“Sounds like a girl I could be friends with,” I laughed. “Do you think he’s had enough time to calm down? I’d like to get started.”
“Want me to go and test the water?” Grady asked me, as another two men walked up from the parking area in the back.
“Why aren’t the doors open?” the dark-skinned man asked. I had to pull my eyes away so I didn’t make a fool of myself staring at him, he was so damn sexy. He realized I was there, blocked by Grady and Stoffer, and said, “Oh, excuse me, ma’am.”
“This is Jamie,” Grady introduced me. “The new mechanic.”
“Eli’s sister?” the other man asked. I could tell from his skin tone that he had some Hispanic ancestry. But his eyes weren’t just brown, they seemed to have light blue spots. One eye was even half brown and half blue.
“I am,” I told him and stuck my hand out. “You’re Sonny and you must be Lout.”
“See, we could never rob a bank, man,” Sonny shook my hand and smiled at Lout. “We’re too easily recognizable. I guess Eli told you about us?”
“He has mentioned the two of you before. I knew it was you and assumed Lout was the other. He said both of you worked here, too.”
“We do,” Lout agreed. “Have you talked to Eli this morning? He said he had some family business to take care of at his nephew’s school, so he was going to be late. That would be your kid, right?”
I stopped, shocked for a minute since Eli hadn’t said anything about it to me when he’d brought Adam home last night. I was too stunned at Adam’s personality change and his sincere apology to talk about anything other than what magic spell my dad and Eli had cooked up to make Adam behave like his old self.
“I talked to him last night but he didn’t mention needing to go to the school to me,” I told them honestly. “I’ll have to ask him when he gets here.”
“Daughtry knows you’re here?” Sonny asked me.
“Yeah,” Grady looked uncomfortable. “About that… ,”
“Daughtry realized that we’d met before and wasn’t happy that it was me who showed up for work,” I told them. It was an honest explanation, but left out all the major details. “He was upset.”
“Upset?” Lout glanced toward the office. “Daughtry?”
“Yeah,” Stoffer told them. “Acted a lot like Kale for a minute there.”
“What the hell?” Lout stared at me for a minute and then walked toward the office. I could tell that he thought I had done something horrible and he was already judging me for it since his friend obviously hated me. “I’ll go see what’s up. He’s been feeling like shit for a while and won’t go to the fucking doctor. That’s probably why his temper is short.”
Sonny was just watching me with his odd eyes and it took all I had not to look at the floor and squirm.
“I’ll head in there with you, brother,” Sonny called to Lout while he held my eyes. “Grady, why don’t you show Jamie around. Get her car moved to the back, show her the storage building and how we keep it organized. Shit like that. We’ll come get you when we want you to come back in.”
“Will do,” Grady answered and started walking toward my car. I turned to follow him as he yelled back, “Any chance I can take this beauty on a spin around the block before we park it in the back?”
“Not on your life,” I growled as I moved around to the driver's side. “She’s delicate.”
◆◆◆
DAUGHTRY
My office door opened and I lifted my head from my hands where it was resting and glared up at whoever was about to get yelled at for barging in here.
Lout and Sonny both came in and Sonny shut the door behind him before sitting down across the desk beside Lout.
Neither of them said a word, they just sat there in silence waiting on me to talk.
I knew that Grady or Stoffer must have already filled them in on what happened out there and I hoped that Jamie had turned tail and run before Lout or Sonny even set eyes on her.
“You know I didn’t want to hire a woman,” I started speaking and both men smiled. Their wives were two of the women who had hounded my ass about being a sexist and neither of them had come to my defense. “And now that I’ve seen her, I damn sure don’t want her to be the woman.”
“You got a thing against redheads with soft hips?” Sonny asked me with a laugh. “Or you just don’t like that one on principle?”
“I know he’s partial to redheads,” Lout told Sonny. “And he’s really partial to ones that look like the one out there. There’s more to this.”
“You know that house that was for sale across the street from me?”
I saw Sonny perk up and realized that his wife Brenda had probably told him that she had made the sale.
“Neighbors moved in while I wasn’t looking,” I told them. “I had a run in with the woman a week or so ago when Rolo scared her.”
Both men nodded. They knew Rolo and had seen him in action. They also knew he was a big softie and the neighbor need not have worried unless she was doing something wrong.
“She and I got crossways and she threatened to call the cops.”
Both men’s eyebrows went up and Lout cut his eyes to the office door.
“Later that night, she crossed the street and knocked on my door to apologize. I apologized, too. Rolo can be fucking scary if you don’t know him,” I shrugged. “I asked her in for a drink, we had some whiskey, and I woke up alone the next morning.”
Both men were still silent, their eyebrows up and their mouths open in shock as they pieced together where I was headed with this story.
“When I went outside, there was a knuckle in her driveway and she pulled up in that hot blue Camaro.”
“You fucked Luke’s baby sister?” Lout whispered loudly. “Holy shit, Daughtry.”
“Oh, now that’s fucked up,” Sonny shook his head and I could tell by his voice he was holding back a laugh. “He’s gonna fucking kill you.”
“He’s not going to fucking kill me becuase he’s not ever going to fucking know,” I barked at them. “It was a mistake, there was too much alcohol involved, and I didn’t even know her fucking name. Besides, I knew the minute I saw that bike in her driveway that she’s got a man.”
Lout shrugged one shoulder and nodded, “If she’s got a man, then she’s not going to chat with anyone about it. At least right now.”
“I haven’t seen her since I fell asleep that night and she sure as fuck didn’t deliver me a plate of cookies the next day. She didn’t come back and she hasn’t even looked in the direction of my house since then. I haven’t heard a peep from her, so I doubt she’s of mind to share our little tryst,” I glanced toward the door and then back down at my desk.
“Holy shit,” Lout laughed. “You’re fucking pissed because she didn’t kiss you goodbye. You’re not even upset that she’s Luke’s fucking sister.”
“Damn,” Sonny chuckled. “That’s fucked up.”