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“I brought you some leftovers back from the diner.” She smiles at me, placing a takeaway container on the workstation in front of me where I’m cleaning up the carburetor Skid’s just taken out.
“Well, don’t sit there staring at it, go wash up before it gets cold.” Skid smiles at me, wiping his hands with a rag and then scooping his girlfriend up by her waist.
I like Carly, she’s pretty and kind. She’s the perfect woman for Skid. I know he wants to ask her to marry him. I heard him and Chop arguing about it when I arrived here earlier than usual this morning.
“You’re gonna make an incredible daddy someday, you know,” I hear Carly tell him as I dash off toward the club to wash up my hands. She’s right. Skid will make a great dad. I’ve often wished he was mine, but then I feel guilty because I know my own daddy loves me. He’s just hurting real bad.
I head over to the club to use the restroom in the foyer, and quickly set to work scrubbing the grease and oil off my hands. When I’m coming back out, I make sure I pull my sleeves down over my arms before I get to the garage. “What are those?” A deep voice comes from the firepit and when I follow it, I see Chop sitting there, watching me.
“Just scratches.” I tug at my sleeve, but it’s too late, he’s seen and he tosses his empty beer bottle in the fire as he comes at me. Snatching my wrist in his hand, he pushes up my sleeve roughly, growling when he inspects my arm and sees all my scars. I must be imagining it, but he actually looks a little hurt.
“You do this to yourself?” he asks, keeping his hold on me firm.
“No.” I brush it off, I don’t want him to make a big deal out of it. “Just caught myself on some brambles, playing with some friends in the woods.”
“You don’t got no friends, and brambles scratch, they don’t slice. Cut the bullshit. Did you do this to yourself?” he asks me again.
I look at the floor and nod because I know it's wrong. I’ve made a real mess of myself, but when I do it, just for those few seconds it feels right, it’s something I have control over and when things get bad, I really need that.
“Skid know about this?” he checks.
“No, and he can’t.” I quickly look up at him, I really can’t have him say anything. Skid’s always asking me questions about my life at home and I hate lying to him. If he knew about this he’d want to speak to my dad, he might report him and I’d get taken away from him. He’d never survive losing me too.
“I’ll keep your secret for you.” He narrows his eyes at me. “But I want you to tell me who gave ya those marks on your neck, and who beat your ass so hard last week that you couldn’t sit down.”
“What marks?” I play dumb because it’s all I’ve got, there’s no way I’m telling Chop the truth.
“Skid’s head is full of dreams and pussy shit right now, he’s not noticing stuff. But I am. I know you got secrets, we all have, and we all got every right to keep ‘em. I’m just telling ya that if you had someone hurting ya and you wanted it taken care of…” He releases me from his grip and shrugs.
I’ve often wondered if Chop ever killed a man, I know the men that hang around here do bad things, and the way he’s looking at me now leaves me with no doubt that Chop has ended a life.
“Why would you do that for me?” Sure, Chop thawed a little over the years I’ve got to know him. He’s even taken the time to show me some pretty cool stuff. I’d never admit it to him, but he’s an even better mechanic than his brother.
“You're a good girl, you learn fast. Maybe I’m starting to like you,” he snarls at me, then the smile he gives me actually feels genuine.
A loud squeal comes from the garage that steals both our attention for a second.
“Think about what I said.” He nods me away, and I quickly rush back to the workshop hoping my food’s still warm. When I walk in, Skid is busy making out with Carly.
“Ewww, that’s so gross,” I mutter at them, taking a stool and lifting the lid on the food Carly brought for me.
“You make the most of that food, because you won't be getting free leftovers for much longer,” Skid warns me, spinning Carly around to face me and hanging his huge arm across her neck.
“You’re looking at the future Mrs. Tanner.” With a huge beam on her face, Carly lifts her hand up to stroke his forearm, revealing a sparkly ring on her finger. “And no old lady of mine is gonna be working night shifts at a truck stop.” He smacks a kiss on her cheek.
“I think you’ll find that this is the twenty-first century and that I’ll do as I damn please.” Carly twists her neck to look up at him and smirks.
“Darlin’, you’re gonna be far too busy taking care of all them kids we’re gonna be makin’ to work.” He buries his head into her neck, and as I roll my eyes and tuck into my food, I can’t help thinking about how lucky those kids are gonna be.
The expression on Carly’s face suddenly changes, and when I notice Skid tense too, I look over my shoulder and realize Chop’s standing in the entrance. He doesn’t look happy, but that’s no shock since he made it clear what his thoughts on the whole marriage thing were earlier when they’d been arguing.
“She said yes,” Skid tells his brother the good news, keeping his mouth straight and his tone serious.
“Congratulations.” Chop dips his head, and I can feel the tension coming off him like steam off fresh shit. I don’t know why he hates Carly so much. She’s impossible not to like.
Carly turns her body back into Skid’s, and the hand her new shiny rock is on slips through his beard. And when I notice the hatred in Chop’s eyes turn to hurt, I suddenly figure it all out.
Chop doesn’t hate Carly at all. He loves her…
