Page 74 of Indigo Sky

I used to be. I used to like working on cars, and while I didn’t dislike my job here, bouncing at the door, I didn’t love it—and I certainly didn’t love wiping the sweat stains off gym equipment. And for the first time in a long time, I found myself missing the shop.

After the club closed and Sam was mopping the floor and Scott was putting away clean glasses, I hung around the backstage entrance, waiting for Kate to come out. Crystal stopped by to give me a brief hello, her smile stretching from ear to ear, before hurrying out the door with Saul and Wendy. Ivy was next to leave with Scott. And then the only people left were Sam, Kate, and me.

“Hey, Rev,” Sam said from near his office door.

“Yeah?” I asked, looking up from my phone.

“I’m just gonna clean up in here for a second. You mind waiting around until I’m done?”

I nodded. “Yeah, no problem. I don’t know how long Indie’s gonna be anyway.”

Truthfully, I had no idea what was even taking her so long.

He gave me a thumbs-up and disappeared into his office, and I went back to browsing my phone. Since taking up my post to wait for Kate, I had been scrolling the social media page for Roy’s Auto Repair. I had no idea when the page had been set up, and I couldn’t imagine Roy doing it himself. I guessed Donny or Nate had probably done it—more likely Donny. They hardly ever updated it. There were a couple lame holiday-related posts, a handful of oil change discount alerts, but the one that stood out to me was the most recent.

A death announcement.

Roy had died, and nobody had told me.

I wondered if anyone had told my dad because he sure as hell hadn’t said anything to Mom or me.

“What the fuck?” I muttered, wondering what the hell had happened.

Roy was an older guy, yeah, but he wasn’tthatold. Mid-sixties maybe. Just a year or two older than my dad. I guessed the guy could’ve been sick, but my dad had still seen him every now and then. If Roy had been sick—cancer or whatever—why wouldn’t my dad have said something to me?

I thought about doing some more digging, maybe checking out Donny’s personal page, but before I had the chance, Kate finally came out from the dressing room.

“Hey, sorry. Had a little bit of an emergency,” she said, flustered.

Her bags were hanging haphazardly from her hand, and I bent to take them from her as I asked, “You okay?”

“Oh, yeah,” she said with a quick nod. “It’s nothing bad. My period just decided to show up, like, two days early.”

“Ah,” I replied, nodding.

She laughed, and her twinkling eyes met mine. “I know; the last thing guys like to hear about is a woman’s menstrual cycle.”

I shrugged nonchalantly, slinging her duffel bag and purse over my shoulder. “Nah, I don’t mind. I just don’t wanna act like I understand what it’s like when I don’t. But you’re sure you’re good? You need anything?”

She reached up to smooth her hand over my chest. “You’re sweet, but I’m okay. I just wanna get home and curl up in bed.”

I glanced in the direction of Sam’s office. “I told him we’d wait for him to be—"

Just then, his door opened, and he switched off the light as he said, “Sorry about that. Just had a couple of liquor orders to go over. We can get out of here now.”

I turned to Kate and extended my elbow, and she took it, slipping her hand into the crook of my arm. Sam followed behind and stopped at the alarm control panel as we headed outside. The night was cool and clear, pleasant. Kate took a deep breath at my side and pressed her cheek to my biceps, hugging my arm to her chest.

"My dad has Alzheimer's," she told me quietly beneath her breath, as if it were a secret for nobody but me to know.

I glanced down at her. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"I'm parked that way." She pointed toward an adjacent lot, then continued as we walked in the direction of her car. "I started dancing when I was nineteen. I was good at it. I liked it. But I was only supposed to work here for a while, save up money for a year or so, and then go away to college. Start over somewhere else. But then my dad got sick, and all my plans went to hell."

I furrowed my brow, keeping my attention pointed forward, watching the surrounding area. "There was nobody else to care for him?"

"He only has me," she answered curtly.

"Oh," I said quietly. "I'm—"

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