Page 1 of In Plain Sight

1

ZANDER

Crash.

I jumped as something metal smashed into the concrete floor of the garage and scratched a long mark across the paperwork I was filling out.

“Of fucking course,” a resigned voice behind me said.

Luka stood next to his workstation, staring up at the ceiling like he was asking for some divine guidance—or for the floor to open up and swallow him whole. It was hard to tell. At his feet was a case of drill bits.

“What happened?” Devon came racing out of the office. “Is anyone hurt?”

“Everything’s fine.” Luka shot Dev a tight smile, his cheeks flushing pink. “Just dropped something.”

“Oh, okay.” Dev looked between us. “I’ll get back to what I was doing. Maybe we’ll actually get out of here on time tonight.”

“That would be awesome,” Luka said in a tired voice as he bent to pick up the fallen case.

Dev studied Luka for a moment, then slipped back into the office without saying a word.

I’d met Devon almost eight years ago when we worked at the same garage. Two years later, Dev and his older brother Nate opened their own shop, and they asked me to come on as their first hire.

I loved working here, and I really loved that it was a small, family-run business. Dev and Nate treated us like equals and pretty much left us to our own devices as long as we were professional and got our work done. They also cared about us, and the crew had formed a tight-knit family.

Well, most of the crew had.

The guys who worked the day shifts were tight and had become close friends. My situation was a bit different since I worked evening and weekend shifts.

I’d mostly worked with Jimmy, who’d also been one of the garage’s original hires, until he put in his notice three months ago. Now Luka and I worked together, and I’d spent too much time lately trying to ignore how my body reacted to him and keeping my distance while I got over my inconvenient attraction to the new guy. So far, it hadn’t worked.

The door to the back office closed, and I snuck a glance at Luka. Something was off with him.

He’d only been working at Legacy Mechanics for three weeks, and I didn’t know him all that well—or at all—but I could tell he’d been off all shift.

His usual bubbly personality was subdued, and his smiles were tight and forced. He still joked around and acted the same as usual, but it was clear he was going through the motions tonight.

“Are you okay?” I asked when Luka plunked the metal case on the table of his workstation with a loud sigh.

“Yeah.” He shot me a wry smile. “Just questioning all of my life choices.”

“I do that on the regular,” Asa, another of our coworkers, said as he came out of the back room in his street clothes. “Did you break something?” he asked in his usual blunt way as he headed to his workstation.

Luka shifted his gaze to Asa. “Nah, just dropped it.” He pointed to the toolbox. “Aren’t you supposed to be gone?”

“I was.” Asa slung his backpack off his shoulders and unzipped it. “Forgot something.” He rooted around in the small drawer built into the table and shoved something into his bag. “Catch ya on the flip side.” He shot us a peace sign as he swung his bag over his shoulders and strode back toward the break room.

“Later,” Luka said.

“Bye,” I said as Asa disappeared through the door.

“I’ll be glad when today is over.” Luka rolled his shoulders, looking even more tired than he had a minute ago. “Sorry if I scared you.”

“It’s fine.” I glanced at my paperwork. I had to start over, but that wasn’t a big deal. It would help pass the time and give me something to focus on that wasn’t my distracting coworker.

We were in the home stretch of the night, and we didn’t have any new appointments or customers scheduled to come in. As long as there wasn’t an emergency or a last-minute walk-in, we should be able to shut down and start our closing routine in about twenty minutes.

I really hoped no one came in. I didn’t mind staying late, and the extra pay was nice, but it had been a long day, and Fridays were my least favorite shifts.

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