Page 21 of Give Me a Shot

“I just…uh…knew it didn’t belong there,” Mo said, looking at the ground.

“Here,” she said, thrusting the Tupperware at him. “I wanted to thank you but I’m kind of low on cash right now. I hope you like chocolate chip.”

Mo took it and nodded.

“My favorite.”

The woman sighed.

“Oh good. I was worried. Okay. I won’t bother you anymore. The container’s disposable, I don’t need it back.”

Mo’s relief was palpable. She hugged him again, and he looked like he was going to throw up.

“Thank you, Mo,” she said, putting a hand on his cheek.

His smile was close-lipped, and it looked like it pained him.

“Welcome.”

She patted him on the upper arm and walked through the door to the parking lot wiping her cheeks. When Jess looked back at where they had been standing, she saw that Mo had disappeared.

He found a tracker in that woman’s car.

Jess folded her arms across her cramping stomach. A lump began to form in her throat, the room spinning, her nose burning. She wasn’t going to start crying in this room full of people. There was no reason to cry. She had already cried over Cassie. But the “what if” question wouldn’t stay stuffed down.

What if someone had found…What if I had been here and protected my little sister like I was supposed to?

A single tear escaped, and she wiped it away instantly. Mo knew enough to help the woman, but he didn’t go rushing in and try to be the hero. The ache in Jess’s stomach became almost unbearable. If she squeezed any tighter, she’d cut herself in two. David came out of the garage, munching on a cookie. He had two on a clean paper towel and offered them to Beverly, who didn’t look up from what she was typing.

“Why are you eating Mo’s cookies?” Beverly asked.

“He said we could have ’em,” David said around a mouthful.

“Oh, that’s right. He’s not a fan of chocolate,” she said, accepting them.

Jess took a deep breath. Then another. Her nose stopped burning, the room came into sharper focus. Mo had lied to that woman, but it was a kind lie. So she could feel that she’d done something to thank him. Beverly pointed at Jess with the end of a pen, and David gestured at her to follow him.

Through the door leading into the garage, he paused, looking around.

“Can you wait here a second?” he asked. “Maybe he went back into the office.”

Jess nodded. The smell of oil and gas displaced the last of her overwhelming emotions, and the chorus of drills and shiny bright car bodies brought her back to herself. It seemed like there were men all over the place, going back and forth, deeply engaged in their work. Jess was fighting the instinct to sink into herself, to make herself less visible in a room full of men, until she caught the black ponytail restrained by a bright red elastic on a shorter mechanic who walked past. Another quick look around and Jess saw a second female mechanic and another person who didn’t seem to fit the macho mold of most of the other employees. They’d slid out from under a car and stood up. Even with the coveralls, there was something different about them. It wasn’t so much the short blue hair, or the small, thin stature. It was something in the way they moved. Jess couldn’t read their gender.

This is his shop; he must have final say on employees. Has he tried to recruit a gender-diverse staff?

“Um, hello,” Mo grumbled as he walked over. His voice was barely audible over the background noise of the shop.

“Hi,” she said, surprised out of her thoughts. “Thanks again for agreeing to take a look at my car.”

He shrugged. Then he turned a little and tipped his head toward the open garage doors. Jess guided him out to her car in the lot. She wanted to say something about the woman with the cookies. Ask him how he knew what to do, or even thank him again on herbehalf. But with the way he had responded in the reception area, she decided not to bring it up. At her car, she handed him the keys. He unlocked the door and popped the hood.

He leaned over the engine with his hands on the frame. She followed suit.

“Won’t start, right?” he asked.

“Exactly.”

“Had it a while?” he asked, glancing at her.

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