I’ve earned this right over the years.
BARRON
Monday morning, I’m thinking of ways to draw out fixing Kacy’s car because guess what? The parts are on their way. I blame Lillian for ordering them so soon. It’s all her fault. How am I supposed to close the deal if I finish her car? I need to get her alone, is what I need without the kids. I wonder if Morgan would watch them at his house. Actually, no. I’m still mad at him for last night. You want to know how the tequila went for him? He slept in the barn last night. I hope he froze his one ball off.
I stare at the coffee on my toolbox, trying to think of other options. I could… take her on a date? No, that won’t work because the girls will want to come. I mention date, and they think I’m taking them out. They give me those pretty innocent eyes, and I’ll cave. Then I’ll be taking all three girls on a date.
So a date’s out. This is going to take some time. I don’t have time though. I could finish up her car in a day, and she’d be out of my life forever probably. But then I think, if there’s more wrong with her car, then I’d have to order parts, right? And that could potentially draw this out even further. That’s when I stitch up a plan to let the air out of all the tires and tell her we need four tires instead of two.
Because of the witnesses in the shop—I’m looking at you, Jace—I have to convince the kids to do this. I glance toward the office where Kacy is, helping Lillian with filing and our schedule. I won’t let her pay to fix her car, but she insists on helping, so she’s basically given herself a job in the office. And I’ll tell you something else, her customer service, fucking incredible. If she was looking for a job, I’d hire her in a heartbeat, if not for her skills, just so I could look at her all day long.
Pulling Camdyn aside, who’s still out of preschool due to the obscene amount of snow we still have, I sit her on my toolbox. “I got a job for you. Let the air out of those tires,” I whisper, gesturing to Kacy’s car parked in my stall.
Camdyn, she has a conscience. Can’t lie or do anything she thinks she’s going to get in trouble for. “I don’t work for free,” she tells me, holding out her hand, eyes twinkling.
I tug on her braids hanging over her shoulder. “I’ll give you a cookie if you do it.” I lean in close, and she grabs my face between her hands, squishing my cheeks.
“Ten cookies!” she bargains.
“Fine. Ten.”
“Deal.” We shake on it, but Camdyn levels me the look. “I won’t get in trouble?”
“Nope.”
There’s confusion in her eyes, and she looks at her hands on her knees, her legs kicking between us. She makes contact with my balls, and I fight through a wave of pain. “Why do you want me to do it?”
I move to the side so she doesn’t kick me in the junk again. “Because I said so,” I grit out, trying to catch my breath.
“I’m scared. You’ll get mad, I know it.”
Too late. I’m pissed you just nailed my ball sac. “I’m asking you to do it. Why would I get mad at you?”
“Because,” she groans dramatically. “Where’s Sev? She can do it.”
“You won’t get the cookies.”
She rolls her eyes. “I’m scared, okay?”
“Fine. Don’t do it. But no cookies.”
“I don’t even want them,” she grumbles, crawling down from my toolbox. Fuck. Now what?
I glance over my shoulder. “Sev? We need you, kid.” I don’t know why I’m enlisting the help of my kids. But I can tell you this much. Watch out when the little one gets involved. She’s three feet of nuthouse.
Am I going to hell for this?
Yes. The answer is yes.
Do I care?
Nope.
I find Sev near the open bay doors outside. “Kid, come here.”
“I got a name, dude,” she barks, running over to me with what looks to be snow in her hands. She stops in front of me, her nose and cheeks bright red from the cold. Poor kid is really struggling with this cold weather and the wind. “I got you dis,” Sev tells me, handing me a handful of yellow snow.
Yellow. Snow. I want to laugh that she picked up yellow snow outside, but I’m more disgusted she’s holding it in her bare hand. “Sev, gross.”
She looks at the snow, and then, before I can stop her, fucking takes a bite out of it. “What? It’s pretty.”
I knock it out of her hands. “It’s yellow because that’s pee.”
She looks at the snow, then me, her brow furrowed, and then tears surface. Full-blown alarm over pee snow. I can’t say I blame her, but, come on, what the fuck did she expect eating yellow snow? Right. She’s three.
After having her wash her mouth out and drink a bottle of water, I hold her in my arms. “I got a job for you.”
“I don’t wants a job,” she whines, her tears starting to dry. “I’m too small.”
“You’re not for this one. I’ll give you cookies.” I hold up the box Lara Lynn brought in this morning for the guys.
Her eyes light up, and she sucks in a hiccupped breath. I’m a sucker for this kid and her tears. My heart melts anytime I see those bright blues tear up. “I have them?”
I nod. “Yep. Ten of them if you want.”
“Whats I gotta do?”
“See Kacy’s car?”
She looks at the car, the cookies, and then me again. “Yes.”
“Let the air out of the tires,” I whisper.
You might be thinking, how’s a three-year-old knows how to do this? We’ve done this before. Went out to dinner one night and a douche hit the side of my truck with his car door. Didn’t give one fuck that he dented my door with his. While I talked to him about the cattle he was carrying in his trailer, I had the girls let the air out of his tires.
Again, I know I’m going to hell. You don’t have to remind me of this.
Sev agrees, lets the air out of the tires with no questions, and then holds out her hand. “Cookies.”
I hand the entire box over to her. “Share with your sister.”
“No way. Des are all mine.” And then she takes off into the office.
I follow her to make sure she doesn’t rat me out. Thankfully she has no conscience that I can tell, and her memory is nonexistent. Although she does tell her sister, “I ates pee.”
Camdyn looks at her little sister with disgust, cookie crumbs on her lips. “Gross.”
“I know,” Sev whispers, chewing on a cookie. “I don’t even like pee.”
Smiling, I nod to Kacy. “Looks like you need tires too.”
Kacy perks up, her stare moving to the shop door. “I do? I thought the back ones were okay.”
“Nope. Flat.” I wink at Sev when she grins and presses my fingers to my lips as Kacy turns her head.
“Okay, well, I’m paying for them.” She hands Lillian her credit card. “I’m trusting you, girl. Charge me.”
Lillian smiles. “Barron, can I talk to you about something?”
She doesn’t give me time to answer before she yanks me into the hall outside the office. And jabs her goddamn finger in my chest. “What are you doing?”