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Her younger sister opened the door and climbed in. The truck shifted when she shut the door. Grace didn’t turn around right away. She seemed more intent on watching her fiancé get on his motorcycle and drive away. Why wasn’t she putting her key into the ignition?
The second he got on the main road, Grace met Faye’s gaze through the rearview mirror. Faye couldn’t tell if her sister was smiling or if she was waiting for something specific. That was the problem with the small rectangular reflective device.
“Well?” Grace asked.
“Well, what?”
“Are you going to tell me why you ran out of there like your hair was on fire?”
Faye shrunk back deeper into the seat. “I’m upset.”
“Because?”
She let out a heavy sigh before turning toward the window. Emotion burned behind her eyes and threatened to come up the back of her throat. Crying right now would only make the situation ten times worse. She should have known better than to think she could do anything to save her mom’s truck. It was like all of her sisters and even her father were moving on. She was the only one who was willing to cling to the vague memories she had of her mother.
One solitary tear slipped down her cheek in a hot, unforgiving streak. She brushed at it with the heel of her palm. “I don’t want to get rid of the truck.”
“Yeah. I got that.”
“Well, did you also realize that I can’t exactly pay for the labor?”
“Faye—”
“No. You don’t get it. Like you said before we came. You don’t even remember mom. Well, I do. And this truck is the only thing that I have to remember her by.”
“We have pictures, home videos—”
“Never mind. You don’t get it. That’s fine. Just—can we go home now?”
“So what? You’re just going to give up like that? Riley offered to pay for the parts. That’s like half the battle.”
“Yeah. I get it. He’s a saint, and I should be grateful that he was willing to help out. But it doesn’t do me a lick of good if I can’t find someone who is willing to help me fix the truck in the first place.”
Her sister grew silent. There, she finally got the whole picture. Faye lost this round. The truck would have to be sold, but at least they’d each get a small cut—whatever that might be. “What’s a truck worth these days? You know, the ones that are sold for parts?”
“Faye…”
There was that voice again. The pitying one that Grace could use so easily. “Just don’t, okay? I thought there would be a way. Clearly, there isn’t one. So I’m going to do some research and find out what we can get for it.”
Faye crossed her arms and glared out the window toward the mechanic’s shop. There was only one good thing about this failure she could see. At least no one else had been there to observe her falling flat on her face. Not Adam’s father. Not the secretary. Not even Bridget.
That was something.
Grace started the truck, but her soft voice still managed to rise over the sound of the engine. “Maybe dad will—”
Faye groaned. “I said drop it. Besides, you and I both know that dad doesn’t want anything to do with this truck. He’s said as much himself when you had to take it in to get it fixed the first time.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“My only shot at being able to get it fixed is finding someone who is willing to do some charity work for me. I mean, I was even willing to help, you know? He didn’t have to be so mean about it.”
A quiet gasp escaped Grace’s lips, but it might as well have been as loud as a lion’s roar for how it made Faye feel.
She jumped and swung her gaze to meet Grace’s through the mirror. “What?” Faye asked.
“You didn’t ask him to fix this pro bono, did you?”
And just like that, the blush returned with a vengeance. Why did Faye have to be such a blabber mouth? Grace had finally allowed them to drop the subject, and then Faye had to go and spill all the embarrassing beans where her sister could see every single one with absolute clarity.
