“The pit crew drives everywhere. Brooks does not. He comes home in between races while the crew drives the car and haulers to the next race.” She grabbed a notepad from the desk and flipped through a few pages. “Brooks is already at home. I gave him his flight info on Friday for Monday. He’ll be calling Wednesday or Thursday to get his info for California.” She handed me the note pad.
“So I just need to give him the flight number and times?”
“And also email and text it to him.”
“Verbal, email, and text?” Lord, have mercy.
She snickered and nodded her head. “Brooks is rather forgetful. If you give him the info between those three, he normally remembers.”
“Why do I feel like I’m going to be a babysitter more than anything, Marion?”
She touched her finger to her nose and smiled. “You caught on the first day, Harlyn. You are a glorified babysitter making half of what you should be.”
“I have a feeling I’m going to be cursing my dad by the time you come back.”
“You know you’ll stay on even after I come back. Cummings Racing is growing by leaps and bounds in the year to come.”
“Really? It’s only the second season for Brooks running.”
“You’ll see real quick with the Cummings that things don’t stand still for long. Brooks’ dad is always pushing him to do more and go faster.”
“I guess going faster is kind of the point of drag racing.” I shut down the computer and looked at the clock. “I can’t believe it’s already five-thirty.”
“Time flies when you’re having fun, right?”
I wouldn’t say it had been fun, but working with Marion had made it bearable. Doing payroll wasn’t exactly the most fun job. “So, when the pit crew isn’t here for me to babysit, what exactly are we going to be doing?”
“Taking a deep breath and preparing for their return.”
I pushed my chair back and rested my hands on my lap. “You’re not really selling this as an awesome job, Marion.”
She waved her hand at me. “Pish posh. Once you get used to everything, this is going to be your favorite job. Like I said, it’s a lot, but I can tell you can more than handle it.” She gingerly stood up and smiled. “I gotta get home and try to hold this baby in for a couple more days. Derk texted and said he was already home cooking dinner. I’m half happy and half terrified I’m going to walk into a war zone.”
I grabbed my purse from under the desk and hitched it over my shoulder. “I take it he isn’t a very good cook?”
She shook her head. “He’s a good cook. It’s just the man has no idea how to clean as he goes. I swear, it’s like a bomb exploded in the kitchen when he is done, and normally, I’m the one to clean it up.”
“Well, maybe you need to let Derk know if you have to lift one finger tonight, you’re going to end up pushing that baby out.”
Marion threw her head back, cackling. “Now that is exactly what I am going to do. Derk is absolutely terrified for this baby to come. I swear, if he could physically put his hand on my who-ha and hold it in, he would.”
“I’m sure once you have the baby, he’ll be fine.”
“One can only hope. Thankfully, my mom lives close by, so she’ll be around to slap some sense into Derk. He’s a good man, but he’s deathly afraid of babies.” She laughed and nodded toward the door. “You can head on out. I’ll lock up once I figure out where I put my keys and purse.” She looked around with her hands on her hips.
“Um, you dropped them by the door.” I pointed to the small table that had her purse and keys on top.
She tapped a finger to her head. “Damn pregnancy brain. I can barely remember my name these days.” She waved me off, and I walked out to my car.
After the short ride, I was back home. As I opened the bottle of wine I had stuck in the fridge this morning to chill, my phone rang.
“I was wondering if you would answer the phone or not.”
I tucked the phone between my head and shoulder and pulled open the cork from the wine. “Well, you were the one who made me give you my number, so I figured I would take some mercy on you and answer at least once.” Hearing from Remy was a pleasant surprise.
“Your mercy is greatly appreciated.”
“I have to say I’m surprised you actually called.” I filled my glass to the top and put the bottle back in the fridge.
“Thought it would be nice to hear your voice.” His voice was low and intimate. His voice hadn’t been anything that had struck me as sexy when we had first meet, but now all I could do was listen to him and feel how the low timber sent shivers down my back. “How was your day today?”
I plopped down on the couch and kicked my feet up on the coffee table. “It went surprisingly well. We just went over payroll. But it was good.”
“That mean you’ll be staying around Leeds Square for a while?”
“It’s only been my first day of work, but I don’t think there is going to be anything that will send me running.” Although I wasn’t too sure about babysitting a group of grown men. Or being Brooks’ human calendar.
“So you’ll be there when I get back into town on Monday?”
“You haven’t done much convincing to get me to go out with you.”
“I just called you to hear your voice.”
I laughed and took a sip. “Any points you earned by saying you wanted to hear my voice have been taken away now.”
He burst out laughing. “So you’re keeping track of points now?”
“It’s only fair. I mean, how am I supposed to decide if we’re going out Monday?”
“You know you already decided you wanna see me again.”
“I didn’t detect this cockiness about you before, Remy,” I laughed.
“Not cockiness, pretty girl. I just know I want to see you again.”
I sighed lightly. “Points added back,” I whispered.
“So what does that put me at?”
I sighed. “That puts you at you can pick me up at seven Monday night.”
He chuckled low. “Damn straight, pretty girl. I gotta get some shit done before bed. I’ll text you in the morning, yeah?”
“Sounds good.”
“Sweet dreams.”
“Bye, Remy.” I hung up before I could beg him to call me pretty girl again. Or admit to him he really didn’t need to rack up points for me to agree to go out with him.
The man pulled me to him. I needed to know him better. Find out what made him tick.
I just wanted to get to know Remy.
*
Chapter 9
Remy
“How is it only Thursday?”
“Because that is what comes after Wednesday.” Frankie collapsed on to the ratty old couch wedged into the back corner of the hauler. She pointed her finger at Jay. “Although I’m not sure how you are exhausted. You haven’t done jackshit for the past three days.”
He held up his hands and leaned on the workbench against the wall. “I’m just doing what Roc tells me to do.”