning two rambunctious puppies had become her goal. Skye’s neglected pair were good for Haylan and Neely to heal, too. Though Neely was too young to know it. The battered and the bruised, what a den they all made.

Keir took them to the dirt patch that served as an outhouse, and unclasped the leashes as he nodded at Neely.

“Time for potty!” she said, proud of her duties. She giggled and scrambled onto his knee as he remained crouched to watch the hyper and confused pups find a place to do their business.

He never knew how much he’d enjoy being a sole caretaker until Jolie. In a short time he’d learned her mannerisms and knew what to look out for if she was scared or excited. His arm tightened around Neely. He knew his puppy picked up on those moods in him, too.

The canines ended their scampering long enough to go, then hiked their pudgy bodies all across the yard in rough play and exercise. Keir checked his watch, then placed them in the eighteen square foot puppy playpen to carouse around in all day and await their mother.

He took Neely’s hand and led her back inside. She skipped toward the office to find Haylan who came out and scooped her up.

“Hey, how’s my Lady Number Three?”

Keir smiled, glad they’d completed the stage props yesterday.

On cue, Neely recited her three lines and received appropriate cheers. “I get to stay with gran and grandpaps?” she asked.

Haylan patted her back, turning from a brother into a proud father. Why people mistook them for twins he’d never know. Haylan was clearly taller and broader. “Friday night to Sunday. You need to do the play one last time Sunday morning.” His brother’s eyes flicked to him. “You got plans?”

Myah’s face popped to mind. Would she have plans? “I might.”

Haylan stared, then looked stunned. “If you were hanging with Wes you would’ve said.” He puckered his lips. “Kwewee made a new fwend.”

“Shut up.”

“Uncle Keir, you said a bad word.”

He turned on his brother. “Shut up’s on the list now?”

Haylan shrugged. “She kept saying it. To me. I had to tell her something.”

“You keep putting words on the list, man, she’d not going to have a vocabulary.”

Haylan kissed his girl and rubbed her back, calling her his princess on the way to his car. One look at the vehicle, Keir whistled and pointed to his truck. No way he’d drive on the street so close to the ground. Haylan knew it. What did he think? The terror would just go away?

He’d grounded his teeth just passing that mangled heap Haylan insisted on keeping in the back lot. It didn’t matter that the dirt-laden tarp kept it hidden from view, Keir knew every detail underneath.

Haylan ignored him and unlocked the car.

A guitar string of pain ricocheted from one temple to the other. Keir fought the headache. They’d take the truck or they’d drive separate vehicles to drop Neely at afternoon pre-school and then ten minutes away for lunch. He climbed into his cab and slammed the door as he stared out the passenger window at his brother. A battle of wills made him scowl.

Haylan’s head-wag conveyed Keir should just get over it, he’d lost loved ones, too. But no amount of pity would make his brother unhook Neely’s car seat for the short drive.

Starting the engine, Keir sped out of his space and left Haylan to catch up if he pleased.

By the time Neely was dropped off and they were seated, the mere act of sipping colas seemed to evaporate the tension between them. Keir loved his brother, loved that Haylan had been so understanding when Keir confessed he couldn’t work in their environment for a while. Awhile being over two years now.

Keir fixed small vehicles fine, so long as he didn’t have to take them on the road. Out there. With the others. And working on anything larger than a compact van set off the sumo wrestlers in his head. The sounds came back, the smell that somehow sank onto his tongue, the indescribable sight he’d had to endure pinned in the twisted space. The hazy picture, his mind deliberately obscured, resurfaced; Dad in the driver’s seat, Mom in the passenger, Caitlin beside him. Or what used to…

He tamped down nausea and scanned the sports bar. Don’t let them see how messed up you are. He scratched his fingers through his hair, prayed his unbalanced brain wouldn’t let his fears show.

Thank God he could still work with vehicles, choose his own projects, and have plausible excuses to turn down a job if he found out it was a small car. But it limited him.

“Who’s this woman? Where’d you meet?”

Keir eyed Haylan, bulldog of a brother. “It’s not like that. I gave her car a jump and saw her a couple of times after that.”

A younger version of Dad’s face scrutinized him before the skeptical eyes took in other tables. “She’s on your mind. I can’t remember the last time someone stuck for me.”

“’Cause you’re brain dead. I thought you didn’t want to get married again.”

He shrugged. “Your turn, I guess. I had Caitlin and a baby at your age. Skye’s working on kid number four. We need to get you settled.”

Only three and two years older, Keir hated that they thought he moved too slow, like turning thirty on his next birthday meant he should already have a family of his own. “That’s for me to work out, I got things to get through. No one wants a messed up git.”

“What? She’s cute.” Haylan gestured at another table. “Have a few drinks she’ll be downright irresistible.”

Keir rolled sideways to collapse his head on his arm stretched out on the table. “I’m going to punch you,” he laughed. But it felt good to let go. And he knew his brother felt just as lonely as he. Sad.

“So, your lady friend. She hot?”

Keir groaned and buried his head under his other arm. Why’d the ‘relentless’ gene have to travel through Haylan? But Keir never thought about Myah in those terms. Hot? She was okay. Pretty. He sat up and shrugged to get Haylan off his case. Maybe he couldn’t pinpoint what Myah had that kept him going back, but he liked it. “She’s cool.”

“Cool? Don’t ever let a woman hear you say that. It’s either hot or nothing. Got it?”

He was comfortable enough around her to be himself. That seemed a good enough reason to hang out and not complicate things by seeing her as hot. They weren’t together. He doubted any mother let her children near a man she dated so early on in the game, even if he did corral them at the restaurant.

He shrugged again for lack of a better brush off. “Not my type. Just hangin’.”

“Uh-huh. Invite her to the play on Friday.”

“Will you let me work my own thing here? Sheesh—”

“Just saying…” The look Haylan gave him let him know he’d let the cat out of the bag and truly thought Myah may be more than nice looking. Haylan thumped back in his seat as his gaze drifted to three women at a nearby table. “Look, I need to take a break from the shop.”

“You’re closed this weekend.”

“No, I mean something longer.”

“Vacation? Carlos or Eddie handle it when you’re gone.”

“Not two weeks, K. I need a few months.”

Months? Gongs went off in Keir’s head. Haylan never talked like that. Months? He ran his fingers on the icy condensation of his glass. “What are… You thinking of going for good? Are you tired of the shop? What about talk of us opening another garage?”

Haylan stared at the silverware. “I just need to get away. Take a break from the car back there for a while. I never got a chance to distance—”

…the car back… “Wait a second. You’re the one who dragged the car back there and now you’re sick of the shop?”

“I’m not sick of the shop,” he hissed leaning forward. “And you know I keep that smashed up thing because I don’t want my last memory of them to waste away in a scrap yard.”

“What about my last memory?”

Haylan had no idea of the vivid reds. The metallic taste of blood. The pain that had blacked him out then woke him up to start all over again. Sometimes he could still taste his own vomit at the back of his throat.

Haylan sneered and sat back. Keir got it. There’d been no chance for a clean break for Haylan. He’d buried a warm body he’d slept with, now raised a kid on his own. Only, the days his brother had stayed near-catatonic, locked up in what was now Keir’s guest room, Skye had been mother and comforter to infant Neely.

After months in the hospital, Keir had stayed in their parent’s house popping all kinds of painkillers and Vicodin to stay awake from the nightmares. The chorus of sobs and hoarse curses from down the hall made him pray for unconsciousness.

They’d both been messed up, but Haylan never had the option to run away. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t have taken all of four years for him to realize he was stir crazy. “What happened, Hart?”

“I got Neely,” he whispered. “Full days at the shop, trying to figure out fatherhood without Dad. I can’t.”

Keir knew he shouldn’t argue, just promise to fill in more as management. Unfortunately, a mom-and-pop delivery place had contracted Treasure Auto to work on their trucks. Anything resembling the size of the grill of that Mack that came barreling down put Keir’s brain into a hyper spin.

Haylan’s dark head shook and his gaze darted around. “Truth is, I don’t have any time for myself.”

“What?”

“I don’t have time for myself.” He glared, and Keir understood. “Business is increasing. Which should be good, right? But I got a little girl who needs attention and no time to myself to be a man and…”

Silence. Metal cutlery hit ceramic, the thunk of glasses sounded on tabletops.

“I know I sound selfish, K, but…”

“Go,” Keir said quietly. When Haylan’s eyes lifted to him, he shrugged. “Go. We’ve got four guys. Give Eddie a raise, and I’ll do longer shifts on weekends and maybe look at Carlos as acting supervisor to fill Eddie’s shoes until you’re back.”

A plate of steaming steak and vegetables landed before him. Haylan stared at the green linguini on his own plate. Keir didn’t like to see Haylan so beaten. He needed to be there if Haylan started to fall apart.

Yeah, doc. It’s in my head, but... “I’ll work harder,” Keir promised. The headache chugged speed in the back of his brain. He could do it for his family.