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“Yes!” Rayne bounces in her chair.

“Consider it done,” I smile.

“Just let me know how much it is. Happy to pay whatever the price.”

Before I can tell her, Vicki sneers. I glance over at her and roll my eyes. Oh goodie. It’s time for the immature part of the evening where Vicki acts like we’re still in high school.

Her eyes roam over my clothes. I don’t have a lot of nice clothes, and what I do have, I don’t wear to work. My everyday attire consists of ripped jeans and old T-shirts. Some of which I’ve had since high school.

“Something wrong?” I ask.

“What is all over your shirt?” she asks with way too much disdain in her tone.

I look down and see a large ink stain on my gray T-shirt. It’s been there for so long, I don’t even notice it anymore.

“Ink,” I say without elaborating. I think I spilled this on it about a year ago when I was giving myself a tattoo on my left arm. I wasn’t paying attention and knocked over the ink when I shifted in my chair.

She scoffs. “You need new clothes. You bring down the overall aesthetics of our group.”

The words fuck off are on the tip of my tongue, but I bite them back. I open my mouth to put her in her place using less colorful word choices, but Mila beats me to it.

“You need a new attitude. Your mouth brings down the overall joy of our group.”

Vicki’s mouth falls open, but Mila gives her the sweetest smile. Someone looking in from the outside would think Mila loves Vicki.

I laugh it off with the rest of the ladies. Vicki just gives everyone a tight smile and pretends we’re not all laughing at her.

I may be laughing, but I find this anything but funny. I’m tired of people like Vicki, and I want it to stop. I’ve done my time. High school is over and I’m ready for the good life.

One of these days, I won’t have to deal with people like her or liars or shitty MC presidents or run down trailers or cold water or bills piled so high I can’t see the top.

It has to get better. This can’t be all there is to my life.

Chapter 12

Persistence is the key to winning, every time

Chase

There’s a pep in my step, and I’m whistling like a lovesick fool. I’ve no real reason to be in such a good mood. In fact, everything in my life has gone to shit.

One of my goats is sick, and I had to call the vet. The chickens ripped one side of the coup apart and four chickens got loose. Probably the work of Princess Fluffybutt. She’s a little rascal and is always causing trouble.

The tractor broke down in the middle of seeding the field yesterday. By the time I had it up and running again, it was too late to finish up. Now I need to figure out when to get it done.

By all accounts, I should be frowning. Instead, I can’t stop smiling.

Today is our next team meeting for the school bus derby, which means I get to see Lina. Who wouldn’t be excited about that?

We still haven’t spoken since the last meeting. All my calls and text messages have gone unanswered. But I’m a persistent son of a bitch, determined to win a second chance with her.

But first, I have to swing by the garage to borrow some tools. Clara said the bus currently doesn’t run. Apparently, that’s part of the challenge. It’s not enough to supercharge it for racing. We’ve got to get it running first too.

Good thing that’s what I do best.

The garage is busy when I walk in. Liam is talking to Sophia about a car she’s working on. Mac and Ash have their noses buried in a racecar they’re building. I offered to help, but they want to do this one on their own. It’ll be their first build without me.

I feel a slight pang of jealousy over missing out on the project. I love building cars. But I love farming more. It wasn’t easy to step back from the garage, but it had to be done. I needed to do it if I wanted to maintain my sanity—at least during the spring and summer when I’ve got to plant the fields and get them to survive to harvest.

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