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“Didn’t think you’d be back in today,” Reese, his best friend and second-in-command at the shop, said.
“Well, here I am. What needs to be done?”
Reese wiped his hands on his stained overalls. “Oil change for the Ford. New brakes and tires for the Chevy. And Matty Peterson said his car’s electrical was shorting out.”
Link pulled on his own set of overalls as he nodded. “I’ll take Matty’s car.” He needed something challenging to distract him from the shit show that was his life.
“Keys are in it.” Reese grabbed a thermos of coffee and lifted it to his lips. “How’d it go with the lawyer?”
Link grunted in frustration.
“That good, huh?” His friend laughed.
“In order for me to inherit the garage, I have to go on a road trip with Emma to California to dump his ashes in the Pacific Ocean.”
“That’s all?”
Link crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you mean that’s all? I’d have to leave you here alone for more than a week on some wild goose chase.” Not to mention be alone with Emma.
“Do you have to go tomorrow?” Reese asked.
“No. We’d have to schedule it around Emma’s concerts and stuff.”
“Then we have plenty of time to enroll some more help for the time you’ll be gone. You know I can handle things until you get back. Marissa would be happy to come in and do the books that your dad usually handled.” Every time the man brought up his wife, his eyes flashed with adoration. High-school sweethearts, married sixteen years, and still happy as ever.
“I just hate that even now he’s trying to control me.”
Reese nodded, setting his drink down.
“What?”
“Nothing.” His friend shrugged.
“Just say what you’re gonna say,” Link pressed.
“I know you and your dad have—had—your own relationship problems, but in all these years, I never saw him tell you to do something that wasn’t good for you or this shop. Sometimes you act as though you’ve been doing him a huge favor by working by his side to build this place from the ground up. Like he owed you.”
Did he feel his father owed him? Yes. He should have the shop, no strings attached. He’d been the one here day in and day out, not Emma. Not that he blamed her; this was never her calling.
“Tell me how you really feel,” Link grumbled.
He had put his sweat and blood into this place, just as much as his father had—more in these last ten years. It was because of his changes and ideas this place was thriving. It was why his father could have theoretically stepped back and worked less or even retired if he’d wished.
“So why are you being a whiny bitch about taking a vacation? You know who you sound like?”
“Shut the fuck up. It is not the same thing. My father was old enough to retire. I’m not. I’ll take time off when everything slows down.”
“Should I start looking for another job?” Reese asked.
Link met his gaze. I’m being selfish. “No. I won’t let you and the guys lose your livelihoods.” He turned and surveyed the large room. Memories of his life with his father were recorded in every scuff on the cement floor and each shiny tool they’d bought together. This place was the last thing left he had of his papa. Link would be devastated if he lost it.
“I’ll do it.” And somehow manage to get my body under control around Emma.
Something told him that was going to be much easier said than done.
7
Emma
