Page 44 of Second Chances

When she kissed him again, Liam got up from his chair. “Okay. I’d better get back to the dealership. Lillian has to leave early today to pick up her kids.” Cait rolled her eyes. Lillian, the receptionist at Kinsale Autos, seemed competent at her job, but Cait found her too informal, often addressing her brother as “Liam” and not “Mr. Livingston”, despite the number of times Cait corrected her whenever she popped in. She suspected that the fact that Lillian was a widow with two small children had gotten her the job. Her frail beauty hadn’t hurt, either.

“Yeah, I should go, too.” Cait looked at her brother. “What about you, Liam? Are you going to the street dance?”

“Nah, I have a date with the gym. Catch you all later.”

“Cait, you’re going to see Henry this afternoon?” Effie inquired.

“Yeah, as soon as I leave.”

“Do you think you could encourage Henry to go to the dance tonight?”

Josh groaned. “Do I even want to know what scheme you’ve come up with in that gorgeous head of yours?”

“It’s not a scheme, babe, more like a helpful nudge in the right direction. Charlotte is dropping by the library for some books, so I thought if I talk to her and you talk to Henry, we could end this awkward impasse they have. If they got back on track, they could clear everything up.”

“I’ll try. I’d love to see Henry happy.” Her uncle and Charlotte could have something special, and if she could help them, she would. She may not believe in romance, but she did believe in happiness.

Outside, Cait opened the back door of her hybrid and tossed her purse in. Drifting out of her bag and falling under the driver’s seat was the piece of mail she’d received in her office, the one that had caused her so much angst. Without noticing it, she shut the car door and headed across the street to see her uncle.

George Livingston gave his wife a deep, lingering kiss after she pulled up to Check Care Auto. “Why’d we ever get out of bed this morning?” His hand drifted over her bare shoulder, her skin so smooth he shivered. Damn, he loved summer, glancing down appreciatively at his wife’s legs in shorts. Legs that had been astride his hips only an hour ago.

She laughed when his hand crept from her knee to her inner thigh. “George! Seriously, I have things to accomplish today other than satiating your fantasies.”

“Darlin’, we’ve been together since we were teenagers. Don’t blame me that you get sexier every year. Makes me create more fantasies.” One hard kiss later, and he was opening his door when his wife reached for him again.

“Let me know how Henry is, okay?” Nora’s hands cupped his scruffy cheeks, a reminder that he hadn’t shaved in several days. In a rush, after spending way too much time in bed this morning, he’d forgone shaving yet again. He and Nora had returned to South Dakota yesterday, after two days of canceled and delayed flights, from an anniversary trip in Europe. He would have preferred to spend the day locked away with his wife, but George was worried about his brother, with whom he hadn’t spoken in over a month. Even though Henry was the quietest of the siblings, he wasn’t altogether silent, so George thought he’d pop in to check on his little brother. “I’m going to run over and see Liam at the dealership.” Their son, a shell of his formerly upbeat self, was another concern, but when a Livingston man fell, he fell hard, and George didn’t need a license in therapy to understand that both Henry and Liam were each experiencing varying degrees of heartbreak.

“Love you.” George kissed Nora one more time. Because of the street dance tonight, Main Street was blocked off, so he walked around the barriers. A band was tuning up a few blocks down playing “American Girl”, and it echoed through downtown Beverley. With all proceeds going toward the fire department in town, the dance kicked off the two-day rodeo that started tomorrow. He and Nora usually attended both but were exhausted from their trip. George swore his wife never missed an opportunity to tour a castle, and climbing steep stone steps had been hell on his feet.

After opening the door to his brother’s shop, George called, “Hey, Henry,” looking around the immaculately clean auto shop and wondering why he couldn’t keep his shop as orderly.

“George!” Henry came from the back of the shop, greeting him with a bear hug and a grin that didn’t quite meet his eyes. “What are you doing here?”

Downplaying his fraternal concern, George said, “Oh, Nora wanted to check in with Liam at the dealership.” Henry pulled a clean-looking cloth out of the back pocket of his coveralls to wipe his brow. “Business finally winding down for you for the day?” Leave it to his fastidious brother to be the last man standing at work on a Friday.

“The other guys went home a while ago, but I had some things to finish,” Henry claimed, rubbing his temple with newly cleaned fingers.

Walking into the office, he helped himself to a steaming cup of his brother’s delicious brew. Henry routinely downplayed his talents, but he was a masterful mechanic and an even better coffee technician; George imagined he would’ve made one hell of a doctor. “Are you feeling okay?”

Henry grimaced before slumping into his chair. “Yeah, I’m not sure if my eyesight is changing again or too many late nights,” Henry responded. “My head’s been pounding all day.”

“So what has you up so late?” As if he didn’t already know, thanks to his wife, who’d told him that Henry was helping DD again. George put up with the woman because she had been Nora’s best friend since grade school, but some antics of DD’s were hard to forgive and forget, number one being the callous way she had treated his brother repeatedly in the past. George groaned inwardly as Henry remained silent. “I know it’s DD.”

Henry’s face took on the determined look he used to get as a child, when he would try to convince the rest of the family that, despite being the youngest, he knew better than all of them. “I know you’re not fond of her, but she’s suffered since Burnside’s surgery. With the wedding coming up, I didn’t want to add any stress to Effie, so I just stepped up to help her.”

“I get you want to help Effie, but you know DD would never put you before anyone else.”

“I’m simply helping a friend. That’s all!” Henry’s tone was defensive, and George raised an eyebrow. “Dammit, my head is pounding and I have no idea where my glasses are!”

“Here they are.” George plucked them from the desk, inches from Henry’s elbow, and handed them to his brother.

Henry shook his head, sighing. “I forgot where I took them off earlier.” He popped two tablets from a bottle of Tylenol, washing them down with the coffee George poured for him, then unsnapped the top of his coveralls.

“I can’t believe you still wear those.” At his shop, he preferred wearing an ancient shirt and ratty jeans instead of the old-fashioned coveralls. “Didn’t Grandpa used to wear them, too?”

His brother chuckled half-heartedly. “These might actually be his. I just hate getting street clothes dirty, even if they’re old. Josh even started wearing them when he worked here.” No surprise, since Josh was an apple that didn’t fall far from his father’s tree. Henry tossed his Minnesota Twins ball cap on the desk. “Listen, I’m sorry I snapped about helping DD. I feel like I’m on pins and needles all the time.”

George waited for him to continue, but the office phone rang and his brother answered it. “Hello, thank for calling Check Care Auto, Henry speaking?” A brief pause, then, “Hello? How may I help you?” Another pause. “Hello…hello?” Henry hung up, frowning at the phone. “Well, that was weird.”