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Danni Rose,
Thanks for everything.
Love,
Walker
That was all. He wasn’t a man for many words. He just disappeared when morning came. They had been doing this for a year now. She smiled at the words, scratched on the notepad sitting on the island.
Danni tore the piece of paper off and walked around the island. She opened a drawer and slid the paper inside with the other notes that he had left her. She just couldn’t bring herself to throw them away.
On the way out the door, she grabbed her jacket off the hook in the entry; the morning air was chilly. She didn’t always carry a purse to her Granddad’s garage and this morning, she didn’t go back for it when she realized that she had forgotten it.
She was different when she worked the garage. Danni became a different person almost. She was one of the guys. Her brothers stopped by from time to time and didn’t treat her like their little sister. They respected her because they hadn’t brought an engine to her that she couldn’t fix. Since she was little, she had been at this garage, watching and learning from her grandfather, Hal Mills.
While he didn’t repair the cars anymore, his presence was still felt. It was still his garage. He sat in the office, leaning back in his leather, expensive chair. His arms crossed over his beer belly. His hair, shorn to his scalp and white as could be. His beard shaved every morning when he rose with the chickens, he liked to say.
Her grandmother passed, five years ago so he still came to the garage because the big house where they raised five kids, including her father, Simon was too lonely for him. Danni drove down the street towards town. The window cracked a little to let the fresh air in. The garage wasn’t that far from her cabin.
She was worried about Walker. She knew he was hiding something from her. She hated how Matt didn’t worry enough about him. She turned at the traffic light and went into the heart of town. There she saw Walker, arguing with someone on the street corner in front of the bank. She couldn’t get a good look at the man without stopping her truck. His back was to her.
Then she realized the car in front of her had stopped. She slammed on the breaks to keep from hitting the car. That person was making a left turn into a side street.
Her heart was slamming against her chest. That was too close. Danni looked in the rearview mirror. Walker was looking at her truck, no longer arguing with the man. Their hair color was about the same. Dark and messy looking. Same height although the man was not as muscular as Walker. He turned to see where Walker was looking, and Danni could see that it was Jesse, his brother.
The car in front of Danni turned and she had to be on her way. She glanced in the rearview mirror one more time. Walker and Jesse were gone now. She stepped on the gas and the old truck moved forward, the engine purring like a dream. She smiled at the old girl, but she was worried about Walker and Jesse arguing.
Granddad bought this truck when she turned sixteen. They worked on her together. She was a 1969 Ford F100, red and white. She needed a paint job pretty, badly. Someday Danni would manage to do that, but she ran great, and that is all that mattered to her.
The garage was up ahead. Her brother, Matt’s truck was in the lot with a truck she didn’t know. Her grandfather was there as he always was. Dannie parked her truck beside her grandfather’s and hopped out. She checked out the license plate of the vehicle she didn’t know. Louisiana. Sherwood wasn’t a place for tourists and Louisiana was a long way from here.
She wandered into the office and there to her surprise was her grandfather, Matt and Jackson Hand. Her grandfather’s eyes met hers over the desk where he sat every day, usually shooting the breeze like he was with Matt and Jackson. She tried to grab her work orders for today and leave but of course, Jackson wouldn’t let her go.
“Sleep well?” He asked.
She rolled her eyes at him. “Just fine,” Danni replied.
“Jackson drove from Louisiana,” Matt told her. “He wants you to look at his truck. Says it’s making a funny noise.”
She nodded her head. There were four mechanics total who worked for Hal’s. Why her? “I don’t have time today. Maybe Cliff or Archer could.” Danni smiled sweetly at Jackson but inside her gut was a mess, twisting and turning. She didn’t have feelings for him exactly, more like unresolved business.
“Danni give Archer one of your work orders that is time consuming and take Jackson’s truck inside. We can’t have him driving around town and complaining about our service.” Her grandfather had given her an order. She wanted to argue with him, but she knew better. No one argued with Hal Mills not even his grandchildren that he adored.
“Give me your keys,” she said.
“I’ll walk outside with you,” he replied.
“Not necessary,” Danni argued.
She could see Matt and her grandfather’s head bobbing back and forth between them like they were at a tennis match, waiting to see who would score the next point. She didn’t want them to question her. “Fine, walk outside with me.”
“I’m taking him home while you work on his truck.”
“That’s sweet of you Matt,” she called over her shoulder.” Her boots hit the pavement a little harder as her ire made her blood boil just a temperature below what it took to boil water.
Out of earshot of her brother and grandfather, Jackson said, “So after I left you had company last night?”
Her lungs felt constricted in her chest and she didn’t know why. It wasn’t like she and Walker were doing anything wrong, but she didn’t want Matt to know because then, she thought Walker would stop coming over. “Did you mention that to Matt?” She asked without looking at him.
