Page 52 of Dean

The man’s eyes swivel to mine and then back to Ford and Dean.

“Avery, this is Whit. You spoke with him on the phone the other day about the dune buggy,” Dean says. “Whit, this is our administrative assistant.”

I lift my hand in a small wave. “Hi.”

Whit nods in acknowledgment. “Right, well, I was just—” Before he can continue, another man strides into the shop. He’s a big guy, wearing a beanie with hair peeking out from underneath. He has ripped jeans and a torn sweatshirt on.

“Hey, Whit! Shit, you’re on time, dude. Fucking always.”

“Hi, Luke,” Whit says and then waves his hand toward the three of us. “Guys, this is Luke. He’s helping me with the specifications for this…vehicle. And he towed what we have so far.”

Whit holds out a folder and we all eye it.

“Show them. This shit is so cool. It’s like the Frankenstein of dune bugs, man,” Luke says with a grin.

Whit sighs and pulls a few sketches out. “It’s actually the monster, Frankenstein is the doctor, but it doesn’t matter. This is what we’d like. I just want to be clear: I do not want this. But I want Caleb to be safe. And to stop doing stupid shit, but that won’t happen so here we are.”

Luke snorts, and I can’t help but grin at how frazzled Whit looks right now. Apparently, he’s more safety-conscious than his partner. Which, by the looks of the monstrosity on paper is going to be some kind of death trap.

“Cool,” Ford says, holding the paper up. “You have the vehicle here?”

“Yeah. Unfortunately.”

“Fortunately,” Luke grins, slapping Whit on the back roughly. “We put as much together as we could but got a little stuck. Found pieces at my dad’s junkyard. Anyway, doesn’t matter. Caleb is going to shit his pants when he sees this.”

“I would prefer he didn’t,” Whit grumbles.

Laughs rumble out of Ford and Dean as we all make our way out to what appears to be a dune buggy, or what is left of it, attached to a large pickup truck. The guys walk around, talking animatedly about what they could do with it, looking at the drawings that have been sketched to show different ideas about how to make this even more dangerous. As they do, Whit moves toward me.

“You seem like the most reasonable one here. Is this a mistake?” he asks me, and I bite back a smile.

“Probably. But will it make him happy?”

“Immensely.” His cheeks flush, and I can see the love written on his face.

“I’d just make sure he has a good helmet and a good seatbelt. Oh, and a first-aid kit. Always have one of those.”

“Already have that. Luckily, Luke’s husband is a doctor.”

“Oh, that’s handy.”

“You have no idea.”

His dark eyes meet mine just as the three men move up to us. “Can’t wait to work on this,” Dean says, holding out his hand, and Whit reluctantly shakes it.

“Thank you. Do you have an estimated date it can be done by? I’d love to have it to him as soon as possible.”

“We’ll get it done as fast as we can,” Ford interjects, and Dean nods.

“And we’ll make it as safe as possible,” I add. “Very safe. Roll cage to die for. Very strong seatbelts.”

Everyone turns to look at me, but I just roll my eyes and Dean finally gets the hint. “Yeah, safe. Of course. Don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

“Thank you,” Whit says as Luke works on undoing the hitch and trailer, and Ford gets ready to drive the dune buggy off the back of it.

“Fucking cool!” Ford shouts with a grin and then without waiting for the trailer to lower, revs the engine and pulls right off the back. The front tires hit with a slap and the entire trailer shifts noisily.

Whit sighs as he watches this, and I nudge him with my elbow. “I’ll make sure it’s fine. I promise.”

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