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I picked up the gold starry-sky watch. If I was going to sell one of them, it was the logical choice. Chances were my car repair and tow bill would be more than eight hundred dollars. But I just couldn’t part with it. I might have to sell it at some point, but I wanted to hold onto it a little longer. “The silver.”
As I stuffed the money into my wallet a few minutes later, I glanced at the tattoo on his arm. “Do you have a tattoo artist you can recommend?”
“Where’d you get the one on your palm? That had to hurt like a son of a bitch.”
I stretched out my hand. Of course he’d seen it. I couldn’t go through life with my right hand in a fist.
The mark had appeared the day Collin showed up in the restaurant and touched me, setting this whole disaster in motion. “He’s no longer an option.”
“Considering the trouble you’re in with Marino, getting a tattoo seems like it should be low on your priority list.”
I put a hand on my hip. “So you’re not going to recommend one?”
He scowled. “Rusty, up toward Duck at Purgatory Ink.”
Purgatory Ink seemed like an appropriate place to commit my soul for all of eternity. “Thanks.” I put the box back in the bag and headed for the exit.
“Ellie.”
My palm rested on the door, ready to push it open as I spun at the waist to look at him.
“Be careful.”
“I’m always careful.” Or at least the old me had been. Three weeks ago I was a full-time waitress and part-time bed and breakfast employee who dated boring guys. My idea of excitement was driving up to Norfolk, Virginia, to shop at the mall.
How quickly my life had changed.
Chapter5
Idrove back to Manteo and stopped at the car repair shop Daddy had always used. Unfortunately, they were used to seeing me walk in their door.
When I parked and got out of Myra’s car, Bruce, the owner, caught sight of me from inside the garage. He picked up a rag and wiped his hands before approaching me. “Hey, Ellie. You here for your car or Myra’s?”
I leaned against the side of the sedan. “Mine. It’s waiting for you on Highway 64 in the Alligator River Wildlife Refuge.”
“So you need it towed?”
I nodded.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. I drove to Chapel Hill and back. It just lost power and died. I’ve got eight hundred dollars, so see what kind of magic you can work with that.”
He stuffed his hands in his back pockets. “You should just put your money into a new car. Nickel and diming repairs on that clunker is costing you more in the long run.”
I lifted my eyebrows with a smirk. “Somebody’s got to keep you in business. And I wouldn’t call five hundred dollars here and seven hundred dollars there ‘nickel and diming.’ You and I both know it would cost me thousands of dollars to get a decent car that’s not going to be in your shop every few weeks. And we also both know that I don’t have it.”
He looked back at the garage. “I’ll do the best I can to help.” He paused, wiping his stained hands again. “I was sorry to hear about your dad.”
I resisted the urge to sigh. “Thanks.”
“He was a great man and one of the pillars of this town before he got sick. He helped me with a zoning permit when I first opened this garage. Did you know that?”
“No.” It turned out there were all kinds of things about Daddy I’d never known about.
“I’ll call you when I find something.”
“Thanks.”
