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He kissed my cheek and jogged down the stairs. “The sooner the better,” he called out and walked across my small yard to his.
I sighed and stepped inside the house with a wide smile, wondering how quiet I’d have to be. Exactly.
Ryan
“Great job, Clyde.” The kid had come to the shop early, cleaned up, and finished three oil changes, and it wasn’t even noon yet. “Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but what’s up?”
Clyde was just seventeen years old, a senior who’d gotten in more than his fair share of trouble throughout high school. He’d finally found something he was passionate about—or he would be, if teenage temptations weren’t so abundant in a small town. He flashed a dimpled smile that Persephone said was the likely cause of so many of his troubles and raked a hand through wavy black hair. “I dunno what you mean.”
“Don’t try that with me, kid. What’s going on with you?” I wasn’t much of a troublemaker, but I’d had a few close calls.
Clyde sighed and shrugged again. “Maybe I’m just realizing that I can’t dick around forever. This is a good job, and you say I’m pretty good at it, so maybe, I dunno, I should make more of an effort. Right?”
I smiled. “Right.”
“Okay,” he said dismissively.
“What’s her name?”
“Who?” Clyde blinked, but his effort to look innocent failed due to his smile.
“The girl. The one who has you rethinking your priorities in life. Who is she?”
“Just a girl, Mr. Branson.”
“Mr. Branson was my dad and my uncle. Call me Ryan.”
“She’s just a girl, but I like her. She’s a year older than me, taking business classes at the junior college.” He smiled. “She says a thinking man, an ambitious man is sexy.”
“She’s not wrong.” Persephone appeared out of nowhere, a wide smile on her face as she looked at the blush staining Clyde’s cheeks. “Women love a man who isn’t afraid to use his mind, who has hopes and dreams for the future.”
“Yeah, but what if those dreams don’t amount to nothing? What if all they ever end up being are hopes and dreams?”
A pit formed in my stomach at the kid’s words; they echoed my own thoughts on more than one occasion. It wasn’t easy to be in love with a high-achieving woman and I wondered the same thing too often.
Persephone’s smile softened and she put a hand on Clyde’s shoulder. “As long as you’re always working toward something, the right woman won’t mind. Ryan says you’re a talented kid.”
He snorted. “I’m good with my hands. I can fix just about anything with a motor.”
“And that’s not nothing, Clyde. Fixing things is an important skill, but I also hear you have an eye for design. Maybe one day you’ll be Ryan’s partner, doing those crazy paint jobs with the naked girls on the hood.”
Clyde laughed. “Me?”
“Why not? All it requires is brains and hard work—two things I know you’ve got if Ryan keeps you around.”
Clyde’s smile widened and he eyed the big white bag in her other hand. “Did you bring enough for me, too, Dr. Vanguard?”
Persephone was caught off-guard for a moment by his abrupt topic change but then she looked down at the bag and grinned. “Sorry, kid, I only brought enough for two.”
He looked from Persephone to me and back with a knowing smile. “If you can get a babe like this to bring you lunch, maybe I do have a shot.”
Persephone let out a loud, melodic laugh. “You’re going to be just fine, Clyde.”
“Yeah, fine,” I growled. “Be back in one hour.”
“You got it, boss.”
“One hour,” I shouted back just to let him know I meant business. Then I turned my attention to the woman before me, dressed in a pretty green dress that my fingers itched to peel from her body. “This is a wonderful surprise.” I nodded for Persephone to follow me into my office, where it was mostly clean so she could sit without staining her nice clothes.
“Just wait until you see what’s in the bag,” she teased.
I took a step closer and ran a thumb across the silky skin that covered her collarbone. “I’m more interested to see what’s under this dress.”
“Just itty bitty scraps of lace,” she responded on a breathy moan.
“Good to know.” I brushed a soft kiss to her pink lips and wrapped my arms around her. “How’s your day so far?” Persephone rarely left the medical center in the middle of the workday unless something was wrong or Titus needed her.
“Okay,” she sighed and leaned into my hug. “One of my patients got some bad news and my heart is hurting for her. She’s just a kid, Ryan.”
I hugged her tighter and kissed the top of her head. “She’s lucky you’re her doctor because I’m sure you made sure to catch the problem early.”
