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I let the guys work in the back and make calls in the front. Joslyn has a list organized with calls to make, the amount they owe, and the car’s make and model. I go down the list making calls, waiting for her to come back. I know she has an hour, but after thirty minutes I send her a text. It takes five minutes for my text back and the words are exactly what I wanted to see.
Baby: You can’t miss me, I just left. But I guess I miss you too.
It’s followed by a heart emoji. It’s not an I love you, but I’ll take it until she’s ready to say it. I can’t help but grinning like a jackass when I read it again. My attention is pulled back to work when the bell chimes and a woman walks in. I give her a cursory glance and she’s familiar, but a name doesn’t come to mind.
“Hey, can I help you?” I stand to greet her.
“Dax? I didn’t know you worked here. It’s been ages.” The woman smiles at me. She has red hair, brown eyes, and I have no clue who she is so I stay silent. “You don’t recognize me. Loni?” She smiles and spins.
“Yeah, I’m sorry. I don’t remember you. Where’d we meet?” I’d swear I’d never seen her before.
“Oh, wow. You were drunk and it was ten years ago.” Then it all comes back. I had a wild phase in my early twenties. Parties, drinking, sex. It wasn’t a good look for me. She must have been in the same boat.
“Ah, yeah that time is pretty hazy. What can I do for you?” I sit back down, scanning Joslyn’s list for a Loni. She only has last names.
Loni looks me up and down, a predatory smile on her face. “You filled out nicely. I always love to see a man get his hands dirty.”
“Uh, thanks.” I really don’t like where this is going. “Are you here picking up? What’s the last name?”
Loni struts to the desk and props a hip against it. “Cline.” She stares down at me, watching me look up her ticket. I give her a run down of the issues, repairs, and pricing. At the dollar amount she blinks, sticking out her bottom lip in a pout. “I’m not sure I can swing all that. I don’t get a discount for old times sake?” She bats her lashes.
“No, sorry. You should’ve gotten a call with an estimate and agreed to an amount. Otherwise we wouldn’t have fixed it.” I’m used to people haggling on the phone, but not in person.
She leans over the desk, making sure I get a good look down her shirt. “There’s nothing you can do about the price? This is your place, right?”
I move back and cross my arms, eyes never straying from hers, “It is.” I keep my face blank.
She moves around the desk and closes in to whisper, “I’m sure we could work something out. Some sort of… arrangement?” Loni winks and takes a step closer, leaning into my face. I start to push up from the chair when she sits on the desk, blocking my exit. If I stand, I’m looming over her.
“The only arrangement is you paying me for services rendered.” I take the risk and stand.
Loni takes my hand and I jerk away, anger rising in my chest. I clench my jaw. “It feels like a win-win to me.” She runs her hand down my chest, following the zipper of my jumpsuit. “I get my car fixed and get some of this again.”
I open my mouth to tell her to get out when the bell over the door rings. “Dax, look, I was thinking about it--” Joslyn’s voice comes to a halt and her eyes go wide. In the seconds before my life crumbles, I try to see what she sees. A woman in a short dress, her hand on my chest, sitting on my desk while I stand over her. “Am I interrupting?” Joslyn’s eyes flick from me to the woman on my desk. I don’t dare to look away from my woman.
“Yeah, sweetie, you are. Now run along.” I don’t look at Loni as she speaks. Joslyn takes a breath, holds it, then lets it out.
Joslyn’s eyes meet mine. “Sorry to intrude.” The hard glare that hits me is like a punch to the gut. Betrayal, hurt, anger. I can see it all in her face, begging me to say something to fix this.
“Don’t move, baby. Loni was just leaving.” My voice comes out low and commanding.
“She looks pretty comfortable. I’ll leave you two to finish whatever this is.” She doesn’t cry, doesn’t yell, and that’s more terrifying than any other reaction. Joslyn turns and walks out, throwing the door open so hard it slams against the wall.
“Good, now go lock the door and I can pay you.” Loni touches my zipper and I snatch her hand, dragging her from the desk with a squeak. I hear a truck outside, Joslyn’s truck, and practically shove Loni out the door.
“Go get in your car and leave. Don’t fucking come back!” I storm past her. Fuck me. I hesitated. I was shocked and stupid and now I’m watching my woman peel out of my lot and away from me. I pull out my phone, call the shop line in the back of the garage and tell them I’ll be back. It takes me precious seconds to get to my car and I jump in, peeling out after her.
Chapter Nine
Joslyn
No matter how fast and far I drive, I can’t escape the image of her hand on his chest, sitting on his desk. God, I let him fuck me on that desk. My rational side knows I’m overreacting. He didn’t look like he was enjoying himself and I definitely know what it looks like when he is. But he wasn’t pushing that skank away either. I’ve known him a whole week, but that isn’t the sight anyone wants to see after someone tells them they love them.
How has it only been a week? A week. Seven days ago, I saw him across the bar and my whole life changed. Dax wants me to live with him in his perfect house and sleep with him in his bed. I have a steady job, security. Well, I did. And this is why you don’t get attached to someone you just met. Eventually, I’ll go back and talk to him. Maybe I’ll even stop being upset and we can try again, but right now I need to be mad. I need to drive fast and be angry. Looking at him, I know women hit on him all the time, but that doesn’t mean I want to watch it happen. I also expect him to be a little more upset about another woman putting her hands on him. Ugh.
I roll the windows down, turn up the radio, and ignore my phone buzzing in my pocket. I know who it is, he’s the only person who would call me repeatedly. I’m probably getting texts too. I fish my phone from my pocket, toss it into the passenger floorboard, and let it buzz. I drive until my shoulders aren’t tense, taking backroads, and watching the farmland go by, then turn toward town. I want to park somewhere, walk the streets and look at the sights. I don’t know how we went from me being angry about my mail coming to his house to me leaving over a different reason. I can’t think about it without seeing her hand on my man’s chest.
After he told me he loved me, I went to the house we now share, prepped something for dinner, and took a minute to think. HisI love youfreaked me out, and I needed to process. The more I thought about it though, the more I could see everything the future could give us. I thought about my life since I met him and how amazing it’s been. I thought about the look he gives me across the room, the way he always has to be touching me, laughing at each other, how sweet he is to me. And I realized that maybe he’s right. So, of course, when I went to tell him that it may take a little time, but I could love him, I walked in on some woman touching him.
