Page 16 of Buried Dreams

“Morning,” she greets when she gets out of the truck. “How are you?”

“Good,” I reply. “What kind of cakes do you have for me today?” I put the two men in the back of my mind and go on with my day.

Chapter Nine

BROCK

I grab my cup of coffee at the same time as the phone starts ringing with a FaceTime call from Saige. Propping it against one of the walls in front of me, I slide it to the right and wait for her face to fill the screen. The smile on my face goes even bigger when I see she’s waiting for me. “Good morning,” I say when we connect.

“Morning, Daddy.” Her voice is so chipper today; it usually is when it’s at the end of her week at her mother’s place, and she knows that at the end of the day, we are going to be seeing each other. I can see she’s not in bed this morning, but instead, she’s sitting at the island in her mother’s house, eating or just finished eating.

“How are we doing?” I ask and see Karla in the background going back and forth.

“Good,” she replies. “I’m going to school now. Are we having pizza tonight?”

“We can,” I answer her, “but if we have pizza tonight, then we have to cook tomorrow.”

She groans, thinking she would have gotten pizza tonight and then also tomorrow since Saturday was declared pizza night since she was five. “We can have it two nights.”

“We can,” I agree with her, “but we won’t.” She throws her head back and almost snorts while she rolls her eyes. “So you let me know tonight.”

“Fine,” she pouts. “I have to go brush my teeth.”

“Okay, baby girl, love you, and I’ll see you tonight, yeah.”

“Bye, Daddy.” She waves at the phone while I blow her a kiss, and she disconnects.

The guys start to trickle in one at a time today. It’s always slower on Fridays because they usually have drinks at the bar on Thursday night. “Hey,” they say when they walk past me.

I wait until they are all in before turning on my stool. “Happy Friday.” I take a sip of my now cold coffee. “We have a busy day. We have fifteen oil changes. All of the slips are already done and hanging on the board.” I point over at the board. “Switch them up. I don’t give a shit.”

“You did all the slips?” Tony asks me with his feet spread, his arms over his chest, and his eyebrows pinched together in confusion. It’s no secret I hate paperwork. I just don’t give a shit, and I know I need to keep up to date on it if I’m going to pay my mechanics, which is why I make a point to make sure everything is up to date every second Friday before Saige comes home for the week. “For the oil changes?”

“Yeah.” I nod. “Got in early today and did some paperwork.” I look over at Ryan. “Mr. Bills is coming in to get his Camaro today. I assume it’s all ready.”

“Yup,” he confirms, “we finished installing the dashboard yesterday after you gave us the transmission.”

“Good. Let’s get today over so we can have a nice weekend. Who is on call this weekend?” I look at everyone, and they all point at Eddie, who holds up his hand.

“Don’t forget to transfer the line,” I remind him. “We forgot to do it last week. Got a knock on the door at eight a.m. on a Sunday to check Mr. Mendelson’s car.” As the only mechanic shop in town, we used to be open seven days a week, but I changed that when I took over. We work Monday to Friday, and on weekends, we only come in if there is an emergency. Every weekend, we take turns being on call. I do it only when I don’t have Saige, but then again, when I don’t have her, I’m usually in the garage both days anyway.

The bell rings over the door, and I look out. “Let’s get moving.” I get up and walk out to the front and see Brady standing there in the waiting area. He’s Autumn’s brother, and the two of them run the bar and the whiskey distillery. “Hey,” I greet him, and he looks up from his phone.

“Hey,” he returns, “I’m bringing in the truck to get looked at.” He hands me the keys to his red truck. “It pulls to the left. I think Harmony hit a curb, but she’s refusing to admit it.”

I chuckle. “We’ll get it looked at, and I’ll call you when it’s done.”

I walk over to the desk and pull out a work order, writing his name on top and then the issues. “Anything else we should check while we have it?” I look at him, and he shrugs, making me laugh before walking out and making his way over to the bakery. I watch as he pulls open the door, my eyes looking inside to see if I can see her. But the way the sun hits the door is like a mirror, so I see nothing. Which is just as good. The last thing I want to see is her.

Turning and walking to the back, I place the work order with the keys on the board under Tony’s name. I walk over to my bench and sit down to continue taking apart the transmission I started working on this morning when I showed up at the ass crack of dawn. Or even before that, fuck, the sun wasn’t even up when I came in. Picking up the screwdriver to start taking it apart, I allow my mind to drift back to last night even though I have forced myself not to think about it.

I fucked her against a fucking tree. The thought makes my cock stir in my pants. I don’t even know what came over me. One second, I was telling her how much I hated her. The next, I was fucking her into the goddamn tree. I don’t think I’ve come as hard in my life as I did when I came in her. Another fucking mistake since I wasn’t wearing a fucking condom. She’s the only one I’ve ever not worn protection with. Even with Karla, I was wearing a condom, but it broke, and then my life changed in more ways than one. Even when we were married, we never, ever did it without. I think it’s one of the reasons she hates me. She knew I would never fully give myself to her. I wasn’t a hypocrite about it. She knew going in I had zero feelings for her, and she also knew I didn’t know if I ever would. I had to be honest with her, and I was, but she refused to listen to me, thinking she could change me. Thinking eventually she would get in there, but we both knew she wouldn’t.

I work through lunch, and I only look up when the bell sounds over the door, and I hear Saige’s voice. “Daddy!” she shouts, and I smile as I turn on my stool, seeing her stick her head in the garage. “Can I come in?” She looks around to see if she can come in, something I taught her when she was five to make sure she didn’t get hurt.

I get off my stool and walk toward her, and she bounces on her feet as I get closer to her. She lunges herself into my arms when I’m close enough, and I wrap my arms around her as she wraps her arms around my neck. “Daddy.” She giggles when I kiss her neck and tickle her with my beard as she tries to lift her shoulder to stop me.

“Hey, baby girl.” I walk into the waiting area, where Karla walks in with Saige’s bags in her hand. Her long brown hair flows in the wind as she pulls open the door.

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