Page 44 of Unbreakable Love

“Sometimes better safe than sorry is the right step, too. And before you keep giving me shit, I’m barely at the point where I might be okay with being friends with this woman. Let me go at my own pace to figure this out.”

He snorted and turned to grab the next beam.

“What was that for?”

He handed it to me, smirking. “What was what for?”

“That sound you made.”

He rolled his eyes. “You’re a Kelley. We’re stubborn as hell. You figure out what you want and there won’t be a slow speed. Hell, look at Caleb and Cameron.”

“Whatever.” I took the board from him, lined it up, leveled, and drilled. So my brothers found women and fell head over heels in moments. Well, Caleb did. Took Cameron years to get his head on straight and he was lucky Ava was single when he did, and they were still new, still figuring things out. But they hadn’t been burned like I’d been. They didn’t have a kid to think of like I did, even if Caleb getting together with Emily was because of a kid he didn’t know about for four years.

The risks were different.

So were the potential losses.

But the rewards? Well, hell. Having what they had and giving Josie what she wanted more than anything in the entire world was pretty damn okay, too.

THIRTEEN

PENNY

“Thank you so much for the ride,” I told Faye as she pulled into Ryken’s garage. Like Gavin had told me, it was on the edge of town, right next to the main gas station. I was shocked to get a phone call on a Sunday afternoon letting me know my car was ready, and more than thankful Faye wasn’t busy so she could drive me. Gavin might have offered up a friendship yesterday, but I didn’t want to push my luck and ask him for a favor too early.

“Please. The day I take the kids to Max’s is always hard for me. I needed an excuse to get out of the house. Need me to stay to make sure everything is good with the car?”

“No. I’ll be all right.” I climbed out and a gust of wind smacked me in the face. My hair blew every which way, blinding me. I ducked back into Faye’s car, wrapping my hair in a fist at the back of my neck so I could see her clearly. “Thanks again. I appreciate it.”

“No problem. See you tomorrow!”

As soon as I closed the door, I spied my car, parked right outside of the opened garage bay. A man stood by the hood, dressed in one of those full-body dark blue overall type suits, and no winter wear on to be seen.

“Penelope Pesco?” the man called out.

I greeted him with a smile and a nod. “You must be Ryken?”

“As the name suggests,” he answered with a handsome smile and a wave toward the painted name above the garage doors.

“Thank you so much for getting my car taken care of so quickly.”

“Damage wasn’t as bad as I originally anticipated, so it wasn’t a problem.”

“Wonderful. How much do I owe you?”

He pulled out a sheet of paper from a pocket and unfolded it, then handed it over. “Nothing. Mr. Kelley took care of it for you, even threw in new tires.”

He handed the paper to me. It rustled in the wind, but I was too frozen in shock to reach for it. My car had new tires? A quick glance at them proved him correct. I noticed more than the tires. My car was clean, not a hint of dirt or dust or snow residue in sight.

“I’m sorry. What?”

“Gavin Kelley? He told me it was on him. Figured you knew.”

A look of bewilderment settled on his face, only making his chiseled jaw and high cheekbones and square jaw more attractive.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I slipped the paper from his fingers and read through the list of things completed.

Things I didn’t understand at all, except for alignment and four in parentheses next to the word tires. Something about an axel, filter replacement…

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